Maniac Analysis

Throughout history, many have tried to break away from society's norms in an attempt to live life more fully, one example would be Rosa Parks when she stood up for her rights and didn't move to the back of the bus like society has shaped the laws back then. As a result of this incident, Parks ended up getting arrested and sent to court for not following the law. In contrast, some may choose to follow the rules of others thinking that’s their best decision. An example of this figure would be Boxer from the book Animal Farm, when he adopted his first motto “ I will work harder” (Orwell 18) after the first harvest following the Rebellion. Boxer never knew about the advantage Napoleon was taking on towards him,

The first thing to address while discussing the author’s purpose is to examine the motivation of the main character, Raskolnikov. In Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov becomes an ubermensch, and part of this is that he does not take into account

In Maniac Magee, the theme thus far, is that you shouldn’t be judged by what color your skin is/ you shouldn’t judge others by what color your skin. This is because, in the book the town in divided in half, and on the East side lives the black people, and the West lives the white. They base where they live by the color of their skin, and if you are one color, and you go into the side of the town of the different color, you will judged. By the end of the book, I believe Maniac will fix this problem. He will show that it doesn’t matter what you look like, it matters how you act. How kind you are, or how rude you are. By this reasoning, the theme of this book is equality.

Throughout the book Anthem, written by Ayn Rand, Equality 7-2521 changes his perspective on how he views the leaders of society. As he starts to realize that there is more meaning to his life than he previously thought, he changes his view which leads him to start thinking of himself as an individual instead of just another member of his society. He no longer accepts the way his government is telling him to live his life as a proper way to live. Equality 7-2521, is correct in denouncing his leaders of their morality as he finally starts to realize that the leaders are hindering him and the rest of the society from expanding their knowledge in development of technology and advancements in the medical field.

They say that he belongs in a low class job which then would only make him wan to rebel. With an authoritarian government in place, rebellion will occur and the society will not be run in the correct way. “But our hand which followed the track, as we crawled, clung to the iron as if it would not leave it, as if the skin of our hand were thirsty and begging of the metal some secret fluid beating in its coldness” (page 33) This quote helps to show that Equality was extremely eager to find something out of the ordinary. The Council restricts the society and does not allow then to discover things for themselves. When Equality discovers the underground railroad system, it intrigues him and he then decides to rebel against the Council and does not report his findings. This shows that when authoritarianism is used, a society will not be successfully run due to those who will continuously attempt to rebel against the strict enforcements. Likewise, in Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Caesar thinks very highly of himself. “Caesar is turned to hear” and “He is a dreamer. Let us leave him. Pass.”(act 1, scene 2) These quotes go hand in hand to show us that Caesar was very

A Crime of Insanity is about a 26-year old psychology student names Ralph Tortorici. One day Ralph walked into his Greek History class at his State University of New York college campus in Albany, NY. When Ralph came to class, he had a hunting knife and a rifle hidden under his clothes. When he closed the door behind him, after entering his classroom, he told his class that he was taking them as hostages.

Nietzsche believes that the herd determines morality, instead of each individual determining their own morality. Herd morality has placed value on things that weaken society as a whole. Nietzsche believes that they have taken traits that were viewed negatively, such as submissiveness, and have turned them into something positive, like obedience. This phenomenon makes humanity weak in his opinion as people do not have their own morals and place their values on things that are not valuable. In order to shift away from the herd, men must create their own values and morals. Likewise, Rand opposes collective society, which is similar to the herd. A collective society is demonstrated in Anthem. This type of society leaves no room for an individual to have rights because everything they do belongs to a group. In this society, people are expected to do what is best for the “common good” rather than the individual. Rand uses the character Equality 7-2521 to demonstrate that a collective society does not last long. Eventually society will need a person to be an individual, separate from the collective, in order to help it grow. Rand believes that man has the right to be selfish and should not sacrifice one’s self for the best interest of others. In Rand’s Fountainhead, Howard Roark exemplifies these characteristics. He does not allow anybody to dictate how he lives his life and refuses to give up his personal identity as an architect to please society. Because of his work, the society as a whole is able to

Penfold then tried to justify her claims that misogyny and violence shaped Lepine’s beliefs and attitude and while this might be true, she ignored Marc Lepine’s claims when he stated that he hated feminist who have ruined his life and even ignore his suicide note where he stated that his actions was for political purposes. These evidence proved that the offender was at the time sane when he committed murder. However, Penfold used her journalistic power to bring the issue to the public agenda from an insanity perspective. The conclusion was that these newspaper official who the public depend on for information used the medicalization of Marc Lepine’s deviance to justify his actions. They constructed an ideology that the offender suffered from child abuse, therefore he was “mad” and“sick”. A deviant behaviour that was characterized as a mass massacre was now viewed as a mental problem by the public. There should be no doubt that if Lepine was alive, his lawyers would have used the insanity defense to justify his

In the novels “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley and “Anthem” by Ayn Rand, it is shown how the two societies both focus and encourage the greater good of the society rather than individualism and self being of an individual. Brave New World and Anthem both depict future utopian societies where the government and higher officials control the citizens by enforcing the need for the whole community and not as a single being. The “Utopias” are full of corruption within the governments, and have characters that do not fit into the uniformed communities and are considered outcasts, who eventually abandon their communities to begin a life of freedom and uniqueness. The corruption of the governments in both Anthem and Brave New world, main focus

Insanity is a major theme throughout the novel. Insanity is the state of being insane, and many characters became insane when they are going to the camps. Elie, his father, Ms.Schachter, and meir katz become insane.

Today, the word disobedience carries a negative connotation that acts as a deterrent for necessary disobedience. The common way in which people view disobedience is as a rejection of a rule, law, or a simple standard. Historically, rules were implemented in ways that were deemed immoral by society. Therefore, civil disobedience is justified to combat immoral standards implemented in society. However, civil disobedience is only justified under these circumstances, mainly for the betterment of society. Historic figures such as Rosa Parks, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. all acted civilly disobedience, but society benefitted from their movements. Civil disobedience is the underlying theme of Sophocles’ Antigone and Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter From Birmingham Jail. The main character of Sophocles’ Antigone, Antigone, acts civil disobedience, just as Dr. King acted civilly disobedient. Both Antigone and Martin Luther King Jr. fought to gain justice for the people who they believed were denied the rights of society. Although Antigone believes she is fighting for a just cause, she acts civilly disobedient by advocating for a traitor to society, deeming her civil disobedience unjust. Martin Luther King Jr., in contrast, did fight for a just cause by advocating for equal rights of all persons, which justifies his civil disobedience.

When people cannot earn a living within the system or when they are degraded, they will probably strike out. The social bandit represents an individual that rejects the imposing power from social forces whose authority is not fully recognized by the community. The existence of this support from the population is fundamental to distinguish it from a simple criminal. Therefore, he takes the role or is transformed into the avenger. These "symbols" of popular rebellion are men who generally refuse to play the submissive role imposed by society, they are usually single and young men without family, and die almost always betrayed.

In the book Maniac Magee, the character Jeffrey Magee if very explained and the book and i'll tell you why.

“These symptoms, especially his disposition to dispute, are manifested not only when he “arose and argued about trifles” but also throughout the narration… Obviously, the prisoner’s captors have named his crime for what it is, the act of an anxiety-ridden madman; this is the argument that the narrator- illustrating another symptom of schizophrenia, lack of insight- rejects as erroneous, impertinent, absurdly false; this is the thesis to which he attempts to provide the antithesis ” (Zimmerman).

He writes, “In fiction the unnerving rubric ‘anti-hero’ refers to a ragged assembly of victims: the fool, the clown, the hipster, the criminal, the poor soul, the freak, the outsider, the scapegoat, the scrubby opportunist, the rebel without a cause, the hero in the ashcan and hero on the lash”. Viewed from the perspective of this definition, we see that Tommy Wilhelm, the protagonist of Saul Bellow’s masterpiece Seize the Day seems to be an anti-hero. “Wilhelm like other Bellovian heroes has the fatal flaws inherent in his personality; he is an alienated individual living on the margin of the society” (Obaidulla & Ahmed, 2001, p.76). Bellow’s writing puts a lot of emphasis on the themes of the individual versus society and individual in self conflict. “In his writing, society is always portrayed as impersonal, mechanical and indifferent to individuals”(Dutton, 1982, p.1). In that cruel society the individual, with his dreams, desires, and ideologies, finds a place for himself, asserts, his identity, and, most importantly, maintains self