| Richard Wright once stated that, " All literature is protest." He continued to say that, "You can't find a single literary work that isn't protest." I disagree with this quote. I believe that there are works of literature that are not protest nor persuasion devices. One example of such a work is the book Mind Over Matter: The Images of Pink Floyd by Storm Thorgerson. This internationally published book is not protest. Mind Over Matter is a follow-up to all of the questions Storm received about how the album covers for Pink Floyd were developed. This book follows the album lineup of Pink Floyd from start to finish (ending in the year 1994 before the release of Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd). This book is sheer facts. I believe that there is no protest involved in the book. As a nonfiction book, it would be difficult to find the protest in it. There are nonfiction stories such as The Cruciblewhich can have a subliminal protest message attached to them, but Mind over Matter is not one of them. Another unique identity of this book is that there is no plot to it. It is a chronological, question answering publishing. Similar in a way to an encyclopedia with no story behind it but less detailed and more informative than that of the presentation of random topics in an encyclopedia. Mind Over Matteris a narrative of how the album covers were created for Pink Floyd releases. In absolutely no way can protest be associated with this particular piece of literature. Having stated my standing on the position, I believe it is fairly evident on why I disagree with the author Richard Wright. He said all literature was protest and I believe he was wrong. It would have been more appropriate to proclaim that most literary works are protest such as this essay protesting that not all literary works are protest. |
| Mind Over Matter |
| Short Story Criticism |
| �The great writers of the past excel even the best writers of our time in their treatment of such problems as the role of undeserved suffering in human experience; the relationship between power and moral responsibility; the conflict between individuality and conformity; man�s search for the truth about himself.� I agree with the quotation one hundred percent. The authors of the main literary works studied in today�s society portrayed these circumstances with much more realistic situations. Today�s writers are constantly looking for new ways to teach the same morals and failing because nearly every point of view has been covered. Both Antigone by Sophocles and A Children�s Story by James Clavell are excellent examples of past literature expressing the conflicts between individuality and conformity. Antigone expresses how people should be noble to their family, and if contradicts the law or another ruling factor, then that law is immoral and meant to be not abided by. However, Anitgone buries her deceased brother against the law, when no one else would. This characterizes individuality. Sophocles� plays generally �...show intrigue and suspense...�(Berkowitz). The constant battle between attempting to be an individual and agreeing with society can be amusing and entertaining as well as educational. Throughout the entire story, death was always on the reader�s mind, intriguing right? Antigone was an individual by giving her dead brother a funeral. She did not conform to the rest of society and look at him as a traitor and refuse to allow his body to lay upon the surface and rot. Antigone broke the law, as most rebellious individuals do, to do what she felt was correct. That is what it takes to be an individual, the initiative to stand up for what one believes in when all others feel otherwise. The Children�s Story is entirely about being an individual and how society manipulates people into conformity. �How twenty five minutes can change a life� is all one person could exclaim after reading this short story. (Epinions.com) Based on a militant form of society after a war and the creations of �new� ways, The Children�s Story expresses how society creates pressure against those few that want to remain individualistic during the conformity of the rest of society. Within 25 minutes, a teacher influences an entire class of grammar school student to think like the winners of the previous war wants them to. With the two given opinions, one can see how both James Clavell and Sophocles have influenced people to be individuals when everyone else is against them. Ironic isn�t it that people who want to be individuals back up their beliefs with the beliefs and works of others. It�s almost as if they have conformed to the idea that being an individual is following someone else�s definition of an individual. Are you an individual? |
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