By showing the workers being treated cruelly by the authorities alongside of the scene showing the bull being slaughtered Eisenstein thus wants the audience to become actively involved in revealing the political message regarding how workers are nothing but animals being carried around a slaughterhouse.
The film is practically a paradox when considering that Eisenstein uses the intellectual montage technique and does not use concepts like reason or logic with the purpose of putting across his message to the audience. Instead, he makes use of ideas like farce and parody in an attempt to demonstrate the stupidity related to a capitalist system and its lackeys as they destroy people's lives. Eisenstein certainly loved drama and this is obvious when looking at the numerous tools that he uses with the purpose of dramatizing scenes throughout the motion picture. It appears that the director intended to address viewers from a psychological point-of-view by appealing to their feelings and by having them think that conditions are much worse than they might be inclined to believe.
One of the main ideas in Strike is related to class distinction and to how it can serve as a tool that the authorities can use with the purpose of putting down anyone who is courageous enough to rise against society's major players. Eisenstein shows workers as individuals who, in spite of being honest and hardworking, are limited as a result of their position. This is visible especially when the plant's managers communicate efficiently and rapidly become acquainted with how workers feel with regard to their leaders. The factory's owners actually communicate with their employees by phone and they never have a direct connection with simple workers. This further contributes to providing viewers with the feeling that leaders consider their subordinates to be simple machines that need to be exploited until their reach their maximum potential. The strike itself does not represent a threat for the authorities, as they are prepared to deal with such situations and...
The author even inserts himself as a character throughout key events, such as the latrine at the POW camp and digging in the corpse mines in Dresden. The insertions serve to remind the reader that though fiction, the events described in the novel actually happened, to people like Billy Pilgrim/Kurt Vonnegut. However, Vonnegut also uses several techniques not found in the works of noted memoir writers such as Tobias Wolff
The best evidence for this suffusion in the author's own life is in the final chapter, when the main character/author returns in full force. Traveling peacefully and happily in a plane above Berlin, during a moment he considers "one of the nicest ones in recent times" (Vonnegut, p. 211), removed in time and space from Dresden, Vonnegut "imagined dropping bombs on those lights, those villages and cities and towns," (Vonnegut,
I enjoyed Vonnegut's commentary on the strangeness of humankind's foibles and I was not shocked by some of his matter-of-fact depictions. Indeed, when Vonnegut draws on his own real-life experiences, the novel takes on an air of authenticity. This authenticity coupled with Vonnegut's wry, black humor makes the novel seem caustic and ironic, but at heart it is neither -- it is simply a record of things both real and
Through his experiences and adventures, Billy becomes a symbol more than a mere character. He obviously has more insight into how things truly are, than the rest of the characters in the book. Not accidentally, Billy becomes unstuck in time precisely during the Second World War, hinting thus at the need to escape the imminence of death as a constantly pending menace: "The Tralfamadorians didn't have anything to do
The failed quest of Vonnegut the character underlines another important theme of the novel -- although life may seem 'fated' as Pilgrim perceives it to be, our own perceptions affect how we see our past and reconstruct the past. Our minds are erasers, always writing and rewriting events. Our perception of time is highly personalized. For example, Vonnegut the character is surprised that his old friend Bernard has changed
Interviewer Good morning Mr. Vonnegut! First of all, I would like to thank you for giving me this wonderful opportunity of having to interview you! Vonnegut Good morning to you too! It's actually my honor and pleasure to be interviewed by a popular columnist like you. I hope this will not be the last. Interviewer Oh certainly Kurt. I am a very good fan of yours. In fact, I have read a lot of your
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