The Caste System in To Kill A Mockingbird Essay Example For Students

The Caste System in To Kill A Mockingbird Essay Imagine a time and place where no one is equal. Colored people have to drink from different water fountains; those who were poorer are not allowed to be involved with those who were wealthier than them. As a matter of fact, if one was different, they are shunned by society. In a perfect world, people would rejoice in each one anothers happiness, but this isnt a perfect world; nor was it in the 1930s. The Southern states were an area of archaic, imported romanticism (Erisman, p.1). People of the south disliked anyone who was different from them. Even people of the same race or caste often disliked one another. There was fighting between races. Some white groups had hatred for other white group that may be mediocre or inferior to them, as did the blacks. Those who fitted the dominant race(Bloom, p.xii) were depicted as the whites.Inconsequently, the whites clearly expect deferential behavior of the blacks (Erisman, p.2). The colored men were also treated much more harshly and cruelly. In prayer and church, the Negroes worshiped in it on Sundays and white men gambled in it on weekdays. (Lee, p.118) The one single document that some believed was the cause of all of these prejudices was known as the Emancipation Proclamation. On January 1, 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued the document referred to as the Emancipation Proclamation, ordering that all slaves be freed. The Proclamation marked a radical departure in policy, but reflected the overwhelming public sentiment in the North.(Emancipation Proclamation, Encarta) About 3 million people were freed by the terms of the document, which is regarded as one of the most important state documents of the United States. Another prejudice of the 1930s in the south was the hate group known as the Ku Klux Klan. The Ku Klux Klan is secret terrorist organization that originated in the southern states during the period of Reconstruction following the American Civil War and was reactivated on a wider geographic basis in t he 20th century. The original Klan was organized in Pulaski, Tennessee, on December 24, 1865, by six former Confederate army officers who gave their society a name adapted from the Greek word kuklos, which means circle. Although the Ku Klux Klan began as a prankish social organization, its activities soon were directed against the Republican. Their main targets were blacks, Jews and other minority groups. While all of this chaos was going on, one woman stood in the middle of it. Her name was Harper Lee. She is best known for her prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird. People come into this world pure, the surrounding environment and society effects who and what they become. The area that Nelle Harper Lee was brought into was an area of mass prejudice. This shaped the way that she lived. Being born to Amasa Coleman and Frances Finch Lee, she was brought up in surroundings that were filled with hatred and dislike. These racial differences would be soon influencing the writing of To Kill a Mockingbird. When Lee was 5, racial incidents were commonplace; an example of this is the Scottsboro Incident. This began in 1931 and lasted for the next 20 years. This incident would eventually manipulate Lees concept of Tom Robinsons trial; where a black man was clearly innocent, but because of the prejudice in the area he was guilty due to his race. During her years of education in Huntingdon College, she edited many different magazines and books. One of which was a comic or a humor magazine (Johnson, p.xi) called Rammer-Jammer. This particular comic was about a southern politician who proclaims that our very lives are being threatened by the hordes of evildoers full of sin SIN, my friends who want to tear down all barriers of an kind between ourselves and our colored friends.(Johnson, p.xii) This comic was one of Harper Lees starts to her honored novel. After attending Huntingdon Collage, she moved on to attend at the University of Alabama for four years. This included a year as an exchange student at Oxford University. After her stay in the University of Alabama, she left and headed to pursue a writing career in New York City. (Altman, p.1) While living in New York, Lee supported herself by working as an airlines reservation clerk. After approaching a literary agent with the manuscripts of two of her essays and three of her short stories, she quit her job and in the late months of 1950 and with a loan from a friend, she was able to write full time for a year. One of her short stories would soon become her one and only novel To Kill a Mockingbird. After numerous edits, the story To Kill a Mockingbird was finally published in July 1960. Harper Lees life may seem extremely different than the story To Kill a Mockingbird, but indeed it is quite the same. We will write a custom essay on The Caste System in To Kill A Mockingbird specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page .uf7c2ef146b3c1e37a7bc6126970315f9 , .uf7c2ef146b3c1e37a7bc6126970315f9 .postImageUrl , .uf7c2ef146b3c1e37a7bc6126970315f9 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uf7c2ef146b3c1e37a7bc6126970315f9 , .uf7c2ef146b3c1e37a7bc6126970315f9:hover , .uf7c2ef146b3c1e37a7bc6126970315f9:visited , .uf7c2ef146b3c1e37a7bc6126970315f9:active { border:0!important; } .uf7c2ef146b3c1e37a7bc6126970315f9 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uf7c2ef146b3c1e37a7bc6126970315f9 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uf7c2ef146b3c1e37a7bc6126970315f9:active , .uf7c2ef146b3c1e37a7bc6126970315f9:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uf7c2ef146b3c1e37a7bc6126970315f9 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uf7c2ef146b3c1e37a7bc6126970315f9 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uf7c2ef146b3c1e37a7bc6126970315f9 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uf7c2ef146b3c1e37a7bc6126970315f9 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uf7c2ef146b3c1e37a7bc6126970315f9:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uf7c2ef146b3c1e37a7bc6126970315f9 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uf7c2ef146b3c1e37a7bc6126970315f9 .uf7c2ef146b3c1e37a7bc6126970315f9-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uf7c2ef146b3c1e37a7bc6126970315f9:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Media Violence1 Essay Order now The story of To Kill a Mockingbird begins during the summer when, the narrator, Scout and his brother Jem meet a new playmate named Dill who has come from Mississippi to spend the summer with his Aunt Rachael. Dill is fascinated by the neighborhood gossip about Boo Radley. Over the next few years their interest keeps on growing about Boo Radley. In the meantime, they learn that their father has become the defense lawyer for Tom Robinson, who is charged with raping a white girl by the name of Mayella Ewell. As the trial of Tom Robinson grows nearer, the children become more aware of the strong feeling it has aroused in everyone in Maycomb. One day their housekeeper, Calpurnia, takes Jem and Scout to visit her church, and the children realize for the first time that the black parishioners are supporting Tom Robinsons wife. At the trial, Atticuss questions make it clear that Mayella and her father are lying about the rape. Nevertheless, the jury convicts him because their prejudices pre vent them from taking a black mans word against two whites. Atticus is now a hero in the black community of Maycomb, but Bob Ewell, vows to get Atticus for showing him up as a liar in front of the whole town. Tom Robinson has given up hope and tries to flee the prison, but while doing it he gets caught and killed. By the time Halloween comes around, the Finch family has begun to put Toms death behind them. There is a pageant planned and after the pageant, Scout decides to walk home still dressed in her bulky ham costume. The cowardly Bob Ewell, seeing an opportunity to get revenge on Atticus through his children, follows the children down a dark street and tries to kill them. It is none other than Boo Radley, who had seen the attack from his window. Boo stabs Bob Ewell to death, and carries the wounded Jem home. The sheriff decides to file a report that Bob fell on his own knife and died, thus sparing Boo the publicity that would be sure to follow. Scout never sees Boo again after t hat night, but she has learned that he was a good man all along. She has learned a lesson about understanding and tolerance. And through the sheriffs action she sees that sometimes there can be justice and compassion in the world. As one may see, there is much happening in this story. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the people of Maycomb were represented in many ways, one if which was the representation of a caste system not only between races, but also within races. In To Kill a Mockingbird, there are many caste systems represented. There are the apparent and standard castes, but when one looks deeper, there is more the meets the eye. The upper class consists of the members of the Missionary Society, Atticus, Dr. Reynolds, Judge Taylor, and so on. (Bloom, p.42) The Middle class consists of nameless individuals who flesh out Miss Lees story- Braxton Underwood, the owner-editor of The Maycomb Tribune, or Mr. Sam Levy. (Bloom, p.42) Others such as The Cunninghams are another group of middle class people. The lower class said by Aunt Alexandra as trash is mainly made up of the Ewells, who, though more slovenly than the supposedly slovenliest of the blacks, still possess the redeeming grace of a white skin. (Bloom, p.42) Other then the main castes, there is also a smaller no so perceptive caste system that is recognized by certain people, not groups of people. The Finches are at the top of the social order. They are treated the best out of all the other castes. The second highest family is the Cunninghams. They arent the richest or the smartest people in Maycomb, but they do repay for anything that they take. In Maycomb the lowest of the white people would be the Ewells. The children run wild, the father is an alcoholic and lives off welfare, and the children do not attend school. The Ewells may be the lowest on the white caste system, but the arent considered to be the lowest in all of Maycomb. The blacks are considered to lower then the Ewells. This idea has no simple explanation except the basic idea that they are black. Finally, at the bottom of the caste system, is the mixed race. These people come from the blacks and whites that are daring enough, in this prejudice community, to marry and have children of a mixed race. At the top of the social standings are the Finches. They are considered the highest because of the way the act toward others. Atticus is persistently treating Jem and Scout like mature adults.This shows their maturity in all of the different situations during the story. When Atticus gave Scout and Jem the guns for Christmas, he says to them, I would rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you will go after birds but remember its a sin to kill a mockingbird. (Lee, p.94) This quote not only shows Atticuss care for the mockingbird, but also his trust and confidence in Scout and Jem. The group that precedes the Finches is the Cunninghams. Walter Cunningham plays a small but important role in To Kill a Mockingbird. A farming family, the Cunninghams caste position is above that of the blacks and the Ewells but below Atticus and the Finch family. Honest and hard working, Walter Cunningham and his son are respectable community members who represent the potential in everyone t o understand right from wrong despite ignorance and prejudice. Aunt Alexandra describes the Ewells as the dregs (Lee) of Maycomb. An evil, ignorant man, Bob Ewell belongs to the lowest substratum of Maycomb society. He lives with his nine motherless children in a shack near the town dump. Bob Ewell is known as A drunken, permanently unemployed member of Maycombs poorest family(sparknotes.com). They receive welfare checks, which Bob uses to support his alcohol problem. .u3210b67a31b4bd217e18b501a4a41d20 , .u3210b67a31b4bd217e18b501a4a41d20 .postImageUrl , .u3210b67a31b4bd217e18b501a4a41d20 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u3210b67a31b4bd217e18b501a4a41d20 , .u3210b67a31b4bd217e18b501a4a41d20:hover , .u3210b67a31b4bd217e18b501a4a41d20:visited , .u3210b67a31b4bd217e18b501a4a41d20:active { border:0!important; } .u3210b67a31b4bd217e18b501a4a41d20 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u3210b67a31b4bd217e18b501a4a41d20 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u3210b67a31b4bd217e18b501a4a41d20:active , .u3210b67a31b4bd217e18b501a4a41d20:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u3210b67a31b4bd217e18b501a4a41d20 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u3210b67a31b4bd217e18b501a4a41d20 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u3210b67a31b4bd217e18b501a4a41d20 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u3210b67a31b4bd217e18b501a4a41d20 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u3210b67a31b4bd217e18b501a4a41d20:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u3210b67a31b4bd217e18b501a4a41d20 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u3210b67a31b4bd217e18b501a4a41d20 .u3210b67a31b4bd217e18b501a4a41d20-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u3210b67a31b4bd217e18b501a4a41d20:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: ANALIZATION OF CHARACTERS-- ALL QUIET ON THE WESTE EssayIn the 1930s, blacks were considered to be the lowest of all the people in the world. They were treated like garbage. The black people were separated from the whites and the rest of the community (Bloom, p.2). Even though the whites were disregarded from the black community, the Finches were allowed in. The Sunday before the trial of Tom Robinson, Atticus, Jem, and Scout went to the Negro church for prayer. Even though several blacks looked at them weird, they were accepted with open arms. In the south, there were the few blacks that did mingle with the whites. This meant that there were some biracial children in the south. These people werent accepted anywhere. The whites wouldnt take them because they are black, and the blacks wont take them because they are white. These people were considered to be the scum of the south. Not a soul accepted them into their community. In To Kill a Mockingbird, there was a very powerful caste system that was developed in Maycomb. All families and people were separated into different groups of importance. Even though prejudice is still happening all over America today, there is a real substratum of class of the people. The only difference between the social orders in To Kill a Mockingbird and real life is that in the book, people were forced into these classes. In the real world, there are mainly 4 classes: the rich, the upper of the middle-class, the lower of the middle-class, and those who cant support themselves. The rich people are people that earn a lot of money and live in luxury. They arent always rich snobs, but their behavior is, in fact, very different then that of anyone else this type of people is best portrayed by Miss Maudie. She had that entire house to herself, and in an obnoxious way she said that the house was too big anyway. The upper of the middle-class is made up of those people who have enough money to live in a good house and support their family well. They act like the average person. Always caring for others, giving to the need, and doing whatever they can do to make people happy. The Finches best portray the middle class group. Atticus gladly supported Tom Robinson when he needed help. The lower part of the middle-class is made up of the people that can barely support themselves. They can make themselves and sometimes others happy, but they are out to keep themselves around. The Cunninghams represent this the best. They always repay with what they take. Even though they arent out to impress anyone, they still have hope for a good future. The lowest of them all are the people that are constantly fighting with one another; namely the Ewells. They dont support themselves or their families. The money that they make is spent inadequately. As with Bob Ewell, they might spend the money on alcohol. Even though To Kill a Mockingbird portrays a very vivid caste system, one migh t need to look harder into the story to realize its true meaning. Bibliography:Altman, Dorothy Jewell. Harper Lee. Dictionary and Literary Biography. Gale Research Company, 1980, 180-83. Bloom, Harold. Modern Critical Interpretations. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1998Dave, R. A. To Kill a Mockingbird: Harper Lees tragic vision. Indian Studies in American Fiction. The Macmillan Company, 1974, 311-23. Erisman, Fred. The Romantic Regionalism of Harper Lee. The Alabama Review. April, 1973, 122-36Going, William T. Store and Mockingbird. Two Pulitzer novels about Alabama. Essays on Alabama Literature. The University of Alabama Press, 1975, 9-31. Johnson, Claudia. To Kill a Mockingbird: threatening boundaries. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1994, xi-xiv. Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Warner Books, 1982Margaritopoulou, Cleopatra. Symbolism and allegory in Harper Lees To Kill a Mockingbird. Chebucto.ns.ca/culture/harperlee/cleo.htmlhttp://www.sparknotes.com/guides/mocking/

Popular music and thinking errors

Popular music and thinking errors The contemporary society is full of things that can, possibly, affect the minds of young people adversely. Whatever these young people listen to, watch on television or in videos or even hear from others has the possibility of influencing their lives for the better or for the worse. One such phenomenon that has greatly polluted the minds of young people is music. Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Popular music and thinking errors specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Young people are fond of listening to controversial music that can adversely affect their minds and even lead to depression in them. Being young, I am no exception. My favourite genre of music is rock which is mostly filled with pessimistic and angry messages in its lyrics. This paper is an exploration of how the lyrics in popular music may cause thinking errors in people and, possibly, lead to depression. Rock is one kind of music in which most songs portray the same message. The message in the lyrics of rock songs is mostly that life is not worth living with the lyrics filled with numerous pessimistic and angry lines. Take for example the rock song I Hate Everything About You that is done by Three Days Grace. The lyrics of this song show a lot of hopelessness. First the singer shows how much he hates his girlfriend and asks why he does love her. This is an indication that relationships are more or less meant for convenience and that a person can hook up with just anybody. The listener may fail to get the reason why love is mixed with hate in this song. The singer claims that he loves his girlfriend and yet he hates everything about her. Life is also portrayed negatively since it does not make sense for the singer to continue seeing his girlfriend if he hates everything about her. As stated above, the lyrics show how hopeless life is to the singer. This is a perfect example of thinking errors caused by depression. Advertising Looking for essay on psychology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It can be assumed that the singer spends a lot of time thinking about how imperfect his girlfriend is and being angry about it. This is the definition of depression. The song can potentially make another person to scrutinize their relationships more leading to a depression like that of the singer. Another similar song is She Hates Me, a rock song done by Puddle Of Mudd. The singer explains how he met a girl and fell in love with her. After knowing each other, he came to realize that she hated him. It is apparent from this explanation that the singer is very negative towards relationships and life. All he can see in the relationship is that the girl hates him and he cannot help to say he is glad that he split up with her. The lyrics are very hopeless and shows a person who lacks self esteem and who is probably in depression due to the same. The negativity in the sing can also be very infectious to a listener who likes the song. It may make the listener to develop the characteristics of the singer portrayed in the lyrics. From the discussion above, it is apparent that the lyrics in popular music can have very disastrous effects on its listeners. People listening to negative, pessimistic and angry lyrics in a genre they like may be influenced to develop these characteristics. Most of these cases may eventually result in the depression of the listener due to the thinking errors in the song.

Identify the various demographic characteristics of today's workforce Essay

Identify the various demographic characteristics of today's workforce - Essay Example Hall and Hall classified different cultures under the categories of ‘high context and low context’ (1990). Chinese people belong to the high context culture in which context and non-verbal cues are important to assign meaning to spoken words. This means that the same words can have different meanings in different contexts. Further, work discipline like obedience to command, commitment to a word given and personal relationships are important to the Chinese. This is in contrast to the low context culture, typically as in the US, where the spoken words are precise and unambiguous irrespective of the context, individualism and frankness is more pronounced, and personal relations are subordinate to task completion on time. While on the subject of time, a high context workforce handles multiple tasks simultaneously unlike its counterpart in low context cultures, which concentrates one task at a time (Hall and Hall, 1990). These ideas are reinforced by the five dimension classification of Hofstede and Bond and the seven dimension classification of Trompenars (as quoted by Amant, K.S., 2007). An organization benefits from the services of a Chinese migrant worker due to his/her ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, respect for authority, collectivism and long-term commitment. Respect for authority implies disciplined approach to complete assigned tasks; collectivism implies the ability to be a good team-member and working to achieve team goals rather than individual goals. Organizations benefit by such workers and teams for whose career development and welfare, long-term planning can be initiated. In order to maximize the benefits of demographic diversity in an organization, the manager should foremost recognize and develop a positive attitude for the culture-specifics for each variety and understand the beneficial aspects. Since Chinese workers in a US plant may be new to the local

Library Research Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Library Research - Assignment Example For our company performance play a vital role in determining pay, promotions, transfers, terminations and other such decisions that impact well-being as well as the overall company performance. Thus access to objective performance evaluation systems is key to the overall benefit of the company, employees and the society. An objective performance management system will help improve the relationship between the managers and their subordinates as well as boost motivation (Jackson et al.2011). As a newly designated manager for the HR department, we would ensure that performance management is properly designed, documented and implemented (Pope, ). It should be clearly understood that proper execution of the program cannot be done without cooperation of line managers and unless the top management shows commitment to it. Activities such as ensuring performance management is embraced on a daily-basis, timely completion of performance reviews, providing valuable feedback throughout the process and making developmental opportunities available to high performers are all responsibilities of line managers. Thus it is the proper execution of the performance management program by management and line-managers that can make or break it. The role of HR for this proper execution would be to: According to the evaluation of past organizational practices, some departments have informally attempted to introduce performance-based pay systems in the form of appraisals. This process needs to be properly documented and managed by the HR department in coordination with other department managers. It has been proven in a study conducted by Subramanov, Krause, Nortom and Burns in 2008 that creating a model for competitive pay can be used as incentive to enhance a company’s performance via enhanced employee performance (Chow et. Al, 2012). Some aspects that the new appraisal system should incorporate are: The role of performance of company executive and their management teams

In What Ways Have Large Business Organizations Changed Essay Example for Free

In What Ways Have Large Business Organizations Changed Essay In what ways have large business organizations changed in recent decades? Large business organizations have changed in recent decades in a few ways. Some of this ways are that are not always a conventional bureaucracy, they are more open and flexible, the technology used, and the political and economic trends are always changing. Plus there are others, but I’m going to elaborate on the one I had mentioned. In the past organizations had use a conventional bureaucracy approach (the pyramid), where it is a top-down flow. The upper level manager would give instructions to be carried out, and the lower level workers would carry out the instructions. But now days it is a more open and flexible place to work; where instructions are carried out by all members of the organization. And unlike the bureaucracy approach, the open and flexible approach gives the decision making to most or all members of the organization. There has defiantly been a significantly change in the department of technology over the decades. The technology used in the past was files, records, telephones, and fax machines. Now we use computers, the Internet and Web, e-mails, and mobile devices. The connection to the Internet and the Web has even changed over the years since we started to use them. Instead of being a steady passed organization and society that we once was we have quickened are pass to our now fast past world on the go at ever moment. The trends of economy and politics play a role in the organization’s environment, such as the outside factors of an organization that can affect the operation of business. This would include the current events, available workforce, technology, and other organizations. And as the times change, the resources changes with it. Couple decades ago the times where good for what it was, but now days, with the recession times are good for some and not good for others. The recent layoffs, foreclosures, and natural disastrous, in the past few years has not helped a lot, but we are coming back together.

William Faulkners A Rose for Emily Essay -- William Faulkner Rose E

William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" â€Å"A Rose for Emily† by William Faulkner is set in a small Southern town during the post-Civil War era. The story revolves around the strange and tragic events of Miss Emily Grierson’s life. At first glance, Emily seems like a lonely woman with little self-confidence and low self-esteem that seems to stem from her upbringing by her father. There seemed to be some kind of abuse by her father and the fact that she had seemed to have lived such a sheltered life. She was brought up thinking that nobody was good enough for her. Her father had even shunned away his own family. Emily was turned into quite an odd character due to this type of upbringing. Emily’s love was controlled by her father, a man that was respected and of high class in the community. After her father passed away, Emily tried to act as if it never happened, and she was actually going to keep her father in the house. It was though she did not want to be alone and she was willing to live with her father’s corpse for company. The town’s people almost had to resort to law and force the issue when Emily finally broke down and came to the reality that her father had to be buried. Emily was a reclusive woman hopelessly clinging onto the ways of the Old South but the town around her was growing with the times. One day when Emily meets a Yankee, Homer Barron, and falls in love with him. Homer was part of the construction company that was responsible for the new building a... William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" Essay -- William Faulkner Rose E William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" â€Å"A Rose for Emily† by William Faulkner is set in a small Southern town during the post-Civil War era. The story revolves around the strange and tragic events of Miss Emily Grierson’s life. At first glance, Emily seems like a lonely woman with little self-confidence and low self-esteem that seems to stem from her upbringing by her father. There seemed to be some kind of abuse by her father and the fact that she had seemed to have lived such a sheltered life. She was brought up thinking that nobody was good enough for her. Her father had even shunned away his own family. Emily was turned into quite an odd character due to this type of upbringing. Emily’s love was controlled by her father, a man that was respected and of high class in the community. After her father passed away, Emily tried to act as if it never happened, and she was actually going to keep her father in the house. It was though she did not want to be alone and she was willing to live with her father’s corpse for company. The town’s people almost had to resort to law and force the issue when Emily finally broke down and came to the reality that her father had to be buried. Emily was a reclusive woman hopelessly clinging onto the ways of the Old South but the town around her was growing with the times. One day when Emily meets a Yankee, Homer Barron, and falls in love with him. Homer was part of the construction company that was responsible for the new building a...

Gone with the Wind and Feminism

Gone with the Wind and Feminism Posted by Miriam Bale on Sat, Mar 13, 2010 at 1:38 PM [pic] Molly Haskell, author ofFrankly, My Dear, will introduceGone with the Wind at Film Forum on Sunday afternoon. Gone with the Wind plays this weekend in Film Forum’s Victor Fleming festival, but is it really a Fleming film?Uber-producer David Selznick is the most consistent author, and Selznick doppelganger George Cukor directed a significant amount of scenes, giving this domestic war film some moments more delicate and subtle than anything else in Fleming’s oeuvre (and after macho Fleming was brought on replace the openly gay Cukor at Clark Gable’s urging, the â€Å"women’s director† went on to coach Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland on weekends, at their insistence, throughout the shoot); and Vivien Leigh gives a scarily mercurial performance in almost every scene, owning the film entirely.At the time of the film’s release, Frank Nugent in the New Y ork Times wrote, â€Å"Is it the greatest motion picture ever made? Probably not, although it is the greatest motion mural we have ever seen. † It’s a mural made by many hands, and the esteemed critic Molly Haskell’s latest book, Frankly My Dear: Gone with the Wind Revisited does a fabulous job of parsing out the contributions.She reveals nuggets like Howard Hawks’ supposed uncredited contribution in rewriting some of the dialogue in the last section, the battle of the sexes showdown between Rhett and Scarlett, which helps make sense why this particular section feels like an entirely different film from the historical romance of Part 1. Another uncredited writer was F. Scott Fitzgerald; Haskell's digging suggests that what he eliminated from the film may be as important as what anyone else contributed.She also describes writer Ben Hecht maintaining as a point-of-pride that he had never nor never would read the mass-market epic romance on which the film wa s based—so Selznick and Fleming stayed up all night on a diet of speed and peanuts acting out the story for him (with Selznick as Scarlett and Fleming playing Melanie). Haskell’s book also focuses on the one-hit-wonder novelist Margaret Mitchell, telling the ascinating history of this flapper-turned-frumpy matron who rebelled against her serious, feminist southern belle of a mother by becoming a connoisseur and practitioner of frivolity as an art. As Mitchell’s background might suggest, Gone with the Wind is a complicated universe for a feminist to tackle. And yet this is exactly the sort of conflicted, non-PC and pre-Second Wave world of women that Haskell has consistently celebrated and examined through films, serving a unique and crucial role in American feminism.As Haskell describes this position in connection to a 1972 panel she took part in on women in film, in which Gloria Steinem deplored the scenes in Gone with the Wind of Scarlett O’Hara squeeze d into a corset and Haskell then rose to defend that character as a courageous survivor: â€Å"Both of our reactions were in their own way, right.But this difference of perspective was also an early augur of the fault lines in feminism or perhaps a necessary split focus: between those predisposed to see and proclaim signs of the victimization of women in a benighted world now progressing toward enlightenment and equality and those inclined to be heartened by the contradictions—the women in the past (both real and fictional) who’d held their own in a chauvinist culture, who’d subverted the norms and gained victories not always apparent through a literal reading of the plot. Of course, just as Gone with the Wind is both tricky and rich personal territory for a southern-raised feminist like Haskell to examine, it is also difficult—even in coverage this brief—for a black feminist like myself to look at honestly. Gone with the Wind is unarguably, painf ully racist, yet extraordinarily valuable for examining just how and why.The film displays insipid white stereotypes in some of the minor characters as much as it does obscenely destructive black ones, and yet the main characters Rhett and Scarlett seem to exist outside of this orbit, beyond expectations of both gender or race; identification with these two characters is widespread and complex, by all races. Just as Selznick’s Duel in the Sun inspired Laura Mulvey to overhaul her views on female identification, GWTW is ripe for looking at where racial identification splits and falls in this film, even after Haskell’s sharp, thorough and artfully written book has covered so uch intellectual and historic territory. Haskell will be on hand at 3pm screening at Film Forum on Sunday to introduce this problematic and fascinating piece of film history. She’ll also be signing copies of her book, a coup of single-work film criticism that is highly intelligent, personal an d never relies on jargon or cliches. Besides her unique and crucial role in American feminism, Haskell is also one of the best writers on film in America, and both as a critic and stylist she’s only getting better. Molly Haskell’s Feminist Take on Gone with the Wind y Melissa Silverstein on March 2, 2009 in Books Molly Haskell is the shit when it comes to writing about women’s films with a feminist perspective. There is no one better. Her book From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies is one of the best books about women in film and it was written in the 70s. (There is an a[pic]dditional chapter that covers the 70s and 80s in the paperback. ) That just goes to show you how few books have critically looked at this issue (from a non-academic perspective. Haskell has taken on one of the most beloved films Gone with the Wind in her new book Frankly My Dear which is out now. The book has gotten stellar reviews and including in the NY Times this wee kend. Haskell’s argument is mounted on feminist principles that at first glance seem antithetical to a film widely regarded as prefeminist fluff. She contends that â€Å"themes centering on women† are â€Å"always an inferior subject matter to socially conscious critics of literature and film. † After 70 years of â€Å"GWTW† bashing, a creditable critic finally says, â€Å"Not so fast! Haskell gave up regular reviewing in the early ’90s, leaving criticism that seriously examined the big-screen image of women and the popular representation of female social roles to go underground — into academic studies where abstruse, tenure-seeking jargon is used to rebuff popular taste. That makes â€Å"Frankly, My Dear† all the more remarkable. It’s Haskell’s feminist perspective that provides insight into a movie most academics won’t touch and current critics dismiss. She disentangles the film’s qualities from the conf ounding issues of misogy ­ny, racism and intellectual snobbery.