Analyzing they believed, that it would be

Analyzing they believed, that it would be

Analyzing The Struggle For Power In Four Novels: Fahrenheit 451, Invisible ManLord of the Flies and Julius CaesarIf you delve into the content of almost any novel, there is almostalways some kind of struggle for power. It could be for rightful integrationinto society; power over an island; power over a country; or in some cases, evenpower over the minds of others. These not at all uncommon struggles for powerare what keep us interested in the plot of a book. The ongoing battle between acharacter and his cause makes it impossible to put down a good book.

Forinstance, the novel 1984 by George Orwell is about the struggle of a man and awoman to somehow find a way to get out of the constant barrage of cameras andmind control conducted by their government. Although the two of them eventuallylost the battle, there was still a victor in the struggle for power: theirgovernment.In the novel Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the main struggle forpower deals with the government.

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This overly oppressive, almost Orwellian stylebureaucracy, tries to make sure there is no interaction with books at all. Theybelieve that books permeate their society and corrupt the minds of the people.Unannounced searches of property by “firemen” are not at all uncommon. At theslightest inkling of this futuristic contraband, these firemen will rummagethrough all of one’s property, at times, destroying everything in their path.On the opposite side of that spectrum, there is a struggle for power by thepeople as well. There is the woman who hid several thousand volumes of books inher house. She loves these books so much that when the firemen ransacked herhouse, she went down with the books without hesitation.

In another example ofthis ongoing struggle for power, some people’s lives were actually transformedinto books. Their names changed to the title of the book, and they had tomemorize every single written line of text. These people were so determined tofight for what they believed, that it would be impossible to say that some kindof struggle for power did not exist. They were struggling for the power offreedom. There is not only one kind of freedom you can have. Some peoplesstruggle for the power of freedom might be just to be allowed to exist at all.

When you read the Invisible Man, a novel by Ralph Ellison, in lies oneof the most incredible and wonderful struggles for power that very possibly thisworld has ever seen. It involves the struggle of a black man trying to find apoint of equilibrium for himself in a white man’s world. Invisible Man wasfilled with a virtual plethora of differing and multi-cultural characters. Forexample, Mr. Norton, Brother Jack, Ringo from the paint factory, theSuperintendent; all of these characters presented in the novel provide a morerealistic sense of how the protagonist dealt with society in very different ways.Some of the different characters mentioned above had to be handled indifferent ways.

Mr. Norton and the superintendent had to be treated always withrespect. The protagonist’s ability to recognize these different forms ofsociety and how to deal with each one of them eventually helped him adapt in amore appropriate way to different places in society.

The protagonist, however,was not the only person whose demeanor changed when confronted by someone else.Most all of the people of higher stature, like Mr. Norton, the dean ofadministrations at Tuskeegee, always seemed to walk around on egg shells whendealing with the protagonist.

I believe that the protagonist sensed this. Itwas because of the struggles for power made by people like the protagonist thateventually turned the tide for black Americans in the 19th and 20th century.However, these struggles had been going on for several centuries before his own.William Shakespeare is known as one of the greatest playwrights to haveever existed.

In his recreation of the Roman reign of Julius Caesar, heportrayed one of the greatest struggles for power and self-fulfillment in thehistory of man. From the dramatic fall of the great Roman emperor Caesar to thefight for remaining control over Rome by Marc Antony vs. Brutus and Cassius,Julius Caesar depicts one of the largest struggles for power ever seen inliterature.The first major struggle for power in Julius Caesar comes from theconspirators. This group of “rebels” has the intention to free Rome and itspeople from the shackles of Julius Caesar.

The only feasible way they can seeto do this is to eliminate Caesar altogether. Their doing this demonstrates aneed for a new kind power, one that suits their needs more accurately. Once theconspirators have finished their job and killed Caesar, they then have to dealwith Caesar’s “right hand man” if you will, Marc Antony. The battle with Antonybrings about the next major struggle for power in the play: winning the war thatAntony will put up against Brutus and his followers.

In the novel Lord Of The Flies by William Golding, there is a strugglefor power that is more common today than any of the aforementioned conflicts.Like most power struggles of today, it deals with two individuals trying to gaincontrol over land through two different personalities. Both of thesepersonalities are children, so that factor makes the conflict all the moreinteresting.On one side of the battlefield there is Ralph, and on the other side isJack. Of the two, Ralph is the logical thinker.

He wants to do tasks theconvenient way for not only himself, but also for everyone else. Just oppositeof him is Jack who has an almost totalitarian kind of outlook on how to gettasks done. Of the two of them, Jack is the one who seems most likely to abusethe power that he is given. Ralph simply wants to have fun, while at the sametime maintaining order on the island. This back and forth battle between thetwo of them continues all the way through the book until all of the boys who arestill alive are rescued.Struggles like the ones I have mentioned are extremely common in almostall forms of literature. However, as I have pointed out, these kinds ofstruggles have been going on since the beginning of man.

Today, the most commonstruggle for power seems to be deception and trickery, who can trick the mostpeople and make the most money doing it. As I have demonstrated above, writershave portrayed various struggles for power over and over again in novels andstories for centuries. I suppose this is because the struggle for power, inwhatever form, is a common dilemma to which everyone can relate.

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