As the 1945 mushroom cloud ballooned over Hiroshima city, traditional values regarding the pursuit of man were dashed away forever, replaced by distrust, paranoia and existentialism, indicating a loss of faith in former certainties such
as the Christian metanarrative.
I'd introduce the metanarrative idea in a sentence that isn't the very first - let your awesome ideas sink in! Then bring in the specifics Responding to this shift in global consciousness, composers of the era saw the atomic bomb as humanity's failure and reflected the resulting disillusionment and changing values through their texts. This is explicit through the subversion of literary conventions, as in Samuel Beckett’s 1953 play Waiting for Godot, and Stanley Kubrick's film Dr Strangelove (1964) which embody popular nihilistic and hopeless views.
Great introduction of texts!Further, the culture of distraction through material possession and adoption of social restrictions, which developed to mask the pervading isolation is critiqued by Sylvia Plath’s poetic anthology Ariel and Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel White Noise. Through diverse representations of common post war rationales, these composers reveal the ways of thinking of the period.
Stellar introduction - no other criticisms other than what I said in the first sentence. Fabulous!The dropping of the bomb saw increasing isolation as enlightenment thinking was replaced by existentialist doubt regarding ....
Keen to know what goes here! This is an excellent opening!This intensive questioning of perceived truths and resulting instability is represented through Beckett’s absurdist text Waiting for Godot. Emblematic of the eras increasing rejection of Christianity, Beckett absurdly depicts Sartre’s teachings through the protagonists Vladimir and Estragon, who embody “bad faith” through their pursual of external answers to their purpose, which Sartre finds false and unfulfilling. This provides insight into the prevailing disillusionment following the contextual horrors which leads the characters to put complete faith in the omniscient, controlling and metaphorical ‘Godot,’ creating a stagnant plot which allegorically highlights the consequences of trusting authority, reflecting changing values. This realisation of human powerlessness is amplified to readers through darkly humorous stage directions which demonstrate societies struggle to continue daily life without the faith they had previously trusted. This manifests differently through the characters as frantic pacing and emotional breakdowns in Didi and incoherent intellectual musings by Gogo. This characterisation manipulates the absurdist form to express the underlying dysfunction which grew from the sudden absence of individuals power. Beckett further reveals this through the rejection of traditional language conventions through fragmented syntax and useless repertoire in the dialogue “Nothing to be done”.
LOVE THIS!!!!!!! The motif captures the prevailing loss of faith in leaders and religion following the bomb. Absolute trust in authority is further criticised through characters desensitised reactions to inhumanity through the satirically childlike connotations of “We could play at Pozzo and Lucky.” The characters empathy is subverted, metaphorically questioning the consequences of the periods reliance on propaganda to suppress and control and revealing the rejection of dictated truths. Through stage directions and truncated sentences, the composer creates a poignant tone, revealing the extent of disempowerment “To every man his little cross. Till he dies. (Afterthought) And is forgotten.” This questions the prevalent trust in religious authority by subverting Christian ideologies of reaching salvation through suffering. Instead, Beckett proposes individuals are insignificant, revealing the contextual existentialism and rejection of religion which resulted from the dropping of the bomb.
This is wonderfully. it's incredibly dense with everything you need: ways of thinking, analysis, texts, WONDERFUL!Following post bomb conventions, Kubrick’s film Dr Strangelove employs satire to express contextual disillusionment in authority following its failure to protect humanity, embodying political unrest as opposed to Beckett’s nihilism. The film manipulates audience’s contextual hyper-anxieties to reveal the flaws of total trust in authority, alluding to McCarthy's ‘Red Scare’ through General Ripper. Realising the absurdity of the Cold War, Kubrick highlights the dangers of propaganda-driven terror through Ripper’s erratic movements which suggest a brainwashed neurosis, connotating the suppression of thought. By reducing the atomic bomb to a sexual metaphor which alludes to Jack the Ripper’s violent sexual tendencies, the composer satirised leaders egos, likening the arms race to a male desire to prove his masculinity through the size of his genitalia. Their incompetent protection of society manifests in the President's dramatically ironic objection to a scuffle between two delegates, “you can't fight in here. This is the War Room!”
Love this part of the text - you've used it well!The contextual political compliance was further criticised through historical figures incompetent characterisation, paralleling disillusionment in the Christian god. Their fallibility is evident through cross-cutting which undermines their authority by contrasting the comical chewing of gum with absurd dialogue between opposing leaders “Don’t say that you’re more sorry than I am.” regarding the global doom they invoked. This subverts prevailing notions of right versus wrong, finding the surrendering of power to any one body as dangerous. The paradoxical policy M.A.D is satirised through the ironic motto “Peace is our profession,” which appears in the background of combat scenes to emphasise the irrationality of deterrent policies. This is reiterated by the contrasting montage of explosions and non diegetic score music which foreshadow Kubrick's perceived future. Thus, Kubrick embodies post war disillusionment, revealing all politicians as incompetent and reflecting the resultant hopelessness as the concept of American greatness collapsed.
Reacting to growing instability, Western society turned to traditional conservative values for order. Satirically representing the commodification of women, Plath utilises historical allusions and emotive personas to criticise her society for its culture of superficial containment. The contextual disintegration of trust associated with fears of Communism left individuals isolated. Seeking identity, they conformed to stereotypical roles, as criticised by Plath in Daddy through the satirical character representation. Transfixed by a “man in black with a Meinkampf look,” the developed Electra complex
really good link to a sophisticated school of thought - the Electra Complex. Amazing! satirises societal clinging to oppressive values in order to gain identity, alluding to the Nazi regime and black motifs to reveal the oppressive relationships between women and men. The authors criticism of her society for accepting these values is evident through the juxtaposition of these harsh images with an insistent nursery rhyme tone, using language to metaphorically reveal the inequality. Plath exposes social expectation as a threat to wellbeing through the characterisation of a leering crowd at Lady Lazarus’ “big strip tease.” The symbolism metaphorically represents the unfeeling, self regulating society emerging to cope with the new terrifying reality of their mortality, alluding to the constant fear of being labelled a Communist during the Red Scare. A titillating and perverse tone furthers Plath’s criticism of society’s “comfortable concentration camp” (Freidan)
Add a date for when Betty Friedan said this, I can't tell you what it is off the top of my head. But I've learnt this year that it's best to cite the year! where women are viewed as a commodity, drawing on the corporate setting and stereotypical roles of married partners to demonstrate her society's attempt to regain stability following the bomb. This is clear in The Applicant through an extended interview metaphor which satirises traditional family values. The housewife parody “Come here, sweetie, out of that closet” is aided by a condescending tone to create an emotional dissociation, reflecting the inferior role of women in the context and more broadly, the harm caused by social constraints on individuality. Plath ultimately rejects the traditional values adopted by her context to impose order, finding them oppressive and destructive. Embodying the growing feminist movement, Plath’s satirical use of persona’s and reliance on evocative historical allusions provides insight into the struggle of individuals in questioning their own identity amidst social restrictions and expectations.
Consumerism as a distraction from fear is criticised in DeLillo’s postmodernist novel White Noise as disintegrating the family unit. Depicting the ‘consume or die’ American culture, DeLillo demonstrates the growing contextual consumerism as a method of diversion from mortality. This is explicit in the motif stream of consciousness “Who will die first?” interrupted by the mantra “Mastercard, Visa, American Express.” The composer uses religious allusion to the Trinity to highlight the contextual replacement of religion with material goods. The structural placement of this internal dialogue reveals the chaotic human psyche following 1945, which individuals sought to reconcile through material distraction. DeLillo presents consumerism as an analogy for propaganda; an omnipresent being demanding complete submission. Through a lexical chain and sensory appeals, the composer creates a tone of overwhelming choice, revealing advertising as a method of cognitive repression. The endless soundtrack of “toneless systems, the jangle and skid of carts, the loudspeaker” diverts the protagonist from his toxic environment, maintaining his naivety and suppressing his individuality. Submersion in the superficial is revealed as creating dysfunction through a series of subplots and tangents. These reveal the resulting disorder where family values are subverted. This culminates in adultery for material gain, explicitly criticised by the composer as a “Capitalist transaction”,
Do you have the source for this quote? satirically revealing the consequences of consumerism on society. Cold War reliance on superficial distractions from fear is thus portrayed by DeLillo as responsible for the breakdown of traditional values, reiterating Plath’s acknowledgment of social coping mechanisms as threatening humanity. This criticism of consumerism is thus a response to the author's distaste in his society's ignorance, offering a significant understanding into the contextual focus on distraction from mortality which developed following significant human loss in the period.
Responding to the post 1945 shift in ways of thinking, composers sought to reveal the prevalent isolation and disillusionment which affected all aspects of society. By portraying disturbing accounts of modern reality from multiple perspectives, texts emulated the prevalent questioning of former certainties about technology as furthering civilisation and the Christian metanarrative. These are apparent through various text representations which convey the disintegration of trust, identity, family and logic. These are significant as they reveal both popular paradigms from the context and the response of some to challenge these ways of thinking.