Deviance, social unrest, resistance to authority -- even challenging the factory owner who oppresses them -- is seen as getting too big for one's britches and a violation of Jante Law. A true Marxist would hope that a worker would be outraged at the behavior of the factory owner, and his actions towards Espen's family. However, a Jante resident is more apt to be angry at Espen's mother for wanting to improve her home, or daring to ask for a gift from the factory owner that others were not receiving. Despite the catastrophically low wages of all of the residents, the workers ineffectually blame one another, and make a virtue out of their own unnecessary suffering. This focus upon the purely personal at the expense of real social change can also be seen in Espen: Espen's own revolt is ineffectual. He kills a friend, rather than turns against truly oppressive social structures. He turns his anger and guilt against himself, rather than against...
His apparent irrationality is a product of a fundamentally irrational society that is quietly and coldly mad. Rather than merely look at his own past, Espen needs to turn his attention outward -- from his own life, and from Jante, and draw connections between his personal history, the law of Jante, and the suffering of the larger world. Espen wonders how he could have grown up to be a murderer: the reader wonders how it is possible to murder Jante Law so individuals like Espen can live a more fulfilling life. Although the coolness of the novel's prose and social circumstances might seem uniquely Norwegian, it is easy to draw parallels between the live of the inhabitants of Jante and small, interconnected close-knit communities everywhere.
Adler (2009) notes "jealousy is merely an especially well-marked form of the striving for power." The Jante Laws warns people that they should not try to become individuals and Sandemose's creation of the laws in the novel was done as criticism for the types of societies that produce these kinds of principles that make collective efforts the norm and the only acceptable way to be in society. "The gulf between
D.). Therefore, the strength of his convictions and the acceptance of sacrifice create indeed a vivid impression of the character. Moreover, he openly admits the challenges facing his business and his ability to support his family, yet "yet my faith was not shaken, nor my efforts for the slaves lessened"(Coffin, n.d.). The power the belief in a higher authority that offered the blessing on the affairs he conducted represented the
Mexico faces an array of drug-related problems ranging from production and transshipment of illicit drugs to corruption, violence, and increased internal drug abuse. Powerful and well-organized Mexican organizations control drug production and trafficking in and through Mexico, as well as the laundering of drug proceeds. These organizations also have made a concerted effort to corrupt and intimidate Mexican law enforcement and public officials. In addition, the geographic proximity of
O Brother, Where Art Thou? Homer in Hollywood: The Coen Brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou? Could a Hollywood filmmaker adapt Homer's Odyssey for the screen in the same way that James Joyce did for the Modernist novel? The idea of a high-art film adaptation of the Odyssey is actually at the center of the plot of Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film Contempt, and the Alberto Moravia novel on which Godard's film is
Life of a Slave Girl and the Devil in Silver. The paper will point to internal and external fears the protagonists experience in the two novels, and also will report how the protagonists are haunted and how they deal with it. The Devil in Silver -- Quick Summary The book by Victor LaValle blends social satire with horror fiction, and in the process he points (fictionally, with brilliant descriptive narratives) to
Added Info for Pros and Cons About the Situation Immigration will always cause some issues in the host country. One of the major problems, at least in today's America, it the continued scarcity of some types of jobs. People who are fine with the influx of immigrants, whether legal or illegal, when economic times are good will bemoan the problem when jobs are scarce. The reason that the people from Mexico
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now