The Good Life
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Identity: The Individual and Imitation
Social Climbing and Social Class
Nature like Trees, Plants, and Flowers as Symbols of Resources and the Good Life
In A Raisin in the Sun, Mama works hard to care for her plant, despite the fact that it, "ain't had enough sunshine" (Act 1). At the end of the play, Mama brings her plant to their new house, where it has the sun and resources it needs to survive. Thus, the planet is a symbol of the good life because, due to systematic racism in the housing sector, the family was forced to live without enough of any resources that they needed--like the planet not getting light. And at the end, they were able to move to an area that, assumingely, has better opportunities for them like cleaner air, better schools, etc. So the plant symbolizes the achievement of the good life.
Summary
Nick, the protagonist, goes on a journey East out of restlessness and seeking capital gain. Upon arriving, Nick is thrown into the life of the rich, yet he keeps himself as a distant observer. When he meets Gatsby, Nick observes the how one cannot imitate the wealthy class, even if they are finically wealthy, one is born into the class.
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Extreme Politics and Poverty
The desire for the American Dream and the implied need to be extremely wealthy to be successful are major themes in The Great Gatsby. Tom Buchanan is a critique on the upper class mentality of the poor and people of color. The elite class is almost bored with their comforts.
Le Guin demonstrates at end of the novel that both Urras and Anarres are failed societies. Shevek realizes that Anarres had the ideas and passion to become a great society that would work for everybody, but because of the collective lack of growth or change, the society was becoming the system they were rebelling against in the beginning. Both societies has elements that are appealing to Shevek, the freedom to have privacy and develop new thoughts and ideas and a society that works for all of its people creating an intimacy and collective bond. The problem is that both societies are too extreme in their thinking and ways to allow for progression.
In Madame Bovary, the trees, plants, and flowers are used as a symbol of desire. When Charles begins his relationship with Emma, Flaubert shows the reader his love and desire for her through the tree. Similarly, every hope of intimacy that Emma has, flowers and trees are described in great detail. This steady theme of trees and flowers as growth towards accessing ones desire--which is similar to their good life--gives the book movement.
Emma lives in a society and time that does not allow women any autonomy, which takes away any personal identity that she could dream of. When she was younger, she dreamed of a glamorous life in the city, but because of society does forces her to live through her husband, she cannot achieve her dreams. This forces Emma to have to imitate the life of a house wife.
In comparison to A Raisin in the Sun, The Dispossessed's two worlds, Anarres and Urras, can be viewed the same as one end doing better because of the ability to grow and nurture plants. Yet, Dr. Shevek, though initially impressed by the ascetics of a world lush in trees, realizes quickly that the show of wealth and nature is a mere illusion to actually happiness. Urras has plenty of resources, yet since it is a capitalistic world, the resources aren't shared between its people collectively. This makes Shevek realize that even though Anarres is a dead dusty wasteland, it is better to have a collective working together: the idea of anarchism is better than the desire of the greener side of the universe.
Parasite visually shows the social class difference through stairs and the families residences. The Kim family live in a basement that barely gets light compared to the Park family's house above ground with walls of glass letting in the light. The movie then shows that the Kim family is not the lowest in the class system when we find out that Moon-gwang's husband Geun-sae is living in the Park's basement without and light from the outside world. The audience is shown the class differences through not only their physical levels on the earth but also the sunlight that they are able to receive, like in A Raisin in the Sun
This film plays with the class divided that creates extreme poverty with both the Kim family and Moon-gwang and her husban: the parasites.
Life and Debt visually shows the countries lush farmland, yet instead of the green plants being a symbol of hopeful resources for the native people that the documentary follows, the nature is a symbol of the untouchable good life. The rich land for farming then becomes a constant desire to break free from the control of the IMF debts and western dictation, which will allow the people to harvest their resources to become financially comfort and live the good life.
Using the imagery of the stairs from Parasite, The Dispossessed also emphasis on a social class by using physical distance between the planets. Urras has all of the resources and Annares has to struggle to eat and survive. Both Parasite and The Dispossessed show the importance of family connection compared to the loneliness of the individuals financial wealth.
The aesthetic's Shevek sees as a tourist in the world of Urras is similar to what Kincaid tries to get the reader to look past in A Small Place. Kincaid shows that when a person comes to visit the first thing that they notice is the beautiful beaches, water, and the beauty of the nature. But, similar to Urras, the natives who live there don't have access--or equal access--to the beauty: it is in illusion for the visitors to assume that the natives life is good. Both are affected by capitalistic greed, which is built off forcing people a group of people to suffer and work out of sight, so the rich can go live a guilt free good life.
The first person narration of Nick focuses on Gatsby's imitation of the rich upper class of the East coast. Gatsby worked to build his wealth and flaunt it so that he could get the attention and love of Daisy. Though Gatsby is trying to imitate the elite rich of New York, Nick too is placed in a role of imitation to fit in. Nick has been raised to lie about his family history so that his family name fits with the elite narration. Throughout the novel, Nick reassures the audience that he isn't lying, to the point where it seems that he is. Nick doesn't actually belong in either group, so like Dr. Shevek, he is an observer of Daisy's elite class and Gatsby's struggles to fit in.
Ursula K. Le Guin experiments with the how the two political systems, Capitalism and Anarchism, plays with identity. Her protagonist Shevek, is an interesting character because he has been raise in a anarchistic society that functions as a collective: everything including thoughts and intimacy is shared with the society. Shevek, though, is detached from this.
After 9/11, Changez sees the power of extreme politics in the rhetoric against Middle-Easterns. He had originally fell in love with the New York scene and the lifestyle of an elite banker, so he was shocked when he became the target of hatred from America. He didn't realize that a country that once had allies with his own, could turn on him from where he was from. This lead to Changez going back to Pakistan and become a professor that inspired students to speak up against the extreme influence of America.
Changez struggles with his identity, especially after 9/ll, which is similar to the immigrants struggle: am I American or am I Pakistani? While in America, he tries to imitate American life: to a point where he imitations his girlfriends dead boyfriend during sex. This intimate imitation symbolizes the fact that no matter how hard he tried, he will never be fully an American; similarly to Gatsby trying to be apart of the elite upper class.
Changez grew up in a middle class comfortable home in Pakistan, but to be able to move up in class in the world and to achieve the American Dream, he works hard to go to Princeton, which he states only the top few student in his country are chosen.
Identity is a big theme in Antigone that aligns with The Dispossessed. Antigone is placed in a position of choosing between state law and the laws of the gods and family.
Emma Bovary's desire to appear and imitate the bourgeoisie class in France, leads her to act irrationally and consumes her thoughts and passions. Though she has a seemingly nice life with Charles and her daughter and a nice place to live, it is never satisfying to her. She is stuck in a capitalistic system that demands the people in the machine to continuously want more and borrow more money to be happy. This puts her into a deep hole that seems impossible to climb out of, leading her her sucice.
Madame Bovary's hopeless debt due to a society built on a social class holding too much power is similar to the documentary Life and Debt. Emma's need to move up in class may seem irrational and greedy, yet in a society that only truly benefits the most elite, her desire seems necessary. In Life and Debt the documentary not only shows the people of Jamaica who are suffering, but it also gives the government officials like the prime minister a voice to show the global scale of their debt and helplessness. Like Emma, Jamaica needed resources but fell quickly in the hands of the bankers, IMF. As the country borrowed more to try and get what they needed and to get out of debt, the interests and controls became greater. The debt that they owe stunts the people and the country from moving up in the world but desiring more funds to keep trying.
The struggles of needing to go to America for school and resources that Hamid writes about are similar to Kincaid's. Like in other works of trying to move up in a social class, A Small Place shows that the native people who live in Antigua have little to no hope on getting out of their class position. To move up in class they need to win the lottery to get into a university.
Like Parasite, the 2008 film of A Raisin in the Sun visually shows the class divide, except instead of showing lower class by having people literally living underground in basements, this film shows the class difference in a metropolitan city. The poorer families are forced to live up dreadful stairs in tiny apartments, where the upper class white families have the nice houses on the ground level, giving the families opportunities for yards and space.
The illusion of the good life represented through greenery is also present in the film Parasite. The Park's backyard with its manicured yard is a visual sign of their life filled with the comforts of resources: at points showing that the son can go camp in the yard and that they can entertain many for the son's party. The climax of the film happens in the yard, where the "parasites" the two poor families have to violently fight for the resources of the Parks, cover the green grass with red blood.
Though this 2008 film follows the play pretty well for an adaptation, there are a few slight differences. The film expands the scenery and setting in Chicago. This extra visual illuminates the necessary of the light for Mama's plant. The Young's apartment is dim with little access to the sun, except for a window that leads to a fire escape. The film beautifully contrasts this by showing the green big backyard of their new house that is brightly lit.
Summary In Ursula K. Le Guin's Novel The Dispossessed she writes a third person narrative that shows and anthropologic examination of two political societies: Annares an Anarchistic world and Urraes a capitalistic world. By having the protagonist, Dr. Shevek, be detached from both worlds, the reader is able to also be detached from both political societies to see the flaws and the functioning parts of both socities.
Like Dr Shevek feeling unsure of his position on either planet, Beneatha is faced with a similar identity problem. After meeting a Nigerian friend at college, Asagai, Beneath struggles with her place in America as a black women. America's idea of assimilation is forced upon black people and immigrants, but for black people like Beneatha, they never had the chance to know their heritage and past culture. The play interestingly place Beneatha against her family, who think that her interest in finding their African roots as a privilege of a college student. But this is a very serious issue of loneliness follows with not feeling a sense of connection with your heritage or a sense of belonging in your own country.
The 2008 film has a lot more space to show the affects of class in the whole city compared to the play, but the play's theme of class divide is a pushing force. In Act III Scene 1, Beneatha and Asagai are talking right after the Young family finds out they've lost the insurance money. Beneatha talks about life as "one large circle that we march in" which Asagai combats by saying that, "it is simply a long line". This idea of the line versus the circle represents the feeling of living in a world with extreme class divide; there is a helplessness of that wears people down if they have no hope of getting out of the poverty of being in the lower class. Asagai has a sense of optimism when he refers to suffering and hardship as a line, this setback just being a point that one needs to move past.
Summary In the french novel Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, the themes of desire, love, and the need to present as the bourgeoisie class are explored. The book focuses on ordinary people, which was ground breaking at the time. The narration free indirect discourse that allows the readers to not just be dictated to but to get a sense and connection with the characters. Flaubert's narration style is complimented by his rich description. His beautiful colorful description is juxtaposed with the unattractive emotional description of the characters greeds and desires; thus, this gives a sense that the physical landscape is reality and the characters live don't live in reality.
Summary Both the Play and the 2008 film of A Raisin in the Sun highlight the themes of racism and class divide issues in America. The American Dream of owning a house, working hard, and getting a great education is examined in this story following a poor black family in Chicago. Ideas of assimilation to America and what it means to be black are explored through the families dynamic.
The idea of identity is implicitly explore by Kincaid, and the affects of globalization on identity. Kincaid is looking at Antigua with the eyes of a native growing up in a place ravished by western capitalism: the falling apart library, the school for hotel service, and the native people who know they'll never be able to leave. But Kincaid herself is a tourist looking into her native land because she was able to leave and get access to some of the privileges of capitalism that work because they keep countries in poverty. This creates and split identity for Kincaid; similarly to Beneatha and Dr. Shevek.
Summary Jamaica Kincaid creative nonfiction brings the reader into the work through the use of second person narration. The "you" in the story is a tourist being shown Kincaid's home country of Antigua. The reader gets to see past the illusion of a beautiful place, to see the harm of globalization on the native people.
Summary The documentary Life and Debt uses Jamaica Kincaid's themes and narration to show the affects of the IMF banking system on countries like Jamaica. After WWII, the top powers like America, started a banking system to help rebuild Europe. By doing this, the banking system took advantage of smaller countries, forcing them into debt and controlling their import/export: this basically turns them into slaves to the world's powerhouses.
The play Antigone displays the tragedy and pain of having an extreme mindset, especially in politics, that doesn't allow room for progression. Antigone's uncle Creon has forbidden the burial of Antigone's brother because he is deemed a traitor, yet this is actually against the will of the people As the chorus, also the voice of the people, try to convince him to honor the body the way the gods would want, Creon becomes more extreme, leading him to act like a tyrant. Juxtaposed to Creon is Antigone, who is also stubbornly holding what she thinks is right, which is to honor her brother and the gods by giving him a burial. Their inability to listen or compromise with the people around them, like Haemon and Ismene, leads to a tragic ending for both of them.
Extreme politics and tyranny both play into globalization. The western capitalistic views that their way of ruling is the best way, creates a mentality that places other cultures down. This leads to imperialism of other countries like Antigua and Jamaica.
Summary Mohsin Hamid's novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist follows a Pakistani, Changez, who comes to America for the American Dream just to find out the struggles of an immigrant in an unfriendly land. Hamid uses an interesting narration by having a frame story of the main character chatting with an American in his home town of Lahore, which Hamid uses the second person narration of you. This affect creates a connection with the reader and the narrator that forces the reader to see what it is like to be an immigrant in America.
Summary Written in 441 BCE, Sophocles' play Antigone explores themes that are still relatable today in our currently politic climate. The play takes place as Creon become the king and declaring that Antigone's brother shall not be buried because he's a traitor. The play highlights democracy, the voices of the people, against a tyrannic king who is too prideful to listen. It also implicitly shows the roles of women.
The importance of nature is seen in Antigone through the importance of burial. It is a way to the gods, so when Haemon doesn't allow the burial of Polyneices, Antigone takes it upon herself to put dust on his body.
Gatsby's yard, like the Park's in Parasite, shows the his wealth and comfort of the good life. Before Gatsby has Daisy come to Nick's house, he has his lawn fixed up.