Wednesday, October 9, 2019
4 Actual Concepts In American Society Essay Example for Free
4 Actual Concepts In American Society Essay ?            Orwell’s groundbreaking dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, may or may not have been composed as a futuristic novel, portending political and sociological phenomena. Whether or not Orwell intended his novel to predict future trends or simply illuminate existing realities, a number of the political concepts portrayed in the novel have real-life connotations even in a democratic society.            In Nineteen Eighty-Four, telescreens exist in every household and also in public areas. Additionally, hidden microphones and cameras are spread out through the public and private domains to catch any potential enemies of the state. In contemporary America, video cameras have been installed in public areas: notably in inner-cities and also in the suburbs.  An article by Lynn Marotta examines the ver-increasing number of public surveillance and the seemingly public ambivalence about such tactics: What started as a simple way to monitor security around the perimeter of public places has evolved to a point where anyone can install a hidden video camera and monitor that video from anywhere in the world directly over the Internet. In addition, the integration of traffic cameras, and face recognition software give law enforcement the ability to track and identify virtually anyone without us even knowing it.                                                                        (Marotta).            Orwell also posits the concept of â€Å"doublethink†in Nineteen Eighty-Four. â€Å"Doublethink†is the ability to hold contradictory beliefs simultaneously, to forget facts which contradict this ability. â€Å"Doublethink†is one of many examples in Nineteen Eighty-Four which demonstrate the power language has over thought and belief systems. American culture is rife with examples of â€Å"doublethink;†perhaps the most notable contemporary example is the widespread and contradictory beliefs in America’s military power, with the nation’s population able to â€Å"believe†simultaneously that America is the world’s greatest iltarty power, worthy of invading and occupying foreign countries and policing the world, and ye we are told again and again how vulnerable we are and how dangerous are our enemies: North korea, Iran, and radical Islam to name a few.            Another Orwellian concept: â€Å"the Two Minute Hate†showed the enemies of the Party on a huge video screen with all manner of perversion and aggression, set to inspire terror among the population of Oceania. The American counterpart to the â€Å"two Minute Hate†can witnessed on any channel’s nightly news when individuals such as the Iranian President or the â€Å"insurgent leader†Al Sadr are shown as menacing threats to the American way of life and also as the progenitors of the Iraqi war, when it was actually the U.S. who invaded and has brought terror and ruin to the Iraqi state and population. Nineteen Eighty-Four posits language as a key aspect of thought manipulation. Nowhere is this idea more explicit than in Orwell’s concept of â€Å"newspeak.†This is language reduced to remove any sense of liberation or specificity in speech or thought. An example of newspeak at work in contemporary America is the sue of the term â€Å"collateral; damage†to describe the killing of thousands of civilians during the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 2) Oedipus was doomed from birth. Trace backe this fate of Oedipus to the origin of the tragedy and arrive at the ulimate end to the family tragedy in Antigone. The fact the Oedipus was born illegitimately – that he was a bastard – forms the central theme for the ultimate tragedy in Oedipus Rex. When Oedipus begins his quest to the Oracle of English Delphi to confirm his parentage, the Oracle relates a same prophecy: that Oedipus will kill his father and marry his mother. Later, when Oedipus kills an unarmed man who demands that Oedipus give way of the road, this man is in fact King Laius, Oedipus’ father.            After Oedipus dispatches the Sphinx he is given the throne of Thebes and weds Jocasta, a widow who is in fact his mother. Shortly afterward, Thebes falls into a state of pollution and degeneracy. A soothsayer tells oedipus that he is the cause of the city’s misfortunes. When oedipus finally realizes that origins of his birth: that he is the son of Laius and Jocasta, his world comes tumbling down. Jocasta, his mother and wife hangs herself in the closet, in the chamber where they had been sexually intimate. In response, Oedipus blinds himself by forcing her brooch pins into his eyes. The origin of the tragedy is in Oedipus seeking the truth of his birth; the origin of tragedy is in his illegitimacy. ((3) Macbeth was only as evil as his motivating forces. Explain fully the fate and the two most important motivating forces of Macbeth and his downfall            The most important motivating factors for Macbeth’s downfall emerge from his will to power and his attempt to twist fate into a direction he chooses. Specifically, the will to power is embodied by his wife, lady Macbeth, and fate is embodied by the three witches who prophesied both his rise and fall to and from the throne.            With his wife’s intrigue and cajoling, as well as the prophecy of the three witches, Macbeth believes himself fated to occupy the throne of Scotland. However, in order to embrace what he believes is his good-fate, Macbeth must commit murder.            When Lady Macbeth approaches Macbeth with her intent to kill King Duncan, Macbeth displays some trepidation about doing so; however his wife’s persuasiveness enables him to go through with what he realizes is an immoral act. After the murder, when Macbeth’s conscience plagues him, Lady Macbeth enjoins him to act normally and lay his conscience aside as she has done. Macbeth’s ultimate downfall rises from his own conscience and his ambivalent embracing of his newly stolen powers as King.                        As Macbeth’s sanity splinters, Lady Macbeth also begins to be haunted by her own conscience.. She hallucinates spots of blood on her hands and washes them, saying, â€Å"out, out damn spot.†Macbeth’s downfall is spurred by the deterioration of his wife’s sanity as it was Lady Macbeth’s hitherto resolve which empowered Macbeth to act so rashly in the first place. Macbeth’s fall is due directly to his pursuit of ambition and power, which are given birth by the witches’ prophecy and his wife’s explicit ambitions.            Only at the end does Macbeth realize his true mistake as he â€Å"struts and frets his hour upon the stage.†Here, he acknowledges that he has been at best an actor of fate’s script, and at worse, a mere puppet to his wife’s ambitions or a kind of â€Å"prop†for fate itself to play out a never-ending lesson of morality.            Macbeth’s true life has bene put aside to enact this ‘role†which occasioned murder and insanity an the downfall of Kings. His ambitions and the commission of murder have caught up with and surpassed his original vision of fate; now, as the play reaches its tragic conclusion, the true purpose of his ambitions and crimes are shown, not as a will to power, but as a will toward learning the lessons of ambition and crime. Rather than a King, his life and ambitions are show to be a mere pawn in fate’s endless drama. Marotta, Lynn Surveillance cameras and privacy concerns  is the invasion of public privacy worth it?    Video Surveillance Guide, 2006. http://www.video-surveillance-guide.com/surveillance-cameras-and-privacy.htm 4 Actual Concepts In American Society. (2017, Apr 16).
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