Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Question 2 of 3
2005, Form B. One of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which you discuss how a character in a novel or a drama struggles to free himself or herself from the power of others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work.
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My gut reaction to this question was to use "The Sound and the Fury". I think that of the characters in the book, Quentin (male), struggles to find himself in a position of power. Quentin tries to free himself from the "power" of others first by leaving his home. He goes to Harvard, a vastly different setting than that of his home to try to start afresh. He tries to regain control of his own life, that he sees falling apart after his sister loses her virginity and his notion of an ideal southern family crumbles apart. He constantly focuses on the time and any clock he sees. He feels time is running out and going by, it is another thing he cannot control or ignore so that he will command his own fate. He feels dominated by the time. Quentin finally is able to assert his own power by ending his own life; this was his successful attempt at freedom. This enhances one of the possible meaning of the work. The book can be seen as an analysis of the South's attempts to rebuild itself after the Civil War. As Quentin's attempts to control the world around him fail, as does the South's. It is only by completely destroying himself that Quentin is finally "powerful", much like the South had to completely change its dynamic to eventually be at peace with the rest of the nation.
ReplyDeleteI would choose Crime and Punishment for this question. My focus would be that Raskolnikov wants above all else to be different from the masses, special, an ubermensch. He wants the power of knowing he is better. This leads him to kill the pawnbroker. However, he realizes that in the end he is not special, only ordinary. His constant dithering and indecisiveness prove that he cannot really make decisions for the good of humanity, whether to kill or to confess. This is in direct contrast to Svidrigailov, who without question kills himself in a moment of lucidity. He recognizes that he will only cause the world harm and for the good of humanity kills himself. Svidrigailov takes on the role of an ubermensch without trying, whereas Raskolnikov seeks it out but doesn't succeed.
ReplyDeleteI would also choose Crime and Punishment, but rather than choose the character who struggles to free himself from others, I would choose to talk about Porfiry Petrovich, who seeks to exert his power over Raskolnikov. He has the upperhand because of his knowledge of Raskolnikov's crime, but Porfiry exercises his power in a subtle way. His ability to control Raskolnikov's mind ultimately proves to fruition.
DeleteActually, re-reading what you have written, I realized that I could still write about Raskolnikov but as the character who tries to free himself from the power of others. He seeks independence from his mother's influence, and clings on to these ideals that he can alleviate his miserable life by killing a "louse." (Two ways of answering the question with the same character?)
I would choose Othello for this question. It's obvious that Iago wants power. He's pure evil, he hates everyone and he envies the status Othello and Cassius and even Desdemona (her power being that she's adored) have. Othello clearly has power at first but we quickly watch Othello become powerless and we really see all his insecurities and flaws come out as he's being driven insane by Iago. Othello is ultimately quite powerless essentially because he's just not as smart as Iago. Iago is the perfect villain apart from his one mistake of trusting the hankerchef responsibility to Emilia, which is actually quite uncharacteristic of him. He's cunning and sneaky and this makes him completely powerful over all these supposedly powerful people's lives. He doesn't have their status or respect, he's just sort of unnoticed, controlling them all. Othello shows how dangerous insecurities can be. No one pays much attention to Iago and he's the most dangerous character in the book. Iago brings down Othello, this strong, handsome general who's respected by all those around him, simply by playing with his mind. The power struggle is that Iago is able to control everyone yet has none of the respect or happiness that Othello and Desdemona had so he brings everyone around him down.
ReplyDeleteI would choose Othello as well. Iago is obviously so hungry for power that he is willing to destroy everyone else, mentally, emotionally, and literally. Meanwhile, the man who seems to have the most power, Othello, becomes powerless in face of Iago. They really become foils of one another, and it becomes clear that cleverness and deception is the key to attaining power, while insecurities is proven to be the quickest way to fall from power. There is also a power struggle between each man and his wife. Although Desdemona clearly gives all of the power she can to her husband, she still holds power over Othello because she is the person that he feels insecure about. His love for her and her beauty makes him powerless in face of Iago's manipulation. The power struggle between Iago and his wife Emilia is much more intense because both of them are clever and both of them want power over the other. Although Iago easily gains power over Othello, he is never able to attain that kind of power over Emilia, which kills him. In fact, she eventually becomes more powerful than him because she is strong enough to reveal the truth about her husband. Thus, the moral could be that power hungry people may gain a tremendous amount of power, but it is the person who wants it for good or for truth that is the most powerful in the end.
DeleteJane Eyre works well for this, mostly because of her relationship with Rodchester. By all rights she should be under her power both because of her gender and her social position, but she manages to maintain the upper hand. There is her interactions with him after he proposes such as her insistence that they remain professional with each other until the wedding. Jane also refuses to let herself be under Rodchesters power after she finds out that he was already married. She ran away instead of losing all power in the relationship.
ReplyDeleteI would use Hard Times to answer this question. Louisa struggles to free herself from the influence of her father's incessant insistence on fact over fancy. She sees the joy of the fancy-filled lifestyle when she interacts with Sissy, and she attempts to herself break free of the routine of fact that she has been indoctrinated into. Her initial attempts at protest against her father's overwhelming influence fall upon his uncaring ears, but ultimately, she demonstrates to him the indisputable harm of his teachings. At that point, however, she has already been forever ruined; she has finally gained power over her father, forcing him to see what harm he has done, but it is too late for her: she has been forever ruined.
ReplyDeleteI think I would also use Hard Times to answer this question however I would focus on Mr. Bounderby. Bounderby was a self-proclaimed success story. He "rose from the ashes" and built his wealth up from nothing, all this to gain wealth and power. He clearly fits what character the prompt is asking for, a power-crazed individual. But his role in the novel, is to be the representation of what is wrong with industrialization. Dickens uses him to point out the evils, for in the end he is a product of the industrialized world and is completely left alone in his unhappiness.
DeleteMy first instincts were to write about some of the books mentioned, but I wanted to try something different. So, I would write about the Power and the Glory for this question. I would focus on the lieutenant’s (representing government as a whole) desire to have power over religion. The lieutenant clearly attempts to gain power over others by taking captives and killing people to lure the priests to him. The constant power struggle between government and religion highlights that faith, which many people associate to be the same as religion, is actually separate. Despite the government “winning” the power struggle and outlawing religion, people continued to have faith (examples of this can be shown through the kids in the text, particularly Luis, showing that future generations have their own voices in this power struggle ).
ReplyDeleteI would also pick The Power and the Glory. The Whiskey Priest tries throughout the novel to escape from the power of the government, symbolized by the Lieutenant. While Debbie talked mostly about the Lieutenant, I want to talk more about the Whiskey Priest. While he doesn't have direct power coming from the government, he does have some responsibility for his people's faith. While his own faith wavers throughout much of his journey, he feels compelled to carry out traditional acts of Catholic Faith to the various people of southern Mexico. By carrying out those responsibilities, he wields power over them. Although he has religious power over his people, he doesn't seem to take advantage of it like the lieutenant. Furthermore, I also think it is worth mentioning Padre Jose. While Padre Jose has the same capacity for using his religious power that the Whiskey Priest has, he chooses not to, receiving a lot of scorn from the local population.
DeleteEventually, at the end of the novel, the Whiskey Priest gives up his power by turning himself in. However, after he gets caught by the government, the power of the priest as a man turns into powerful religious symbolism that the boy uses to finally understand faith as a whole.
While first reading this, Crime and Punishment immediately came to my mind. But after reading the other responses for that novel, I realized I would say basically the same thing. So instead, I decided to write about Madea.
ReplyDeleteMadea is an extreme feminist and dramatist. She killed her family in order to run away with Jason. But when he betrayed and left her, she found it necessary to take revenge on him. Although his apologies were sincere and he was a good father, she decides to kill him simply out of spite. But she does not kill him physically - instead, she kills him mentally by murdering everybody he loves. She poisons his lover and murders his two children. She was so wrapped up in her plans of vengeance that she barely took into account that his children were hers as well. She murdered her own children just to hurt Jason. Madea wanted the upper hand in their relationship, craved dominance over her ex-husband. She desired authority over everybody she encountered because she refused to be embarrassed. She did not want to appear weak to society, so instead, she committed immoral actions give her power.
I would choose Wide Sargasso Sea to answer this question and particularly focus on Antoinette. Throughout the course of the text, there is a struggle to domesticate Antointte in my mind. Antoinette is a wild spirit of sorts, certainly a little bit unstable. Rochester attempts to tame her both legally through marriage and mentally through demonstrating his power over her (and at the very end locking her in the closet.) Beyond this struggle between two people over power, I believe this relationship represents something larger in terms of Britain's relationships with its colonies. Island nations like the one in which the novel takes place, were in a constant identity crisis. They wanted to be independent from Britain yet faced the constant reminder that they were not indeed sovereign. I would try to make parallels between this historical situation and the situation Antoinette finds herself in with Rochester.
ReplyDeleteMuch better responses here! Nice work!
ReplyDeleteEveryone has said the things I'd say (I especially agree with Sam @ Crime & Punishment). An interesting way to answer this would be with 1984, specifically the character of O'Brien. O'Brien is constantly trying to promote himself above the stupid mass, but he sees Winston Smith as someone over whom he does not have control, over whose life he does not totally dominate. And so he completely destroys him: he destroys his free will; he destroys his individuality; he makes him into a man of the party; he subdues his humanity entirely. And yet why does O'Brien do this? Surely he could have just killed Winston if he saw him as such a threat. The answer is that O'Brien does in fact act illogically; he acts solely out of the pursuit of power-Winston could have been avoided entirely. And this speaks to the message of 1984: the innate desire to control everything and everyone. Humans desire control control control, and thus they seek power, the ability to make things go exactly as they want them to. O'Brien subdues Winston, not because he is a threat of any grand scale, but because he is a threat to O'Brien's personally-controlled universe.
ReplyDeleteI think I would discuss Oscar Wao for this prompt and focus on Oscar's relationship with the force of Fuku. Even though Fuku is not a character, it's a force in Oscar's life that leaves him powerless. Moreover, Fuku often manifests itself through characters like the gangster, and Oscar's various lost loves, and Yunior's inability to stay faithful to Lola. Overall, Fuku is the most powerful force in the novel until Oscar decides to take his fate into his own hands and return to the Dominican Republic to win back Yvonne. Although Oscar dies in this attempt to free himself from fuku, his action in the face of destiny proves that he is no longer powerless-- he is a man of action rather than a victim of fate. Thus, Fuku no longer has the power.
ReplyDelete