Nature, representation and value of sexuality in The Buddha of Essay

Nature, representation and value of sexuality in The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi and The Gangster of Love by Jessica Hagedorn - Essay Example Charlie had the additional advantage of the able and valued advice of his ex-guru dad! How simple was the suburban life. Hanif provides an apt description: "We were proud of never learning anything except the names of footballers, the personnel of rock groups and the lyrics to I Am the Walrus.†(p.178) Karim Amir gives the frank self-introduction, befitting the teenager of the 1970s in the suburban London, as â€Å"a funny kind of Englishman, a new breed as it was, having emerged from two old histories† (Kureishi, p. 3). Hanif weaves several other stories, around the life of Karim. He creates situations through which Karim is obliged to react the way he reacts. He has no ideal on which he can build his life in a disciplined manner. He gets wrong idols and Karim makes use of them, as a directionless youngster would! Count his misfortunes/fortunes one by one. His dysfunctional family, his best friend with a rebellious daughter, her peculiar Indian-based friend Changez, Charlie who is the object affection, several theatre actors with whom he has opportunistic relations—Karim’s sex and sarcasm goes hand in hand. Hanif describes the problems of adolescent Karim Amir growing into manhood. How he learns about himself and the world around him and discovers the operati ve rules of family, work, institutions, society, and culture. Karim Amir’s own schooling proves to be an adventure, quite contrary to the gloomy atmosphere at home. He has affairs with Eleanor, Jamila etc. that provide him much excitement. His companions also teach him sex by example, About Charlie Karim says, â€Å"No, Charlie was the cruelest and most lethal type of seducer. He extorted not only sex, but love and loyalty, kindness and encouragement, before moving on. I too would gladly have exercised these master-skills, but †¦Ã¢â‚¬  (p.119) Once Karim’s father receives the official sex-license, the possibilities of business in the line are immense! Hanif describes it in style: â€Å"Was

Mother’s Last Days :: Personal Narrative Profile Essays

Mother’s Last Days Welcome to the Glenbrook Retirement Home. May I ask who you are visiting? Oh yes, you must be Mrs. Mitchell’s son. She talks about you so often. Right this way. Ignore the other patients peeking from behind their doors. Walk past them, down the long hallway. You are the outsider here. Don’t forget that; you are now the crazy one, not them. In this place, sanity is like a dream that you struggle to remember throughout the day. Scott, so nice to see you again. It’s been a while since your last visit. She asks about you every day. She’s just inside, go on in. How is she today doctor? Ask anyway, even though the answer never changes. Touch and go, really, no way to tell what will set her off. Honestly, she’s had better days. You don’t have to stay long. Just let her know you’re here and then you can be on your way. Open the door; that is the first step. Open it slowly, don’t frighten her. She is like a child, and you the careful parent. Try not to cringe as you walk into the small room that your mother now calls home. Try not to smell the musty odor that pervades everything. Try not to wonder what sort of purgatory you have confined her to. Who the hell do you think you are? Get out of my room! Doctor, doctor! Caress her hand as she whimpers. Stroke her wispy white hair and wonder why no one bothers to brush it anymore. It’s me, mom. It’s me. Deep breaths. Just start talking, that’s the only way to get through this visit. Tell her one more time who you are. Tell her one more time about her grandchildren, her grandchildren who are too afraid of her screaming fits to come with you anymore. Tell her about your job and your new house. Tell her all of these things so she can forget them again. Know that is all that she can do. I don’t know you. I’ve never seen you before. Away†¦get away from me. Tell her your name, tell her that you love her, that you’re here for her. Show her pictures of the kids, tell her about Lisa’s school play and Taylor’s soccer game. She was the star. He scored the winning goal. Stay for as long as you can this time, before saying, I really have to go now mother.

Moral Standards in the 1960s-1970s Essay

The English social activist Constance Mary Whitehouse was often renowned for her opposition to social liberalism and mainstream media, which she often claimed to be root cause of a more permissive society in Britain. Although, the extent to which we can deem this view valid is debatable. There is evidence leaning on both sides of the argument; but of course it is unquestionable that Britain did see a sudden uprising of permissiveness and overt moral decline to which Whitehouse responded briskly, founding and setting up the ‘National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association’ via which she campaigned against the BBC n the 60’s. The question is; was she justified in going to these lengths to essentially try and censor media? Surely, if she injected such a vast amount of effort into doing so, then she must have some sort of validity in her view? Or perhaps, there were other factors which she did not take into account. The notion of Television being the main medium of influence of this period is irrefutable, with 95% of British households owning one by the end of the 1960s. Although the fact that the government set up the Committee of Inquiry on Broadcasting could in itself suggest that media had partial censorship (thus disallowing any real explicit broadcasts which could lead to a moral decline), they did little to stop, and actually welcomed the hard-hitting ‘social realist’ plays such as ‘up the junction (1965)’ and ‘Come Home Cathy (1966)’, as they were a replacement for the supposedly ‘vulgar’ American style programmes on ITV such as ‘Take Your Pick (1958-66)’ and the Westerns/Crime Dramas which they feared would erode British culture and make people more violent. Though, these plays did could be argued to have ‘worsened’ the situation as, for example, ‘Up the Junction’ depicted quite a graphic and powe rful home abortion scene, and it is suggested that this may have been one of the causes of the 1967 Abortion Act to be passed; which of course consequently lead to relaxation in attitudes towards sex as there was now an passage, or a ‘life-line’ a woman could use if any accidental impregnation occurred, thus increasing levels of promiscuity. Furthermore, in ‘a taste of honey’ (also part of this social realism movement that swept through theatres in the 60’s), as well as abortion again being key factor in it, there is also an occurrence of a ‘one night stand’, not an ordinary one night stand however, an interracial one night stand. Although this was a very extreme case of moral rebellion, critically it could have lead to the British public to perceiving promiscuity as well as interracial relationships (seen as immoral, abnormal at this time) to be more acceptable, a norm. In other words, the British public would in theory be bellowing â€Å"if she can do it, why can’t I?!† . The Press also have a part to play in this; they contributed largely to a new permissive air in the media when they initiated their launch of colour supplements, sexualised adverts and scandalous news stories and significantly the first female nipple was published by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch who believed this would help the circulation of his paper, The Sun. This conveys the extent to which media was now overtly promoting permissiveness, and could suggest that this directly influenced a more permissive society as the public were fully exposed to these new developments which eased them into a new, more open and bold mind set. Conversely, there is evidence to suggest that Media was not only responsible for the ‘decline in moral standards’, as quoted by Whitehouse. Touching back onto the subject of ‘press’, although it did absolutely encourage some air permissiveness, the Obscene Publications Acts of 1959 and 1964 to an extent conflict that view. These acts were designed to ‘strengthen’ law around public obscenity, in particular the publication of obscene articles and materials used in them. This could thus suggest that there were in fact some restrictions on media, and that they couldn’t possibly fully hold the blame for arousal of permissiveness and decline in moral standards in this period. Additionally, although the ‘powerful’ scene in ‘Up the Junction’ could be blamed for the passing of the Abortion Act in 1967,it is commonly known that it only eased the passage of it, and it was primarily David Steel’s campaign that led the way to this debatably radical change. Prior to the Abortion Act, there were approximately 106,000 illegal abortions a year, and many were sceptical about the idea that the number of abortions would increase when the act was passed as they believed although people had the freedom, it wouldn’t necessarily mean they would exercise it. They were wrong, after a year in 1968 the number of abortions per annum rose by 35,000 to 141,000 a year. This strongly suggests that the Abortion Act itself influenced a more permissive and unmoral society as it offered more freedom to the public in regards to sex and promiscuity. Prior to the passing of the Divorce Act of 1969, divorce was only permitted when there was sufficient evidence exhibiting that one party of the relationship had committed adultery, and statistics show that there were few than two divorces per 1000 married couples. The Divorce Reform Act allowed couples to divorce if they had lived apart for two years and both wanted it or if they had lived apart for five years and one partner wanted it. Following the reform there was a huge increase in the number of divorces, by the mid-1970s nearly one in every two marriages ended in divorce. Although it could be argued that this was due to the growing independence of women, it’s hard to deny that the act had a large effect on this. This thus indicates to us that media was not entirely responsible for the lack or decline of moral standards as legislation such as this, did essentially promote more promiscuity as it gave married couples the freedom to split up and do as they please. In analysing the range of factors, we can conclude that Mary Whitehouse’s view that the media was responsible for the morale decline of the 60’s and 70’s was somewhat valid, as there are a spectrum of sources and pieces of evidence that intrinsically link together and in turn paint a picture where the British society are heavily influenced by media. This was perhaps due to fact that the public at this time, and still to this day, are heavily consumed by the media and are enthralled in its controversy, and although it may not have so much of a profound effect on us today it is obvious people of that period were more vulnerable to it as just coming out of a period of Austerity and slight deprivation, more likely than not they were seeking for something new something fresh, something that kept up with the social norms of other major influences such as America- and perhaps unfortunately, these new trends often entailed social rebellion and permissiveness. And althoug h legislation had a part to play in it, this only ensured de jure change, not always de facto, where as media more times out of 10 had de facto and more profound effect on the British society of the 1960s/70s.

John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men Essay - 976 Words

John Steinbecks â€Å"Of mice and men† Of Mice and Men is set along the Salinas River a few miles south of Soledad in the fallen world of the Salinas Valley, which Steinbeck places east of Eden the Promised Land is only a painful and illusory dream. This land is populated by sons of Cain, men doomed to walk alone. One of the major themes that comes from this is loneliness, or fear of apartness. One of the themes of Of Mice and Men is that men fear loneliness, that they need someone to be with and to talk to who will offer understanding and companionship. Soledad is a Spanish word and translates into English as solitude or loneliness. This country is one of such loneliness that George and Lennie stand out sharply because they†¦show more content†¦It is impossible to live where they are so the safe place becomes a little home. Steinbeck is not only able to dramatize Lennies desire for the safe place through his love for the rabbits, but he is also able to define on a low level of consciousness that desire the most important aspect of their plans for Lennie is the attraction to soft, warm fur. This transfer from the farm to the rabbits is also important because it makes possible the theme of action. The dead mouse which Lennie carries in his pocket in the first chapter introduces this. As George talks about Lennies attraction to mice, it becomes clear that the rabbits will come to the same end crushed by Lennies simple, uncontrollable strength. The readers see a pattern after they read about how Lennie killed the mouse and the puppy. Also, Georges story that he tells twice about the girl with the red dress and the crushing of Curleys hand, the shooting of Candys dog, and the frequent appearances of Curleys wife contribute to this expectancy of patterns. All of these incidents are patterns of the theme of action and predict the fate of the rabbits and thus the fate of the dream of the safe place. Lennie asks George, Tell me like you done before, He repeated his words rhythmically, as though he had said them many times before. It is shown that even Lennie has heard it by his repeating the exact language. AnShow MoreRelatedEssay on John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men1451 Words   |  6 PagesJohn Steinbecks Of Mice and Men .The novel Of Mice and Men was written by John Steinbeck. In Soledad, California during the Great Depression in the 1930s two men of the one named George and the other named Lennie were men who travel around working at ranches. George is the small, quick-witted one, and Lennie is the big, slow, dumb and extremely strong one. They have a dream, to have a little place all to themselves, without anyone bothering them. 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This is displayed best in Ayn Rand’s Anthem and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men; one set in a post-apocalyptic age where man struggles to rebuild and the other set during the Great-Depression. By comparing Ayn Rand’s message concerning the individual in society in Anthem to John Steinbeck’s in Of Mice and Men it is clear that one has a main message t hat society is a burden to the individual, while the other’s message is that societyRead MoreRacial Discrimination In John Steinbecks Of Mice And Men899 Words   |  4 Pagesis someone to talk to. What about having to kill a friend, and bury all chances of breaking free from the life of an average migrant worker? How would anybody feel? These situations in John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men illustrates two key points throughout the story; discrimination and loneliness. In Of Mice and Men, Crooks, the black stable hand, is the definition of racial discrimination. He is isolated from the community of white migrant workers because of his racial status. Crook mentioned thisRead MoreThe Nature Of Dreams In John Steinbecks Of Mice And Men1073 Words   |  5 PagesAmerica for themselves or for their families. Many came to escape persecution or poverty in their homeland. In essence, this is similar to the theme The Nature Of dreams in John Steinbecks dramatic novella Of Mice And Men and is proposed throughout in many ways to signify that dreams aren’t always going to happen. Throughout Steinbecks novella, the theme The Nature Of Dreams is presented by George and Lennie’s dream of owning their own land, Crooks, and his dream of equality, and Curley’s wife, with