Alienation

Alienation

The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway, 1926
1. "It's awfully easy to be hard boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night its another thing"
  1. AO1: Demonstrates that although Jake puts on a hard front and tries to act like comments don't hurt him, it makes him self-conscious and upset.
  2. AO2: Metaphor Jake is comparing himself to an egg. Jake is also deliberately vague about his emotions.
  3. AO3: The Color Purple "I'm pore, I'm black, I may be ugly a voice say [...] a voice say to everything listening [...]but I'm here"
  4. AO4: Links to multiple struggles in SFI such as gender, homosexuality and ethnicity.
2. "You cannot get away from yourself by moving from one place to another"
  1. AO1: Jake tells Cohn this when Cohn proposes that they move to South Africa. Jake is explaining that Cohn's emotional void is psychological not geographic and no matter he goes he can't change who he is or his past.
  2. AO2: Definitive 'cannot', Jake is certain in his view. Direct personal pronoun 'You'
  3. AO3: Eel Marsh House personifies alienation and isolation in The Woman in Black, Susan Hill and even after death Jennet still haunts the house continuing this cycle of isolation.
  4. AO4: Lost generation: A term coined by Hemingway but originated from Gertrude Stein who described this post-war generation as 'Lost' elaborating on this Stein commented 'Lost means not vanished, but disorientated, wandering, directionless- a recognition that there was great confusion and aimlessness amongst the war's survivors in the early post-war years'
3. "He cared nothing for boxing, in fact he disliked it, but he learned it painfully and thoroughly to counteract the feeling of inferiority and shyness he had felt on being treated as Jew in Princeton."
  1. AO1: This passage presents many of the themes of the novel such as: resentment, competitiveness and insecurity amongst men. It is interesting to explore how fictional male characters demonstrate the SFI in comparison to females.
  2. AO2: Jake has a condescending tone here towards Cohn, this later develops into hostility and antagonism as Cohn is alienated from his associates. This hostility is closely linked to Jake's own insecurities.
  3. AO3: Top Girls, Marlene sleeps with multiple men yet does not love them. She does this to feel better about herself and feel superior over men as she concludes they use see her as a 'high-flying lady'
  4. AO4: The discrimination of Jews does not just date back to the Nazi campaign. It has arguably existed throughout history with religious texts even connoting dislike towards Jews. The term anti-Semitism was first used in the late 19th century. The first notable pogroms occurred in 1096 preceding the first crusade.
The Stranger, Albert Camus, 1946
1. "She said "If you go slowly, you risk getting sun stroke. But if you go too fast, you work up a sweat and then will catch a chill in the church" She was right. There's no way out."
  1. AO1: Mersault realises literally that the nurse means the heat is inescapable. However, by saying "There's no way out" he realises that the nurse is figuratively suggesting that death and Mersault's isolation are also inevitable.
  2. AO2: Contrast between walking 'slowly' and 'too fast' emphasises Mersault's helplines (also see AO1) "no way out"- blunt and definitive
    1. AO3: Forster could not come out publicly, as it would mean the end of his career as there was "no way out" of homophobia in 20th century Britain.
    2. AO4: Capital punishment abolished in UK in 1963, but still exists in USA.
2. "people never change their lives, that in any case one was good as another"
  1. AO1: What does this say about attitudes to the SFI too?
  2. AO2: 'never'- definitive, impactful
    1. AO3: How much did attitudes in The Color Purple change?
      1. AO4: Discrimination still exists today, in Iran the law allows girls to be wed at very young ages, Russia imposed a law in June 2013 reminiscent of Section 28 and despite the Olympics taking place there this hasn't changed.
3. "I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world"
  1. AO1: Mersault speaks of the indifference the world has to his death sentence, but many people are indifferent to SFIs too.
  2. AO2: Adjective 'gentle' suggests it is not malicious indifference, 'world' universal.
  3. AO3:Literature aims to prevent indifference- how has the literature we have studied change your perception on certain issues? The Color Purple: Elenor Jane is an example of a character indifferent to the possible frustration Sofia may feel.
  4. AO4: The world was indifferent to what occurred to Jews in WW2 until the extent of the Holocaust was revealed. However, Holocaust denial still remains.
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925.
1. "And I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy"
  1. AO1: Gatsby holds these parties but is an outsider in his own home. He doesn't fit in and initally no one knows who he is.
  2. AO2: Paradox between a party being "large" yet "intimate"
  3. AO3: The Perks of Being A Wallflower. The title is a metaphor for Charlie- he observes others, but doesn't get involved "You see things. You keep quiet about them. You understand (Patrick)
    1. AO4: It could be said that women merely observed their country opposed to be active participants in Britain until 1928 when all women over the age of 21 achieved the vote (same could be said for other votes too).
2. "Daisy and Tom's crowd may be "rich together" but it sounds like an awful lot like loneliness to us"
  1. AO1: The Great Gatsby focuses on class as well as alienation. As we found out through Gatsby as well as the Buchanans' money does not mean happiness and shows the superficial nature of these characters.
    1. AO2: Inverted commas shows Nick's scepticism and shows he is in a community 'us'. By saying "an awful lot like" he is not making a definitive statement, however he still is clear demonstrating that he does not believe the façade.
  2. AO3: "They ain't rich folks, rich folks don't try so hard" The Help, Kathryn Stockett.
  3. AO4: The Great Gatsby is set during the 'roaring twenties' a time of booming capitalism and the Jazz Age (until 1929 with the Wall Street Crash).
3. "Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling."
  1. AO1: Daisy gives birth to their daughter alone, although men generally waited outside Tom was not there either. Demonstrating his lack of commitment to the marriage and daughter and the bitter side of 'social closure' (marrying into those of the same class as you merely for economic benefit)
  2. AO2: The use of the phrase "God knows where" shows how little Daisy knows her husband, as she cannot even hazard a guess as to where he could be. Her physical waking up may also be figurative- she is no longer naïve about her marriage.
  3. AO3: The Color Purple: This is a significant event in Daisy's life, like Celie's wedding day yet both are bitter and sad opposed to happy like they should be and foreshadow future events.
  4. AO4: Daisy is happy about giving birth to her daughter (which is quite unusual given the preference was generally boys) but rather than hoping her child is intelligent or skilled she hopes her daughter will be a "beautiful little fool" highlighting the importance romance and appearance had to women in the 20s. Alternatively, it could be argued that appearance was- and to a certain extent still is- considered very important in girls
All God's Children Need Travelling Shoes, Maya Angelou, 1986
1. "The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go and not be questioned"
  1. AO1: Angelou feels the only place where she can go and not be discriminated against is home showing the extent of her isolation.
    1. AO2: Inclusive pronouns "us" "we"- highlights community. Suggests we all face alienation?
      1. AO3: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou. Angelou's "ache for home" may be due to her lack of stability in childhood. As, she moved around from Stamps, Louisiana and St Louis.
        AO4: Children were often displaced during wars, due to evacuation particularly WW2.
2. "We were black Africans in West Africa where for the first time the color of our skin was accepted as correct and normal"
  1. AO1: Angelou contrasts alienation and belonging. Through this distinction she highlights the extent of her alienation in America.
  2. AO2: The adjectives 'correct and normal' highlight the racism Angelou has faced as she it is connoted that the whites in America viewed her as the opposite of this.
  3. AO3: To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee "whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is or how fine a family he comes from, he is trash."
  4. AO4: What Angelou doesn't mention in this quote is the racism faced by black Africans in South Africa. The Apartheid was enforced by the National Party through legislation from 1948 to 1994.
3. "Was the odor of old slavery so obvious that people were offended and lashed out at us automatically?"
  1. AO1: Angelou questions the ignorance of racism and the mindlessness of it, by belittling those who discriminate.
  2. AO2: Synesthesia- "odor", adverb "automatically" connotes mindless and the racist as being mechanical.
  3. AO3: A Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, his background or his religion. Hate must be learnt"
    1. AO4: The thirteenth amendment abolished slavery in the USA in 1864.

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	Created by mairead_watson about 10 years ago