Their hands were covered with slimy blood and the lamb slipped free. It crawled off into the underbrush... After some time had passed, Miss Lonelyhearts begged them to go back and put the lamb out of misery. They refused to go. He went back alone and found it under a bush. He crushed its head with a stone and left the carcass to the flies that swarmed around the bloody alter flowers." (23-24) Every devout reader can admit it: This book is heavy. This passage exemplifies the verisimilitude of the novella set in the Great Depression and also displays a main theme; The collapse of Christian faith in this era was evident in the characters affected by the Great Depression. Let's dig deeper. Simply by glancing at the passage, it is stark obvious that this is a reference to the Bible. The lion and the lamb. Satan and Jesus. Taking that perspective, Miss Lonelyhearts killed the lamb, does that make him the lion? Or is the lamb his faith? These questions are answered with contextual evidence. Christianity, in this instance, is the lamb, Christ, Himself. Miss Lonelyhearts and company symbolize depression, financial struggle, sickness, the Great Depression as they mutilate this innocent lamb, the Christian faith. The Great Depression slaughtered the Christian faith in those who needed it most. …show more content…
Miss Lonelyhearts' sole job is to give hope to those who need it and his job is in very high demand. He describes the number of letters he responds to on the daily as exponential, increasing hourly. If his job is used so much, it is because people feel the despair of the struggles faced during the Great Depression. Normal civilians felt so distinctly alone that they abandoned a hopeful religion that warns of worldly matters for a mortal voice, Miss Lonelyhearts. Miss Lonelyhearts becomes their idol and their Christianity dissolves into a misguided Christ
The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, is considered by many to be the hallmark of American literature. It covers the journey of the Joad family as they stick together through one of the harshest eras in American history, the Great Depression. The structure of the Joad’s narrative is interspersed by smaller, highly descriptive interchapters, which sets the novel apart from other classics in its ability to make the reader understand and relate to the Joads and everything they went through. The detailed, impactful vignettes foreshadow problems the Joads have to overcome and the overview descriptions in the vignettes contrast with the specificities of the Joad’s story. They contain Biblical allusions, colorful descriptions, and objects that can interact with the main characters later in the narrative. Through the use of imagery and diction, the vignettes make Steinbeck’s message more impactful and meaningful.
The black characters act justly throughout the novel by treating every one with equality and respect. In Chapter 12, when Jem and Scout visit Calpurnia’s Negro church for the Sunday service, Lula, a hostile Negro woman tells them impolitely to leave. Calpurnia defends the children and contradicts Lula by saying, “It’s the same God, ain’t it?” Amidst an argument over the antagonistic rifts between black and white regimes, Calpurnia acknowledges that all people, no matter the race, worship the same God, and are therefore equal. During Chapter 12, after the church service, Reverend Sykes takes up an extra collection of money that is collected towards Tom Robinson's wife, who has not been able to find work since her husband is sent to jail since he allegedly rapes a white woman. Reverend Sykes tells the attendees of the service, “I want all of you with no children to make a sacrifice and give one more dime a piece.” The Revenant shows justice by being equal and respectful towards everyone. In order to be fair he asks those who don’t have a family to feed and shelter to donate an extra dime, and not forcing those who have a family to donate extra money. During his testimony in Chapter 19, Tom Robinson states a different story than that of Mayalla’s; he is then questioned on whether he is accusing Mayella of being a liar. Tom refuses to accuse Mayella of lying, but persistently says that she is "mistaken in her mind." This shows Tom’s unrelenting respect and honest living; even though Mayella is unjust to him, he continues to treat her with justice and respect because he knows that she is just a little girl who is lonely and even though she sent him
This book is proven to be one that will always amaze and shock audiences reading. In Steinbeck's novella he uses foreshadowing in several ways to express the unhappiness and hardships a man living through The Great Depression. He discusses his conflicts, his deepest demons and his greatest dreams.
Utilizing repetition, rhetorical questions, and simple sentence structure, McCarthy’s purposeful syntax allows a debate to ensue regarding the man’s spiritual beliefs and the existence of a God in the immoral society presented. After walking for days, the man and his son are both on the brink of death, frail from starvation. From the road, the pair spot a house. Driven by his desperation, the man breaks into a locked cellar in the
In chapter 11 Walter didn’t want to work at the garment center. Walter had wanted to be a lawyer at the age nine. Walter would simply memorize a passage and recited it. A coach had asked Walter to come for track his junior year. In chapter 12 Walter missed three weeks of school. Walter lusted three weeks before he stopped going to school again. In chapter 10 the idea of what it meant to be poor changed in the late sixties. Most of Walter life had been divided between school, reading, and ball playing. The second burden of that summer came in the form of Walter grandfather. William Dean was a tall, ramrod-straight man with mannerisms that seemed more appropriate for the nineteenth century than for 1951. After the civil war the former
Like the American population during Great Depression, the characters in the story faced many hardships they had to overcome, including but not limited to those mentioned previously. In brief, the Great Depression was a devastating event in the history of America’s economy and Capitalistic standpoint, that had the potential to abolish the United States’ world power status
The intriguing novel, To Kill A Mockingbird is written by the prestigious author Harper Lee. Lee has utilised the lifestyle and attitudes towards African-Americans" in the 1930's to create a novel which presents the reader with Lee's attitudes and values. The dominant reading of the novel is focused on the issues of racial prejudice, but there are also a number of other alternative and oppositional readings. Examples of this are the Marxist and feminist readings which can be applied to the text.
As Stephen King once said, “The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” In the book "To Kill a Mockingbird", by Harper Lee, Jean Louise Finch, a young girl who also goes by Scout, experiences many things such as racism, friends, and family. Her father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer who is sacrificing his reputation to defend a black man, Tom Robinson. Scout and her friends take it upon themselves to uncover the mystery of Boo Radley. In this book the mockingbirds represent innocence. Many characters take on the role of the “mockingbird". Exploring Lee’s title, to kill a mockingbird is to kill innocence.
The ambition of oneself to pursue justice and righteousness may result in prosecution. In the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, and movie "A Time to Kill" by Joel Schumacher, each demonstrate one’s open-mindedness and forward thinking leads to penalization through protagonists Atticus Finch and Jake Brigance. Both egalitarians take the position as an attorney for an African American and are prosecuted in the process.
According to a novel called Miss Lonelyhearts, written by Nathaniel West, the story has shown about human’s misery in life where they seek for solution to cease the pain. In the book, Nathaniel mentioned different types of human suffering such as sexual problems, depression from work and disability. Many people have interpreted sex as universal language of love where people would express their love through it. However, some people have used sex to fulfill their desire and pleasure. For example, there’s an anonymous who sent her letter to Miss Loneyhearts complaining about her life partner.
Nathanael West’s famous Miss Lonelyhearts is staged in Depression-era America following an advice columnist who writes under the self-proclaiming title of Miss Lonelyhearts. Miss Lonelyhearts works under a cynical, satanic boss, Shrike, who seeks nothing but pleasure by means of mocking the pain and suffering of the writers Miss Lonelyhearts advises. Even worse, Shrike’s disdain of the Christian religion forces Miss Lonelyhearts to detour what he knows everyone needs: faith. This schizophrenic mind game begins to affect practically every part of his life: his relationship with his lover and once-fiance, Betty, his viewpoint of the world and it's inhabitants, and even his health, both mental and physical. Miss Lonelyhearts becomes too involved
Propaganda was a big tool for the United States during the Great Depression as it was used to uplift everyone’s spirits and keep them hopeful. This was presented through photos and messages such as “There’s no way like the American way” even though the conditions during the Great Depression was awful as there was no food or jobs but the public ignored the terrible conditions because of the propaganda presented to them and believed that life was becoming better in America. Harper Lee presents a key theme of the Great Depression and the stock market crashing through characters, The Cunningham’s represent “country folks, farmers” as the crash affected them badly because no food means no produce growing which alternately means no income of money. Also, the fact that during the Great Depression propaganda was used as a tool to keep the citizens motivated to live meant that they were being presented to false image of how life was and truly believed that life was getting better in the United States. Whereas, if they were shown a true representation of things were the people would not have a false idea of how great life was but rather a true portrayal of how starvation, unemployment and suicide rates increased during the years of the Great
Without understanding, Miss Lonelyhearts gives useless advice to them saying as “come here and water the soil with their tears..” (5). Letters that Miss Lonelyhearts gets are human suffering, but Miss Lonelyheart fails to say why they are suffering.
After Hester is released from prison Hawthorne leaves us wondering if her choice to stay in Boston was even a choice she could make. Chapter five opens with Hester coming into the light and leaving the cell in which she had been punished in for so long. However, once she is out, she decides to stay in Massachusetts, in the same community which has shamed her for so long. Hawthorne describes the decision when he writes, “it may seem marvelous, that this woman should still call that place her home… But there is a fatality… which almost invariably compels human beings to linger … the spot where some great and marked event has given the color to their lifetime” (71). In this quote Hawthorne is not only speaking of Hester, he is speaking of
Lonely Page 13,14,15 it states “Winnie Foster sat on the bristly grass just inside the fence and said to the large toad who was squatting a few yards away across the road, “I will, though. You'll see. Also on page 14 it also states, “She made a game of it anyway, tossing pebbles at such an angle that they passed through the gnat cloud on their way to the toad. On page 15 it also states why Winnie foster is lonely because she is telling the toad why should you have to be cooped up in a cage, too? She is basically saying why do u have to be locked up to and have no freedom. And on page 13 I picked that certain detail of why she was lonely because it states she is outside sitting on the grass and inside a fence and she is talking to a toad this shows she is lonely because she had nothing to do and she is talking to a toad which is not human. Also on page 14 i picked that specific detail because it also showed Winnie being lonely because she made a game of tossing pebbles at such an angle and she like doesn't have anything else to do on her spare time but throwing pebbles this could show that she has no friends hanging out with her or coming to talk to her.