Absurd Inheritance

14. What are the goals of the environmental justice movement, and why are they relevant to sustainability?

How can two people watch or read the same story and yet, interpret it completely differently? Does it have to do with the author’s intentions, or maybe it has to do with the viewers’ own backgrounds and ideologies? Whatever the case may be, viewing one piece of work can lead to a wide array of opinions and critiques. It is through the diversity of such lenses that Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller has become one of the most well-known plays in modern history. There are many different ways in which a play can be criticized, however, criticisms from the approaches of a Marxist and reader-response will be utilized to further dissect Death of a Salesman. Marxist criticism sees pieces of works as a struggle between different socioeconomic classes; what better way to see Miller’s play than for what it is at face value, the struggle of a middle-class man trying to achieve the American dream (1750). On the other hand, a reader-response criticism comes from either an objective or subjective view; in this case Death of a Salesman will be viewed with a subjective lens based on Willy’s deteriorating mental health (1746).

Upon returning, Nigel “went on the wireless” (Wright 2015, Pg. 88) expressing his opinions behind “appalling brutality and savage butchery” that took place in massacres against Aboriginal people. Journalists responding to Nigel show difficulty in accepting his split identity as a “proud aboriginal Australian, and former soldier” expressing that his opinions on his own community have been disregarded although he had once been a respected soldier. Later, Nigel eventually becomes “a sad figure, walking against the flow of a busy city footpath, wearing a sandwich board, which reads TARZAN THE APE MAN. He hands out flyers, but no-one takes them,” (Wright 2015, Pg. 90) serving as a reminiscent reminder of his wasted potential, and he apologises, “Sorry Dad” and “takes swig from a bottle.” Later, the play ends with Nigel in an asylum, as he talks to a psychiatric nurse, he “can see the big world…” he doesn’t “want to join in he doesn’t belong” as he feels disheartened with the way everything turned out in terms of being an ex-serviceman. Nigel's legacy is intended to convey how racial identity had affected social status, where Wright uses Nigel's nostalgic outcome to provoke empathy and sentiment. In 1949, Harry had become a poor “derro”, (Wright 2015, Pg. 86) who is begging for money, where he encounters Stan (a non-indigenous ex-serviceman) dressed in “a suit and all” and acknowledges that “his time in the war were great days.” This encounter is provided by Wright to juxtapose between the two comrades who were once 'equals', and now Harry has become disadvantaged due to his racial identity. Ern and Norm experience psychological and physical difficulties upon returning from the war, being augmented by additional trauma of returning to a life filled with racial discrimination. These character experiences are shown by Wright

* What aspects of Aboriginal life during the Depression do you think Joe represents? Explain an incident from the play that illustrates this.

The short story “The Boat” by Alistair MacLeod is narrated by a man who comes from a fishing family. His mother’s side of the family has forever lived and worked by the sea and continues this tradition. The narrator’s father always wanted to be an academic, but worked on the boat to support his family. Through this passage it is evident that the parents’ characters clash in many aspects of their lives and are in constant conflict. MacLeod demonstrates this through the use of repetition, the contrast in other unrelated ideas, and through information that is withheld.

The word “Inheritance” has a variety of meanings, both in the context of the play and in the general community. In the play “Inheritance” written in 2003 by Hannie Rayson, generates the definition of the word “Inheritance” by portraying the two families (the Delaney’s and Hamilton’s) both families have different perspectives about Inheritance and they have different values in life, as both lives in different environments, one of them lives in rural areas and the others in urban areas. These families fighting fiercely for who will take over the inheritance of the farm (Allandale), The prejudice of this sensitive topic, within the family brings up a contradiction between them, as many of the characters suffered particularly Nugget, and Lyle, as there are the two candidates in getting the inheritance of the farm and they are the only farmers both from the family. In this play we saw the prejudice of William against the aboriginal people have a big

In Nantucket, the whaler’s island, every man had to be a whaler. Even if it wasn’t his dream job, just because it was the only way to survive in the island without being dropped out of the community. Philbrick introduces us to this starting point by quoting the words of Thomas Nickerson, the one who had been taught to “idolize the form of a ship” (Philbrick, 1).

David Kherdian’s novel Monkey: A Journey to the West, begins with the creation story of Monkey. On the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, a magic stone is fertilized by the seeds of Heaven and Earth and is impregnated by divine inspiration. Following the embryonic stages of development, a stone egg is revealed. The stone egg instantly undergoes a physical transformation. “Once the egg was exposed to the elements, the wind soon transformed it into a stone monkey, complete in every way in all aspects of its being”(Kherdian 1). The stone monkey soon comes to life, explores his surroundings, and makes friends with other monkeys and other mammals. Monkey and his friends fool around in the forest and spot a curtain of water flowing from a waterfall.

journey. Two of the inner forces that hinder Jay Berry is his fear of the

During the narrator’s description of World War II the reader comes across a scene that depicts a woman and a horse in which “He had a dirty picture of a woman attempting sexual intercourse with a Shetland pony. He had made Billy Pilgrim admire that picture several times.”(pg 40) Within in the novel this is the most explicit sexual scene and one of the reasons this novel may have been added to the banned book list seeing as beastiality is not apropiate for anyone let alone adolescents and is illegal. The author uses the second protagonist in his novel, Billy Pilgrim in order to display one of the first examples of a moral decision hence “There was a tap on Billy’s car window. A black was out there...Billy did the simplest thing. He drove on.”(pg 59) In  this instance the reader understands that there are certain reasons for several Billy’s decisions and while they may not be “correct by moral standards” he choses to follow through anyway in turn causes the readers to question both events within the novel and the outside world. The next example serves to let the author address how a negative situation could bring about positive change “Only the candles and the soap were of German origin...The British had no way of knowing it, but the candles and the soap were made from the fat of rendered Jews and Gypsies and fairies and communists, and other enemies of the State. So it goes.”(pg 96) Providing a positive outcome from a very negative situation the narrator forces the reader to chose whether the situation is a good thing or not which makes reading the novel more difficult form a moral standpoint. Secondly, not only is the decision difficult to make but the reader is also left astounded

Monkey: Journey to the West is a story of an adventure for enlightenment to India in order to find ancient Buddhist scriptures. The story consists of Chinese legends, tales, and superstitions. Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism play a huge role throughout this story. Monkey: Journey to the West is a story that discusses religion, and moral issues. The monkey acts the way he does due to underlying religious themes played throughout the story. At first understanding why the Monkey acts the way he does may seem difficult. However, after reading deeper through the story one learns that social satire in the Monkey is what gives him his rebellious personality. The end of the story reveals the hidden spiritual meaning behind the monkeys change in

Even after fifty years have passed racism is still evident in Act 2.This portrays the way people treat each other in reality and how race is still a prominent issue in the world today. Bruce Norris may only hint at what rich people do in the neighborhood but raises numerous issues. One in which is that race triumphs class. Norris’s play “Clybourne Park” raised much controversy by bringing up an issue that many people now a day decide to forget and act like it is not there. By bringing the issue of race up

In Jane Eyre, Rochester urges that she not act like a “struggling bird” to which Jane responds, “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will” (Brontë 258). Equivalently, in Portrait, Stephen tell his nationalist friend Davin, “When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets”, revealing the stringency of Irish nationalism as well as Catholicism. (Joyce 148). Both characters use diction relating to flight and entrapment, asserting that their freedoms are being restricted and, more precisely, that these restrictions already existed. In other words, the “struggling bird” and “nets” preceded the actions of the individual , thus these pressures are larger forces of society. It is how Jane and Stephen interacts with these forces that determines their ultimate

Szymborska’s poem, “Brueghel’s Two Monkeys,” starts in an odd way. The reader is thrust straight into the scene of an exam, which at first seems all too familiar. However, Szymborska surprises the reader when the voice says what she dreams about as she takes the final exam, “two monkeys, chained to the floor.” This is a very odd image and one that is not easily identifiable to the reader initially. The poem contains two meanings, first in the context of the 1956 workers' riots and student demonstrations that led to the crisis and compromise of October where Poland was taken over by Stalin. These events provide a context for the reading of the poem as a