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The 20th Century witnessed the rise of nationalism. Government started to justify many of its actions, unimaginable before, as for the good of the nation. The government played a deeper role in people's personal life, probing and examining every minute detail in search for any ?unpatriotic? crime. Individuals who met the government's standards were lauded as model and patriotic citizens. Those who did not, such as those in the Red Scare of 1950s, were ostracized. This alarmed a generation of writers who wrote to protest this ?new? society. W. H. Auden was among one of these writers. In his poem ??, through the use of irony, allusion, tone and word choice, the author expressed his concerns for society that sat passively while its government became more powerful and impersonal, restricting personal freedom and happiness.
The speaker of ?? is a faceless government official, who is relating a report of a man's life to someone who asked if the man was happy and free. The poem carries a voice of very ironic tone, sometimes become sarcasm. The speaker describes the man as a ?model citizen? who ?in a modern sense of an old-fashioned word? is ?a saint.? When asked if the man ?was free and happy?, the speaker responds that 'the question is absurd, had anything been wrong? he 'should certainly has heard.? The irony of the situation is that the very action of probing into the man's personal life by the official that is absurd. The confidence of the official that he has known everything about the man's life is a false one. The irony is that the official has no knowledge about the man's life. All he knows are dry facts. He does not know the private feelings of the man. And it is the private feelings of that man that determine whether he was happy or not.
Beneath the use of ironic tone, the author employs word choice to raise certain intended connotation about the government and the citizen. The words such as ?normal?, and ?proper?, are used to describe the citizen's attributes as the investigators have found them to be; he is also said to have had the "right number" of children for his generation. In contrast, those who would be opposite to the citizen are described using 'scab? and ?odd?. These word choices are meant to turn the reader against the government, which so offhandedly dictates what is normal and proper and correct and what is not. Intellectually, the use of normal and proper bring up a mindless society of drones, unable to think for themselves or act in any way other than they have been programmed for. The emotional connotations of scab ...
According to an ancient superstition a werewolf is a man who is transformed, or who transforms himself, into a wolf in nature and appearance. The werewolf, sometimes transformed under the influence of a full moon, roams about at night, devouring infants or corpses. Stories of such transformations are given in the works of several classical writers...
This essay examines death, bereavement, and the disposal of the dead through its social-psychological, historical, cross cultural, medical-ethical, and public policy aspects from the perspective of both the dying person and survivors. In its examination this course divided into the following five concepts and theories: 1) The stages of as outli...
"Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it." This phrase was said many centuries ago and is still worth today. Any time customer, in fact these customers whose costs are driven by what they purchase, increasingly look to purchasing as a way to increase profits and thus pressure suppliers to reduce prices. A good example beside t...
A series of strange symptoms of poisoning appeared on a girl Zhu Lin unexpectedly: hair lost, muscles on the face paralyzed, limbs weakened, and words slurred. No one can tell what is the cause. Life is in danger! One of her classmates emailed for help on Internet. Fortunately, the first reply arrived in less than three hours. Afterwards...
. Determinism I. Determinism Before one can properly evaluate the entire debate that enshrouds the Free Will/Determinism, each term must have a meaning, but before we explore the meaning of each term, we must give a general definition. Determinism is, "Everything that happens is caused to happen. (Clifford Williams. "Free Will and Determi...
The Grey Kangaroo weighs 145 lbs. It also has a length of 10 ft. The tail alone is 4 ft. long. has a small head, and very large ears. They also have large lips and small mouths with a deer like head. is a furry mammal. It also has a pointed snout. has long hind legs and small front legs. Males are larger than females. The smallest Kan...
The Birth of an American Super Hero Heroes have been an important part of American history. They gave adults and especially young children something to strive for and believe in. Some heroes are real and some are imaginary. Real heroes can be presidents, soldiers, or even a parent. The imaginary hero?s can be from books, comic bo...
Pizza is a type of bread and dish that has existed since time immemorial in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine. By 997 the term had appeared in Medieval Latin,[citation needed] and in 16th century Naples a Galette flatbread was referred to as a pizza.[citation needed] A dish of the poor people, it was sold in the street and was not considered...
EVA is a way of measuring a firm's profitability. EVA is NOPAT minus a charge for all capital invested in the business (Byrne 1). A more intuitive way to think of EVA is as the difference between a firms NOPAT and its total cost of capital (Kramer & Pushner 40). Stern Staurt's numerical definition of EVA is calculated for any year by multipl...
- Smolensk Pick up the memo beside the dead body and update your Blue cardkey with the computer there to enable it to open the lock to cart 13. Make your way back down to ground floor, cart 12 and search the rooms for memos and ammo. Now enter the shower room and pick up the memo on the wall. Kill the terrorist who followed you in...
English Essay #3 'We're all going to have to learn how to walk again.' After a nuclear holocaust devastates the country of the United States, the people of the River Road Community have to work through adversity and strive for the survival of every family. Households have to do without the things they would usually have taken for granted....
Friedrich Nietzsche, a unique philosopher had some very interesting ideas about people's human values and personality types. In this essay I will explain what I like and dislike about his 'Master Morality' & his antithesis to this, 'Slave Morality'. According to Nietzche, all morality is a manifestation of the will to power. The other is driven...
This file was just to be a short set of definitions for those of you who don't know all the phreaking terms. This was requested by a few people on a small 312 board called The Magnetic Field Elite (312-966-0708, call, board has potential) like The Don. But I have decided against making this small file that is common in many places but instead...
The Importance of Equal Amounts of Solitude in a Relationship Solitude in a relationship in equal amounts is an important factor in making a good marriage. Any good relationship must have a certain degree of independence on both sides. If one person believes that the other person must be around for a decision to be made or if one p...
