This is a
great question. The use of setting is very important in the book for one key reason.
The idea of a farm connotes equality. A bit of context is important here. The Soviet
Union enforced something called collectivization. The goal was to consolidate individual
landholdings into collective farms. The leadership, namely, Stalin believed that this would
increase food for all. Hence, this form of...
A cautionary
tale is a story that is told to warn against a specific action or practice. To state that more
positively, it is told to instill certain desired behaviors in the listeners/readers, or to
guide them away from socially...
Gladwell
states his thesis in the first chapter of Outliers . He says that so-called
"outliers" are "the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary
opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the
world in ways others cannot." This runs counter to an assumption we make as a societythat
highly successful people got that way through hard work or genius alone. In reality, hard work
and genius are simply not enough. Gladwell does not dismiss either of these factors. In fact, he
claims that great musicians, athletes, and so on became that way through 10,000 hours of work.
But they also benefited from other factors beyond their control. Many were born into fortuitous
circumstances. Others lived in societies and communities that were culturally supportive of
their efforts. Still others had families that were able to support their efforts financially.
The point is that they weren't born geniuses, and there are many hurdles that did
not...
Arguably,
religions are cultures because the creeds of religion dictate and direct behaviors. Easily
perceptible are the effects of the Muslim religion upon those who practice it as women wear
hijabs or burgas which cover their heads and faces,
along with abayas, which cover their dress. All Muslims pray five times a
day, facing Mecca; then, in the fall they observe Ramadan and fast. Never do they eat pork as it
is perceived as unclean.
Christians, too, have certain practices which affect
their social lives. They, too, observe holy days and Roman Catholics also have a period of
fasting, although modified, during the Lenten season of six weeks before Easter. With charity as
the greatest virtue, Christians are taught to do good works and to treat others with
consideration.
For Jews, there are many practices and customs especially for
the Orthodox Jews. One branch of the Orthodox, Hasidic Judaism, which promotes mysticism, the
revelation of "the ancient esoteric tradition of the Koran." In Hasidic culture, women
must have their arms covered, their hair covered (a wig can be worn), and the men wear a certain
style of hat and have their hair and whiskers in a certain style. Passover is an important
celebration of freedom and during this time, Jews eat an unleavened bread called
matzah.
Certainly, there is a long, running history of antipathy among
religious groups, and historically more people have been killed in the name of God than for any
other reason. The Crusades in which the Catholic Church first held as its objective to take back
the Holy Lands, later extended to re-claiming Spain from the Moors, parts of eastern Europe, and
the Mediterranean islands. The Crusades lasted over 700 years and virtually destroyed Arabic
culture, which was more advanced than the Christian culture at the time. (e.g. Monks copied the
Bible over Arab writings). After the Crusades, the Catholic Church held great wealth and power
in political, commercial, and social matters. It was strongly involved in the discovery of the
New World as another area for the spread of Christianity.
Nowadays, the
Christian world is often threatened by Sunni and Shi'a extremist terrorism, and Israel is
threatened by Arabic enemies. Indubitably,today's "War on Terrorism" traces its roots
to the Crusades and religious history, differences, and antipathy. In American society,
"political correctness" now directs religious tolerance in the hopes that all faiths
can live harmoniously.
On the day that Mr.
Hooper begins to wear the black veil, he first delivers his sermon, and the topic is
"secret sin, and those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest, and would
fain conceal from our own consciousness, even forgetting that the Omniscient can detect
them." Such a subject allows readers to begin to understand that the veil is a symbol of
this attempt to hide our true sinful natures; Mr. Hooper wears it as if to admit that he has
such a nature, as we all do.
After the sermon, Mr. Hooper presides at a
funeral, where the solemnity and darkness of his veil seems appropriate, but the wedding he
officiates later on is affected in quite a different way. Here, the bride is overcome by a
"deathlike paleness" when she sees her minister, and the groom's hand is
"tremulous" when he holds his beloved's. When Mr. Hooper raises a glass to toast the
new couple, he "catch[es] a glimpse of his figure in the looking-glass, [and] the black
veil involved his own spirit in the horror with which it overwhelmed all others." Just as
Mr. Hooper's "hearers quaked" when he preached upon the subject of secret sin, the
minister himself seems now just as fearful of his own aspect. Seeing his own reflection, he is
reminded of both his own secret sinfulness as well as the secret sinfulness of everyone around
him, and, given that (as the narrator said earlier) we all desire to conceal this sinfulness
from ourselves and everyone else, the visual reminder of his sinfulness -- in the form of the
black veil over his face -- alarms Mr. Hooper enough that he actually drops his wine glass and
rushes from the building.
At the end of
's novel , whenis sitting in the Chestnut Tree Cafe, he recalls meetingby
accident after their release from the Ministry of Love, "in the Park, on a vile, biting day
in March,...." Due to the psychological after-effects of his torture, culminating in his
"betrayal" of her when faced with the cage of rats, Winston Smith almost passes her by
without recognition, but at the last moment he turns to follow her. She is even more
unresponsive than he is, and merely tolerates his presence. She seems to have become physically
coarser as well as less responsive. Finally, they find seats and sit down to talk:
'I betrayed you,' she said baldly.
'I betrayed you,' he
said.
She gave him another quick look of dislike.
'Sometimes,' she said,
'they threaten you with something -- something you can't stand up to, can't even think
about.....'
It is plain that she has been treated the
same way that Winston Smith has been, and has also been sent to Room 101, though what her
ultimate fear was is never made plain. They admit to each other that their feelings are no
longer the same, and even though their last words are a promise to meet again, it is certain
that any future meeting will not be on their initiative. They have entirely lost interest in
each other.
Julia disappears in the crowd after this, and her ultimate fate
is not clear. However, since we know that Winston Smith is marked down for trial and execution
some time in the future (perhaps the very near future, since at the end of the novel he has
finally managed to love Big Brother), we can plausibly speculate that Julia is being preserved
to be a witness or a co-defendant at that future trial, and will be executed after it, just as
Winston Smith will be.
Calvin is
similar to the Murrys in that he looks at life unconventionally. They meet when Meg and Charles
Wallace run into him near the "haunted" house where Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Which and Mrs.
Who live. Calvin explains that he felt a "compulsion" to visit the haunted house and
mentions often having such compulsions. In other words, like Charles Wallace, Calvin listens to
his intuitions. Although he is popular at school, a good student and a basketball player, he
doesn't feel anymore at home in this conventional environment than do Meg or Charles Wallace. He
explains to Meg that while he fits in superficially, the everyday high school world really isn't
for him. Until the Murrays, he hasn't met anyone who truly understands him and who he can talk
to about subjects that matter. As he puts it after meeting the Murrays, "I feel as though I
were just being born! I'm not alone anymore!"
Like Mr. Murry, Calvin is
tall, thin and blue-eyed. Like the Murrys, he's caring, he's open to new ideas and he has had
pain in his domestic life. If the Murry father has disappeared without a trace, Calvin suffers
because his mother, with eleven children, is overwhelmed and unable to adequately care for her
family. Calvin has so much in common with the Murrys in terms of outlook, and they fill such a
gap in his home life, that he clicks almost instantly with his new
"family."
