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Modernism In The Unicorn

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Modernism is a revolutionary movement that affected world war one and the huge breakthrough in technology. Modernism extended from 1890 to 1940 reaching its peak between 1920-1930. Modernism refers to a radical shift in aesthetic and cultural sensibilities evident in the art and literature of the post-world war one period. Modernism, thus, marks a distinctive break with Victorian morality rejecting the nineteenth-century optimism, and presenting a profoundly pessimistic picture of a culture in disarray. Modernism is a revolt against the conservative values of realism, and a rejection of tradition and its reprise, and the certainty of enlightenment thinking. Modernism, in short, is a thought, discussion, creative work, or genre of art and literature …show more content…

The Unicorn by Iris Murdoch (1963)
The Unicorn is a remarkable novel by Iris Murdoch. The narrative weaves in elements of the Gothic, the allegorical, and the mythical, and it does so within the framework of suspense. There’s a lot going on in this novel, and by the end, Murdoch leaves it up to the reader to determine what it all means. Some readers will be frustrated by Murdoch’s ambiguity and that the meaning of the story is open to a wide variety of interpretations.
The story begins when Marian Taylor, a thirty-year-old former schoolteacher, arrives at Gaze Castle to perform the duties of governess. When she arrives, she learns that she is not to be a governess, but instead a lady’s companion to Hannah Crean-Smith, owner of the big house in what is presumably the Irish countryside. Gaze and the surrounding lands are repeatedly characterized as being ancient, alien, and isolating, and its inhabitants and their ways are more akin to people living in medieval times, not a mid-20th century Western society. Perhaps the epitome of this is that upon Marian’s arrival at the train station, she searches for a way to get to Gaze and someone recommends that she travel there by horse. Arriving at Gaze is like going back in time, and it frightens Marian. What worries her most though is the revelation that for the last seven years, Hannah has been effectively imprisoned at Gaze by her husband, Peter Crean-Smith. The other inhabitants of the house—Gerald Scottow, Violet …show more content…

The title of the novel is an image that finds its figurative representation in the character of Hannah. Through a conversation between Max and Effie, we are told that the unicorn is a Christ-like image in that it is an innocent creature that is captured and turned into a scapegoat, sacrificed to purge away the sins and crimes of others. This is the allegorical aspect of the novel, but this is a modern allegory in that the meaning of Hannah’s suffering is not interpreted for us. As readers we have to decide what her suffering means, if it means anything at all. Iris Murdoch doesn’t tell readers what to think in this novel, On the other hand, the novel is a bit frustrating. In order to leave the interpretation of the story up to the reader, there has to be a certain level of ambiguity. It’s that very ambiguity, however, that is frustrating. There were several moments when one wasn’t all sure what had just happened or what was

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What follows is a story of hope, terror, and courage. Hannah meets Rivka

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Her Grandpop picked her up and started yelling at her and shaking her. Hannah never fully forgave him for that. During that Passover Dinner she is asked to open the door to let the Prophet Elijah in. When she does this she is transported back in time, to Poland 1942. There she is known as Chaya Abramowitz.

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Prudence, like Katherine, views her as a threat but grew to love her when the stories told by the town were deemed false (74). Prudence and Kit retreat to Hannah’s house every day, symbolizing an area of peace and friendship. The friendship among the women signifies a tie between the town and Hannah grows to be an important figure in both Kit’s and Prudence’s

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The author uses Hannah’s personality traits to show the theme of the story of never lose hope in the most difficult times. For example, the narrator, the speaker of the story, “Early the next morning, Hannah began looking for the ivorybills and quickly discovered what a daunting task finding the birds was going to be. It was no wonder Mr. Tanner has gotten confused. There were no vacancies in the birdhouses”(Smith 27).

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As Hannah watched him, Todd watched her, and it was an unusual experience for the man. Usually, he'd demand answers, force them out of the woman through the infliction of pain. Answers that he didn't even want to know, but simply asked for his own amusement, or for their embarassment and humiliation and an exuse to inflict even more agony. However, now here he sat with a woman, truly curious, and one whom he didn't consider an inferior species, but a potential equal, and it felt like a couple of lions dancing around each other. Wary of each, circling, neither prepared to demonstrate weakness or submit to the other.

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The story of the haunting begins on the grounds of the Pittock Mansion. People have said that they could hear the sounds of someone walking around the yard in heavy boot and then coming into the side door. It is possible that some people have seen this entity because it has been said that he is the gardener. All of the museum staff and even visitors have seen the happy couple Henry and Georgiana.

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Tone in Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck famously said, “All great and precious things are lonely.” This was the mindset he had when he wrote Of Mice and Men. Of Mice and Men tells the story of George and Lennie, two displaced ranch workers, who move from place to place in California in search of new job opportunities during the Great Depression in the United States. When they find the ranch, Lennie’s habits progress and guarantee trouble. In the novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck uses the literary devices of imagery, simile, and personification to create a graceful tone.

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In the early 20th century after the world war I, this was the period when modernism started. There was the industrialization, development of modern technology to solve problems and there was the modernist movement in writing also. This movement was characterized by a lack of confidence in the traditional ways of explaining existence and its meaning. Family, and religion were no longer seen as being dependable. Writers could not find any meaning in the old ways of writing, they did see the need to start writing in new techniques as the world was changing.

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Modernism began in early 1700s with the rise of capitalism. This was start of an age of rational thinking. The major belief of this age was to believe only those things which they could see. The idea of modernism is, to quote father of Modern Philosophy Rene Descartes, ‘I think therefore I am’(2). This basically meant believing only those phenomenon those can be seen or proved by science.

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Hannah also did not have a lot of friends because of the rumours about her which made people stay away from her or treat her wrong. Hence, her dark thoughts slowly took over her because no one cared enough to talk to her. Therefore, independence is important to this novel because Hannah’s independence caused her to be isolated from society because no one

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Literature is the world’s greatest name given for storytelling, novels, poems, essays and much more. It symbolizes the awesomeness of great writers; such as William

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Schlink’s narrative uses techniques to enhance the reader’s sympathy for flawed characters through using motifs and symbolism to show Hanna’s vulnerability of illiteracy, characterisation, and imagery to raise feelings of sympathy for Michael, as to how he was mistreated throughout the novel. Narration, tone and juxtaposition were also used to evoke feelings of sympathy for both Hannah and Michael after the tragedy of Hanna ending her own life. Although the narrative is constructed to only see the firsthand perspectives of the protagonists, this induces the reader’s empathy as it allows them to clearly see the thoughts and feelings of the characters. Schlink has used a variety of these literary techniques to appeal to the reader’s sympathy and allows the reader to understand the complexity and the way in which power and authority in certain situations can corrupt a

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Part 1 of “The Reader” explores the earlier concepts of Michaels’ moral dilemmas when he starts thinking that he is being disloyal to Hannah. Michael believes that by not exposing anything about him & Hannah to his friends, he disowns her and doesn’t acknowledge her. Michael argues with himself that he is being considerate or just being discrete but realizes that these are just excuses he is making up for himself and acknowledges what he’s doing, “But you, who is doing the disowning, you know what you 're doing.” Even though he recognizes what he is doing is wrong he continues to do so for his own sake. He pretended that he was waiting for a right time, but missed the opportunity to tell his friends about his lover, “At first I told myself

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Hannah was a very hard worker and by working night and day she became very good at playing the piano. Hannahs talent was shown in the story when it was said that “[she] was playing the music of Beethoven and Liszt with proficiency’’(1). Therefore all these statements show that Hannah was a very devoted ignorant and hard working girl at the start of the

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Postmodernism has been widely used over the past two decades but trying to pinpoint one definitive meaning for the term is very difficult indeed. Taken literally, postmodernism means “after the modernist movement” yet there is something else entirely to postmodernism than that. One thing that is sure is Postmodernism is an adaptable term that can cover an extensive variety of works of art. Basic scholars use postmodernism as state of deviation for works of writing, shows, engineering, film and plan. Postmodernism was basically a response to Modernism. ".

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