lonely londoners essay

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29 Heartfelt Movies For When You’re Feeling Lonely

The subject of loneliness, an inescapable part of the human condition, has been featured in many successful movies over the years. It’s a topic that will never go out of style, as all of us will weather feelings of loneliness in our lives, for various reasons.

Maybe it’s possible to put some of the movie magic of Hollywood to good use to create a sense of mental camaraderie that goes beyond just entertaining. Some poignant films include characters who are dealing with tough situations in total isolation. As expected, their journeys are often filled with dread and feelings of hopelessness, but they also manage to overcome their dilemmas in the end. The final result is a sense that even the worst times are temporary and leave us stronger. Let’s take a look!

The African Queen (1951)

In The African Queen , Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart) and Rose Sayer (Katharine Hepburn) escape from Kungdu. With World War I starting, they try to dodge the German troops in the area, and that means traversing some dangerous rivers to make it out of the area and back to safety.

Much like Allnut and Sayer discovered, the way out of a sticky situation isn’t always safe. You could end up in a worse scenario if you make the wrong choices. Through patience, the proper solution could be at your fingertips. When you find yourself moving away from the trouble, you will never want to go back.

Rear Window (1954)

In Rear Window , photographer L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies (James Stewart) is stuck at home with a broken leg. While he’s home alone, he gets the occasional visit from his girlfriend and his nurse. His movement is limited, but it doesn’t stop him from doing his job, and he spots an unbelievable crime through his lens.

Many times, people feel they can’t do anything while they’re stuck in a limited space for a lengthy time. As expected, this isn’t the case at all. Many individuals have discovered different ways to get the job done. Loneliness doesn’t have to be a hindrance to getting things done.

Swiss Family Robinson (1960)

Swiss Family Robinson depicts a family of five embarking on a journey to relocate to New Guinea. Unfortunately, a horrendous storm causes them to crash onto an unknown island. After discovering wildlife in the region, they decide to build a treehouse to call home.

Family is the most important thing you will ever have in your life. When you feel the world is against you, they are always willing to help out. The Robinsons were lucky enough to have each other’s back. In their isolated state, they were able to build a closer connection with each other.

The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976)

The Boy in the Plastic Bubble tells the tale of Tod Lubitch (John Travolta), who has a horribly compromised immune system. Because of it, he has to grow up inside a plastic bubble to prevent him from dying. In order to live at home with his family, Lubitch is forced to do everything inside his room.

Many people are forced into isolation because of various causes such as health issues. Lubitch understood this and made the most out of his situation. If isolation is a constant, it’s important to rearrange your daily life to make things work.

Alien (1979)

In Alien , warrant officer Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) returns from stasis on Nostromo. Along with six other crew members, Ripley lands on the moon to complete sudden repair work on the ship. Unfortunately, she is stuck having to face an alien creature by herself.

While it’s nice to be working as part of a team, facing situations alone is pretty common. It became a tall task for Ripley, though. Facing an alien alone on the moon wasn’t on her agenda that day. Fortunately, being alone doesn’t mean you can’t find a way to solve your problems.

Home Alone (1990)

Home Alone showcases every parent’s worst fear — their child left completely alone to fend for himself. In the movie, Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) gets left behind while his family goes on their Christmas vacation. The boy is ecstatic about being left in the home by himself. Unfortunately, two comical bandits are plotting to break into the home.

After learning about their plan, McCallister booby traps the entire house. Sometimes, loneliness can spawn some newfound creativity. This could mean finishing that novel you started writing or producing some new music. Inspiration can lead to exciting new things happening in your life.

Apollo 13 (1995)

Apollo 13 tells the true story of the failed moon mission of NASA astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise. The three men were set for an unforgettable adventure aboard spaceship Apollo 13 . Unfortunately, things take a turn for the worst when an explosion on board disrupts the entire operation.

At certain times in our lives, we all feel helpless. There’s often the feeling of not knowing how a situation will turn out. The brave astronauts didn’t know if they would ever come back to Earth. Just because you feel helpless, it’s not going to stay that way forever. Having hope is important for keeping a positive mindset.

Robinson Crusoe (1997)

During his time as James Bond, Pierce Brosnan also starred in Robinson Crusoe as the titular character. Crusoe finds himself isolated on an island following a typhoon. Knowing he will never be found, the character begins turning the island into his new home, eventually saving a local native who becomes his only friend.

When it comes to being isolated with another person, it’s always important to work as a team. Finding each other’s strengths and weaknesses can help things run smoothly. It’s also important to talk about each other’s feelings. While it can be a bit scary, discussing problems will make you feel better.

Cast Away (2000)

In Cast Away , Tom Hanks plays system analyst Chuck Noland, who works for FedEx and enjoys traveling until a trip to Malaysia leaves him the sole survivor of a disastrous plane crash. Upon making it to land, Noland realizes he is the only one on the tropical island.

Over the course of four years, Noland made the island his new home and relied on a volleyball he named Wilson for “companionship.” As viewers, we are right there with him as he learns to dig deep to adapt to his new surroundings. Changes are always inevitable in life, and Noland teaches us that making the most out of a bad situation is the best way to persevere and survive.

Bubble Boy (2001)

In Bubble Boy , Jimmy Livingston (Jake Gyllenhaal) tries to live his best life while confined to the inside of a plastic bubble. He suddenly finds himself attracted to his neighbor, Chloe, and his world changes dramatically when Chloe tells him she’s marrying her boyfriend in Niagara Falls.

Livingston escapes from isolation because he wants to stop the marriage. During his potentially deadly journey, he runs into a plethora of colorful characters. When loneliness weighs you down, it can be helpful to take a big step outside. You never know who you might run into outdoors.

Panic Room (2002)

Panic Room finds Meg Altman (Jodie Foster) isolated with her daughter, Sarah (Kristen Stewart), in a panic room. They are hiding and protecting themselves from home intruders, oblivious to the fact that this specific panic room has a whopping $3 million locked in a safe. Things change when Altman has to defend her family.

It’s always important to defend things important to you, such as family and your goals. People will often criticize those around them for their actions. Standing up for yourself probably won’t make others change their mind, but it can lead them to gain newfound respect for you.

Swept Away (2002)

In Swept Away , the wealthy and the poor clash on an unforgettable journey. Socialite Amber Leighton (Madonna) treats herself to a trip to Italy. During the voyage, she has an argument with deckhand Giuseppe Esposito (Adriano Giannini). Things get dicey when their ship runs out of gas, and they land on a deserted island.

Being isolated with someone you’re not familiar with isn’t fun at first. For Leighton and Esposito, it was a complete disaster when they found themselves alone. Fortunately, getting to know each other can help strengthen the bond between two individuals.

Lars and the Real Girl (2007)

Lars and the Real Girl showcases the extreme measures some people will take to avoid being alone. Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling) has zero luck in the social department, but things change — sort of — when he finds a doll named Bianca and starts a “relationship” with it. This behavior obviously worries everyone around him a great deal.

While Lars gets plenty of strange looks for his wild imagination, a great imagination is actually one of the most important things in life. It allows you to picture yourself in a different setting, such as a new city or in a new career. In many cases, imagination leads to people making their dreams become reality.

Wall-E (2008)

In Pixar’s Wall-E , the titular character lived humbly alone as a trash compactor. Unfortunately, he ends up inhabiting an empty Earth filled with waste at every turn. Upon meeting another robot named EVE, Wall-E decided to follow her back to her ship, Axiom.

When it comes to exploring, many people who are lonely are scared to leave their city. After spending a long time alone, Wall-E wanted to discover something different. By hopping on the ship, he managed to have a unique experience. Traveling to another place can help give you a brand new perspective on things.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story (2010)

In It’s Kind of a Funny Story , 16-year-old Craig Gilner (Keir Gilchrist) faces the perils of being a teenager. When he harbored feelings of worthlessness, he kept it to himself. Following a suicide attempt, he is sent to a psychiatric ward for a one-week stay.

Gilner’s internal isolation led to a near-tragic scenario. For millions of people, this is a situation they know all too well. If loneliness is getting to you, it’s important to reach out — even from a distance — for help. Whether you talk to a professional or a friend, having someone there can make a difference.

127 Hours (2010)

In 127 Hours, actor James Franco portrays real-life outdoorsman Aron Ralston. While climbing in Bluejohn Canyon, he accidentally dislodged a boulder that crushed his hand, pinning him against the canyon wall. With no one around to help him, his life flashed before his eyes, and he anticipated the worst.

For days, Ralston recorded his experience and his thoughts to keep himself sane. Similar to journaling, recording daily activities is a healthy outlet for many people. Some record their journey for vlogs, while others use old-fashioned pen and paper. When you look back on these entries, you will be able to see how far you’ve come.

Hugo (2011)

In Hugo , the title character had a rough upbringing. His father died in a fire, and his uncle Claude came up missing. Left alone at the Gare Montparnasse railway station, Hugo decides to take care of the station’s clock. For him, it kept the memories of his father alive.

At such a young age, Hugo learned more about isolation than any person should. It was his love for his father that made the difference. Everything he did was in his father’s name. Sometimes, love is all it takes to keep someone going.

Life of Pi (2012)

In Life of Pi , 16-year-old Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel gets ready to move to Canada. Unfortunately, a storm managed to disrupt his travel plans. After his boat sinks near the Mariana Trench, Patel awakens on a lifeboat, thanks to an unnamed crewman. Of course, Patel wasn’t completely alone as a Bengal tiger was also on board.

Life of Pi wants us to remember that it’s always best to have someone by your side, even if it’s a scary someone. For young Patel, he didn’t have a human who could communicate with him. Fortunately, the tiger became a major part of his journey — and his friend.

All Is Lost (2013)

In All Is Lost , Robert Redford portrays an unnamed man who is lost at sea. Upon discovering his boat has been destroyed, he tries to find a way back to land. The challenges get worse as he has to power through two major storms.

Not surprisingly, Redford’s character felt hopeless as he tried to find help and a way to survive, but he proved that he truly understood the phrase “never give up.” If something is hard or complicated, many people want to walk away from the situation, but it’s always best to see things through to find a solution.

Gravity (2013)

Gravity tells the chilling story of Dr. Ryan Stone’s (Sandra Bullock) first space mission. Things go south quickly when debris crashes into the spaceship, causing her to float away into space. When commander Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) sacrifices his life to save hers, Stone has to find her way back alone with very little experience.

Having no experience in something can easily lead to disaster if you aren’t careful. Stone did what she could with the tools around her. Even if you don’t have the right experience, it’s possible to make it through something tough with some quick thinking.

Locke (2013)

Locke features actor Tom Hardy as Ivan Locke, who is a construction foreman in England. Things get hectic when he receives word that his co-worker is in labor. The baby is his, so he decides to drive to be by her side.

The film plays out with Locke calling everyone he knows during the long drive. In some cases, being alone doesn’t always mean really being alone. With a simple phone call or text, you can reach out to someone who will be there for you. Whether it’s for some help or for a laugh, it’s always best to keep in contact with those closest to you.

Wild (2014)

Novelist Cheryl Strayed had her unbelievable voyage showcased in the 2014 film Wild . In the movie, Reese Witherspoon plays Strayed, who embarks on an 1,100-mile hike all by herself. For Strayed, it was the perfect way to get over a recent divorce.

Isolation might get a bad rap from people, but there are times when it’s absolutely necessary. In Strayed’s unique situation, being isolated from everyone aided her journey of self-discovery. Having so much time alone helped her focus. Sometimes, you need a clear head to get back on your feet.

Housebound (2014)

In Housebound , Kylie Bucknell (Morgana O’Reilly) gets placed under house arrest following a robbery attempt. She chooses to live with her mother, Miriam (Rima Te Wiata), instead of her step-dad, Graeme. Unfortunately, she quickly learns her mother’s home is haunted, and she decides to figure out more about the ghost.

Finding out the truth can be difficult for some people. Depending on the situation, it can be completely heartbreaking. Bucknell felt it was important to understand why strange things were occurring. In some cases, learning the truth can help put your mind at ease.

The Martian (2015)

In The Martian , astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) gets left behind during a trip to Mars. While he was originally presumed dead, his team tries to bring him back home. Watney is forced to survive on the planet alone until help arrives.

Waiting around for a long time can make anyone lose their cool. In isolation, the wait can feel like an eternity. Watney had the misfortune of being forced to wait quite some time while being stuck on another planet. In the end, waiting is a major factor in moving forward with life. Not everything is given to you in an instant.

Room (2015)

In Room , Joy Newsome (Brie Larson) has been held captive for seven years with her son, Jack (Jacob Tremblay). The two are trapped in a room together by Jack’s father, Old Nick (Sean Bridgers). After years of isolation, the mother and son make plans to escape.

Leaving isolation behind can seem tricky at first. In certain cases, individuals feel right at home alone and simply don’t want to change. Taking the first step toward exiting isolation is important. It’s one that will eventually lead to you feeling completely better about yourself.

The Shallows (2016)

The Shallows follows medical student Nancy Adams (Blake Lively) on her trip to Mexico. During a surfing session, Adams gets attacked by a great white shark who takes a nibble out of her leg. Things get worse when she’s forced to seek shelter on a small rock formation about 200 yards from shore — and safety.

With no one to help her, she must find her own way back to shore, and she’s quite determined to make it. Determination is a strong factor in pursuing your goals. When you feel lonely, you might feel a bit unsure about moving forward with any plans, but with the proper mindset, you can accomplish anything you want in life.

Captain Fantastic (2016)

Captain Fantastic follows a family that chooses to live in isolation for a decade. Instead of allowing his children to grow up in a normal setting, Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen) wants them to grow up around nature. Things change when Cash’s children confront him about their lifestyle.

When it comes to confrontation, many people try to avoid it at all costs. In certain cases, however, it’s necessary for someone else’s — or your own — benefit. For Cash’s children, their feelings were boiling inside them for years. Confrontation can be tricky, and it’s best to communicate in a civil manner.

Phobia (2016)

Agoraphobia, which is the fear of feeling trapped in unsafe situations — not simply the fear of leaving your home, as many believe — was explored in 2016’s Phobia . Artist Mehak Deo (Radhika Apte) starts to experience the anxiety disorder following an attack by a taxi driver. Deo starts to believe another spirit is inhabiting her apartment, which leads to her having visions.

Fear is often synonymous with loneliness. When kept away from people for too long, some individuals are scared of what others might possess. Deo’s attack caused her to see the world in a darker way, but, fortunately, fear is something that dissipates over time.

Everything, Everything (2017)

In Everything, Everything, Madeline “Maddy” Whittier (Amandla Stenberg) couldn’t experience life like other teens. Because she had SCID, she couldn’t leave her house like other people. Things change when Madeline starts having feelings for her neighbor, Oliver (Nick Robinson), and runs off with him.

Sometimes, obstacles make it easier to truly appreciate the finer things in life. Maddy didn’t allow her life-changing situation to get in the way of finding love. Tearing down the walls might seem tough, but being able to have a better experience makes it all worth it.

Ad Astra (2019)

In Ad Astra , astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) is nearly killed following power surges throughout the solar system. He discovers his father, Clifford (Tommy Lee Jones), is responsible for these incidents through his Lima Project. After hearing his father may be alive, Roy heads to space to confront him.

Depending on the situation, reconnecting with people can be a challenge. McBride’s need for reconnection was important to the entire solar system. With so much history, you might not know how the other person will react. Saying “hello,” however, is always a great first step.

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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Human Migration — Integration in The Lonely Londoners

Integration in The Lonely Londoners

• Categories: Book Review Human Migration

About this sample

Words: 1620 |

Published: Jul 27, 2018

Words: 1620 | Pages: 4 | 9 min read

Bibliography

• Selvon Sam. The Lonely Londoners, London: Penguin Books, 2006, p. 21, 31, 33, 35, 40, 43, 45, 38, 39, 133
• Susheila, Nasta: "Introduction". Sam Selvon: The Lonely Londoners, Penguin Books: London, 2006, p. vi.
• Buzelin, Hélène. The Lonely Londoners en Français : lépreuve du métissage

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Lonely londoners.

• Word Count: 2466
• Approx Pages: 10
• View my Saved Essays
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• Grade level: Undergraduate
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                          Born in South Trinidad on 20 May 1923, Samuel Dickson Selvon, the son of an Indian father and a half-Indian, half-Scottish mother, graduated from San Fernando's Naparima College in 1938. Selvon grew up in Trinidad's multiracial society and regards himself as a creolized West Indian, as he has suggested in more than one interview. But he has a strong sense of displacement, and this feeling sometimes emerges as a subtle theme in his fiction. He began to write fiction and poetry while he worked as a wireless operator for the Royal Navy Reserve during World War II. When the war ended, he turned to journalism and served as the fiction editor of the literary magazine of the Trinidad Guardian newspaper until 1950, when he left for England in search of other employment. In London his short stories began to be published in journals and newspapers, and in 1954, before the publication of his second novel, he was awarded his first Guggenheim Fellowship. Six additional fellowships and assorted scholarships, including a second Guggenheim (1968), followed, and in 1969 the Trinidad and Tobago government awarded him the Humming Bird Medal for literature. Selvon married Draupadi Persaud in 1947, was later divorced, and married Althea Nesta Daroux in 1963. He has one child from his first marriage and three from his second. .              .              .              Sam Selvon died suddenly in his native Trinidad on 16 April 1994, in his seventy-first year. He had lived in Calgary, Alberta, since moving to Canada from London in 1978 and was about to return there when he was taken ill. His fellow Trinidadian, the critic and editor of Ariel, Victor Ramraj, described him in a graceful eulogy at a memorial service in Calgary as "the laughing philosopher, touched by the sad lot of humans but not overwhelmed by it." Ramraj's words capture an essential quality of both the man and the work, one that enables us to distinguish him among that remarkably gifted band of Caribbean writers who set sail for London, fame, and variable fortune in the fifties.

• Page 1 of 9

Essays Related to Lonely Londoners

1. samuel selvon(1923-1994).

With the exception of The Lonely Londoner, his novels focus on the everyday experience of islanders in Trinidad. The Lonely Londoner portrays in a humorous manner the experience of the expatriate West Indians in London. A sequel to The Lonely Londoner-- Moses Ascending (1975) expresses what may be Selvon's most trenchant social criticism, which he communicate through a form of English that combines Trinidad creole English and Standard English. ...

• Word Count: 401
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

2. Identity Crisis Depicted in Two Literary Works

INTRODUCTION Identity in the simplest terms refers to who and what we are. It can be described as an easily noticed characteristics belonging to any given individual, or shared by all members of a particular social category or group. The process of the development of the distinct personality of an i...

• Word Count: 2395

3. History Of Depression

The dark, lonely figure slumped in a cold, darkly shadowed landscape, appears deep in her inner world. ... This "insane asylum" was a favorite Sunday excursion spot for Londoners who came to look at the "crazy people" through the iron gates. ...

• Word Count: 2472
• Has Bibliography

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Place and Identity in Sam Selvon’s "The Lonely Londoners" and J.M Coetzee’s "Foe"

This essay will focus on the representation of place and identity in both novels, illustrating their symbiotic relationship and how they relate to one another in the broader phenomenon of postcolonialism.

Related Papers

In this essay I will analyse the themes of culture, civilisation, race and language in both Coetzee’s novel Foe and Sam Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners, since I believe that both of them depict the contradictions of colonialism in original ways. Therefore, this analysis will relate the act of speaking and of narrating to race, culture and language.

Helen Tiffin

As George Lamming once remarked, over three quarters of the contemporary world has been directly and profoundly affected by imperialism and colonialism. Although it is clear just how profound an effect this has had on the social and political structures of the twentieth century and on the relations which exist between nations in our age, it has until recently been less clear how profoundly this has influenced the perceptive frameworks of the majority of people alive now. The day to day realities of colonized peoples were in large part generated for them by the impact of European discourses. But the contemporary art, philosophies and literature produced by post-colonial societies are not simply continuations or adaptations of European models. The processes of artistic and literary colonization have involved a radical dis/mantling of European codes and a post-colonial subversion and appropriation of the dominant European discourses. This has frequently been accompanied by the demand for an entirely new or wholly recovered 'reality', free of all colonial taint. Given the nature of the relationship between colonizer and colonized, with its pandemic brutalities and its cultural denigration, such a demand is desirable and inevitable. But as the contradictions inherent in a project such as Chinweizu, Jemie and Madubuike's The Decolonization of African Literature demonstrate,' such pre-colonial cultural purity can never be fully recovered.

Hermann Wittenberg

This mini thesis is a survey of recent theories of space which provide a useful and novel perspective for an interpretation of J.M. Coetzee’s Foe. The notion of space as a social and cultural construct is the basis for an investigation into the spatiality of postmodernity and late capitalism; visual structures such as the picturesque and the panopticon; the ideological dimension of painted and written landscapes; and the structure of colonial spaces. Foe and its intertext Robinson Crusoe are examined in the light of these notions. A further argument seeks to situate colonial spaces within a larger spatial structure, namely that of imperialism. Foe is read as a critical engagement with spatialised structures of power such as imperialism, which seek to establish the dominance of a Western, rational, male subjectivity over colonised domains. It will be argued that novelistic narrative fiction is a key discursive feature of this dominance. Novels are thus complicit with imperialism. Foe’s critique of imperial spatial arrangements therefore takes the form of an intervention in the discourse of the novel: a rewriting of Robinson Crusoe which imaginatively creates a radically different, non-hegemonic space.

IJAR Indexing

This research paper explores the marginalized identities and marginalized condition of black immigrants in White dominated society, London. Samuel Selvon was one of the early West Indian immigrants to Britain that began in 1948. Selvon classical novel, The Lonely Londoners is a novel of realism and it depicts the lives of the marginalized black immigrants in London. The novel The Lonely Londoners deals with issue of migration of the Caribbean to England between 1930 and 1950. It focuses on the large body of working class immigrants and the issue of marginalization. There were more than 40,000 West Indians in London. The novel reveals the existence of fellow immigrants like Moses and Galahad from Trinidad; Captain (Cap) from Nigeria; Mahal from India; Tolray from the West Indies; Daniel hails from France; Brat and Five Past Twelve from Barbados and Brackley and Joseph originated from West Indies. All the immigrants are universally treated as ‘black’ and they are identified as ‘others’ or ‘marginalised’ in the white dominate English society. All the immigrants in the novel work in tubes, factories, railway station and perform household chores for low wages. The novel expresses the poor economic reality of the black immigrants and a drastic failure to find the postures in the alien world.

The Cambridge Companion to J.M. Coetzee, ed. Jarad Zimbler (pre-publication draft)

Meg Samuelson

Setting seldom receives the attention that it merits in studies of J.M. Coetzee’s writing and in narratology more generally. Yet various pivotal scenes in Coetzee’s kunstlerroman point to its importance. Through readings of selected works in his oeuvre, this chapter shows that setting is vital to narrative world-making while simultaneously performing an indexical function which invests these narratives with ‘worldly weight’; it thus establishes a relation to the real that is simultaneously fictitious and true. Focusing on Foe, Boyhood, Youth and Slow Man, the chapter tracks a referential movement from the insular and segregated state of apartheid South Africa, through the provincial-metropolitan axis and along the southern latitudes. In doing so, it demonstrates that Coetzee’s settings function as neither tromp d’oeil nor exotic local colour, neither blank screen nor empty frame. Instead, they are shown to convey the substance of the ‘real South’ and to locate the South as an alternative center of gravity that generates its own deictic markers while remaining haunted by its troubled histories.

Jihan Zakarriya

Aarthi Vadde

Collected in The Cambridge Companion to British Fiction Since 1945, ed. David James (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2016)

Tom Kamusella

This dissertation examines colonialism and the clash of cultures in conjunction with postcolonial problems as represented in the fiction of J.M. Coetzee by means of analyses of his novels. These analyses are contextualized against the philosophical, historical and literary background of colonialism and the response of African literature to the notion of colonialism. Therefore the introduction and chapter one focus on the rise, development and fall of colonialism, together with its philosophical premises, with special emphasis on the clash between the Judea-Christian tradition and non-European, non-western traditions. The first chapter concentrates predominantly on the African experience of colonialism, since the continent is most relevant for the subject of the dissertation, and is complemented with a critique of colonialism. The chapter also shows the social, economic and cultural consequences of colonialism, pointing out its significance for African and South African literature. The next chapter presents an overview of colonialism in African and South African literature, emphasizing the fact that colonialism is a modus vivendi of the literature because it gave rise to the development of the literature and accordingly provided it with the very subject matter in the form of innumerable exemplars of atrocities and oppression. The fiction of J. M. Coetzee is finally contextualized against this literary background. The third chapter offers a discussion of the critical apparatus employed in the analyses of J. M. Coetzee's novels. It includes a description of the concept of borderland and an overview of allegory - the writing techniques which the author extensively uses in his works in order to attain a high degree of objectivity and universality despite the fact that he deals with controversial and emotive notions such as colonialism, apartheid and racism. The other part of the chapter focuses on the clash of cultures which constitutes the pivotal theme of J. M. Coetzee's novels, and presents the writer's opinion on colonialism as published in his critical writings. Subsequently the chapters 4-9 are analyses of the six novels the author has published to date. In the conclusion a broader view of J. M. Coetzee's works as a whole is offered in the light of their universality and specificity. Then the clash of cultures in South Africa is depicted and the dissertation is ended with a discussion of a process of social change and areas of future research in the fiction of J. M. Coetzee.

Obsidian III: Literature in the African Diaspora

Rebecca Dyer

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The Lonely Londoners Belonging Analysis

Outliers: a sense of belonging.

We learn from the individuals introduced so far in ‘Outliers’ that odd occurrences are not random. Whether it’s a Canadian Hockey Team’s high number of players born early in the year or a South Korean airline with a crash rate higher than its competitors, there’s a logical explanation to it. How about migrant Italians of Roseto, PA with above-average health? Who's diets faired no better than their European counterparts in neighborhoods nearby. Further, the successes of Bill Gates, Bill Joy, and other tech moguls, while not obvious, are also explainable.

Brave New World Belonging Quotes

London did not live up to John’s high expectations, leaving him to believe that he would never be inside a community, even within his dreams. The behavior of the civilized people ran counter to all of his philosophies and morals. John articulated his frustration with this difference in one telling conversation, “’ But you always came before, John.’ ‘That’s precisely why I don’t want to come again.’”

Industrial Revolution Dbq Essay

One may think these conditions only applied to the poorest members of society, but, in fact, entire cities of people were living like this. Manchester, for instance, seen to be the center of English industry and production, changed dramatically because of urbanization and industrialization. The English Poet Robert Southey, in Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society, comments on Manchester that it has “...this multitude crowded together in narrow streets, the houses built of brick and blackened with smoke: frequent buildings among them as large as convents, without their antiquity, without their beauty….”(Document Q). Here, Robert Southey is comparing the older, bucolic and pastoral England with the modern cities in which productivity and profit is valued above maintaining an environment conducive to people’s health and happiness.

Examples Of Stereotypes In The Heat Of The Night

Stereotypes rampant in today’s society. They are implanted in one’s mind from a young age and learnt from school, media, friends or family. Moreover, the unique qualities of a person which can be beneficial for society can be hidden due to stereotypes. As a result, society can undermine a person by judging that judging that person based on the general idea it has about that person’s age, race, personality and/or financial status. Consequently, stereotypes have been a common topic that many authors have used in their books, with one such book being John Ball’s

Rhetorical Devices In How To Tame A Wild Tongue

The statement she quoted from her mother shows a deeper meaning than just that of “sounding like a Mexican”, this actually shows the internalised oppression her mother holds. This implies that the same forces which act upon our author have also acted upon her mother, forcing her to conform to their standards otherwise she would be rejected by society. The internalised part comes from racism seen by Latin Americans through the early 1900’s (before the 1900’s, and even today as well), her mother was most likely forced by authority figures (teachers, general adults, her own parents). Her mother was taught that the world she knew as her heritage was “wrong” so her self-image was skewed as a result which forced her to project this self hatred onto her daughter (which in-turn, would cause a domino-effect until their entire future bloodline would be culturally ignorant as their heritage was erased by

Society Is To Understand The Tacit Rules Of Belonging Essay

Michael Ignatieff once stated, “To belong is to understand the tacit codes of the people you live with”. In society and in certain groups, group identity is often craved by all and highly prized once obtained because, by most standards, a person is defined by their social standing, which is a common theme throughout literature such as The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible. To thoroughly understand Ignatieff’s statement, “to belong is to understand the tacit codes of the people you live with”, one must determine what the word, belong, means. According to the dictionary, to belong means to have the right personal or social qualities to be a member of a particular group. But how can someone truly learn to belong in society?

A Letter To My Nephew Essay

For example, James Baldwin’s “A Letter to my Nephew” can serve as a historical example of how one’s ethnicity characterizes an individual, thus, contributing to the fact that stereotypes contribute to an individual’s future

Humanity And Nature In Jack London's To Build A Fire

His inability to grasp the scope of this new world blinds him to both the advice of others and the world around him. While he observes “the changes in the creek, the curves and bends and timber jams” and pays careful attention to where he places his feet, his subtle mistakes shine through. London says, “He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances.” He does not bother to linger on the repercussions of the cold, “Fifty degrees below zero was to him just precisely fifty degrees below zero. That there should be anything more to it than that was a thought that never entered his head.”

Analysis Of Rudyard Kipling's 'The Mark Of The Beast'

They believed they were superior to the people of India, therefore it did not matter what the people of India believed or how British actions made them feel. In “The Mark of the Beast”, Rudyard Kipling uses symbolism to portray ignorance and arrogance in India brought on during its colonization by Britain. The character of Fleete exemplifies that ignorance and insensitivity, and he ultimately pays a grave price. Rudyard Kipling was able to experience both India and Britain growing up. Kipling was born in Bombay, India and was later taken to Britain to be educated (“Rudyard Kipling - Biographical” nobelprize.org).

Analysis: 'Long Enough In Jo Burg'

By using “travel companions,” writers are trying not only to acquaint the the reader with racial issues but to show HOW these issues affect others in society. The extent and of the problem and the contexts of the encountered problems are different. In the poem, while narrator doesn 't explicitly discuss the issue of racial discrimination, she describes this problem as " life long practice.” On the other hand, author of the second text, explicitly detests what she has seen in the Johannesburg, but it 's her “first time

Marginalization In The Lonely Londoners

Describing the effects of the London city, Ralph Singh, the narrator and protagonist, speaks of the people being “trapped into fixed postures”, of “the personality divided bewilderingly into compartments”, and of “the panic of ceasing to feel myself as a whole person.” Selvon’s third person narrative voice sees London as a place which is “divide[d] up in little worlds, and you stay in the world you belong to and you don’t know about what happening in the other ones except what you read in the papers” (The Lonely Londoners, 58). The Lonely Londoners is a novel of realism and it depicts the lives of the immigrants in London.

Compare And Contrast The Sign Of Four And The Beach Of Falesa

Although Doyle's The Sign of Four admires the peculiar aspects of Indian cultures, it upholds England's authority without questioning its legitimacy as reflected in Small's description of the Mutiny which unjustifiably associates India with barbarism. Stevenson's The Beach of Falesa, on the other hand, adamantly emphasizes the moral depravity of the white perpetrators. Both of these tales have undoubtedly broadened the imaginative horizons of British readers and their analyses have broadened mine so I am extremely thankful for the knowledge I acquired through this

Social Identity And Positionality

Positionality Paper Throughout the semester, we have had the opportunity to study many different social identities and their impacts on my life. For the purpose of this paper, the three social identities I have decided to focus on are: gender, nation of origin and race. Key Influences/Specific Events My gender was my first known identity, even before my name was given or before I had taken my first breath.

Essay On Loneliness And Isolation

Jerquan Stewart Essay 2 11/15/17 The differences between loneliness and isolation is that loneliness is when you don 't have any friends or family and just alone and isolation is when you choose to be by yourself , as in isolating yourself from everything. Being lonely has to deal with both social barriers and isolation is just dealing with personal choice. Most people enjoy loneliness rather than isolation because isolation is something that someone choose to do and no-one wants to be lonely so it 's most likely that people will avoid being lonely. Isolation have to deal with a lot of canceling out and being by themselves or choosing to be by themselves , and also its because they have to be lonely so they can focus on what they want to do or what goal they

Thesis Statement For Pride And Prejudice

This is the opening line of Pride and Prejudice; a romance novel written by Jane Austen and published on the 28th of January 1813 by an anonymous author – the same pseudonymous that she had previously used to publish Sense and Sensibility -. Jane Austen was born in 1775 in England (Stevenson, Hampshire) and it is thought that by the age of 16 had already written many different novels, even though it was not until 1811 when she was able to publish her first novel. The novel brings up many relevant topics that reflect the British life and customs characteristic of the eighteenth century. Austen makes a critic on these topics in a subtle -almost unnoticeable- way, the characters personify the British old-fashioned values that the author rejects, giving the reader freedom to judge the situation, while guiding them to

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The Lonely Londoners Essays

Integration in the lonely londoners carlos bispo college, the lonely londoners.

It have some men in this world, they don’t do nothing at all, and you feel that they would dead from starvation, but day after day you meeting them and they looking hale, they laughing and they talking as if they have a million dollars, and in...

Moses and Sir Galahad: Deciphering Biblical and Arthurian Allusions in The Lonely Londoners Kristen Barrett College

In The Lonely Londoners by Samuel Selvon, Moses and Henry Oliver fight to overcome the discrimination they suffer due to prejudice in London towards immigrants. As insidious as the American South’s notoriously overt racism, London’s covert racism...

A Study of Space in "Small Island" and "The Lonely Londoners" Anonymous College

As a human there are certain rights we believe we have. It is not uncommon for one group to believe themselves superior to another, or for each group to believe they have certain rights and the other group to disagree. This was the case when large...

Content and Form in Selvon's The Lonely Londoners: Representing Cultural Contact, Mixing, and Creolization Daisy van der Post College

Selvon's 'The Lonely Londoners' not only explores processes of cultural contact, but is in itself the product of and inspiration for future mixing of cultures: it is a novel which ‘forged a shift in perspective which would not only change the way...

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"The Lonely Londoners" Essays and Research Papers

lonely londoners

Not only the story of the ‘The Lonely Londoners ’ sends a message to its readers. It is also the language of the novel that successfully communicates with the readership. By the manipulation of Standard English or by using some form of Creolized English‚ Selvon distance himself from the mainstream culture of the United Kingdom‚ the power that colonized his homelands for several hundreds of years. The novel is targeted to groups of readers‚ the black and also the white people. The white readers can

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Migration Themes in Caribbean Literature: More Social Problems Than Solutions

fear; fear of being discovered‚ fear of ‘not making it’‚ fear of not being accepted‚ fear of the unknown situations. These elements are exposed in George Lamming’s novel The Emigrants‚ Edward Brathwaite’s poem The Emigrants‚ and Sam Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners and “When Greek Meets Greek”. The common link within each of these works is that they all portray individuals who have left their native West Indian homelands in search of a better life. In Lamming’s novel‚ the emigrants are unknowingly

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Ways of sunlight; Samuel Selvon character analysis.

INTRODUCTION In literary works‚ characters usually illuminate the overt and covert themes of the story‚ the setting‚ the plots and subsequent subplots. The literary works’ creators need characters so as to emphasize on the major issues affecting our contemporary society. In his short stories anthology‚ ‘Ways of sunlight’‚ Samuel Selvon uses characters to present the themes and explain the actions they undertake in their lives. Using five short stories from the anthology we are able to understand

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Lit 4188 the Lonely Londoners

LIT 4188 15 April 2010 Let’s Get Together: Gilroy’s Question of Solidarity within the Social Dynamic of Corregidora and The Lonely Londoners The concept of identity can be illustrated as a complex assembly‚ and more specifically as a group of collected observations. It can be derived from one’s view of self as a subject‚ to one’s view of self in relation to the other‚ and finally one’s identity in terms of relationships to others with shared sets of attributes‚ vernaculars‚ conditions

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The 'Outsider' in the Lonely Londoners and a Distant Shore.

both writers of the Black British writer movement. Although they wrote during and about different time periods‚ in the English history‚ one might say that both Philips and Selvon tackled a similar theme in their books A Distant Shore and The Lonely Londoners . That theme being the phenomenon of the ‘outsider’ in the community. This essay will discuss this theme in relation to the previous mentioned books by comparing and contrasting the main protagonistswhile also looking at social and political

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Lonely Heart

“ Lonely Hearts” “ Lonely Hearts” by Wendy Cope is a statement on the disconnectedness and isolation of modern city living. By showing the reader five different people all searching for love‚ all in the same area of North London‚ all of whom have different but very basic needs in a love interest‚ Cope is highlighting the fact that current societal means of meeting ones mate have changed. In addition the use of the villanelle style of closed form poetry gives this the presentation of a Greek chorus

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Lonely Planet

Lonely planet Introduction: * Type of organization: Lonely Planet has a internal culture in there company. That means that employees are free to be themselves‚ to exchange ideas and try new approaches to problems. The work space in informal and open‚ so that people can communicate easily with each other. * History: The company was founded in 1972 by the couple Tony and Maureen Wheeler. Their passion is traveling. They went on vacation and they wrote a traveling book so that they can

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The Lonely Land

The poem “The Lonely Land” by A.J.M Smith can be compared with the poem by Marilyn Dumont called “Not Just a Platform for My Dance”. Smith’s poem‚ “The Lonely Land”‚ describes the land in detail. He says that even though the land is not perfect‚ it has its own beauty. “Not Just a Platform for My Dance” states that the land is not just considered as a place‚ but as something to learn from. Dumont also explains how the land teaches us everything we know. Even though both of the poems are about

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The Lonely Wanderer

The Lonely Wanderer The poem "The Wanderer‚" is written in many different methods which allow readers to perceptibly understand its many aspects. The poet’s vivid description creates imagery to better stimulate the agony of a wretched wanderer. It is written with many uses of assonance along with alliteration. It also has two different points of view‚ one is the wanderer and the other is the narrator. Beyond that‚ the poet expresses the complex issues within the poem through a simplified form

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stay there‚ because he will have memories of his childhood and of this house and family. Sometimes Albert walks around to find garbage and collects trash each day‚ or sometimes goes in his backyard where he lies on the grass and thinks about how lonely his life is; how he hated his wife‚ his foreign children‚ and the rest of his family. That explosion took his whole family away from him. He is the only one left in his family. He has no one to talk to‚ so he usually argues with himself to see who

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