The Holocaust was a time of great suffering and inhumanity. The novel Night, which took place during this time, was written by Elie Wiesel and talks about his teen self-experiencing the concentration camps of Auschwitz. This is related to the movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas which is the story of a young German boy named Bruno who befriends a Jewish boy in a concentration camp. The many similarities and differences between the movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and the novel Night include their many themes of “inhumanity” and “guilt and inaction”, and the two also share and differ in the loss of innocence of the characters and how they develop in each medium.
In Sigmund Freud’s Reflection on War and Death, he writes, "Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. However, we must accept it without complaint when they collide with reality" (Freud 4). As this neurologist articulates, human beings have a tendency to overlook a harsh reality to avoid confronting a hurtful truth. It is no coincidence, then, that the characters in works that deal with the Holocaust rely on lies to conceal certain aspects of the abomination. In Elie Wiesel’s Night, the author, who is known as Eliezer in the memoir, recounts his experience as a Jewish boy under the strict authority of the Nazis. The Jews in the concentration camp fail to face the reality of the persecution; thus, they tell lies to themselves to remain optimistic and cope with the oppression. Fifty-four-years later, in 2008, Mark Herman directed the film The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. In contrast to the novel, this film is portrayed from the perspective of a German commander named Ralf at the Auschwitz camp. He shields his family, namely his son, Bruno, from the Nazis’ maltreatment of the Jews by using deceits to maintain his heroic reputation. Though these works are seemingly unrelated due the different motives behind lies, they delineate the hindrance that lies have on one’s ability to make rational decisions and its interference with human relationships. Although Eliezer tells lies to create false optimism about the impending
Marxism are set of views acknowledged by many individuals and a lot of views presented in works of other authors are often compared to the ideas that of Karl Marx. Here, the idea presented by George Bernard Shaw in his play is compared to Marx’s ideas on Marxism and social hierarchy relationship. There exists a relationship between the viewpoints of Karl Marx and George Bernard Shaw in the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. The interpretation of the social hierarchy by each author disagrees with one another. With these circumstances, Marxist theorists will admonish the idea portrayed in the play because of contradicting interpretation that
AQA AS/A SOCIOLOGY ESSAY: CRITICALLY EXAMINE MARXIST PERSPECTIVES ON TODAY’S SOCIETY Classical Marxism is a conflict structural theory which argues that, rather than society being based on value consensus as functionalists would contend, there is a conflict of interest between different groups (social classes) because of the unequal distribution of power and wealth. Marxists are also interested in the way in which social change can occur, particularly in sudden and revolutionary ways. However, there are differences between Marxists especially over the way which social change can come about. For example, humanistic Marxists like Gramsci give a greater role to the conscious decisions and actions of human beings than do structural Marxists
Throughout John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, Gene’s internal struggle is reflected in the war taking place. In the beginning of the story, Finny tells Gene that he was reading the paper and saw that “[the United States] bombed Central Europe...”(25). At this point in the story, it is 1942, which is the midst of World War II. This reflects Gene’s attitude toward Finny. As the war starts to escalate and the United States enters, Gene starts to loathe Finny for reasons that are entirely from Gene’s head. When Finny returns to Devon for the winter session, he has convinced himself, and soon convinces Gene, that “there isn’t any war”(115). Around this time, Gene pushes away his hateful thoughts towards Finny and convinces himself that Finny and him
Everyone experiences emotional and physiological obstacles in their life. However, these obstacles are incomparable to the magnitude of the obstacles the prisoners of the Holocaust faced every day. In his memoir, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, illustrates the horrors of the concentration camps and their mental tool. Over the course of Night, Wiesel demonstrates, that exposure to an uncaring, hostile world leads to destruction of faith and identity.
on the nerve near the ear) was greater on the side of the head that the cell phone was held.[13]
There is a part where we watch as humans are so ugly that it is hard for us to imagine that what they had done is possible. Liesel is playing soccer in the park and all of a sudden all the kids stop because of a noise they hear coming down the street. They think it could be a herd of cattle, but that not what it is. It is a group of Jewish people being led, or forced, to the death camps by German soldiers. On there way we watch a man die “He was dead. The man was dead. Just give him five minutes and he would surely fall into the German gutter and die. They would all let him, and they would all watch”(Zusak 393). This is talking about how when a Jewish person would die, the Germans wouldn’t do anything. They wouldn’t care that a man died right in front of them. While the Jews are walking Hans, Liesel adopted father, gives them bread. While Hans is giving this man bread a German soldier notices what is going on. He walks over to the man and, “The Jew was whipped six times. On his back, his heart, and
In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, human beings have been engineered and conditioned to have detailed traits and castes in society; however, the birthing methods of the world state seem virtually full proof, some characters in the novel deviate from this standard. Bernard Marx and Helmholtz Watson both alpha plus males; share a dislike for the world state. Bernard abhors it because of his physical defect, Helmholtz because of his psychological surplus.
Society has always been divided into social classes. Each class has a valuable aspect that contributes and makes our society run smooth. As much as we try to make our society reflect a Utopian world, there will always be a struggle within the caste system as Karl Marx mentions in his philosophy Marxism. In the book Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley in 1946, Huxley portrays a Utopian world but one that show a lot of problems even in a so called “perfect world”. Each social class will eventually have to struggle no what, in a Utopian world or not.
This study seeks to expose the ways in which Black Theology of Liberation was shaped by Marxism through the writings of its founders, concentrating predominantly on the need to bring about the liberation of the poor African-Americans from their repressive white racist oppressors by any means necessary, and the redistribution of wealth to those deprived of it by their white capitalist oppressors. The theme of this researched remained embed in my mind during, and after the 2008-09 presidential campaign of former Sen. Barack Obama, when some of his political opponents thought it beneficial to disclose Obama’s connections to a Black Theology of Liberation. Through this research I seek not
According to Marxism, there is a struggle or conflict between individual rights and social rights. In many regards, Marxism places more emphasis on societal rights than it does on individual rights. In fact, some critics even state that Marxism ignores the rights of the individual altogether. As can be observed when Marxism is implemented under the umbrella of communism. However, Marxism takes into account the inequality and unfairness that exists in society. The inevitable truth is that contrasting groups in society will always conflict with one another and will be unable to agree on the way in which resources should be distributed. Furthermore, there is also a difference between genders, specifically in terms of the equity of how the roles
Elitism, Marxism, and pluralism are all political theories that can be used to understand how the modern state as we understand a live in it today functions. All three theories highlight the importance of different things and stress successes or failures of the state to be attributed to different functions or aspects of state operations. Although it is important to understand how different aspects of each perspectives can help understand how the modern state functions, it is imperative to identify most strongly with one theory in order to fully understand the modern state. Elitism speaks about an individual or group of powerful elites that govern the state, hold the power both economically, and politically. Marxism is all about the bottom
‘Social Order exists because people are afraid to disobey the rules of society.’ Explain and assess this claim. [25]