The Mayor Of Casterbridge Critical Analysis

Citizens of Pleasantville have certain knowledge about themselves and society, but because there is no exposure to differing ideas, individuals are stuck with the same opportunities and values. A specific example of this includes the community’s view on gender roles: men hold power as the head of society and women stay at home to cook and clean. There are no opportunities to change this structure, as the communication of ideas is restricted to what is known and not to anything new. The town leadership fears a true deviation from the accepted social order, and as a result, the citizens of Pleasantville conform to this system to prevent conflict. While this lifestyle provides harmony and order, conformity actually limits society from growing and enhancing. On the other hand, when individuals start voicing out their opinions, new ideas challenge the false peace that society had in their conformity. After Bud and Mary Sue introduce different and rather contradictory ideas, like sex, color, and individuality, people start pursuing their own passions as individuals, rather than as a whole society. With all these changes, individuals burst into color when choosing to leave “pleasant” behind for the freedom to express personal

In the 17 and 1800s, Europe was reeling from the effects of the Agricultural Revolution and new resources that changed the lives and diets of the poor. Inventions such as the seed drill by Jethro Tull and the spinning jenny by James Hargreaves awakened a desire for even further inventions that would improve the quality of life and make goods even more accessible. As the cottage system was slowly morphing into a factory system, especially Great Britain saw a massive surge in industrialization. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the rapid urban development, as a result of industrialization, led to deplorable living and working conditions for the city’s poor and in conjunction an influx of negative thinking towards the adoption of the factory system

All Souls, written by Michael Patrick MacDonald, is the story of a low-income family from Boston that ends up moving from the projects in Columbia Point to the projects South Boston, also known as Southie. From then, the book focuses on the MacDonald family and their lives in 1960’s South Boston and in particular the crime, violence and corruption that existed within South Boston but most importantly, how it was that the MacDonald family viewed Southie and how those views changed overtime. On the first page of the book, Michael Patrick MacDonald starts of by recalls his mother at one point calling Southie, “The Best Place in the World” (MacDonald 1). The comparison from Ma calling Southie the best place in the world compared to a couple of pages ahead where she says that she’d “Never come back to this hell hole of a fucking neighborhood ever again” (MacDonald 15). This change of mentality of not only Ma, but the rest of the family, especially Michael Patrick MacDonald, is categorized within C. Wright Mills’ The Sociological Imagination. In The Sociological Imagination, Mills speaks on two ways of thinking that are very prevalent in MacDonald’s All Souls. According to Mills’ there is an “ordinary” way of thinking and a then there is having a “sociological imagination”. In All Souls, both of these different mindsets are portrayed thru the MacDonald family as well as within their community of Old Colony. All Souls tells the story of a community suffering from the “ordinary” way of thinking and what kind of negative outcomes their fixed mindset.

According to Elizabeth Lowell, “Some of us aren't meant to belong. Some of us have to turn the world upside down and shake the hell out of it until we make our own place in it.” Sometimes what every situation needs is an outsider to flip the script and create a new outlook on everything. In Shirley Jackson’s novel, “We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” the speaker, Merricat, is an outsider of society on many levels, such as mental health, gender, and that she is an upper class citizen in a poor area. Although Merricat is mentally unstable, her outsider’s perspective criticizes the social standard for women in the 1960s, indicating that social roles, marriage, and the patriarchy are not necessary aspects in life such as it is not necessary to have the same outlook on life as others.

Karen Abbott, a New York Times Bestselling author of “Sin in the Second City” and “American Rose”, Abbott reveal in her book “Lair, Temptress, Solider, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War” was published by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins in 2014 contends that four major powerful women had endangered their lives to become a soldier spy during the Civil War. Karen Abbott analyzes based on a true story of how women 's roles are portrayed to accommodate political work, used primary sources including dairies, letters, newspaper. The author describes the individual women in varied personality in a way of lair, temptress, a solider and a spy who all shared the same challenges that involves in risk-taking decision in America history.

During the era from the end of Reconstruction through 1900, the development of American cities radically altered the nation's social environment and problems. A vast majority of Americans relocated from rural areas to the city in pursuit of new economic opportunity and the promise of a more exciting life. The rapid development of an urban society transformed America. How people lived, what and how they ate, and how they took care of their health all changed. In spite of the period’s adherence to the beliefs of “Social Darwinism,” increasing numbers of Americans in fields that varied from religion and economics to politics, literature, and the law proposed the need for reforms.

In “Class and Community the Industrial Revolution in Lynn”, Alan Dawley discusses the changes the town goes through and how the Industrial Revolution changed the life of the town from pre-industry to factory systems. During the novel, the community becomes very materialized and Dawley explains how this creates tension between the elites and working class. Dawley pointed out that because of the corrupt factories and workers, there were hardships and extremes that the community had to overcome to achieve better working conditions.

When I enrolled in Tabb High School, the administration was obsessed with teaching students two things, the Standards of Learning (S.O.L.) and the importance of college. As all of us were freshmen, the thought of college meant very little for us but by the time we became seniors, it was the only thing on our minds. We understood that knowledge is power and that we must find new knowledge to better ourselves personally and economically.

From the start of Joe becoming mayor of Eatonville he showed that women are not on the same level as the men are. A citizen of Eatonville asked Janie to say a speech which she was quickly rejected by Joe. Joe proceeded to say “He didn’t marry Janie for her words”. He saying he didn’t marry her for her words really showed the diversity he believed in. You could tell by the text that it hurt Janie but she didn’t let it show so she wouldn’t draw attention.

Urban class workers found themselves with more down time and indulged themselves into the bustling culture of Coney Island, feeding a new culture of moral refinement that would eventually trickle out into society. John F Kasson writes “By the turn of the century the managers of mass culture sensed new markets both within the urban middle class and spilling beyond its borders to ‘high society’ and the largely untapped working class, all eager to respond to amusement in a less earnest cultural mood: more vigorous, exuberant, daring, sensual, uninhibited, and irreverent” (Kasson 6). This attitude reformed societies view of the Victorian ideals by loosening up its moral restrictions, allowing more room for exploration of moral values and eventually creating a more relaxed perspective on many different values such as gender

Within a very short time, suburbs had become very popular and they created an illusion of a perfect traditional family. They became the latest glamorous countryside and every rich individual wanted to be part of this perfection. There was however difficulties that was experienced in the suburbs as a swelling population was experienced. The three novels White house, Revolutionary road and parts of Mrs. Browns The hours all show the plight of Suburban American both in comic and tragic lights. In Revolutionary road, there is possibly no other novel that perfectly captures the uneasiness of the middle class American Suburban Community in the post war period. The book shows what it is like to try and lead a revolutionary life in the American suburb. During the

This novel’s misogynistic perspective divulges the social-turmoil America experienced after World War II. During this period, a multitude of male American population enlisted to join the war consequently, women took on stereotypical ‘male jobs’. When the war ended, veterans returned home and expected women to return to their traditional duties, an expectation they challenged. As a result, this period witnessed a power-imbalance between the pre-existing patriarchal mindset and matriarchy rule which gave birth to the second wave feminism. Kesey exemplifies this by portraying dominating female characters as castrators and overpowering figures who emasculate and damage men, notably in Mrs Bibbit’s over-protecting and condescending power which manages

The novel begins with a joint description of the protagonist, Newland Archer, and 19th-century New York haut monde. Society is governed by the dictates of form and convention, in which all things considered unpleasant are avoided at all costs, and the precepts of decorum and appearances are strictly adhered to. The

Oscar Wilde once said: “Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals”. We often critics society yet we all part of it, we buy the last relieved IPhone and the newest popular piece of clothing. We live in the same society described by Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451, a dystopia in which everything is about the mass. Then, comes Clarisse, a young girl who lives in the real world and does not the follow the conventions. Trying to look at our world through her eyes makes you realize…

The Industrial Revolution was the main contributor of the development of factories and modern day machinery. The Industrial Revolution created hundreds of new jobs, influenced many new inventions, and created many new ways of creating and transporting goods. Many jobs including spinners, miners, factory workers, and farmers were beginning to rise in population, due to the new technology being created in the 18th and 19th centuries. The start of new inventions coming into view was beginning in Britain, with many agricultural tools creating new ways to plow and yield crops. Later on, it caused new forms of transportation to be developed, for example, railroads and canals. This essay will explain exactly how these causes began, and how they