The Old System

1976. The conflict created when the will of an individual opposes the will of the majority is the recurring theme of many novels, plays, and essays. Select the work of an essayist who is in opposition to his or her society; or from a work of recognized literary merit, select a fictional character who is in opposition to his or her society. In a critical essay, analyze the conflict and discuss the moral and ethical implications for both the individual and the society. Do not summarize the plot or action of the work you choose.

This book is told from the diary of the main character, Sam Gribley. Sam is a boy full of determination. He didn’t give up and go home like everyone thought he would. He is strong of mind. After the first night in the freezing rain, with no fire and no food, he still went on. He is a born survivor. He lasted the winter, through storms, hunger, and loneliness, and came out on top even when everyone expected him to fail. “The land is no place for a Gribley” p. 9

What are the ways in which each major character experiences conflict (either with self, with other characters, or with the social and/or physical environment)?

The theme of Life As We Knew it is survive, thrive, and love your family. The theme helped me understand this book because after finding out the theme I could understand who:is the main character, what:Is the main idea, where:is The setting and why things were happening and connect it to the theme. Not only that but,throughout the book I was constantly thinking about the theme.

To start off, on page 92 the author writes “The snow fell thickly. We were forbidden to sit down or even to move. The snow began to form a thick layer over our blankets.” Eliezer was on the train and so were the rest of the prisoners. This illustrated the snow building up on them. From the way that the author described the snow, it kind of gives you an image of a lot of snow on top of the prisoners. Next, on page 94 the author writes “ ‘Throw out all the dead! All corpses!’” The living rejoiced. There would be more room. Volunteers set to work. They felt those who were still crouching. “‘Here’s one! Take him!’” They undressed him, the survivors avidly sharing out his clothes, then two “grave diggers” took him, one by the head and one by the feet, and threw him out of the wagon like a sack of flour.” This showed the readers using description, how the prisoners who had died were being tossed out of the wagon like if nothing had happened. In the end of the story the author tried to describe things as clear as he could to help the reader picture the setting and characters in the

The theme I chose was darkness. This can be seen in the fact that all of the crops and food are dying because of a lack of water and lack of rain. Since there was a lack of water, the dirt was very loose, and was blown around a lot. This created dust storms, which killed or hurt crops and how they grew. This created darkness. Dust was blowing everywhere, making people cough, making it hard for people to breath. It was hard for people to live around all of the dust. It was a dark time.

To begin with, one of the themes that is presented throughout the memoir is the loss of

Throughout the novel the idea of man vs. society, man vs. man and man vs. surroundings are

In Number Our Days, Myerhoff illustrates how older Jewish individuals come together to make a community in a place called The Center in California, that is practically a second home to these individuals. In Myerhoff’s study, the older, Jewish individuals in The Center band together to keep their beliefs alive. These individuals are banded together from shared experiences of “the old country” and from their shared trauma of the horrors of the Holocaust (Myerhoff, 1978: 23). “The Center people were survivors twice over, once due to their escape by emigration from the unnatural ravages of the Holocaust, and again later by living into extreme old age, surviving their peers, family, and often children,” (Myerhoff, 1978: 23). This lead to the community

The theme I have chosen is the Quest for immortality/ creation of legacy. Ancient Egyptians believed that there was a life after death; they focused much of their life preparing for the afterlife. The afterlife did not come easy to them, as they felt like they needed to live the best life possible otherwise they would not be accepted into the afterlife.

Survival is one of the few key themes in this novel. It is the main theme since most of the book is about

Physical appearance is the first thing that gets noticed about your person. Having the sense of comfort in the way you look is essential to surviving in a new society. Some Americans use makeup to cover up their imperfections. In some cultures, makeup is forbidden and unnecessary. Applying makeup may be a culture shock to particular cultures. Munoz experiences someone of his culture changing their appearance by saying, “...she wore foundation that was several shades lighter than the rest of her skin” (Munoz 309). This Mexican gate agent worked around American people so in order to fit it she covered up her true skin color. Feeling confident in your workplace is an important aspect of assimilation. Another way of assimilating into a new society is changing your original name. Most immigrants change their name so it does not get commonly mispronounced. Immigrants might get insulted and annoyed when their name is not said correctly. Each culture has their own way of pronouncing words and sayings. Anglicizing names gives the immigrant more of an accepting feeling knowing their name is not different than any other American name. In order to avoid having names butchered by fellow Americans, they must be altered for convenience (Munoz 309). My parents are not American and they changed their original names to American names because they were getting annoyed repeating the proper pronunciation of their name. This

Environment is also another major theme because the environment affects the people living in the dust bowl. A drought happened which causes dust storms. Since their crops die so do the animals. Also some themes is if you try hard you will succeed, you will miss the ones you lost, and when you lose someone hope can come and good things will

As you can see there are many themes that go on through the story. These are just some of the themes there are more. But with each theme you see that there is always something that happens or something that is done due to someone's actions or somethings

The individual and the group, can their ability to either coexist or be at odds with each other? As in some of the great books and films of out time, the individual and the group are at the forefront of every story. Whether it would be a fictitious story or a true of life event, everything revolves around conflict and how it is resolved. Without conflict between individuals and groups, stories would be boring and no one would care.