Essays on Naivete

Analysis of “Stranger in the Village”

Part 1.

The black man insists, by whatever means he finds at his disposal, that the white man cease to regard him as an exotic rarity and recognize him as a human being. This is a very charged and difficult moment, for there is a great deal of will power involved in the white man’s naivete. Most people are not naturally reflective any more than they are naturally malicious, and the white man prefers to keep the black man at a certain human remove because it is easier for him thus to preserve his simplicity and avoid being called to account for ...

Individual vs. Society: Tracing Huck’s Educational Trajectory in Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

I Mark Twain described Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as “a book of mine where a sound heart and a deformed conscience come into collision and conscience suffers a defeat." The book enacts a struggle betwixt Huck’s conscience, a receptacle of societal ideology, norms, custom and law and his ‘innate goodness of nature,’ wherein the contending factions are equally strong and metamorphose Huck’s experiences from simply being ‘playful adventures,’ akin to that of his comrade Tom, into an understanding of ‘nature’s goodness.’ In delineating this transfiguration, Twain sets about the painstaking task of foregrounding the qualities of Huck, that undergo a refinement/education and mark ...

As one of the most important writers of the 20th century, Ernest Hemingway provided many innovations in the way poems and prose were written and read. One of the most important theories that have been developed by Hemingway in his writings is the ‘iceberg theory’, or ‘theory of omission,’ which alludes to his minimalist, almost workmanlike prose, which nonetheless manages to obscure a great deal of thematic depth below the surface. The iceberg theory is found throughout his works, as Hemingway’s prose just discusses what is right at the plot surface of the events unfolding in his stories, but ...

LOST IN TRANSLATION

“On the principle of infallibility there rests the iron discipline of the Communist Party. In fact, the two concepts are mutually self-supporting. Perfect discipline requires recognition of infallibility.” - George Kennan, “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” George Kennan wrote these prophetic words in 1946 as part of the famous “Long Telegram,” a document that was made public in 1947 by Foreign Affairs magazine. Kennan’s treatise on the Soviet Union, the nature of Communism and the expected physical manifestations of that nature became the most impactful work on what would become the Cold War and the courses of ...

In Moliere's Tartuffe, the titular character is a rogueish, villainous cad who takes advantage of the kind but naive patriarch Orgon. Orgon as a character is difficult to defend; much of the play involves other characters attempting to wake him up to Tartuffe's blatant and transparent hypocrisy. However, Orgon continually excuses Tartuffe's behavior or does not believe his family members, choosing to buy into the con artist's charms. Some may see that Orgon is the hopeless, hapless pawn, the obstacle that gets in the way of stopping Tartuffe from taking complete advantage of the family; despite this naivete, Orgon has a great ...

The six stories that we have read as a part of this unit are rich in terms of expression of theme and characterization. All of the authors weave images together to create powerful rhetorical arguments that entice the reader. From battlefield scenes to questions of the meaning of life, each story has a vivid collection of images that serve to bolster the ideas that the authors want to express. The actual battlefield in which “The Field” takes place sets the tone and mood for the entire story. The three characters must hide in an underground crate to avoid the continuous ...