In the country of men Essay Example for Free

In the country of men Essay Hisham Matar presents In the Country of Men as a national allegory. This is done through metaphors, personification, and characters’ relationships. His purposes for writing this novel were political. A national allegory is any attribution of human characteristics to other animals, non-living things, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations or governments1 of a nation or its people. 2 Fredric Jameson, with ideas more suitable for the novel than Aijaz Ahmad, was first to think of national allegory. 3 Jameson states that third-world literature must be a national allegory because of the state of its embattled culture and society. A political dimension is always present from the nature of the third-world as opposed to capitalism in the first-world, which enables their public and government to focus on luxuries rather than survival. Ahmed argues that Jameson fails to recognize other third-world novels with different forms of literature because he only considers English written novels. 4 In times of war when the government controls the public’s lives, third-world writers can only search to write in a national allegory, otherwise, torture would be eminent. Political dimensions are always present from the nature of the third-world. National allegory writing emphasizes the political situation of the government. 5 Hisham Matar wrote In the Country of Men for a political purpose. The book may be fiction, but it seems to be drawn upon by real-life events. Writers then were tortured by the revolutionary committee and imprisoned, similar to Ustath Rashid. An interview with Matar reads â€Å"Because of the fear Gadhafi inspired in the intellectual community, many Libyan writers turned to allegory to make their work opaque to the regime. But Matars own writing is more forthright about political experiences — he says that when he decided to set his novel in Libya in the late 1970s, it seemed inauthentic and insincere to not include the extraordinary details of the time†. 6 Writers created allegories so that their ideas on the Libyan regime would not be transparent. Those who were caught were imprisoned. Books were gathered from bookshops and burned like Baba’s were, therefore representing a national allegory. The fact that Matar grew up in Cairo influences the ending of the novel and other aspects of the storyline. His father was kidnapped from his home in Cairo and taken back to Libya where he was tortured and imprisoned, corresponding with Baba’s capture. His uncle and two cousins were imprisoned as well. When they were finally released, his uncle would ask him if he remembered things they used to do together. 7 The child memories recounted inspired the innocence of having a child narrator to be an allegory of the younger generation of the nation, therefore representing a national allegory for a political purpose. The mother and son represent two generations of the country. Their intimate relationship and care for one another is a metaphor for how the country should care for their people and their people towards it. Both are inferior in society, Mama a woman and Suleiman a child. It seems that the title of the novel demonstrates that they are controlled by the men of society. They rely on one another to survive when Baba, the superior figure, is gone. Mama and Suleiman are the only functioning relationship from start to end. The mother cares for her son and compensates him if she does something wrong. Suleiman cares for her and watches after her while Baba is away. They can represent hope for a new and better government in Libya to come. Metaphors and imagery of water compare people and society to actions of the sea, exposing the novel as a national allegory. When Ustath Rashid was hung the crowd responded; â€Å"Like a wave rising, cheering became louder†. 8 The crowd flowed together in a solid movement, influenced by the revolutionary committee’s actions. Those who associated with writers against the revolution were suspected of treason. If the crowd of the hanging did not cheer, they may be hung next. Suleiman and Mama were not allowed to talk to Kareem’s family when his father was accused. The revolution moved as one and like a wave, gathering others as it moved forward. Suleiman finds a calming peace with the soft waves of the sea. It was the only hope he could find in the revolution. â€Å"I held the sea as my target, my paradise.. Low wavelets curled their white foamy edges across the turquoise face of the water†. 9 He uses the sea to escape from the heat of the day and the pressures of society. The edges are more subtle than the centre. He stays on the edge of society so he can escape the movement of the revolution. The motions of the sea can be unknown and dangerous, similar to the movement of the revolution. Matar uses personification to dehumanize characters. This shows that this novel is a national allegory. Baba becomes an object once the revolutionary committee release him. His eyes were described as â€Å"tomatoes†10 and his movements as â€Å"mechanical†. 11 He was nothing but a â€Å"figure†12 and a â€Å"monster†. 13 Suleiman did not believe the man was his father. This eliminates any human aspects he once had, being consumed by the revolution. The revolutionary committee controls the public by turning their lives into objects. Therefore, personification shows how Matar wrote this as a national allegory. By analyzing metaphors, personification, and characters’ relationships, it is evident that Matar wrote In the Country of Men as a national allegory. The interview with Matar provides evidence that his intentions behind the novel, personal and political, were to write it as a national allegory. Jameson’s ideas on the nature of third-world text hold for this novel. The objectifying and dehumanization of characters through metaphors and personification develop a meaning for the novel beyond a struggling family, but a national allegory. Bibliography Ahmad, Aijaz, ‘Jameson’s Rhtoric of Otherness and the â€Å"National Allegory†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢, Social Text, 17 (1987), 3-25. ‘Anthropomorphism’, Wikipedia (13 November 2012) [25 November 2012]. Jameson, Fredric, ‘Third World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capitalism’, Social Text, 15 (1986), 65-88. Krishnan, Madhu. ‘Contemporary Fiction: Booker Prize,’ (Lecture 1 Given on 13 November 2012). Matar, Hisham, In the Country of Men (80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England: Penguin Books Ltd. , 2006). Montagne, Renee, ‘Hisham Matar On The Power Of Libyan Fiction’, NPR (April 28, 2011) , 23 November 2012. ‘National Personification’, Wikipedia (16 November 2012) [25 November 2012].

The Role of John Proctor in Arthur Millers The Crucible Essay

The Role of John Proctor in Arthur Miller's The Crucible Arthur Miller wrote the play 'The Crucible' to show the historical parallel between the Salem witch trials of 1692 and the McCarthy 'witch' hunt of the late 1940' and 50's. The character John Proctor seems to represent and show the viewpoint of a real man, unaffected by hysteria; a difficult thing to portray during the 1950's in the USA, due to the fear and hate of Communism and the 'witch' hunt for communists. John Proctor is the central character of the play. He a realistic character, the audience can relate to him and sympathize with him. He is a somewhat strong character and is described by Miller as "powerful of body, even-tempered and not easily led", the last comment perhaps being the most important. His character earns respect throughout the play as the audience sees the moral arguments he has and internal conflicts he has to deal with. John Proctor is a man with a guilty conscience, which makes him indecisive until it is too late, audiences can relate this to their own, maybe far less dramatic lives. John Proctor has made a mistake; he has slept with his former servant girl, teenage Abigail Williams. It is also shown in Act 1 that he still lusts after her - when she asks if he looked up at her window for her, he replies "I may have looked up", this shows his characters weakness, but he remains strong willed. He does not give into what he obviously thinks of as great temptation, again. This shows the audience that he has recognized his mistake and is not repeating it. John Proctor is an honest man, but has undermined himself with his one act of dishonesty. ... ... parallel, as he knew himself what height the communist hysteria had reached. Like the witch hysteria in Salem, he knew that he would be persecuted for writing about fear and conscience if he were to set the play in contemporary America. Miller uses John Proctor to almost play himself and to show what he would do if put in the position of being on trial. He later proved his point by not accusing any other people of being in communist parties when he really was put on trial, to get himself off the hook, like so many other people did. John Proctor plays the crucial role in 'The Crucible' of being the man that is on the brink of giving in but stands strong, even though he knew that one individual would not bring down the hysteria. Works Cited: Miller, Arthur. The Crucible: A Screenplay. New York: Penguin Books, 1996.

Notes on a scandle by Zoe Heller †How is the theme of obsession presented in the book? Essay

Notes on a scandal, written in the first person by Barbara Covette, a close friend and colleague of Sheba’s, is a story about Sheba Hart, a pottery teacher at St Georges school, who allows herself to become engaged in an affair with one of her fifteen year old pupils, Steven Connolly, who is one of her few pupils with an interest in her subject and not just disrupting lessons. This story is very much about obsession, and not that only of Sheba and her lover. In fact a very large proportion of the novel is devoted to showing Barbara’s loneliness and obsession with Sheba. It is done in an almost subtle way so that Barbara as the narrator is not aware how clearly she is obsessed, yet we as the audience can see it. With this the plot becomes almost as much about Barbara as it is about Sheba. From very early on in the novel we can see that Barbara has an obsession with Sheba, and that the obsession is likely to get bigger. This can be seen from the very beginning. The very fact that Barbara notes the exact clothes that Sheba is wearing and comments on them shows she has been paying a great amount of attention to Sheba from the very beginning. On the first page of chapter one Barbara says that Sheba is a fey person, she makes a point of saying this, which indicates possibly jealousy of Sheba. As we go on into chapter one Barbara’s jealousy is becoming more and more apparent, as everybody else is fussing about Sheba, Barbara chooses to stay out of the way, most likely due to her envy of Sheba. Barbara looks in on everybody fussing abut Sheba almost as a fly on the wall would, noting to herself who talks to Sheba and exactly what she does. She does not try herself in the beginning to socialise with her, but yet still seems very interested in her. This shows the beginning of obsession. When in chapter one Elaine reached out to touch Sheba’s ears, Barbara remarks in her text about not shaving her armpits, and refers to Elaine as â€Å"Reaching out like a monkey†. This shows us that Barbara is irritated by anybody else fussing over Sheba, so she instantly insults them as if to make herself feel batter and more worthy of Sheba’s attention than them. At the beginning of chapter two Barbara says that she must maintain maximum accuracy, so therefore starts to put together a time line of Sheba’s year. This itself seems obsessive. She buys gold stars to stick on at important events. It appears to us that Barbara’s life at this stage is revolving around Sheba. On page 32 Barbara writes: â€Å"Throughout the first half of the winter term, I had been building up my confidence to tackle Sheba on the matter of class discipline.† This indicates that Barbara is nervous about talking to Sheba for some reason; however we are almost certain by this stage in the novel that if it had been another one of the teachers at St George, Barbara would not have had a problem with it. Also on page 32 is the realisation on Barbara’s part that Sheba had befriended Sue Hodge. Barbara was very envious of this friendship and begins to take a lot of interest in this friendship. Barbara continuously slags off Sue Hodge and calls her, â€Å"The most awful prig.† This suggests an element of obsession is here, as if Barbara was not interested in Sheba then she would not care who she was â€Å"chumming up with.† At the beginning of chapter three, it is made very clear that Barbara was jealous of Sheba’s friendship with Sue. She writes: â€Å"The irony of my having agonized over Sheba’s friendship of fatty Hodge.† She used the word agonized which is quite a strong word, so Barbara was obviously deeply affected by this. She then goes on to say: â€Å"If Sheba had made a wiser choice of girlfriend, if she had have chosen me from the start- it is possible that she might have avoided the Connolly imbroglio.† We can see here that Barbara desperately wants Sheba as a friend, in an obsessive nature. In the beginning of chapter five, Barbara says that if it makes Sheba happy it makes her happy. This very clearly indicates that Barbara is obsessed with Sheba. On page 83, Barbara contradicts herself, she say that she does not argue with the necessity for age bars, but then goes on to defend Sheba’s actions. She seems to think that there is one rule for one person and another for Sheba. When Barbara is invited to Sheba’s house for dinner she panics very much about the way she is dressed, particularly about the heals thinking she may be too tarty. She is acting more like she is going on a date then to a friend’s house for dinner. This shows us that Barbara is very keen to impress Sheba, and doesn’t want her to think anything bad of her at all. The first sentence of chapter ten says: â€Å"By summer my connection with Sheba was well established.† The way she says this is almost like a spy trying to infiltrate the government and not as you would expect somebody to say about their friend, this seems odd and almost stalker like. In chapter thirteen Barbara decides to stay away from Sheba, and see how long Sheba can stick it. However it turns out to be Barbara who is the one who can’t stick it, she becomes rather depressed and confused. Here Barbara is acting more the way a lover would after a break up than a friend. In Barbara’s lunch date with Bangs in chapter thirteen when Barbara realises someone else is interested in Sheba, she instantly tells him about her and Connolly’s relationship. Barbara may have done this as she doesn’t want anyone to come between her and Sheba’s friendship, and she feels threatened by others in Sheba’s life. Towards the end of the book Barbara takes great joy in destroying the model of Sheba and Connolly, she begins by destroying the boy though; this shows that Barbara is trying to get rid of everything from Sheba’s life that is not centred on her. All of these things suggest that Barbara is slowly becoming more and more obsessed with Sheba throughout the novel, and that she wants to take everything that is not centred around her away. She may even have been satisfied that Sheba has lost her family and now must depend on Barbara as she is her only remaining friend.

The Government Should Control The American Peoples

The government should control the American peoples’ diet. Poor diet choices result in increased health care costs which affects every tax payer in America. Poor diet contributes to obesity which results in an increase in a plethora of diseases. The cost of these diseases has a huge economic impact on the country. The government owes it to its citizens to control these costs through diet regulation. It also owes its citizens the opportunity for optimal health. Poor diets can lead to obesity. There are an estimated 300,000 deaths per year that can be attributed to obesity. Tobacco is the only thing that causes more preventable deaths per year than obesity in the United States. Obesity is expected to overtake it soon and become the†¦show more content†¦Obesity is a casual factor in type 2 diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, gallstones, cancer, and musculoskeletal diseases. Diabetes type II is a devastating disease. It has been established that the higher a person’s body mass index (BMI) the more likely they are to develop diabetes type II. 96.4% of type II diabetes can be directly attributed to obesity. This disease often results in daily medication usage and hospitalization. It can even result in loss of organs or limbs. Often diabetic patients suffer from failed kidney function and must rely on daily dialysis. The direct cost of obesity related type II diabetes in 1995 was $32.2 billion and the indirect cost was $30.74 billion. Another risk of obesity is hypertension. â€Å"Obese persons have an approximately five to six times greater risk of developing hypertension than lean people†. Hypertension places a person at risk for stroke, heart attack, or organ failure. Most people with hypertension must also take daily medications. In 1995, the direct cost of obesity related hypertension was $3.23 billion. The indirect costs have not been measured. There is an established connection with obesity and high lipids. This can result in increased risk of coronary heart disease. In 1995, it was