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Bicycle Repairman Analysis

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To what extent has your study of texts from one literary period demonstrated that context and values are essentially interconnected.

Contextual events have a profound influence on values and issues embodied by productions of an era. The 1990s was a period of extreme transition and confrontation, as Andreas Huyssen argues “Our culture as a whole is haunted by the implosion of temporality in the expanding synchronicity of our media world”. Jonathan Larson 's musical Rent (1996) explores the effects of two contextual events, the neoliberal economic boom and the culture wars, on developing values. Bruce Sterling’s short story Bicycle Repairman (1996) similarly examines the impact of widespread capitalism and the extensive use of technology on an …show more content…

Rent reflects the need to earn an income while maintaining artistic expression of a Bohemian artist. The need to earn an income is expressed in the song “Christmas Bells” where anaphora “No Sleigh Bells/No Santa Claus/No Yule Log…” emphasises the overwhelming nature of meeting daily needs. The song “What you own” rejects the idea of prioritising work over creation, as Mark exclaims “I need to finish my film/I quit!” which indicates he prefers the life of an artist over the stifling nature of earning an income. Larson also addresses the expanding economic gap between the upper and lower classes, highlighting the dismissive attitude towards the poor. In the song “La Vie Boheme”, where staging of the large table of garishly costumed neo-Bohemians in contrast to Benny and Mr Grey accentuates the wealth disparity between the two classes. In response to the uniformity of the upper class, the neo-Bohemians rebel through artistic expression “dearly beloved, we are gathered here to say our goodbyes”, where connotations of death parallel conformity to emptiness. Through appraisal of individuality in the face of conformity, Larson demonstrates how emerging values of nonconformity were influenced by the neoliberal economic

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In Living for the City, Donna Murch argues that the Black Panther Party started with a study group in Oakland, California. She explains how a small city with a recent history of African American settlement produced such compelling and influential forms of Black Power politics. During the time of historical and political struggle in California 's system of public college, black southern traveling workers formed the BPP. In “Jim Crow’s Counterculture”, Lawson argues that the Great Migration and World War II changed the blues music from the thinking and behavior of younger people who want to be different from the rest of society to one that celebrated the work attitude and the war effort as ways to claim “American citizenship”.

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Holden Outerwear’s internal environment could be described as being a close-knit team of friends and employees. Who are working together to meet a common goal. Along with open communication within the company itself. There external environment can be said to be any element outside the internal system. Such as sales, customers, retail stores, and the weather.

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Bernice’s dull life and outlook on it is changed when Marjorie informs her, “‘What a blow it must be when a man with imagination marries the beautiful bundle clothes that he 's been building ideals round, and finds that she 's just a weak, whining, cowardly mass of affectations!’” (Fitzgerald, “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” 5). Marjorie wants Bernice to become an interesting person who does not live for the chance to please a man. When Bernice asks her cousin, “‘Don 't I dance all right?’ Marjorie responds, ‘No you don 't-- you lean on a man; yes you do-- ever so slightly” (Fitzgerald, “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” 6).

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