The Tale of a Controlled Society

Literature has always been a part of society. Some are deemed superior to others and have unique, artistic merit. Some are read as adolescents. A large portion of literature for growing children is fairy tales. Modern fairy tales are about Alice falling down a rabbit hole, into Wonderland, or Dorothy traveling to Oz. The old classics are Cinderella and her glass slipper, or the adventures of Peter Pan in Neverland. These are stories that are suppose to teach younger to be good when they grow up.…

a better idea of medieval life than Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Written in the late fourteenth century in the vernacular, it gives us an idea of the vast spectrum of people that made up the different classes within society. The poem describes the knightly class, the clergy, and those who worked for a living, thus describing the different classes as well. Chaucer gives us a cross-section of fourteenth century society by giving us the small details of people’s clothing, demeanor and professions;…

viewed fairy tales as inappropriate literature because they believed fairy tales to be a form of witchcraft. The attitude toward fairy tales soon changed when the Brothers Grimm published their two-volume collection called Kinderund Hausmarchen or German Popular Stories. Overnight, fairy tales became an acceptable form of literature. This sudden popularity raises some related questions: What are the reasons behind the increased popularity of fairy tales? What function did fairy tales play in Victorian…

The Canterbury Tales can be understood as a Chaucerian satire according many readers. Chaucer sets out to deliberately upset the social order present at that time and to mock the faults present in the characters. Although he baffles about the complexity of the characters, Chaucer also praises and condemns characters for their unique qualities. Chaucer further gives us feedback of what actions the characters are taking in their lives. Many of the pilgrims are headed off to Canterbury, to worship…

concept of criticism is inseparable from her creative work” Walter Pache (1). A dystopia is a fictional society, usually existing in a future time period, in which the condition of life is extremely difficult due to deprivation, oppression or terror. In most dystopian fiction, a corrupt government creates or sustains the poor quality of life, often conditioning the masses to believe the society is proper and just, even perfect. Most dystopian fiction takes place in the future but purposely incorporates…

A Society of Oppression in A Handmaid's Tale As the saying goes, 'history repeats itself.' If one of the goals of Margaret Atwood was to prove this particular point, she certainly succeeded in her novel A Handmaid's Tale. In her Note to the Reader, she writes, " The thing to remember is that there is nothing new about the society depicted in The Handmaiden's Tale except the time and place. All of the things I have written about ...have been done before, more than once..." (316). Atwood…

Chaucer's society represents every social class. In doing so, it shows what it takes to actually make a society function. The different people carry different stories to share. These stories carry lessons learned in hopes of sharing them with others so that they may not end up in the same predicaments. After all, that is the main point of sharing stories, isn't it? In the Nun and Priest's tale, a story of never trusting a flatterer is told. The Pardoner tries to sell indulgences to the pilgrims…

nature of other people. Richard Wilkinson brought up a point that “More unequal societies tend to be more violent” (Wilkinson 2). Wilkinson shows that there is a prominent correlation between income and homicide. Lower incomes shows higher rates of homicide. In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens shows how violence can flourish due to the inequality seen in the lower classes. Dickens uses violence to portray that a society filled with inequalities can lead to violence. Throughout the novel, much,…

Wealth, parties, and connections, were three things that were important to anyone looking to be a part of the exclusive high society of East New York in the Roaring 20’s. F. Scott Fitzgerald captured all three with his literary voice. He made impressions everywhere with the supreme achievement of his third novel, The Great Gatsby. This novel is a tale of people’s sensational lives in the 1920’s. Fitzgerald uses The Great Gatsby to exemplify the American identity during the early twentieth century…

The Handmaid's Tale as a Warning to Society Margaret Atwood's renowned science fiction novel, The Handmaid's Tale, was written in 1986 during the rise of the opposition to the feminist movement. Atwood, a Native American, was a vigorous supporter of this movement. The battle that existed between both sides of the women's rights issue inspired her to write this work. Because it was not clear just what the end result of the feminist movement would be, the author begins at the outset to prod…