Dystopia Essays (Examples)

The actions of these collective groups lead only to frustration, a lack of responsibility, ineptitude, and inefficiency.

hat sort of world does this lead to? The people who are most capable seem to be disappearing, while the least capable are left in charge. Dagny wants to know why the capable people are disappearing, and she has to find the answer to this question in order to understand what is happening throughout society. The old virtues, virtues that sustained the business community and that made America great in the past, are no longer in force. People once took pride in their work and in the act of earning their own way. These things seem to have disappeared just as have the capable workers. The consequences are all around as things keep breaking down -- systems, machinery, people.

The villains in this story are socialists, or more descriptively those who oppose individualism…

Movie Dystopia

In Time (2011) is a dystopian satire set in the year 2161 in which the ability to increase the human lifespan by purchasing time has become the new currency and the entire basis of the capitalist economy. These life-years (living years) can be bought, sold or traded, although they are mostly available to the wealthy elites while the poor and the working class literally survive from one day to the next. New Greenwich is a wealthy gated community and an enclave for the old and rich, who live in a bubble completely segregated from the larger society in the ghettos. On the other hand, the poor also engage in time theft against the rich, and the film's hero Will Salas meets the elderly Henry Hamilton by saving him from a gang of robbers -- the Minutemen. Hamilton wants to die in any case because he is tired of…

The degree to which they are shown as incapable of doing so -- and to which French society is shown as being equally incapable of interacting with them -- illustrate the degree to which a certain cinematic panopticon has been placed around the subjects. From the omniscient perspective of the viewer, there is no apparent escape provided from this disposition.

And in this immobility and the resultant anger that drives the idle lives of the young men in the film, the Kassovitz film emerges as part of an increasingly saturated body of modern cinematic work dedicated to exploring the dystopian realities of modern urban life. hile so many depictions of this experience center on the privileged experience of industrialists in generations past, post-industrial life has given way to the cinematic obsession with such experiences as those faced by Vince, Hubert and Said. According to Shannon-Jones (2011), we can define the…

Envy

In a somewhat more imaginative work, Yury Olesha explores more extreme actions and motives for rebellion against the new regime. His 1927 novel Envy is at once a critique of the lack of individuality and emotion in Soviet Russia and a lamentation for the failures of the human spirit in the face of the large Communist machine. Again, it is expressly and simply difference that leads to the primary conflict in this novel and the ultimate failure of the hoped-for-utopia, at least in the minds and lives of some. Kavalerov, the hero of the novel, at one point muses, "If I were a child…how many poetical, magical fabrications would flow out of my childish imagination…I'm a grown up now, and now I grasp only the general outline" (Olesha 1927, pp. 341). This can be seen as a comment on the Soviet way of making all minds the same, where…

Like the Pope, he is cast off in isolation, but willingly so. Like the Pope he has lost his occupation -- but again, willingly so as he has been able to retire from his former civil service job. He has chosen to live underground, that is, away from other people. Over the course of the novel, he self-fashions himself as a superior person. He sees himself as well-read, cultivated, and above the minutia of everyday existence.

However, the reader likely sees him differently. Left with nothing to believe in, the Underground Man simply inflicts his purposelessness, bottled sense of rage against himself, forcing himself to suffer needless physical and psychological pain. He is physically constrained, like the Pope, but by his own will, and his decision to deny God has made him less mobile, less free, in contrast to what advocates of religious denial might suggest. The modern project of…

Obviously, as a way of retaliating against urgess' alleged Socialist state, Alex and his

"droogs" have adopted a very old method which has been proven highly effective in relation to obtaining and dispensing power and influence, namely, a social phalanx known as a gang, a somewhat "loosely organized group of individuals who collaborate together for anti-social reasons" (Nawojczyk, 1997, Internet). In this context, Alex occupies the position of gang leader while Georgie, Dim and Pete serve as his underlings and as a sign of their collaborative relationship, Alex and his "droogs" wear distinctive clothing-white, pseudo-combat style shirts and pants, black combat boots and black bowler hats or billycocks, almost as if "aping" a typical English businessman or stuffy accountant. They also utilize a very distinctive form of communication which urgess calls a Nadsat dialect, a private language composed of a "stream of gibberish, pop slang, onomatopoeic expressions" (Coyle, 66) which…

Dystopia

Discussion on Perspectives of Violence Based on Three Readings

Violence and tragedy are a fact of life that the human condition has yet to rid itself off. Misfortune can come from many sources. It can come from within a person, from within a family, or from within a community. It is the way people explain and come to terms with such events that define the life that persists afterwards. In the three stories selected, violence is portrayed in each. However, the source of the violence is attributed to different causes. It is a natural human response to try to make sense of tragic events and people do this in different ways. In this analysis, three stories will be used to compare and contrast how some individuals cope, or fail to cope, with violence or misfortune. Each story provides a different perspective on this issue.

Flannery O'Conner

Flannery O'Conner was…

Science Fiction Stories -- Comparisons / Contrasts

all-E & Blade Runner -- Utopia vs. Dystopia

The two well-known science fiction films that are critiqued in this paper -- all-E and Blade Runner -- will be critiqued and contrasted as to the following dichotomies: utopia and dystopia; technophobia and technophilia; and futurity and nostalgia. Thesis: these films both delve into the potentially disastrous environmental future for the planet, and each in its own way provides an alternative future.

all-E and Utopia: This ravaged planet is no utopia in the traditional sense, for sure, but all-E has evolved over the past 700 years; some kind of mutation perhaps is what has allowed him to survive in a highly radioactive environment. To survive alone with the exception of a cockroach (which is one of the few species that can survive horrendous polluting events like radiation) is proof of his survivability. After all, utopia…

Vogt, Ellison and Arendt

The idea of a utopian society, a perfect Eden, has been a recurring theme in human literature, philosophy, religion, and commentary almost from the beginning of civilization. This recurrent theme is no accident: most cultures have, as a basis for their creation mythos, a utopian view of either the pre-human world or the post-human world. Sociological, this is a functionalist approach that serves to "validate, support, and imprint the norms of a give, specific moral order" and to authorize its moral code "as a construct beyond criticism and human emendation" (Campbell and Fairchild 221).

In opposition, a dystopia, becomes part of the anti-heroic paradigm in that all the benefits of an overall utopian society are almost backwards. hat was good, now seems evil, what was light, dark. Political philosopher Hannah Arendt, in Ideology and Terror: A New Form of Government, sees one of the maxims of…

extend the lines, if necessary, without being wordy.

Three specific instances of irony in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" are:

a) ____The title: no one ever asks Connie these questions.

b) ____Connie is the one preyed upon in this tale, but she invites in this demonic provocation.

c) Arnold Friend's remark about holding her so tight she won't try to get away because it will be impossible, is an ironic remark as it represents much of the symbolism at work throughout the story.

In "Young Goodman Brown," a) Brown represents ____The easily corruptible human.

b) the forest represents ____The practice of evil.

c) the peeling, cacophonous sounds represent ____Temptation

3. Explain the mother's attitude towards Emily in "I Stand Here Ironing"; what specific EVIDENCE supports your position? ____The mother's attitude towards Emily in the story is one of distance, rather than motherly attention. She regards Emily as…

Weapon Shop

What is the difference between a modern utopia and dystopia in fictional writing? Perhaps that is the very theme of A.E. Vogt's The Weapon Shop. What is ideal to one might be a terrifying and reversal of ideal for another. In The Weapon Shop, originally published during the early years of World War II, focuses on a small businessman (Fara) who faces what is to him, a dystopian reality in that despite his complete devotion to the Empress of the Solar System, he faces a number of personal and professional troubles. In fact, he is livid when a weapon's shop that sells advanced and fantastic technology, but uncontrolled by his "government" materializes. He fails in his efforts to have the shop removed from the town, continues his downward slide, and is even personally humiliated when his son helps the other townspeople scam him.

At his wit's end, with…

Backward and We: A Comparison

When writers think about the future it's often in dichotomous terms. Writers generally see the future in shades of black and white, with very little deviation between the two. This is particularly the case in the novels Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy and We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. The former is an optimistic tale about a socialist utopia which essentially describes a future full of improvements. The latter describes a futuristic dystopia where humans lack autonomy and privacy. In spite of these incredibly different descriptions and notions about the future, there's still a significant amount of overlap between these two novels. Exploring the different shades of each can provide a deeper understanding of each respective author's inner fears and wishes. As different as these two novels appear to be, they are both actually stories about societies which have made the ultimate (and wrong) sacrifice: they've given…

The book even goes beyond this assertion because in Oceania Big Brother even controlled the thoughts of the people. This made it impossible for people to rebel because rebellion cannot be carried out without ideas and the cooperation of many people.

The novel also focuses the reader to consider the power of their thoughts. In the book a government believed that though was so powerful that it created a system in which free though was discourages and even punishable unto death. Big Brother understands that thoughts lead to action and rebellious actions could threaten the authority of the government. In addition, punishing people for thinking the wrong way was designed to deter others from having thoughts that were not sanctioned by the government. This was a fear tactic used to maintain control.

Interestingly enough Orwell had great difficulty publishing many of his novels because of the thoughts that he expresses.…

His most famous work is his Utopia, a book in which he created his version of a perfect society and gave his name to such conceptions ever after as "utopias." The word is of Greek origin, a play on the Greek word eutopos, meaning "good place." In the book, More describes a pagan and communist city-state in which the institutions and policies are governed entirely by reason. The order and dignity of the state in this book contrasted sharply with the reality of statecraft in Christian Europe at the time, a region divided by self-interest and greed for power and riches. The book was also an expression of More's form of Humanism (Maynard 41). The term can also have broader application as a reference to any plans of government or schemes for social improvement which present the possibilities of a good society.

The society depicted in Never Let Me Go…

Octavia Butler's novel Parable of the Sower depicts an America that has crumbled into complete chaos and disarray. ithin the dystopia of 2024, Lauren Olamina reflects on her family background and her past in order to help create a more ideal future for humanity. The key to the future is liberation, both personal and political. Therefore, the message of Parable of the Sower is revolutionary. Lauren does not just need to be a true leader; she needs to change what it means to be human. Butler reportedly said about the potential for female heroines to create a utopian society out of the ashes of the patriarchal dystopia: "I don't believe that imperfect humans can form a perfect society," (Zaki 239). Butler does not expect Lauren and the Earthseed community to become a Utopia because no matter how revolutionary and idealistic she might be, Lauren remains constrained by her past and…

Kubrick himself suggested the baton be passed onto Spielberg due to that director's unique abilities.

The play was originally-based Brian Aldiss's short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long," on which a.I. is based, in 1983 (Corliss 1-3). In the Kubrick formulation, the world is a lot darker and Gigolo Joe is much more aggressive. According to Corliss in the "Joe was much more aggressive, more twisted." Here he is, in Spielberg's word, David's "scoutmaster." Spielberg did this to solve many of the problems Spielberg had with the text, Joe being one of the biggest problems. By softening things and making them more human and less dark, he provided solution to the problem (Ibid 1). The Flesh Fair and Rouge City are vintage Kubric and remained a part of the body of the work. Garish scenery completes this menagerie Spielberg identifies himself with the abandoned child (ibid 2).

It is the…

Earth

A Symbolic Analysis of Another Earth

Movies, for better or for worse, are a reflection of popular culture in one way or another; mainstream films tend to show exactly what a culture likes to consume, while more "independent" or at times "experimental" films reflect culture from other perspectives that are perhaps not the dominant voices in society. Either way, however, films cannot help but provide some insight into who we are, what we desire, and what our world looks like. Examining films in with this understanding and in this context provides some very interesting insights into our culture and ourselves, and how we are likely to respond to changing circumstances and possible realities. The film Another Earth does this quite explicitly, as the following analysis of the film in light of other social commentary shows.

The central conceit of this science fiction film from writer/director Mike Cahill (co-authored by…

This is a fascinating commentary about how modernization and mechanization can impact individuals to taking on the attributes of the technology that they work with. This is definitely thought-provoking in this day and age, making one wonder how one is impacted by the speed and immediacy of the Internet and other forms of technology on this generation.

However, this is one of Vonnegut's more hopeful stories. "Though Vonnegut has a reputation as a black humorist, this is an unusual love story between the most timid of men and a lonely receptionist" (Smith, 274). hile one can interpret this story in a cynical fashion, one can also appreciate it for the positive attributes it has to offer. "Yet, as in other Vonnegut works, art can be redeeming and transformative. Harry, when he is playing a character in a play, becomes larger than life. Helene, speaking with the narrator and Doris Sawyer…

They want to maintain that livelihood. And for 90% of the world, being sustainable is a matter of life and death (Agnew n.d.)." To that end in 2007 they Architecture for Humanity launched the Open Architecture Network "an online, open source community dedicated to improving living conditions through innovative and sustainable design" where designers, engineers, and anyone else, professional or otherwise can share their ideas, designs and plans, collaborate, manage design projects from concept to implementation and build a more sustainable future (Open Architecture Network n.d.)

In addition to Sinclair and McDonough there are a wide range of architects and designers who are beginning to understand that their role is not simply to satisfy their own egos or curiosities but rather to help facilitate the sustainability of communities and human society at large. The New York-ased consulting firm Terrapin right Green, for example, was started by four architects who recognized…

Whereas cognitive dissimilarity may breed conflict. In short, Cools' (2010) collections of research results indicates that cognitive styles influence general aspects of one's life and recognizing one's cognitive style will invariably help the employee and employer.

It seems to me, however, that whilst there may be much truth in the matter, the concept of cognitive styles may also be overrated in (a) that many other elements (such as socio-emotional factors and task-related aspects in terms of social relationships) may intrude, and b. there are diverse theories of cognitive styles with some conflicting with others. esearch is inconsistent and inconclusive in various areas, aside from the fact that there is a lack of qualitative and longitudinal research, and a lack of contextualization.

Furthermore, it seems to me that people are too diverse and too 'plastic' for them to be arbitrarily molded in one specific category. The concept of cognitive styles may…

' Thus the novel is just as unsparing in the way that it shows the limits of a female-dominant perspective that simply reverses the dominant paradigm of male dominance. For example, when Jael suspects a male still believes in the inequality of women, she kills him, and hopes that all of the main characters, whom she sees as 'the same' as herself, all part of the same woman yet existing in different universes will adhere to her own society's goals to create all-female worlds. Jael does only live in a society that is absent of men, like Janet, but she is openly hostile towards males.

One of the most striking aspects of the complexity of the novel is evident at the end, when Jael tries to mobilize the women to do away with all of the males in their respective worlds. Janet refuses. Then Jael reveals that, rather than a…

If it has, how has it? If it hasn't, how much is it left?

Fordism thus remains. It remains in worker surveillance, to guard against morality and time theft. It remains in the increased bureaucratization of the global economy, as multi-million dollar conglomerates dominate the world. It remains in the modern emphasis on productivity, rather than training in franchises. It also remains in the developing world, where the poor with little hope of mobility, labor for the rich. And it remains at companies that invest little in worker training like al-Mart.

If it is a combination of both? (Recommend to choose this)

Fordism has given the world many benefits -- affordable goods, particularly technological goods that would be prohibitively expensive without mass production. However, companies such as Google that strive to maximize efficiency, create a corporate culture and climate that permeates every facet of employee's lives, yet still makes an…

Phoenix is however closer to a saint in her dedication to a cause, while Calixta is a human being who abandons herself at some point to the voice of desire and allows a few moments of surrender to the carnal pleasure that takes hold, regardless of her and her accidental companion's marital status.

elty's story is full of imagery, thorny bushes come to life and grab old Phoenix' dress, she dreams of a little boy bringing her a slice of marble cake, at a moment of rest, a scarecrow, in the "dead cornfield" is believed to be a ghost, cabins are compared with "old women under a spell sitting there," the road going down is described as being "dark as a cave" (elty, a orn Path). In Chopin's story, there are a very few things left to imagination; everything is down to earth, real life is pulsating through every scene.…

"e're leaving,' he hissed. "I'm taking you straight to the hospital." hen Susan rose shakily to her feet, uncontrollable diarrhea had stained her dress and dripped from the chair. hite with fury, Charles Hay took her by the arm and led her slowly from the hall." (Melville 134)

The work again intones an incredible journey through what a women sees a man thinking. The disconnectedness of Susan from her husband is so complete that her voice is only marginal in the work, but the message is clear in the literary expression of her secreted activities. The masculine is represented as the feminist idea of greater association with industry than home, to the peril of loving relationships. The writing demonstrates a character who is wholly disconnected from ethics in love and life, and in s sense is a demonized masculine archetype.

Conclusion:

Among these three works are three completely differing context…

" Instead of establishing a set rhythm as with his rhyme scheme, he punctuates in order to delineate an end of a particular episode within the poem which also helps the audience understand when and where his narration changes. Each period concludes an establish section of the poem, the first period ends on "Over her, thrashing and thrusting until he was spent." (ln 8), which importantly ends his narrative of Victorian sex. The following breaks each connote the ending of one thought tangent and the beginning of another. The implication on narrative voice occurs through the shifting of his speaking tone and message after periods. In his first address the narrator is informative, the second he is reflective and the third he places mockery on contemporary standards. Thus, punctuation in this case is use to delineate what specific theme and audience he is address. The use of commas is also…

Science fiction and horror both offer narrative closure and "the restoration of the social order," as does Repo Men, only in this case the social order being preserved is completely amoral and evil (Grant 21). It does not end with the monster or alien menace defeated, like Independence Day, Star ars, Terminator or The ar of the orlds, but just a literal return to the

6

status quo and business as usual. Repo Men is definitely not an adolescent or 'infantilized' film, with heavy reliance on special effects and light and magic shows, nor do the good guys win in the end -- insofar as there are any good guys at all. It has no real hope or comport to offer, and n this absolutely dehumanized world of the future that lacks redeeming features of any kind, Remy's fantasy existence might actually be preferable to 'reality'. Thus the film is…

Power and the Use of Language, Orwell's 1984 And Beyond

George Orwell's 1949 dystopian novel 1984 has become almost iconoclastic in its meaning for contemporary society. Almost like the term Machiavellianism, 1984 evokes images in popular culture, along with the author's name as an adjective, and phrases that were used in the book. Even the term "Orwellian" denotes a certain type of society; phrases like "Big Brother," "Newspeak," "Thought-Police," etc. are now part of the vocabulary when describing totalitarian regimes. The novel's premise has become part of a modern archetype, imitated on television, popular music, movies, and even one of the most popular advertisements ever made, the 1984 launch of Apple's Macintosh.

Nineteen Eighty-Four focuses on a new type of society -- repressive, totalitarian, staunch, all-powerful, all knowing, oligarchical, and pervasive. The novel's main character, Winston Smith, is a simple civil servant assigned to the daily task of perpetuating the…

Banning Books in High School

Book Banning and Censorship

Social groups, including religious organizations, parents, and school administration among others, make decisions daily about what material will become a part of the regular school curriculum and what material will be excluded. Many decisions are made based on the educational value of text books and other learning material. However, many decisions are unfortunately made without educational potential in mind, but rather on the basis of what is considered to be profane or proper based on the opinions of certain people that feel they have the moral authority to make such decisions. American schools have always been built on the principle that children must be protected from that which is inappropriate for them to see, hear, or experience. "American schools have been pressured to restrict or deny students access to books or periodicals deemed objectionable by some individual or group on moral,…

paradox of the perfect selfless citizen O-90

On one hand, the soft, unified and always feminine presence of O-90 in Yevgeny Zamyatin's novel e stands as an idealized example of unquestioned obedience to the authority of a unified and totalitarian state. The future dystopia of e in the form of One State in e has entirely erased the concept of human individuality and independent thought. It has produced a citizen body that is entirely permeated by its beliefs, of which the spherical O-90 is perhaps the most obvious physical and psychological example. However, O-90's existence in a state of emptiness and her willingness to become a psychic void lacking a sense of self also means she is paradoxically capable of embodying the ideal of unconditional love, more than anyone else in the novel.

Of course, unconditional love is something hardly tolerated as a product of a unified state ideology. Love…

POSITIVE AND NOMATIVE ECONOMICS ELATES TO THE U.S. GOVENMENT

The objective to the success of a specific science is the capability to identify and delineate opinions on 'what is' from 'what ought to happen'. This includes providing a demarcation between positive statements and normative statements. Positive statements deal with 'what is, was or what will be' but the normative statements deals with 'what ought to be' and are based on value judgments regarding what is good or what is bad. The positive conclusions could be considered as those which are extensively applicable throughout the whole world and they are testable whereas the normative instructions are not testable but constitute the basis for formulation of positive statements. Positive statements are for example, when we ask economists to inform us regarding how the price system operates, we are asking them to travel us along the road of positive economics. The following statement…

In either case, privacy issues were known to be much more complicated than mere issues of personal secrecy. In fact, as Richard Posner suggested more than 20 years ago, there is a fundamental economics of personal privacy -- an economics that is in large part responsible for, and untiringly organic to, our Constitution.

It is feasible, therefore, that there are rudimentary, biological, economic bases at the very roots of humankind's insatiable desire and need for privacy and security. (Posner, 1983)

As Mcride's research further indicates, "In 2002, the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies initiated Project Guardian: Maintaining Civil Liberties in the Information Age. The effort is aimed at shepherding discussion from all qualified voices on issues central to the tradeoff between privacy and security, particularly as this balance is threatened, or is perceived to be compromised, by advances in technology. Guardian is enriching the discussion by establishing a rigorous, multiway…

hile the winner gets a huge amount of money for supposedly being the strongest human, in fact, the strongest human is merely the one that uses the greatest amount of self-centered cunning and brute strength. If one is going to define humanity, especially in the post-Darwinian age, then it would seem that humanity, to be set apart, would depend on altruistic feelings and use of intelligence rather than selfish feelings and use of brute force alone. In this respect, there is little to separate the producers of TV reality shows from Dr. Moreau, and, by extension, little to separate the participants from the man-beasts. hile it is certainly a cynical viewpoint, it would seem that those who participate in the reality shows might be assumed to be as dimly aware of their condition as the man-beasts after their reversion to the more animal state.

Graff compares Dr. Moreau to Mary…

547-548).

The problem is stated clearly by Graham: "The legal community has paid little attention to the consequences for individual privacy of the development of computers" (Graham 1987, p. 1396). Graham does say that the common law has the capacity to protect privacy rights from invasion of privacy just as it expanded to combat threats in the past, but he also says that privacy law has lagged behind technology: "Privacy law has failed to respond, as it has in the past, to technological changes that influence the degree of privacy to which we are accustomed" (Graham 1987, p. 1396).

Technology has changed the nature of "privacy" according to some because technology has altered the meaning of "public." In an earlier age, people possessed greater anonymity than in the computer age, given that information is increasing with vast stores of data about everyone accessible by computer. The old concept of privacy…

Ethics of Human Cloning

In 1971, Nobel Prize winning-scientist James atson wrote an article warning about the growing possibility of a "clonal man." Because of both the moral and social dangers cloning posed to humankind, atson called for a worldwide ban on any research leading to cloning technology (atson 8).

Until then, cloning had been largely relegated to the realm of science fiction. Scientific research concerning cloning and in vitro fertilization was obtuse and technical, and hardly written about in the news. atson, however, was a highly-respected scientist, a Harvard professor famous for his discovery of the double helix structure of the DNA. The article he wrote sparked an intense debate over cloning, a debate that was renewed with the 1996 birth of Dolly the lamb, the first cloned mammal.

The argument no longer centers on whether cloning is possible, but on whether cloning is ethical. This paper examines the…

Brave New orld

The two books 1984 and Brave New orld reflect futuristic views that are quite different and dichotomous. Indeed, 1984 reflects a world of dystopia and punitive government while the work Brave New orld reflects one of more utopian conditions but is no less controlled and crafted by a master plan. The noted social critic Neil Postman postulates that Huxley's version of the world in Brave New orld more closely matches that of our current actual world. However, while there is some grain of truth to that, there are some facets of Brave New orld that are not in place now and the chances of that changing in the foreseeable future is practically nil in the view of the author of this report.

Analysis

First up on this report will be a compare and contrast of the two works in general terms. First off, an obvious difference between…

Communications of future development

Factors regarding future developments can be effectively structured with the creation of scenarios. Potential recipients of such information would be, government decision making organs including department of defense, department of commerce and even institutional managers of organizations (Hammond 1998).

Stimulation of strategic thinking

The process of creating scenarios would make strategic organs in the government to think objectively about the future. Scenario building would therefore act as a catalyst for future thinking (Hammond 1998)

Creation of orientation knowledge

Creation of future scenario blocks acts as a knowledge base for future governments. This usually does not always equate to instant decisions for successive governments regarding certain national issues, but the body of knowledge is always availed to decision making organs when the real need arises. Scenario forecast can there fore be termed as a way of piling stocks of knowledge for future considerations (Hammond 1998)

Disadvantages of…

Pop Culture, Celebrity, and New Media

As Michael Serazio (2012) points out, thanks to the Internet, we now live in a "premediated" world, in which press releases prepare the public to stay tuned for further press releases, as an all-out ad-campaign is unfolded to promote the latest movie, music release, or show (p. 416). Everything is prepped ahead of time, from the celebrity appearances to the photographers, to the clothing the celebs will be wearing, to the timing of events so that buzz reaches its greatest height when the product hits the shelves. Two websites created to drum up interest in two feature films, the latest installment of The Hunger Games series and the latest installment in the James Bond franchise, illustrate exactly what Serazio sees. This paper will compare and contrast the two sites and show how, in terms of an academic perspective, they illustrate just how "premeditated" and…

Capital Punishment

Solitary confinement represents one among the best means of keeping modern-day prisoners from communication and conflict, but has the most injurious effects on their health. Individuals imprisoned in conditions of solitary confinement demonstrate more psychotic behavior compared to normal prisoners; this includes higher rate of suicides (Thesis Statement). After a prisoner loses his/her mental capacity of understanding the reason for his/her imprisonment or punishment, subjecting him/her to solitary confinement is pointless. If one loses one's ability of understanding punishment, the consequences associated with one's actions become irrelevant and have no value. Thus, solitary confinement is crueler than capital punishment.

Lately, the subject of whether or not solitary confinement constitutes greater torture for prisoners than capital punishment (or death penalty), is gaining popularity (Writer Thoughts). The debate has reached a juncture where the favored option is capital punishment.

Solitary Confinement/Capital Punishment Background

During the early part of the 19th…

Homeland Security / Constitutional Issues

Civil Liberties: These are fundamental freedoms interpreted by policymakers and courts over the years or assured by the Constitutional Bill of ights (Pearcy, 2003-2016).

Bill of ights: This is an official statement of American citizens' fundamental rights, integrated into the U.S. Constitution in the form of ten Amendments, as well as into the constitutions of all states (Bill of rights, n.d.).

Thought Police: This denotes a cluster of individuals holding totalitarian views regarding a particular subject, and who continuously keep an eye on others for noting any deviations from the way of thinking approved (Thought Police, n.d.).

Thought Crime: This refers to a case of controversial or unconventional thinking, which is regarded as socially unacceptable or as a crime (Oxford Dictionaries, 2016).

Big Brother: A 'big brother' is an ever-present, apparently benevolent personage who represents the tyrannical control over the lives of individuals as exerted…

It is a work that seems to be eerily familiar to what is happening in many areas of society today, and that is one aspect of the novel that makes it exceedingly frightening to read.

eferences

Abdolian, Lisa Finnegan, and Harold Takooshian. "The U.S.A. PATIOT Act: Civil Liberties, the Media, and Public Opinion." Fordham Urban Law Journal 30.4 (2003): 1429+.

A secondary source that gives useful information on the U.S.A. Patriot Act. Includes commentary on the pros and cons of the act, and how the media portrayed it. Also includes opponents to the act, and some of the most controversial policies included in the act.

Deery, June. "George Orwell. Nineteen Eighty-Four." Utopian Studies 16.1 (2005): 122+.

A secondary source that talks about Orwell's novel, why he wrote it, and when it was reissued in 2003. Also discusses Orwell's motives for writing the novel, and what influenced him. It is a…

Thus, it is clear that the novel in itself represents a series of underlying reasons and concepts which aim at personalizing the apparently common life of loom.

Another important theme of the novel is the idea of the presence of the conscience. In this sense, unlike many previous pieces of literature, "Ulysses" develops a human conscience for its characters. In this sense, Stephan and loom both have conscience problems which are part of the modernization of the world. Thus, while Stephan is remorseful about not obeying his mother on the dead bed, loom is retrospective concerning the life he is leading and the marriage he is part of. This comes to point out the modern aspect of the novel because it refers in particular to the strains of the society and to the lack of moral principles. At the same time, this dimension is connected to the idea about religiosity…

Terminator and Matrix evolutions

When a Californian speaks of the "terminator," almost anyone listening will wonder briefly if the emerging dialogue is to be about the actor/governor of California (Arnold Schwarzenegger) or the film, The Terminator. And if the discussion is to be about the movie The Terminator then which "Terminator" will be in focus - one, two, or three? For purposes of this paper, the focus will be on The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 3: ise of the Machines (2003), and, also, on The Matrix evolutions.

The Terminator: The big career break for Arnold Schwarzenegger was not when he became a well-known body-builder. His huge break was playing the lead role in The Terminator, the first of three science-fiction films that were also action-thrillers.

The plot: It is the "Year of Darkness," 2029, and a powerful and intelligent computer named Skynet continues to battle human resistance on Earth, after…