Social commentary: Minus the commenting?

"You don't understand: Willy was a salesman.  And for a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life.  He don't put a bolt to a nut, he don't tell you the law or give you medicine.  He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine.  And when they start not smiling back- that's an earthquake.  And then you get yourself of spots on your hat, and you're finished.  Nobody dast blame this man.  A salesman is got to dream, boy.  It comes with the territory" (pg 1629).

This story comments on societal trends and beliefs in a variety of ways, but one way is very easy to notice.  Unfortunately, I am very poor at thinking of the correct terminology so the best way to describe it that I can think of is prejudice.  Everyone wanted to work their way up from being a salesman, even salesmen.  I guess this could be compared to a server today?  No body really wants to be one their entire life, but many can become trapped into being one for eternity life.  The play does not stop here though, it, much like Tom in The Glass Menagerie, has Biff who longs for adventure in his life and is not willing to be trapped into he pressures of modern society.  Willy's conflict is predominantly of the internal variety; however, the lack of respect that people had for him because of his work also contributed to his death.  I don't really know if Willy believed he was well liked or if people just put on a show for him, but both of these can be considered social commentaries.  Overall, it would appear that Miller wanted the reader to feel sympathetic towards Willy and then relay the emotions to the real world where they have other people that they belittle like people did to Willy.

"Interpreter of Maladies"

"It was then that he suggested visiting the hills at Udayagiri and Khandargiri, where a number of monastic dwellings were hewn out of the ground, facing one another across a defile.  It was some miles away, but well worth seeing, Mr. Kapasi told them" (pg 160).

The plot in this structure is very bumpy in terms of suspense and whatnot, but overall seems driven by the internal conflict of Mr. Kapasi.  His lust for Mrs. Das almost got Bobby seriously harmed.

How do you pronounce Das?

Anyways, there were three conflicts in this story.

1. The most prominent in the story was Mr. Kapasi's struggles against lust and his job.  I looked up what a "malady" was, and it is undesirable disorders.  Now, this could be taken literally since he was a doctor's interpreter, but I will use the next point to further explore the implications of his job.
2. Mrs. Das's indifference towards everything as a parent easily could have been the most prominent conflict in the story, but it was told too late.  She had the undesirable disorder of indifference and used Mr. Kapasi's interpreter skills as a means to an escape.  Her disclosure in Mr. Kapasi finally led to her to let lose of her fears and help her husband and son.
3. The final conflict is that of the bloodthirsty monkeys versus the puffed rice and cameras.  Those are symbols of the indifference of the parents by the way.  Not to side track, but I feel like Mr. Das knew about Bobby's father since he was also given a means to provoke the monkey and was actually the one who pushed them over the edge.

P.S.  I miss poetry.

Never Let Me Go - Seven

"Your lives are set out for you.  You'll become adults, then before you're old, before you're even middle-aged, you'll start to donate your vital organs.  That's what each of you was created to do" (pg 81).

After reading through the entire list of 108 literary terms searching for the perfect term to describe the above excerpt, I decided that it is probably best represented through a double conflict.

The most evident conflict is the external conflict between the students at Hailsham and regular society.  Like farm animals, the students are actually only being created so that the rest of the world can use their vital organs.  While reading this chapter, I really felt bad for the students who were just informed of their impending deaths and lifestyles, but then I remembered back to health class with Mrs. Schembra.  She told us that "104,748 U.S. patients are currently waiting for an organ transplant; more than 4,000 new patients are added to the waiting list each month" and that "every day, 18 people die while waiting for a transplant of a vital organ, such as a heart, liver, kidney, pancreas, lung or bone marrow."  Regenerative medicine research, at least according to Wikipedia, began to spike interest in the late 1990s, which may have spiked the interest for Ishiguro to write this book.

Back to the external conflict.  These "lab mice," of sorts, were being kept unaware of their futures because people wanted them to live a seemingly normal lifestyle despite knowing that they never could.  This probably explains why Madame was so freaked out by the girls almost touching her, further explaining the conflict.

The second conflict mentioned was an internal conflict with Miss Lucy.  The students were being "told and not told" all of the information about their futures for whatever reasons Hailsham had decided, but Miss Lucy did not believe it to be fair to the students.  Her heart told her that the students should be told about the plans already installed for their futures, but her brain had been wired to do nothing about it.  This sort of relates with Bernard Marx in Brave New World who had seen the evils in the world, but could not do anything about it.  Finally, Miss Lucy was tired of the exploiting of the children and told them that they would eventually be killed for their organs.

Brave New World - Ten (Double Digits!)

"'Alone, always alone,' the young man (John) was saying.
      The words awoke a plaintive echo in Bernard's mind.  Alone, alone... 'So am I,' said, on a gush of confidingness.  'Terribly alone'" (pg 137).

While Bernard had always felt like an outcast, I feel like this is the moment (an epiphany, if you will) where Bernard actually realized the extent to which he had distanced himself from the rest of his Other World. This chapter was very confusing on my head because of the flashbacks and chronic use of pronouns, but from what I understand, Bernard and John seem to be paralleled throughout this chapter.  The ongoing feelings of being different (Bernard's height and John's background) seem to flow in the very blood which proves they are humans (I had started considering robots).  In the above dialogue, John reveals his main personality trait which is his self doubt and sense of solitude.  In an epiphany, Bernard, possibly accidentally, shows reveals his similar emotions.  The lack of self worth radiating from Bernard unleashed, tricking Bernard into thinking it a good idea to try to allow John and Linda to return to what John calls "a brave new world."  Okay, even with my second grade reading skills, I can conclude that John's words were important there (seeing as that is the title of the novel).  I am really hoping that an actual plot will start now because as of now, I only see a depressed man faced with a multitude of internal and external conflicts.  It appears to me that I may have actually made a connection!  Possibly, the external conflicts (discrimination) had distracted Bernard from his internal conflicts (loneliness), thus leading to his epiphany when he found someone like him.

I have had this song stuck in my head all day, and my last comment brought it back up.