Pecado de omision por Ana María Matute Essay -- Spanish Essays Pecado

El cuento â€Å"Pecado de omisià ³n† fue escrito por Ana Marà ­a Matute como parte del movimiento de realismo social espaà ±ol. Fue incluido en el libro Historias de la Artà ¡mila, el cual fue publicado en mil novecientos sesenta y uno. Este cuento tiene dos tipos de tema. Su tema significativo trata de la injusticia de la situacià ³n de Lope y su tratamiento por don Emeterio; su tema axiomà ¡tico trata de las relaciones familiares y el tratamiento de los pobres y de los huà ©rfanos. Los dos son temas implà ­citos, porque no hay moraleja explà ­cita. La historia tiene lugar en Espaà ±a, antes de o cerca del principio del siglo veinte. Un nià ±o inteligente, quien se llama Lope, habà ­a dejado huà ©rfano y el primo de su padre, que era muy rico y el alcalde de su pueblo, tenà ­a que cuidarlo. Este primo, don Emeterio, empleaba al nià ±o de trece aà ±os como pastor y le dejà ³ lejos del pueblo para criar las ovejas. Pasaban cinco aà ±os, y Lope revolvià ³ a la casa de don Emeterio para ver al mà ©dico. Allà ¡ vio a un viejo compaà ±ero de escuela, un Manuel Enrà ­quez, un muchacho que siempre le iba detrà ¡s en sus estu...

Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations Essay

Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations is the coming-of-age story of Philip Pirrip, better known as Pip. The story presents the development and growth of Pip as he becomes an adult. During the novel, the characters seem to have trouble communicating with each other. Because of the characters’ interest in only themselves, especially Pip, messages, some important and some not, are delayed or not received at all. According to G. K. Chesterton (1911/1996) in his article The Characters in Great Expectations, despite the novel’s title, expectations were never realized. This statement could be interpreted as expectations were never realized because of the communication problems between the characters. The characters never seem to express what they want to tell one another. Messages are misinterpreted, and some messages are never heard. For example, Pip had loved Estella from the first time he met her. Toward the end of the novel, he finally told her so, but she did not reciprocate his love for her. She replied instead that she never misled him into thinking she felt the same way about him that he did for her. As a result, Pip was heartbroken (Dickens, 1861/1998). Pip only believed what he wanted to believe, and saw what he wanted to see. This was evident when he dismissed her cold-hearted personality. She tried to tell him that she did not love him, but he would not listen. Pip turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to Estella until he was ready to profess his love for her. Perhaps he was hopeful that, one day, she would love him as much as he loved her. Pip refused to see that Estella did not love him; he instead chose to look at the world through rose-colored glasses. This was not the only time in the novel when Pip had trouble communicating with another character. Early in the story, Pip is reunited with Magwitch. Pip wanted Magwitch to know that he did not turn Magwitch in to the police. However, Magwitch is seemingly not interested in what Pip has to convey. Instead, Magwitch gives Pip a look that Pip cannot quite understand (Dickens, 1861/1998). Magwitch does not seem at all interested in Pip’s explanation. It was evident to Pip that Magwitch did not comprehend the message Pip was trying to get across to him. Many of the characters have facades (Harris, 2000). This could be a cause of the communication problem. For instance, Pip, when he became a gentleman, began to act how he though a gentleman should act. This led Pip to alienate Joe. Toward the middle of the story, Joe visited Pip in London. Although the visit was awkward, Joe wanted to tell Pip about what was happening back home. Joe was going to tell Pip that Wopsle became an actor. However, Pip did not listen. Instead, he was only interested in hearing that Estella wanted to see him. After Joe told him that Estelle did want to see him, Pip became friendlier and was then open to hearing what Joe had to say. Unfortunately, Joe ended their visit before Pip had a chance to change his behavior (Dickens, 1861/1998). Had Pip not been interested only in himself, Joe would have been able to tell Pip about Wopsle. Because Joe felt alienated, Pip never heard the news about Wopsle. Perhaps if Pip had stopped thinking about his own, selfish needs for a few minutes, he would have been able to hear the news from Joe. On the road to adulthood, there are many times when miscommunication occurs. At the beginning of the story, Pip was an orphaned boy trying to find his way. On his path to adulthood, he was misled. Paul Pickrel (1960/1999), editor of the Yale Review, likened Pip’s journey to adulthood to a fairy tale, with Joe and Jaggers as Pip’s guides, and Magwitch as the terrible ogre. Magwitch led Pip to try to become a gentleman; Magwitch was the benefactor for one of Pip’s â€Å"great expectations. † While Pip was thinking he was being a gentleman, he alienated Joe, one of his guides to adulthood. This alienation led to the miscommunication when Joe went to visit Pip in London. The reader follows Pip on his journey to adulthood from an innocent little boy to a man educated by experience. He is a fantasist; he thinks he can have the best of both worlds (Pickrel, 1960/1999). Pip isolates himself, and in the process becomes a terrible snob. He cut himself off from the people he loved, the people who loved him. At the end of the story, Pip returned to the forge. He was then informed that his sister has died and Joe married Biddy. Had he not been sucked into the myth of his own life, Pip could have married Biddy. Pip’s life could have turned out much differently had he kept the lines of communication open with Joe. Miscommunication happens along the way, but Pip learned from those experiences, and he became a better man for it. – Chesterton, G. K. (1911/1996). The Characters in Great Expectations. In Harold Bloom (ed. ), Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations. Broomall, PA: Chelsea House Publishers. 34. – Dickens, Charles. (1861/1998). Great Expectations. New York: Barnes & Noble Books. 43, 216-217, 345. – Harris, Robert. (2000). Notes for Great Expectations. Retrieved June 10, 2009, from Virtual Salt. http://www. virtualsalt. com/lit/greatexp. htm – Pickrel, Paul. (1960/1999). Pip’s Personal Journey to Adulthood. In Lawrence Kappel (ed. ),

Anthem by Ayn Rand

To be in full control of a man, dictators must not only enslave his body, but also destroy his mind. A man’s mind and the knowledge that a man has is his most powerful weapon. By depleting the mind of knowledge, a man cannot be in control of his own self and therefore is more easily conquered. In Anthem by Ayn Rand, the leaders and society in her book seek to accomplish control by choosing the jobs for the people, keeping the word â€Å"I† unknown, and maintaining a sense of unity from birth. In Anthem the leaders of the society in the novel, the High Council, examine the students and based upon their observations, give the students their jobs accordingly. In Anthem’s society, students are given jobs not to who will fulfill them the best, but based on how intellectual the student is. A smart and eager student such as Equality 7-2521, the protagonist in the story, receives a job that will dull his brain. Equality 7- 2521 is given the job of a street sweeper; he is extremely smart and the council recognized what he is capable of. The High Council gives the more important jobs, such as Scholar, to the students who are unintelligent so that the High Council can more easily control them. By destroying the smart student’s mind, the council can control them and cause them to become more unintelligent. To have complete control over the society in Anthem, the High Council keeps the word â€Å"I† unknown. By keeping this word unknown, the High Council is not only causing the society to think of themselves as one, but they are also causing the people to fear what is outside their world. Each person believes that without each other, nothing is possible and that thought instills fear into the society’s mind. By implanting fear into the minds of the people, they are afraid of what would happen if something in society were to not be the norm. The society, together as a whole, rejects anything that violates their comfort level and they destroy it. We see this happen when Equality 7-2521 goes to the World Council and presents to them his inventions, electricity and the light bulb. The World Council decides that since this invention was created by one person and not a group of people that it would ruin their society and they threaten to kill Equality 7-2521 and obliterate his inventions. By maintaining unity from birth, the dictators and society in Anthem create a sense of constant longing for another person; this leads to the fear of being alone. Each year, the new group of babies born go into the Home of Infants, then they are transferred into the Home of Students and then are given their jobs. Because each person believes that he cannot live alone, it keeps the society together. Equality 7-2521 spent time alone while he was experimenting so he realizes that man can accomplish things alone. The people in the society are dependent on each other to create a sense of security. Without that dependence, the society would split apart and each person would do how he wishes. Just as a man’s knowledge is his greatest power, it is also his greatest enemy. In Anthem by Ayn Rand, the society is ridded of knowledge and that is what causes the leaders to have total control over the people. They accomplish control by choosing the jobs for the people, keeping the word â€Å"I† unknown and maintaining a sense of unity from birth. By doing these things they not only enslave the bodies of the people, but also destroy their minds.