Comparing Power and Control in A Raisin In The Sun and Juno and the Pay

Power and Control in A Raisin In The Sun and Juno and the Paycock In the two plays, A Raisin In The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and Juno and the Paycock by Sean O'Casey, the reader is presented with a definite struggle for power among its main characters and society's ideals. These plays also serve as functions of drama, where the reader or viewer can also perceive much more in the way they are portrayed by the actors and the director as well, as the overall thematic plot and significance. In A Raisin In The Sun, the reader is faced with the struggle between Walter and his wife, Ruth, and his mother, Mama, for power and head of the household. In the first Act of the play Walter deliberately oversteps Ruth's authority just to spite her and show his power as head of the family. Travis, their son requests fifty cents for school, and Ruth denies his request because they don't have the money. Walter enters and gives his son more than enough money with his eyes completely transfixed on his wife, who looks at him with utmost scorn and disapproval: Travis-she won't gimme the fifty cents... Walter-(To his wife only) Why not? Ruth-(Simply, and with flavor) 'Cause we don't have it. Walter-(To Ruth only) What you tell the boy things like that for? (Reaching down into his pants with a rather important gesture) Here son-(He hands the boy the coin, but his eyes are directed to his wife's. Travis takes the money happily) Travis-Thanks, Daddy. (He starts out. Ruth watches both of them with murder in her eyes. Walter stands and stares back at her with defiance...(Hansberry 30-31) It is obvious that this scene was meant to be performed, with all its subtle actions and expressed grievances. Here one confrontation of... ...ter to the house he retreats back to his former attempts of deception by lying to her about supposed jobs and leg pains. Like in Raisin, Jack falls into a fortune which he squanders away and then later realizes he never possessed, getting into a great debt. He uses the money however to make himself head of the family, or man of the house, which ultimately falls apart. At the end of the play though, unlike Raisin, he never acquires any real authority as the play ends in disarray, and he goes off to drown his sorrows at the local saloon. These two plays show dramatically the struggle for authoritative power over the characters lives, families, and societies pressures. The overall tragedy that befalls them as they are swept up in these conflicts distinctly portrays the thematic plot of their common misconception for power and control over their lives.

James Dickey Essay

James Dickey (1923 – 1997) is one of the outstanding modern American poets. His criticism provides a scope of ideas on what humanity has gained throughout the twentieth century. His viewpoint is likely to amaze an observer by constant critical notes on what is universally called â€Å"amenities of life.† Thus, the figure of James Dickey cannot be underestimated in terms of his poetical style and criticism of perpetually developing progressive life of the mankind during the twentieth century. His inclinations to make people understand the charms of primitivism and animalism were straightforward. He could put his reasoning over the entire life through the eyes of animals and nature. Thus, the environmental problem of humanity and morality worried him much. It is reflected in his poetry by making emphasis on the significance of return to the nature in order to think like a â€Å"child of nature.† Dickey’s main motivation for claiming the importance of return to primitivism was not spontaneous. He had got through participation in World War II and Korean War (Thesing and Wrede 151). In this respect the poet was highly depressed by losing his older brother. In fact, it turned into a cycle of poems on the main themes of family, survival, spiritual rebirth, love, war and some other (Vaughan 115). With multiple poems included in the compilation The Whole Motion, Dickey described war as the source for cruelty and disfigured estimation of humanity at large (Thesing and Wrede 153). In this very collection one embraces the evolution of Dickey as a poet. The author followed a specific for Modernism feature of the stream-of-consciousness technique. He introduced it in personal evaluation of human civilization, as a self-destructing unity of people. Moreover, Dickey was trying to make a set of interrelated topics interwoven in terms of their collision and approach toward the concept of a â€Å"natural man.† Attacking the problem of civilization, James Dickey is likely to blame world’s progress on the example of his best-known poem The Firebombing: The enemy-colored skin of families Determines to hold its color In sleep, as my hand turns whiter Than ever, clutches the toggle – The ship shakes bucks Fire hangs not yet fire In the air above Beppu For I am fulfilling An ‘anti-morale’ raid upon it (Kendall 511). Based on this single excerpt from the poem, Dickey brings the main problem of the mankind to notice. It is grounded on misunderstanding of where the edge between morality and violence takes place. The author perceives an enormous and ominous power of violence supported by humanity. He understands personal helplessness. Thus, he had no choice but to reflect his rumination in the form of a holistic criticism of the civilization and its consequences. Hence, Dickey is constantly critiquing civilization, and it feels like he never repeated the same theme colored by a banal estimation. It is also included into The Sheep Child. His poetic language was easy to comprehend. Thus, the readers and followers can easily take Dickey as he is. As a matter of fact, born in Atlanta, Georgia, Dickey was loosely related to the concept of nature as he lived, studied, and worked for some period of time in the south of the USA (O’Briant 158). His â€Å"southern† origin and what he once experienced in person gave him motivation for teaching the audience being glowering toward what the civilized life had fallen into (James Dickey 1). In this respect the primitivism and the concept of the â€Å"natural man† are the paramount alternatives represented in his poetry.

Cocky versus Swagger in Beowulf and Sir Gowain Essay

Cocky vs. Swagger In entertainment, no matter if it is movies, music, or plays. One can almost always look in the story line and find a hero. The hero is perceived to be the character that everyone looks to step forward in a time of need. The hero can be like a savior and is expected to be like a savior by the other characters in the story in any and every situation. There is also a case in stories where the hero has to be found and is more of the unsung type of character within a story in which that character has to learn how to adjust to the advantages and disadvantages of their heroism and how it may affect the other characters in the story. Beowulf and Sir Gowain posses these types of characteristics and by actually reading the†¦show more content†¦Heroes are heroes because they show exceptional amounts of courage, and they do it consistently on the everyday basis. That is not possible to do. The extraordinary things that Beowulf and Sir Gowain do are things that the average man would not do because of the lack of courage and confidence. That is why heroes are who they are, the best of the best. They stick out from the crowd and that is why one may feel like they deserve more than just the regular confidence that the average man gets, it is only necessary. Being a hero is more of a mental challenge than anything else, because one has to believe in oneself more than any other person can believe in them because whoever believes in the hero can not possibly know and understand just exactly what the hero is going through. The other characters will never know and understand why the hero faces the problems, defeats the problems, and overcomes the obstacles that the hero faces. All that the characters and the people want in the stories is for whom ever the hero is, they want that person to save them from the people or things that threaten them. In other words, the people do no care so much about what the hero is going through, the people just want the hero to deliver, so i t is an absolute must for the hero’s confidence to be above the average person. This also applies for real life experiences for this day and age. The only difference is this is real life, and