Masha's Pursuit Of Freedom

Cynthia Ozick’s story “The Shawl” is told in a way were the readers feel hopelessness and despair. The characters are put in a situation so hopeless there’s no way that they can escape. This text at first begins with confusion, however as you read more you start to put the pieces to gether like a puzzle. Magda the only character who thrives in the story, and still she becomes a victim of the harsh environment around her. At it’s core this text tells of how you can be thrown in an concentration camp, treated as a lower human being, just because your not the perfect white color, and starved to near death, but no amount of oppression could drain the humanity you have inside. Although Stella is a counter to this because she is bitter, and envious

I believe that this paragraph is a transparent representation of torture, dictatorship, persecution and power. Removing the fallacy of human emotion, manipulative language, and the denial of the acting party —it presents the true intentions behind revolution. The paragraph itself is intertextual in that it references seizures of power in the past (German Nazis and Russian Communist) that claimed to be for the “good of others,” but failed to recognize their true agenda —whether intentional or not. Being transparent about a desire for power, dictatorship or the use of torture would not garner much support for the movement; additionally, shrouding the true intentions of the movement with promises of betterment, an agenda focused on the good of

The strive for socialism goes far beyond the torture and rape of an unfortunate few, rather the idea that everything under communism was free and that there was no such thing as selling products for profits would lead to “the greatest human disaster in Europe since the Black Death.” Still, many more unfortunate others found themselves on market displays to be sold as food. Even with the prospect of cannibalism and the terror that Lenin’s secret police caused, the masses still believed that he was their savor and didn’t know anything of the horrors that occurred under his rule. Many families worshipped Lenin as a god and to speak otherwise was seen as a great disrespect. The amount of hope that they poured into Lenin and his idea of communism just serves to show how desperate the Russian people had become.

For many, governments offer guidance and reliance; citizens enjoy security, order, and direction from their political leaders. Yet some forms of government — specifically Communism — cause instability, confusion, and distraction in the lives of their citizens. In Maria Reva’s short story “Novostroika,” she depicts the animosity of a young Ukrainian man, Daniil Blinov, who battles the oppressions of Communist life. In his position, Danill struggles to keep his family satiated under the dominion of the U.S.S.R. This leads to various dilemmas throughout the piece. Within this story, Reva incorporates a space heater, a symbol of hope, and a coffin, a symbol of oppression, to convey how Communism crushes the hope of its citizens.

“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said in his impactful narrative that paints a picture of the Gulag labor camps in Soviet Russia through personal experience, eyewitness testimony and interviews, and primary research material. Solzhenitsyn is describing the silence that survivors of the Gulag were forced to exhibit after staring terror and fear directly in the face during their time in the Gulag. The silence Solzhenitsyn is describing, is claimed to be one of the reason the Gulag is often not given the attention in history books and in the forefront of our minds that the Gulag deserves. The Gulag is believed to be one of the most horrible and inhuman acts of the 20th century, yet western society tends to shy away from mentioning the Gulag when discussing tragedy. This paper will examine historians’ views on the Gulag and why it has been overlooked in history as the horrible tragedy it was and the impact that this silence has had, not only on the survivors, but also the impact it has had on Russia and its society as a whole.

It becomes evident through Zosima’s life that living in this radical way of sobornost is possible, but only comes through an acceptance of an unconditional love and no amount of knowledge, understanding, or intellectuality. Zosima successfully delivers this message to his people, and in turn others also follow. For this extreme living does not exist for only the holy individuals, but for young monks like Alyosha, terrible women like Grushenka, and miserable sinners like Dimitri. While living in acceptance of the guilt one owes everyone appears unfair and irrational, Dostoevsky proves there is a way and that in the end it produces the most beautiful

In the eyes of an overwhelming majority of mankind, freedom is an irrefutable right. An unmeasurable amount of people has chosen to potentially sacrifice their lives if only for the off-chance of being freed. At the dawn of the 20th century, Russia had finally slipped through the shackles put forth by the czarist autocracy. The feeling of liberation brought a spark in what appeared to be a labyrinthine tunnel invariably plagued with darkness. However, this spark was unable to be kindled into a fire as Vladimir Lenin of the Bolshevik Party quickly extinguished what could have been a democracy.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn follows a Russian prison inmate, Shukhov, through a standard day in the gulag system. The novel displays Shukhov’s struggle to survive through inhumane conditions and how he deals and tolerates his suppressive and endless lifestyle. The novel provides insight into the differing ideals and philosophical views that the very diverse groups of prisoners hold. By using tools such as perspective and time, Solzhenitsyn provides a platform from which he can bring multiple levels of meaning to an otherwise monotonous and uneventful account.

The only way the woman could escape from her husband’s control was through his death. However, through the tragic ending of the story, Chopin conveys that the act of women gaining their freedom was seemingly impossible during that

Iqbal Masih would never give up, until he was 10 years old. He was sold into bondage for an amount less than seven dollars. This money was used for his mother’s operation, for which five-year-old Masih lost his freedom, his childhood and his health. So he worked as long as the money was paid off. He would worked 12 hours a day, seven days week, with only a 30 min break, paid 3 cents a day for the loan, where he and most of the other children were tightly bound with chains to prevent escape. After all they money was paid off, he was sold into slavery. At the age 10 he escaped slavery. He was sold into bondage for an amount less than seven dollars. This money was used for his mother’s operation, for which five-year-old Masih lost his freedom,

This idea is allegorical to how prisoners can break off to become even brighter and stronger individuals after their experience in the camp. However, the opportunity to change falls into whether the prisoners want to or not. Instead of thinking about materialistic gains or momentary pleasure, as Alyoshka explained, “here you have time to think about your soul” (177). No matter how appalling the conditions in Gulag camps are, they can either choose to focus on their misfortunes or on their potential future – becoming useful members of the society instead of

Anna Akhmatova’s excerpt “Introduction” is a touching poem about the hardships the people in anti-Soviet Russia had to go through under Stalin’s rule. She speaks of death, loneliness, and constant fear. A loss of a loved one messes with a person emotionally, to the point that recovery from traumatic grief seems impossible. In the time frame of anti-Soviet Russia, Stalin is in power.

In the reading examined here, Sergey Nechayev lays out guidelines and values for revolutionaries which are clearly very useful not only in recruiting revolutionaries or terrorists, but also in retaining them. The first part of the excerpt achieves this by requiring the revolutionary to divest from all personal attachments with those who are not completely dedicated to the cause in question (Nechayev, 1869). Having burned bridges and renounced friendships and family members, the revolutionary will feel that his/her only true home is with those dedicated to the cause. Nechayev also refers to the revolutionaries themselves as “capital” or resources for use by the revolution (Nechayev, 1869). This dehumanizing idea also helps to retain revolutionaries

The suffering of the colonized world provided an analogy for what those on the periphery went through when ruled by the Russian Empire—prior to the Russian revolution. These nations and cultures were oppressed and exploited, but under the care of the Soviets, groups on the same, low-lying developmental level improved. Things were hopeless for these groups if left alone and unattended by more advanced, socialist civilizations. Reflecting Bolshevik justification for having a revolution in a backwards state like Russia as well.

After his encounter with Nastenka, the narrator finds contentment for the happiness he gains from not being lonely. Dostoyevsky portrays his belief that hope is not necessary for existence because the narrator gains satisfaction from reminiscing on happy memories of the past. He juxtaposes the lofty, idealistic thoughts of the narrator to the more grounded thoughts of Nastenka to emphasize the difference of character between the two. This departure that the author creates through juxtaposition shows the narrator’s belief that the definition of hope is fluid based on differences of personal perspective and thus the value of hope as a moral value varies in importance among different individuals. The narrator values hope for the future less than the satisfaction he gains from the past, so he gains fulfillment through reflection with no expectation for the