Nick and Julia Essay Example for Free

Nick and Julia Essay Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale and George Orwells 1984 are pieces of dystopian literature which embody repressive regimes and governments that rule through oppression and state controlled technology. One would think that love could not possibly be incorporated into such novels. Its antithesis, hate is understandably weaved in and expected, given the genre. However, in 1984 and The Handmaids Tale, two totalitarian stories, the authors have given their protagonists a love interest. It plays both a pivotal and underlying role. There appears many ways in which Atwood and Orwell have approached the love relationships. Both protagonists are highly suspicious of their prospective love interests. Nick and Julia have been introduced in the two novels by chapter four to some degree, the early introduction highlighting their significance as characters. The level on uncertainty is shown through Offred considering Nick to be fishy and Winston not doubting that Julia was spying on him. Both also play with the idea that they might be government agents, and these sentiments as very ironic as one comes to realise that they form relationships, of which a fundamental aspects is trust. The idea of this is to highlight the societies they live in. It is also interesting to note they way they describe their significant others. Immediately, one is drawn to the dark haired girl that becomes known as Julia, the word dark holding a connotation; it can be considered a hidden warning, that Julia is possibly a dangerous character of sorts, that she is an unknown anomaly, hinting she could be a dark horse. One can link this idea of it being a warning with when Winston wakes up with Shakespeare on his lips, which signifies that his Juliet will play a role in his life. These are both proleptic, and to an extent fatalistic as to Winstons demise, as we unravel Julias and also the discovery that Winston eventually ends up in the place where there is no darkness. It is a simple yet effective initial description, helping us to feel the uncertainty the Winston feels. With Nick we are, unlike with Julia, given a detailed portrait. Significantly, Offreds and Nicks initial meeting occurs in the middle of the night. Again, the use of dark features when Offred describes him as a man made of darkness, and also when describing the hairs on his arms. Add to which his French face, it insinuates that he has something deep and abstruse about him, and the idea of his foreign demeanour heightens this theory of the unknown about him. One can look further into this idea of him being an outsider and link it to his part in the resistance, as an outsider of the regime. This notion can be backed up by the rebellious streak he has in the way he is depicted, with his cap being worn at a jaunty angle and also the cigarette he smokes showing that he has something to trade on the black market. The idea of rebellion is also seen in 1984 in chapter three. In Winstons dream the way Julia tore off her clothes seemed to annihilate a whole system. This dream is proleptic of the hope that Julia and Winston can bring Big Brothers regime into disrepute through their relationship. Yet in this dream, Julias naked body aroused no desire in him, however we obtain an insight into the sexual frustration Offred feels despite herself by imagining how Nick might taste. It is possible that one can read into these feelings, that the regimes of Oceania, in Comparison to Gilead, has been more successful in eradicating these sexual desires both states want to remove. We can also draw that both of the affairs were formed through desperation, brought on by the changes in the environment they now live in. Fear plays a part in both novels with Offred scared that Nicks dissident wink is a trap. These are Winstons thoughts when he reads Julias note that simply stated I love you. The paranoia they experience is due to the fact that inside their minds they are against the set up of their lives, as outward defiance would lead to probable death. Therefore when they encounter any sort of mutinous behaviour, their first reaction is fear, such is the control society has over them. It is interesting to note the simplicity of Julias note, a subject, verb and object statement. Compared to the manipulation of language we see throughout the novel, it emphasises the fact that not everything can be changed easily, be it language or feelings. The ways in which both affairs rebel against their respective systems are crucially different. In The Handmaids Tale, Offreds situation pushed her towards Nick because she years to be touched by someone, to be felt so greedily. One can tell of the sexual frustration caused by the Gilead regime as Atwood saturates the scene where Offred is for the first time touched by Nick with the tension felt by them both. Using the present tense, short sharp sentences and Offreds intrinsic dialogue diverged by brief verbal exchanges between them both. To live in a society so devoid in love is the catalyst for her affair, as she considers the parodic ceremony with the Commander to be fucking, with no affection or tenderness, just like what one sees in 1984 with everyones duty to the party. So in essence anything that goes beyond sex for procreation is illegal in the eyes of both Gilead and Oceania. Unlike Offred, Winston is desperate to love but to fulfil his needs sexually; the primary reason that drove him into the relationship in the first place, also Winstons frustration is the reason for his misogynistic feelings, and the motive behind his rebellion.

Frederick Douglass: Portraying Slaveholders :: American America History

Frederick Douglass: Portraying Slaveholders Learning and knowledge make all the difference in the world, as Frederick Douglass proves by changing himself from another man's slave to a widely respected writer. A person is not necessarily what others label him; the self is completely independent, and through learning can move proverbial mountains. The main focus of this essay is on the lives of the American Slaves, and their treatment by their masters. The brutality brought upon the slaves by their holders was cruel, and almost sadistic. These examples will cite how the nature of Douglass's thoughts and the level of his understanding changed, and his method of proving the evilness of slavery went from visual descriptions of brutality to more philosophical arguments about its wrongness. Since Douglass was very much an educated man by the time he wrote the Narrative, it is as hard for him to describe his emotions and thoughts when he was completely devoid of knowledge as it is for a blind and deaf man to describe what he thought and felt before he learned to communicate with the outside world. Culture, society, and common beliefs are our bridge to communication with one another. Douglass, then, could never really explain all of what and how he felt about himself in his earlier slave days in such a way that those who read his autobiography would ever understand completely. Our first glimpse of Douglass is as a small boy, without a birthday, father, or any sort of identity. "I have no accurate knowledge of my age ... A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood." (p. 39) Forced to eat his meals of mush out of a trough, wearing nothing but a long, coarsely-woven shirt, and being kept in complete mental darkness, Douglass was completely dehumanized even before he experienced the horrible violence of the slaveholders towards their slaves. His proof of the evil of slavery, a main theme in the Narrative, is mostly through visual descriptions of the violence of the overseers towards the slaves. "The louder she screamed, the harder he [the overseer] whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest ... and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease ... I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I was ... a child, but I well remember it ... I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it. Frederick Douglass: Portraying Slaveholders :: American America History Frederick Douglass: Portraying Slaveholders Learning and knowledge make all the difference in the world, as Frederick Douglass proves by changing himself from another man's slave to a widely respected writer. A person is not necessarily what others label him; the self is completely independent, and through learning can move proverbial mountains. The main focus of this essay is on the lives of the American Slaves, and their treatment by their masters. The brutality brought upon the slaves by their holders was cruel, and almost sadistic. These examples will cite how the nature of Douglass's thoughts and the level of his understanding changed, and his method of proving the evilness of slavery went from visual descriptions of brutality to more philosophical arguments about its wrongness. Since Douglass was very much an educated man by the time he wrote the Narrative, it is as hard for him to describe his emotions and thoughts when he was completely devoid of knowledge as it is for a blind and deaf man to describe what he thought and felt before he learned to communicate with the outside world. Culture, society, and common beliefs are our bridge to communication with one another. Douglass, then, could never really explain all of what and how he felt about himself in his earlier slave days in such a way that those who read his autobiography would ever understand completely. Our first glimpse of Douglass is as a small boy, without a birthday, father, or any sort of identity. "I have no accurate knowledge of my age ... A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood." (p. 39) Forced to eat his meals of mush out of a trough, wearing nothing but a long, coarsely-woven shirt, and being kept in complete mental darkness, Douglass was completely dehumanized even before he experienced the horrible violence of the slaveholders towards their slaves. His proof of the evil of slavery, a main theme in the Narrative, is mostly through visual descriptions of the violence of the overseers towards the slaves. "The louder she screamed, the harder he [the overseer] whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest ... and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease ... I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I was ... a child, but I well remember it ... I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it.

The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald - 1009 Words

Brinton Beard Ms. Maggert Honors English III 7 April 2017 Great Gatsby Essay In Fitzgerald s The Great Gatsby, all the characters are attempting to achieve a state of happiness in their lives. The main characters are divided into two groups: the rich upper class and the poorer lower class, which struggles to attain a higher position. Though the major players seek only to change their lives for the better, as in real life, the idealism and morality of the American Dream is inevitably crushed beneath the harsh reality of life, leaving their lives without meaning or purpose. Jay Gatsby, the central figure of the the story, is one character who longs for the past. He devotes most of his adult life trying to recapture it and even dies in†¦show more content†¦Though he appears happily married to Daisy, Tom has an affair with Myrtle Wilson and keeps an apartment with her in New York. Tom s basic nature of unrest prevents him from being satisfied with the life he leads, and so he creates another life for himself with Myrtle. Daisy Buchanan is an empty figure, a woman with neither strong desires nor convictions. Even before her loyalty to either Tom or Gatsby is called into question, Daisy does nothing but sit around all day and wonder what to do with herself. She knows that Tom has a mistress on the side, yet hesitates to leave him even when she learns of Gatsby s devotion to her. Daisy professes her love to Gatsby, yet cannot bring herself to tell Tom goodbye. When Tom pleads with her to stay, Daisy quickly capitulates and ultimately leaves Gatsby for a life of comfort and security. The Buchanans are the ultimate examples of wealth and prosperity, the epitome of the rich life of the American Dream, yet their lives are empty, unfulfilled, and without purpose. Though Myrtle Wilson makes an attempt to escape her own class and pursue happiness with the richer people, her efforts ultimately produce no results and she dies, a victim of the very group she sought to join. Myrtle tries to join Tom s class by entering into a n affair with him and taking on his way of living, but in doing so she becomes vulgar and corrupt like the rich. She loses all sense of morality and is rude to people of her own class. Her constantShow MoreRelatedThe Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald1393 Words   |  6 PagesF. Scott Fitzgerald was the model of the American image in the nineteen twenties. He had wealth, fame, a beautiful wife, and an adorable daughter; all seemed perfect. Beneath the gilded faà §ade, however, was an author who struggled with domestic and physical difficulties that plagued his personal life and career throughout its short span. 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