Doris Lessing’s “To Room 19” Symbols

Women in patriarchal societies are brought up to have certain values, like to have a desire to be good mothers and good wives. However, as much as they try to do these things, they find that their passions and instincts are put down and this leads to misery and insanity. Women have voiced their concerns about the problems of being a woman in a man's society for years. Feminist literature existed before feminism as a movement did. Finally, in the 20th century, this led to the second and third waves of feminism criticizing the limitations of patriarchal and sexist society for women.Doris Lessing in her story â€Å"To Room Nineteen† uses many symbols to explain how women in patriarchal society feel oppressed and unfulfilled. Here I would like to discuss the symbols I consider to be the most important. These symbols are the snake eating its own tail , the devil, poison and the shell. When the narrator begins to explain Susan's life, she describes how ideal and cloudless it seemed to be. She shows that marriage of the Rawlings was â€Å"grounded in intelligence† and how much things finally turned out to became a â€Å"failure of intelligence†(251) .This transition is used to explain how women in a patriarchal society feel, how despite all their efforts they end up being unhappy. The narrator, speaking about Rawlings, provides the analogy of a â€Å"snake biting its tail†(253). Chris Sheridan in his article â€Å"Ancient Wisdom for Modern Problems† states that traditionally symbol of snake eating its own tail used to symbolize â€Å" the eternal cycle of life†, â€Å"wholeness† or infinity. Yet, in Lessing’s story the snake eating its own tail is a symbol of endless futility and absurdity of their life.â€Å"Matthew's job for the sake of Susan, children, house and garden – which caravanserai needed a well paid job to maintain it. And Susan's practical intelligence for the sake of Matthew, the children, t he house and the garden – which unit would collapse in a week without her† (253). Susan feels that all of her work is basically meaningless, that like in the Red Queen's race they are just running as fast as they can in order to stay in the same place.She realizes that her life is basically just maintenance and survival with no further hopes. Theorist Denis Kandiyoti in his work â€Å"Bargaining With Patriarchy† says that women in male dominant society, women like Susan end up â€Å"bargaining with patriarchy†, realizing either consciously or unconsciously that they can't have everything they want so they take what they can get in a patriarchal society (274-276). â€Å"Women strategize within a set of concrete constraints, which I identify as patriarchal bargains.Different forms of patriarchy present women with distinct ‘rules of the game' and call for different strategies to maximize security and optimize life options with varying potential for act ive or passive resistance in the face of oppression† (Kandiyoti, 274). This bargaining with patriarchy can be seen in the fact that the â€Å"snake biting its own tail† normally and traditionally is a symbol of infinite possibilities, however here it becomes a symbol of vain hopes and of limitations. Susan's life is not infinite; it is dreary with gloomy prospects.The compromises that Susan has to make are a part of reasons that make Susan go to her insanity. She tries to find a way of living with her husband's infidelities or with merely taking care of her children, but these bargains fail and she is unable to be happy. Susan's feeling, that her life has no meaning or point, is also a feeling of dishonor. Susan feels shame at her thoughts that all of these are pointless for her. After all, this is everything society is telling her she should have! She feels ungrateful that she isn't happy, but can't resolve that feeling. Susan is far from alone in this.As Anna Sandiou points out in her article â€Å"To Room Nineteen. What Doris Lessing Has to Say About Women†, that literature like Lessing's was part of the beginning of a feminist movement that identified problems like Susan's as not as being personal failure but on the contrary being general problems of the society. â€Å"While Susan’s madness can be explained as the result of the clash between her impulsive, complex personality and the orderliness of the Victorian Angel, it can also be seen as resulting from the conflict between her private wishes and the public expectations that were placed on her, and on women in general.† (Sandoiu)The common social problems of women are why neither one of them, Susan or Matthew, can look at any part of their marriage and say, â€Å"For the sake of this is all the rest† (253). Matthew does everything in his power to make Susan happy, asking her how her day was (â€Å"not as interesting, but that was not her fault†), and tryin g to support her because â€Å"both knew of the hidden resentment and deprivations of the woman who lived her own life†¦ and is now dependent on a husband† (254). Matthew does cheat on her, but Susan and Matthew end up agreeing that this is natural (255).All of this, however, makes Susan feel that she was being â€Å"poison[ed]† by â€Å"resentment† and that â€Å"she was a prisoner† (263). As the narrator explains, â€Å"She must tell Matthew – but what? She was filled with emotions that were utterly ridiculous, that she despised†¦ † (264). Like many women, Susan was trying her best to be happy and grateful in a situation that she emotionally hated. The symbols of poison and prison, both slow and dreadful, are used to emphasize how Susan can be suffering even as she seems good on the outside.Her entire family with a kind of surprise, which she despises, treats even those things that Susan negotiates to make herself feel better. Sh e wants a room to herself to calm down and do her own tasks, but even this idea annoys her. â€Å"Many serious conversations took place between Matthew and the children about not taking Mother for granted. Susan overheard the first†¦ and was surprised at her irritation over it. Surely she could have a room somewhere in that big house and retire into it without such a fuss being made? † (266).Susan finds herself annoyed that the process of expressing her feelings and finding a way to be little happier must be such a big deal. Her anger is represented in her guilt as â€Å"devils of exasperation† that forces her to hide in the garden (267). â€Å"Devil† is a very important symbol. Matthew explanation that â€Å".. family sometimes get on top of a woman† annoys her deeply because she does not allow herself to believe that the problem isn't the woman, it's the family(267) . Susan is unable to explain the true cause of her feelings, so she finds that they become â€Å"devils† (267).As Anna Sandiou puts it, â€Å"Susan wonders whether something is wrong with her, the term ‘wrong’ pointing to how hard she is on herself and how little she is able to accept her emotions†. Susan struggles with the guilt of perception of her personal failing. She is incapable to accept that she does not have a personal failing, that she is simply unhappy because the patriarchal society doesn't allow the happiness for women. This is what leads her to her suicide. â€Å"To Room Nineteen† clearly demonstrates the emotional weight of those â€Å"public expectations† imposed on women like Susan who just want to be good, smart, and free.â€Å"A woman who wants to be a woman in a different way than that society has prepared for her†(Sandiou) The symbol of the devil continues to be important throughout the story. When her room ultimately became a family room again, she â€Å"howled with impatience, with rage† and prayed to God to keep the devil away (267-268). She imagines the devil as â€Å"young-looking†, â€Å"energetic†, almost a sexual object (268). Her shame, her struggle, and her fight against her emotions causes her to see the devil. Moreover, in her growing suffering she realizes that â€Å"there is a danger because I’ve seen him.He is lurking in the garden and sometimes even in the house, and he wants to get into me and to take me over† (268). We may say that the idea of demonic possession is a symbol of the passions that are being repressed by the demands of Victorian patriarchal society. And the attractiveness of the devil may represent unfulfilled sexual desire and passion for having a better life, which her society is not allowed her to have. The fact that the demons are certainly the symbols of her passions becomes clear in the final scene of the story, when she begins to plan her suicide by gas.â€Å"The demons were not here. They were gone f orever, because she was buying her freedom from them. She was slipping already into the dark fructifying dream that seemed to caress her inwardly†¦ † (288). Susan's denial of her passions leads her life to be so unworthy that she can't fight against suicide anymore. A very critical symbol that is used, though it is mentioned only once, is the idea of a â€Å"shell† (279). â€Å"She was surprised no one saw through her, that she wasn't turned out of doors, as a fake. On the contrary, it seemed that the children loved her more† (279).Like a real shell, Susan's persona is actually loved more because it is never about her or her happiness, such as Matthew tries to make her happy in his own way. It is about others' happiness. The persona, the shell, is not seen through because no one wants to see through it. No one really wants to peel the shell and see the actually angry, desiring woman underneath who wants something more from her life than what she has gotten. Eventually, when Susan kills herself what has been remained – a body, a shell. Her existence as a mother and a wife was more important to others than her actual feelings or desires.She felt so much guilt and shame about her true self that she had to end her life to keep the illusion. Therefore, when she removes her shell in the final moments as she is considering suicide, she is able to free her true self and no longer has to see the demons. We may consider the shell is in part a symbol of â€Å"alienation† (Quawas, 107). As Rula Quawas explains it in her article â€Å"Lessing’s ‘To Room Nineteen: Susan’s Voyage into the Inner Space of â€Å"Elsewhere†, â€Å"Doris Lessing draws extensively on women's inner, private experiences and their departure from the unsatisfactory reality of life in an alienated and alienating society† (107).Also, she claims that Susan is a woman who † discards the various garments and social roles she ha s worn and adopted, retreats into her room and experiences her own ‘elsewhere'† (107). It seams to me that one of the great taunts of the story is that the hotel room far from her family is so important to her as â€Å"her† own room that Susan is willing to wait in a hall full of disinfectant in order just to be in there, while the room that she tried to make for herself in her house became just another part of her prison and eventually another family room.It ends up that Susan wears the â€Å"shell† and this shell is a symbol of her alienation, and her final death symbolizes, reflects the impossibility of the freedom for women in patriarchal society. In conclusion, I would like to repeat that the story is â€Å"about a failure in intelligence†. However, we have to admit that nothing is intelligent about patriarchy. Patriarchal society oppressed women, didn't treat them seriously and the most accepted roles for a woman were only a wife and a mother. No one in a patriarchal society could really tried to understand the needs of any real woman. Susan happened to be unable to live in those circumstances.All of the symbols in the story are about the transformed ideas: The ‘snake eating its own tail† becomes a symbol of infinite hopelessness instead of infinite possibility; her own passions becomes to be viewed as devils because they are socially inconvenient and can not be accepted by society; the good life that she is living becomes a shell covered her pain; her entire existence becomes to be an existence of a poisoned prisoner. The symbol of the snake eating its tail, the devils, the poison and the shell all help the reader to reinforce the fact that this pain is a deeply social one.

Generals Die in Bed †Plot Essay

When he thought war contained glory and glamour, he finds himself wrong when his comrades start to die, beginning with Brown. A while later, he is emotionally affected when he kills a German with his bayonet. His emotional status worsens when another of his friend dies. The narrator then goes on leave for 10 days in England, where a prostitute makes him forget about the war. When he comes back, an attempt to raid the Germans takes place where the rest of his friends, except Broadbent dies. The general tells the new team that the Germans sank a hospital ship, and organizes another raid, this time to kill everyone. The narrator has wounded his foot, and discover that Broadbent was mortally wounded too. Broadbent’s leg is hanging by a string of flesh, but then dies by blood loss. Then the war is over. The recruits are told that the general lied, the Germans didn’t sink a hospital ship. It was a ship filled with weapons. He then realizes war is basically a chess game for the generals, and the soldiers are just young boys, listening to the orders, with meaningless ideals Wikipedia

Is the war on terrorsim just Essay

In this paper I argue that war against terrorism is no just but some war can be just as long as it follows the theory of a just war. As old as early civilizations, war played a significant role in the political stability and security of the society. It has been a central feature of civilisation throughout recorded time. (Evans, 1). Although war is seen as violent and morally destructive, still it was considered as an effective way of defending and even promoting civilization. It was also used by the major religions of this world such as Islam and Christianity to spread their faith. In every war, we can’t deny the fact that there is a political motive behind the heroic reason of its leaders. Being evil by nature, there are a lot of arguments regarding the moral aspect of war. According to La Vitta Cattolica, the debate is whether the nature of traditional war is still applicable with the modern one. Their stand is it is still the same when it comes to the extent of its fatality. They described it as a lethal contest, fed by hatred, physical violence is unleashed in all its brutality. (Elshtain, 108). Is war really for the benefit of people or is just another way of exploiting humanity? There is also a question regarding the extent of its necessity. Nowadays, there are standards to fulfil if a country wants to engage in war. Although a term such as just war was derived from this war controversy, still justice is still a question. It is because the provisions of this just war theory is not fulfilled. Until now, we can say that there is no such war in our history that fulfilled those provisions. Meanwhile, war is also in the history of Christian church. When we look at the teachings of Christianity, we can say that it is against the ideas of Jesus Christ. As we read the gospel, it was clearly imposed by Christ that each of us should love one another even our enemy. As a matter of fact, Nicolas I said that was is always satanic to its origin. (Elshtain, 113). Even Christ himself set an example of being a promoter of peace. But later on, the said faith needs to adapt to the changing world and the result is the use of war to defend the faith. During the 4th and 5th century, Christians were obliged to do military service. This policy was change during the middle ages but later on, the Church became involved with crusades. (Elshtain, 113). Here we can see that war is really inevitable. Although war is inevitable, still a nation or state should do alterative ways to defend themselves. Even if the motive of engaging in war is good the casualties that it will cause to humanity is great. In previous wars, a lot of innocent lives were brutality killed. It will be reasonable if those people were oppressors or enemy of the states but those people were ordinary citizens that needs to be protected. As said by Thucydides, â€Å"The strong do as they can while the weak suffer for what they must† (Chomsky, 1). It is the strong forces church as political and military forces who initiated the war but sadly, the civilians who have nothing to do with their decisions suffer from its consequences. As a state it is the responsibility of the government to promote the welfare of its people by letting them experience political security. One way of ensuring political security is through defending a state from foreign invaders. But it doesn’t mean that war is the only option to defend one state. For me, war should be the last option of the state and apart from selfish political reason; the welfare of the people should be the main motive. When it comes to war against terrorism, I believe that it is not just because it doesn’t apply to just war theory. What is a just war? In a traditional sense, it denotes a specific body of moral doctrine found in Christianity. (Evans, 2). It means that the faith that promotes peace love for enemies also adopted the use of war to secure the faith. In modern times, a just war means following certain ethical consideration before engaging in a war. In other words, actions are evaluated in terms of range of the likely consequence. (Chomsky, 7). It means that a just war should create a lesser physical and moral damage. It also means that engaging in a just war is like choosing the lesser evil. â€Å" †¦though within war there may be many acts of heroism, just war theory cannot then, be said to glorify war or be blind of its moral horrors. † (Evans, 10). Aside from that, just like other kinds of war, it involves torture and interrogation of innocent civilians. One way of justifying the war against terrorism is the idea that it protects the people from fatal terrorist attacks. Nowadays, terrorist attacks which is most commonly in a form of bombing kills a lot of innocent civilians. Other than that terrorist attacks can affect a nation’s economy that is why there are still doubts whether war against terrorism is really for people. Because the political stability of a states is also threatens by terrorist attacks, there is the possibility that the security of civilians is not the primary concern. Let us look at the condition of war theory and see whether the war against terrorism is a just war. First, the cause must be just and the justice of the cause is sufficiently great. Next, one must be confident that it will not yield long term consequences longer than the status quo. Obviously, it should be the last resort and moral standards should not be compromised. We can say that the first two conditions apply to the war against terrorism but the applications of the latter conditions were questionable. Surely this kind of war will cause long term psychological effects to the civilians involve. It can cause major trauma to the victims that can affect their daily lives even if the war is over. It is also obvious that moral standards were compromised because of the use of torture to gain information. There is also a debate regarding the moral aspect of torture. Indeed, information during war is a necessity for it can serve as a solution to win and end the war immediately. But the question is whether it is needed right here and now to win a particular battle. (May, 196). Form me, whether their information is helpful or necessary in winning the battle, torture is still a form of human rights violation. Indeed, war is not a good way of defending a state. Even if there are just wars, still it is very fatal and those innocent civilians were the common victims. But if there is no other option except war, it is reasonable as long as it promotes the welfare of the states and civilians. References: Elshtain, J. (1992) Modern War and Christian Conscience. But was it Just?. La Civilitta Cattolica. New York. Evans, M. (2005). Just War theory: A reappraisal. New York: Palgraw Macmillan. May, L. (2007). War Crimes and Just War. New York: Cambridge University Press. Chomsky, N. (2006). A Just War? Hardly. Retrieved: January 9, 2007 from ZNPT Commentaries. Website: http://www. zmag. org/sustiners/content/2006-05/zochomsky. cfm.

Aerospace Development and the Boeing 787 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Aerospace Development and the Boeing 787 - Essay Example The 787-9 with a capacity of 290 seats and the 787-3 with 330 are set for a release in mid and late 2010 ("Program Fact Sheet"). The 787-8 and 787-9 are long distance carriers with a range of over 8,000 nautical miles. The 787-3 is a shorter distance aircraft with a maximum range of just over 3,000 nautical miles ("Technical Information"). The Boeing 787 boasts several innovative improvements that make it an environmentally friendly, efficient, and economical aircraft. The performance of the 787 is similar to the 747 and 777 that travel at a speed of Mach .85 ("Program Fact Sheet"). By using a higher ratio of carbon composite materials, the 787 has a weight savings of 30,000 to 40,000 pounds compared to an Airbus A330-200, which results in a 20% fuel savings ("Program Fact Sheet"). In addition, the 787 produces 20% fewer emissions and it is anticipated that maintenance costs will be reduced by 30% ("Program Fact Sheet"). Customer orders have been placed by major airlines from around the world. The largest orders have come from ANA at 50, Northwest Airlines at 18, JAL at 35, Continental Airlines at 20, Air China at 15, Air Canada at 14, China Eastern Airlines at 15, International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC) at 22, LCAL (Low-Cost Aircraft Leasing) at 15, China Southern Airlines at 10, Air India at 27, Qantas at 45, Singapore Airlines at 20, and Jet Airways at 10 ("Boeings 787 Dreamliner Surpasses 500 Customer Orders", "Program fact Sheet"). Several other international airlines have placed smaller orders bringing the total to 514 aircraft. Delivery is currently set for early 2008 for the 787-8 and 2010 for the 787-9 and 787-3. The current orders for 514 aircraft represent the initial delivery of what Boeing anticipates will be 3,500 787 aircraft by the year 2023 ("Program Facts"). This will represent $400 billion in sales through this 20-year period. The major competitor for the soon to be released 787-8