'The Selfishness Of Man In Ray Bradbury's The Fog Horn'

To begin with, Bradbury utilizes word choice to communicate the setting to his audience. After establishing the peaceful operations of the house with words such as “warm”, “gently”, and “soft”, Bradbury all of a sudden uses words such as “rubble”, “ashes”, and “ruined” (Bradbury 1). The contrast between the light-hearted and the desolate diction gives the impression that though the house may seem calm, something terrible

A clear and important theme developed in the story by Ray Bradbury through the use of personification is fear. In the sentence, ?The fear was never gone? it lay with Mr and Mrs Bittering, a third unbidden partner at every midnight talk?. The author creates fear among the humans by using personification to show the unbidden partner as a person, but we recognise what it really is. Ray Bradbury is trying to show that the unbidden partner is fear becoming real.. There was

▪ Psychological or Psychoanalytical Criticism – a leading tradition in psychological criticism is the Freudian’s. According to its followers, the meaning of a work of literature depends on the psyche and even on the neuroses of the author. Ray Bradbury wrote this short story in a very old age. And the significance of this story is also view from the point of view of the old person’s being aware of all the new technologies of the world. People shouldn’t live in their shells; they should go ahead together with the progress. Ray Bradbury, being in his late years understood and took the progress in a right way and probably wanted to show that people shouldn’t stop in their development.

Ray Bradbury’s stories have a different meaning if you read between the lines. Like most writers his stories consist of a hidden meaning about different

Beginning at a young age, people are taught to pursue a pure conscience and a bond of trust between close friends and family, all the while turning a blind eye to sin. Children most often learn from their parents and, as a result, believe that their parents are the quintessence of virtue. This concept is one that sticks with them until they catch an adult out for the first time; consequently, their beliefs begin to falter and the realization of a false perfect entity harms the child more than if the illusion were never created. Likewise, many adults struggle with realizing that society is built upon deceit due to masks of decency and credibility, while others deceive themselves by living in a world of illusions because of the pleasure and protection provided. That said, once the illusion is destroyed, it also destroys him. Similarly, John Steinbeck explores the double-edged sword of deception, wielded by both children and adults, in his novel East of Eden. Just as the masks that society wears, multiple characters throughout the story at first originally incapable of committing a sin as great as deceit due to their innocent introductions. Despite this initial virtuosity, Steinbeck’s East of Eden evinces humanity’s contrasting and inherent dependence upon selfish uses of deception, whether it be for self-empowerment, safety, or otherwise, with paltry consideration about the consequences of truth.

Science fiction is a type of genre that has to do with stories set in the future and technology that is more advanced than our society today. Ray Bradbury is the prominent author of “The Sound of Thunder”, and “The Pedestrian”. In 1953, he wrote the well-known science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451 which is one of Bradbury’s most famous works. “The Pedestrian" sets place in the year 2053 where a man named Leonard Mead goes on walks alone. Whenever Leonard goes on his walks, he never sees anyone else outside because everyone’s too busy watching TV. In “ The Sound of Thunder” a hunter named Eckels goes to a time machine company that has hunters go back in time to hunt dinosaurs. In “The Pedestrian” and “The Sound of Thunder” there are similar and different aspects of the two stories like the intriguing characters, principles of science, and their futuristic settings.

The interplay of dark and light motifs underlies the narrator’s most recent hardship. On his way home on the subway, the narrator comes across his brother’s name in a newspaper and “stared at it in the swinging lights of the subway car, and in the faces and bodies of the people, and in my own face, trapped in the darkness which roared outside” (Baldwin). Riding in the light of the subway car, the author makes the non-suspecting narrator subject to suffering, unguarded by the protective cloak of the outside darkness. Made vulnerable by the exposed light and people surrounding him, the narrator is hit harder by the unexpected news than if he had read it in the darkness of his private room. Under the “swinging lights,” the narrator is not prepared to cope with the troubling news. This emphasizes the importance of light as a symbol for one’s need of camouflage to properly cope with tragedy.

Besides the intuitive black-and-white graphics, Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close displays a series of gripping texts that range from profound seriousness to adventurous lightheartedness. The story follows through the footsteps of a nine year old boy named Oscar Schell after his father passed away from the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. Oscar is left traumatized and is constantly unhappy with himself and others. Through his story, Oscar illustrates how to forgive himself from the feelings of regret, loss, and emotional strain. Furthermore, he provides an explicit example showing that even after a painful heart-rending experience, one can overcome fear and transcend grief.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is a book containing social and political issues. Religion serves as a huge issue in this novel, religion is a powerful thing that can constrain and blind someone. The way Barbara Kingsolver further dissects the issue of religion is by using various literary elements. With the literary elements involving religion, this further contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole to being about religion, and its power to control and be the motive of someone’s actions, without them thinking deeply about what they are doing. Some issues stated with religion, in this novel supported by literary devices, is how humans use it for bad and or selfish desires, and how over faithfulness can blind some, and lastly

Materialistic items play a key role in the world today. People use these items, such as technological appliances, to fulfill their daily wants and needs. However, most people do not realize the negative effects of such a heavy reliance on material goods. In “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato shares his idea that an overdependence on items can negatively affect ethical decisions. This idea is discussed in “The Veldt,” by Ray Bradbury, The Truman Show, by Peter Weir, and Daniel Key’s novel, Flowers for Algernon. Throughout all three stories, characters greatly rely on items and other people, leading them to make unethical decisions. In some cases, people are objectified as a result of being needed, desired, and treated unfairly. In “The Veldt,” The Truman Show, and Flowers for Algernon, an overreliance on items leads to a loss of focus on morals and what is ethically important.

Having spent one’s entire childhood through war and bombings can inspire many ideas, both positive and negative. From the fear of a nuclear bomb to the proud feeling of witnessing the first American man on the moon, Ray Bradbury took his experiences during World War II and the International Space Race and transformed them into literary pieces, such as “There Will Come Soft Rains”, “The Sound of Thunder”, and “The Pedestrian”. In these short stories, Bradbury includes elements of his own life into the plot, creating a message of caution to the readers through his riveting genre of dystopia. Some topics he stresses include time, technology, and its possible threats to human interaction. Through Bradbury’s unique style, he encapsulates the major issue of the rapid development in society and how it affects people in a social aspect. As new technology and science is innovated, there are many people who debate whether or not it can have harmful side effects to mankind. Among these three short stories, Bradbury uses the stylistic techniques of diction, imagery, and figurative language to convey that as society progresses through time, people lose their sense of humanity.

In East of Eden, John Steinbeck explores human knowledge of good and evil, and the power of free will man holds. This book is about choices and understanding - the struggle to grasp and understand the fight between moral extremes, and the choice man has to pick and choose on what side of the spectrum he lies. East of Eden explores extremely differentiating types of people - some with a nature holy enough to mirror prophets, and some disturbed to their very core, only to be described as ‘monsters’. But every character, regardless of background, faces questions of morality, whether they are indulged in out of personal growth or interest, or thrusted upon them by unholy circumstances.

In “A good man is hard to find”, revelations” and “Everything that rises must converge” by Flannery O’Connor clearly portray a theme of racism based on selfishness, pride and grace. All three main characters undergo a prophecy like moment that eventually leads to the loss of their dignity and selfish attitude and in turn they each achieve grace. This paper will provide a detailed analysis on how all three main characters go from being selfish to eventually self-analyzing themselves and in turn they mature and gain grace and change the way they view others. My investigation of these stories will show how each protagonist had to experience some form of tragedy in order to become self-aware of the way people perceive them. O’Connor presents in these stories how each main character and also in reality people in life need to be brought to a tragic like moment in life that causes them to not continue in the ways they are accustomed to.

Religion also plays an important function in allowing the authors to comment on society and faith’s role in it. For example, both authors seem to be suggesting that our religion is only compatible in society as we know it, that is to say that it is not compatible with other situations. In The Children of Men a major disruption to the working of society, mass infertility, has led to a total destruction of the Christian faith. In Brave New World, an unstoppable surge of machinery and technology has led to the disregard of religious moral and the introduction of a new set of hedonist attitudes, both scenarios being deplored by the reader. This could also be seen as the authors’ asserting that a civilized society desperately needs stable religion and morals, given that the utter breakdown in The Children of Men is arguably as shocking as the superficial worship of machinery and pleasure in Brave New World.

People often struggle to face adversity in their life. In their confrontation of these adverse moments and the many obstacles, people formulate opinions about the unhappiness that stems from this. In the world of English literature, authors take this opportunity to express how the evils of the world lead to human suffering and misery through their literary pieces. These authors include John Milton, Alexander Pope, and Samuel Johnson. In Paradise Lost, An Essay on Man, and Rasselas, respectively, each author presents his own ideology of the origin of this suffering and how one is to overcome this unhappiness that comes as a result of this suffering. Milton uses the Fall of Adam and Eve and his understanding of Theodicy to express this idea. Both Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson take Milton’s elucidation of worldly evil and the possibility of humanity finding happiness when all is said and done and they expand upon it.