The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum by Heinrich Boll Essays

Marxist literary criticism flourishes from Karl Marx and Engel’s theories on revolutionary change. Through the implicit and explicit detail of a novel, Marxist criticism unravels a text’s underlying economic purpose. A Marxist will read a text and expose “social contexts in ways which the author themselves would not admit” (158). A professor from the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) teaches authors inevitably impose their social class ideology on their work, consequently inserting an ideology within the lines of the novel reflecting the struggles of

Issues of racism, women discrimination and the corruption of power used to be subtly touched upon or ignored. However they were also viewed differently depending on the era it was brought up in. Yet as time passed by, it seems these issues have become common discussion. This change of significance in how the audience responds and view texts that carry the notions of marginalization can be seen by Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ and Arundhati Roy’s

When she utilises the modes of appeals, they are subtle within the texts, which leads the reader to analyse as they read. She conveys ideas of internalised oppression, involuntarily imposed upon to follow strict social rules, the act of people erasing cultural heritage, as well as the importance of embracing personal heritage.

In the story Cohen makes use of the most trivial murder of 1836 to show the twisted societal accommodations of those who are considered privileged, hypocritical channelled views towards sexuality and legal codes exploitation with a mingling of tabloids journalism and mere politics. In her story Cohen brings out a really sensational fact that a place for women is determined by a man.

This book is not for the sensitive reader. In this book, Ronson takes one into the victims lives and shows the effects of brutal shaming. For example, Ronson tells the story of a woman by the name of Justine Sacco, who posted a racist tweet. Within a short period of time, Justine had been completely obliterated on Twitter. Justine lost her job, and self-worth due to her public shaming.

In the book Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich by Alison Owings, we are provided with plenty of women who describe their lives before, during and after Hitler received power. This book provides us with different views of the time era and as well as how the impact of Hitler affected every woman differently through social class, age, marital status and etc. This paper will explore the lives of three German women who seem to be in the Grey area during the over control of Hitler but mostly with the killings of the Jews. This paper will further explore the complicity and the different levels of resistance that these three women had during this time era which is 1933-1945. The three women that will be discussed in this paper are Margarete (Margrit) Fischer, Ellen Frey, and Christine (Tini) Weihs. When looking into the lives of all three women these women it seems as though women didn’t have much of a responsibility for the events that were happening around them. Although these women seemed to be complaint to a certain degree with the events there were going on around them. These women would have been complaint due to the fear of what happened to Germans when they stood against the events that took part.

Literature is the window to realizing the negatives of society and how destructive certain norms can be. Readers are brought into a completely different story than their own, but by using similar issues in today’s world, the readers can actually learn from the story and its overall message. All writers write for a purpose, whether it’s for a new meaning to life, to live a different life than our own, or to impact others on an emotional level by teaching them to see the importance of the little things. As a reader, you search for pieces of literature that interest you whether you find the story like your own, or wish you lived the life in the story. By using issues in today’s within their works, authors are able to grab the reader's attention long enough for them to get across what they wanted to get across. Often in many works of literature, writers use societal issues as their basis for the work’s themes and symbols. By doing so, this allows the reader to question the morality behind social norms and how impactful certain ideals can be in people’s lives.

All Quiet On The Western Front is a novel known for a realistic and vastly negative portrayal of war. Remarque sheds light on the unrepairable suffering soldiers have throughout and after war, a subject little touched, and if so, war is usually adulated. Remarque paints war as a horribly inhumane act, therefore ideas such as patriotism, often a sole reason for entering war, are questioned. Remarque renders patriotism as a belief based on false hope, a belief used for the gain of the authorities, one that eventually hurts the citizen. Remarque’s novel portrays a deceitful and damaging patriotism, one that dangerously resides in extremely allegiant countries like the U.S. Patriotism has become a belief that one should not challenge, and that is where the danger comes in.

Böll found it especially distressing that the people who could have best afforded to resist the rise of fascism, for example the university professors, did so little. In The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, Böll s attitude of contempt for the Nazi’s can be viewed in the lack of interrogation of Konrad Beiters, “Konrad Beiters voluntarily admitted to having once been a Nazi and that alone explained why so far no one had paid any attention to him”. Konrad is the only character close to Katharina who is not questioned by the police and this shows the right winged political stance that West Germany still had in 1974 and the misuse of authority by powerful people in social institutions such as the media and the police, especially men.

Since the beginning of time social constrictions have always retained a firm grasp on the ideas and actions of humanity. While it remains a formidable foe, still some choose to fight back against the norm. This never-ending war is responsible for major advancements in the social order, but not every story is so successful. In Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”, Edna Pontellier finds herself fighting this very battle that, although begins with a positive outlook, ultimately ends in her demise.

Through the use of his various themes, Bradbury teaches his readers about some essential aspects of our society. In this novel’s dystopian world, the citizens do not have the freedom of speech as we do. In the middle of novel, we find out that the outspoken girl, Clarisse, has died. Bradbury never definitively tells us that she was killed for the things she had been

In literature, history is crucial. History is society’s choice of which truth to present to the public as a way of hiding shameful pasts and controlling civilization. The use of history in literature represents how deception of society becomes a cycle of ignorance. Often times in literature, the author alters history to present a new version of the story, regardless of the fact that altering history could change an entire society’s beliefs. Ignorance of personal history provides society the opportunity to live daily lives without the burden of past transgressions weighing them down, but the ignorance comes at a cost of moral destruction. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Natasha Tretheway’s Native Guard feature main characters who experience affects of the alteration of history, and in turn these adverse affects destroy their morals. Throughout history, soiled memories hide behind a more polished version of truth, which in turn creates a civilization bound to repeat the errors in ignorance. With the manipulation of history, distorted memories stem from warped versions of the past, which in turn creates a civilization bound to repeat the errors in ignorance.

The apartheid era in South Africa, uprooted the lives of many people who were forced to endure oppressive laws and inequality based on the colour of their skin. It continues to remain a painful memory to those who lost loved ones in their struggle for freedom. In Chris Van Wyk’s novel, Shirley, Goodness & Mercy (2004), he explores fond memories growing up in a township called Riverlea. This township is predominantly occupied by coloured people as a result of segregation laws. Contrary to the negative connotations that apartheid holds, Van Wyk shares the memories which enriched his life during his formation. It is against this setting that I will explore various moments in the novel that contributed to Van Wyk’s views of a pre-apartheid time in his growing up. I will establish this by discussing the given extract, and looking at how he perceived a sense of freedom with his friends, his open state of mind towards knowledge, his outlook on justice and the wrongs that were not evident in his growing up. I will also discuss how it relates to the whole novel.

by Henrich Boll concerns an upwardly mobile young German couple in the 1960s; we do not

This socio-historical commentary is valid however; it disregards the fact that the novels are not accurate portrayals of society. Important facts: first the philanthropic attitude in the novels is simply not a reflection of the literal changes in society, the novels cannot be classified an expression of