Free Essay

Tragic Opposition

In: English and Literature

Submitted By daisysunshine
Words 1927
Pages 8
What is meaning of existence? That may be the question we’ve all asked ourselves at some point in our lives. Kundera, just like the rest of us all, ask the same question in The Unbearable Lightness of Being. However, he further examines the state of existence and the cause of our suffering using contrastive analysis of lightness and weight. For Kundera, existence is never what has already happened, what is happening now or what will happen in the future. It contains all the possibilities in our lives. When facing poles in our lives—lightness and weight, soul and body, loyalty and betrayal—the choice that people make, with the price of our own lives, was merely one possibility of existence.
The opposition of lightness and weight is an analogy Kundea uses to express the state of existence. It is one of the many pairs of poles in our lives but the one that expresses people’s different degrees of dependence on the external world and the different levels of sense of existence. It truly captures the reason why people suffer and struggle in life—only being able to choose one possibility when a meaningful existence is the one that contains all possibilities. And thus it is a fair comparison to use lightness and weight for categorizing existence.
According to the fact that “we all need someone to look at us” (269), Kundera divided people into four categories based on “the kind of look they wish to live under” (269). The first kind, yearn for “the look of the public” (269), like singers and politicians, while the second the category “is made up of people who have a vital need to be looked at by many known eyes” (270). Tereza and Tomas belong to the third category who need to be seen by their loved ones (270). The last category, according to Kundera, contains those who live in the “imaginary eyes” (270). It is not hard to see that these four category ranks according to the degree of dependence on the external world, in other words, from heavy to light.
It seem to me that Sabina does not belong to any of the four categories above—she does not have any attachment to anything and thus does not rely on the external world at all. She constantly chases after one betrayal after another—she belongs to the fifth category in which people pursue absolute emptiness. Sabina is such a representative of this category. She does whatever she favors, loves and hates freely, and enjoys people coming and leaving her life—she could not care less. People who live this way almost achieve the state of nihility or nonexistence. They seem to live the lightest lives with no burdens. Constant betrayal and rebellion of kitsch is the idea of their lives—they establish their egos through betrayals and thus become the most self-centered among all.
But are they really living the lightest life? “One could betray one’s parents, husband, country, love, but when parents, husband, country, love were gone—what was left to betray?” (122). The betrayals will come to an end, and that end is lightness, but empty lightness with no meaning. In the novel, Sabina asked herself the question “What if that emptiness was the goal of all her betrayals?”(122). Yes, she betrayed everything she could have betrayed but did she escape from the weight she hated? Isn’t she still a normal women who was played by men? Doesn’t she also want that peaceful, happy life along her journey of betrayals? Isn’t the end of her betrayals—the emptiness—the most heavy of all? The burden that the meaningless existence brings her is heavier than all other weight.
In fact, though Kundera categorizes existence into these groups, human being is just too complex a creature that one may not necessarily belongs to one category in his or her life. It is an undeniable fact that we only live once and there is no turning back in time. Therefore we are forced to choose only one possibility and sacrifice others. However, when thousands and thousands choices layered up, it often turns out that the result is not what we choose in the beginning. This applies to Sabina, as well as Tomas, Tereza and us all.
Tomas, a man who was happily enjoying his free bachelor life with freedom and lightness, met Tereza and then the heaviest emotion, love, just stoke him down. Since then, every casual became a burden just like his love for Tereza—he thought about his love for her when he was supposed to be light, but he kept his sexual relationships with different mistresses when he was supposed to take the weight and be loyal. He constantly struggled between the choice of lightness and weight.
After Tomas met Tereza, he chose to marry her and marry her heavy suitcase. But then his choice of meeting Sabina and continue his casual sex as usual led to Tereza’s departure, which gives him back the lightness of being—he became the person who can just enjoy himself with no attachment. However, it was only five days after that he chose weight again—he decided to go back to Prague to be with Tereza and to embrace his love for her. He returned from the lightness to the heavy life and it seemed like he wanted to end this struggle between sex and love, or in other words, lightness and weight with a period. But right after he said “Es muss sein! (It must be!)” (33), “he began to doubt” (33). When he realized his love was built on chance, he reached the conclusion that “the love story of his life exemplified not ‘Es muss sein!’ (It must be so), but rather ‘Es Konnte auch anders sein’ (It could just as well be otherwise)” (35). Tomans’ life, again, became a light one from the heavy must-be situation.
Tomas spend his whole life struggling between lightness and weight—the meaning of his existence. He exhausted all his energy in the countless transitions between and crashes of lightness and weight trying to find an answer but ended up with none. Tereza went through a very similar mechanism though from a different perspective.
From the very beginning, Tereza was this girl who was loyal and committed, who, in some sense, was as innocent as a child. She yearned for a life of loyal love, a life in which soul and body can never be separated. She believed so deeply that this will bring her happiness—her choice was weight. However, when she was almost desperate and decided the try the light lifestyle, she found herself capable of separating her soul and body. Though she had a taste of lightness of existence, the fact that her fantasy since childhood crashed brought her even worse nightmares—her life became even heavier. The constant struggle she went through was just like Tomas’ pain. They swing between lightness and weight and suffer from doing so.
Therefore, lightness and weight do capture the state of existence for they represent not only the opposition in people’s life, but also the choice of how much to depend on the external world. However, life is but once—“What happens but once, says the German adage, might as well not have happened at all” (8). The linearity of life forces people to constantly make choices. Therefore, in the opposition of lightness and weight, the forced sswing of their choices ultimately causes the pain and tortures people have to suffer from. Whatever category one chooses, lightness or weight, the meaning of his or her existence coming with this choice will vanish in and digested by the horrible “Einmal ist keinmal”. Existence is meaningful when it contains different possibilities, but the choice between lightness and weight make one’s life meaningless for all a person has is only one possibility. The opposition of lightness and weight captures this dilemma of existence so accurately that it gives the basic circumstance which makes human existence even possible.
Kundera does give a hint of a possible solution of this dilemma, but soon denies it. For him, people have the ability to achieve the balance of lightness and weight when they love selflessly. Tereza’s relationship with Karenin was an example of such love. “It is a completely selfless love: Tereza did not want anything of Kerenin; she did not ever ask him to love her back” (297). According to Kundera, “perhaps the reason why we are unable to love is that we yearn to be loved, that is, we demand something (love) from our partner instead of delivering ourselves up to him demand-free and ask for nothing but his company” (297). When one loves another selflessly, he or she can reach both lightness and weight—there is no demand or dependence anymore, but one can fully devote oneself to the love.
However, this kind of selfless love is unrealistic in a sense that “no one can give anyone else the gift of the idyll” (298). In Tereza’s relationship with Karenin, Tereza was like a God, and by God I am not referring to the God in the Christian sense for Christian God does demand something (that people only worship him, etc.) Karenin listened to Tereza as if her words are truths and Tereza loved Karenin selflessly asking for nothing in return.
Nonetheless, the only reason that Tereza had a taste of the idyllic love is because Karenin was an animal who “surrounded Tereza and Tomas with a life based on repetition” (298) which a human being is not capable of achieving with another human being—“human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight line” (298). I think Tereza had a moment of idyll with Tomas after they cut all their connections and dependence with the external world. But as we see in the ending of Tereza and Tomas, the temporary idyllic love they had soon vanished in the car accident that took both of their lives—the lightness became unbearable for their beings. And once again, the opposition of lightness and weight is proved to be the analogy that captures the eternal dilemma of existence and thus people’s struggle over the meaning of existence.
The ultimate result of our lives depends not only on one but tons of choices we made when we swing between lightness and weight. The fact that human life is a linear process with no turning back or second chances sets the fundamental tragic keynote for our existence. We see the meaning of existence as experiencing different possibilities within endless repetitions (or chances), but we just can’t achieve that. We are under the control of our own passion, the passion toward wanting more possibilities. Thus we struggle, hover and swing among choices of lightness and weight, and suffer because of doing so since whatever we choose, we will not be able to experience other possibilities, not to mention the fact that what we pursue may not be what we get in the end—life is ultimately tragic. Even the possible solution, to love selflessly, is unrealistic and temporary for human.
The tension between lightness and weight strike us again and again in our lives. Kundera seeks and captures this tension that causes the suffering and struggle, which he uses as an analogy for categorizing the existence and ingeniously summarizes as The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

Words Cited
Kundera, Milan, and Michael Henry Heim. The Unbearable Lightness Of Being. New York: Harperperennial, 2009. Print.

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Moshoeshoe

...College in Lesotho, then (apparently fleeing rumours that his stepfather planned to poison him) was sent to England, first to Ampleforth College and later to Corpus Christi College, Oxford.] While there, he took to the life of an English country gentleman, including hunting, shooting, and fishing. Moshoeshoe married Princess Tabitha Masentle Lerotholi Mojelain (later known as Queen 'Mamohato of Lesotho) in 1962, and with her had two sons and one daughter. Despite his popularity, Moshoeshoe faced political opposition in his own country and in South Africaas he sought to become more than just a figurehead. Though the constitution limited the authority of the monarch, Moshoeshoe attempted to extend his powers, causing Prime Minister Leabua Jonathan, of the Basotho National Party (BNP), to place him under house arrest in December 1966. A month later Moshoeshoe agreed to honour the constitution, which effectively gave executive power to theprime minister. After the opposition party, Basotho Congress Party (BCP), won the general election in 1970, however, Jonathan declared a state of emergency, and Moshoeshoe was again put under house arrest and was later forced into exile in the Netherlands for eight months while his wife, Queen Mamhato, functioned as regent. In 1986 Jonathan was overthrown in a military coup led by Maj. Gen.Justin Lekhanya, who subsequently suspended Moshoeshoe’s executive powers. In 1990 Moshoeshoe went into exile in England. While in exile Moshoeshoe attempted...

Words: 345 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

The Tata Nano Singur Controversy History Essay

...of setting a factory to manufacture the world’s cheapest car- The Tata Nano. It was supposed to be priced at Rs 1, 00,000 and the car was scheduled to be rolled out by 2008. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) had just come to power at that time, (May 18, 2006). The State Government had allowed Tata to take over 997 acres of farmland in Singur to build its factory. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, wanted Tata to go ahead with the Tata Nano project in his state citing reasons of industrialisation and State development. West Bengal was viewed as an anti- industrialised state and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee wanted to reform that image. However, this act was received with much opposition from the activists, the displaced land owners and the opposition parties in Bengal. (Singur Tata Nano Controversy, 2012) The government had acquired 1200 acres of land which included 997 acres from 13000 'unwilling' farmers. These 997 acres of land was leased to the Tata Motors to set up the Nano plant. The government had offered a price which was better than that in Nandigram and also provided compensation which had included the sharecroppers also. There were six sites offered by the state government to Tata Motors. The company had selected Singur as the chosen site. Singur is the most fertile belt in that region. Almost whole of the entire local population there was dependant on agriculture with approximately 15000 earning their livelihood from it. The number of jobs...

Words: 1792 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Pol 1025

...In any political system are structures that have different functions to ensure an effective and smooth running of things in that particular political system. This is why this essay will discuss the problems faced by opposition political parties in Zambia using the structural functionalist theory. First it will explain what structural functionalism is, then it will define structures, functions, a political party and an opposition party then before giving the conclusion it will discuss the problems faced by opposition parties in Zambia. Johari (2011) defines structural functionalism as a means of explaining what political structures perform what basic functions in a political system, it is a tool of investigation. Macions and Gerber (2010:14) states “this approach looks at society through a macro-level orientation, which is a broad focus on the social structures that shape society as a whole and by this society evolves like organisms”. According to Johari (2011:73) “functions deal with the consequences involving objectives as well as processes of the patterns of action, Structures refer to those arrangements within the system which perform the functions. For example the police are a structure within the political system that have a function of maintaining peace and order. “In the concept of functions, three basic questions are involved- what basic functions are discharged in any given system, by what instruments those functions are performed and under what conditions the performance...

Words: 1786 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Ps2249 Government and Politics of Singapore

...GEK2003 Politics and Governance in Singapore Name: Toh Zhi Qi Matrix no: A0111368 L Tutorial Group: E2 ESSAY QUESTION Q2: Of the many issues facing Singapore’s politics, which, in your view, is the most fatal for the PAP and if unresolved, could severely affect the PAP in the coming general elections? During the 2011 General elections, the PAP lost a GRC for the first time and the election was described as a watershed election by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. In the past 7 years, Singaporeans are getting increasingly unhappy with the ruling party despite enjoying relative peace and prosperity amid the gloomy global economic conditions. These issues ranges from foreigners influx, housing prices, transportation bottleneck, widening income gap, rising demands of citizens to the PAP governing style. Among these issues, the problem of foreigner influx is the most fatal as it is the root to many problems. The foreigner influx issue is indeed very challenging and if not tackled properly, can potentially affect the PAP adversely in the coming general elections. Firstly, the foreigners influx issue, the core of the problems. To tackle the persistent low birth rate, Singapore have experienced an overwhelming influx of foreigners especially from China and India. According to the latest statistics, our population swell to 5.39m; foreigners comprising of 1.55m, and citizens accounted for 3.31m. Singapore has loosened its immigration policy to boost her economy and maintain...

Words: 2670 - Pages: 11

Free Essay

Politics in Zambia

...HEART ARE ALWAYS A FORMIDABLE COMBINATION Nelson Mandela ZAMBIA POLITICS IN GENERAL The Zambian politics especially those exhibited by the ruling Government or in certain sectors of the opposition today has become alarmingly volatile over the past few years. In the olden days when Zambians very well understood who they were, as a dignified and well cultured people of good moral standing, it was unheard of, for individuals in the same community to publicly demean one another in the way many politicians in the ruling Government and certain sectors of the opposition talk about each other today. There is no doubt that society would reprimand any citizens for not respecting each other or for publicly bringing down their dignity to disrepute. UPND believes that Politicians are supposed to be individuals of integrity and responsible leaders of our country, yet actions of some politicians in the ruling government appear like people who do not want to serve the interests of the Zambians but their own interests. It shouldn't be a mystery to anyone why things don't get done in Zambia when we see how the ruling Government and some opposition leaders talk to one another other. The question is why have our politicians that are in Government become so malicious toward those in the opposition over the years? • Is it that they do not have true leadership attributes, • Or is it that they are just power hungry, • Or is it that our culture has lost its identity, that our leaders...

Words: 3384 - Pages: 14

Free Essay

Political Leaders Are Only Responsible for the Political Oppression in Bangladesh

... Written by: Muhammad Abdul Ahad BRAC University 66 mohakhali, Dhaka Bangladesh Political leaders are only responsible for political oppression in Bangladesh Have you heard the incident of Tazreen garments, Rana Plaza, seven murder in Narayangong, Sagor-Runy killing? Surely you have heard it, but question is can law enforce agency do anything to ensure the justice? The answer will be no and now the question is why does it happen? The answer will be for the political leaders but the law enforces agency cannot do anything to stop it and they have no power on the politician to lessen it. For that reason mass people of Bangladesh and the opposition leaders also face political oppression and they have no way to overcome it. That is why, I strongly believe that, political leaders are only responsible for political oppression in Bangladesh as they are control over law enforces agencies, they have extra privilege and they also influence the judiciary system. First of all I want to say that politicizing of law enforce agency is the first reason for the political oppression of Bangladesh. According to Ahmad (2013), the political, democratic and basic constitutional rights of the political parties and mass people are denied and the senior political leaders are routinely arrested by police, but we know that the primary duty of the law enforces agency is to maintain and control...

Words: 2107 - Pages: 9

Free Essay

Modi Bjp

...Is Modi’s silence on firm allegations against intolerance justified? BY ELLEN BARRY Jan.26.20168 It all Started when Bollywood star Aamir Khan's wife Ria Khan made controversial statements on live media about the intolerance in India. This was followed by the mass turning back of the state awards received by actors, writers and scientists. This delicate issue of intolerance in India which had been long dwelled upon, was followed also by a number of academics in India and abroad issuing a statements against the rising “intolerance and bigotry”. The controversial statements of Aamir Khan also sparked other religion issues such as the banning of cow meat in Maharashtra, killings of MM Kalburgi and Govind Pansare. These events were unjustly credited to Modi’s BJP rule as all the events took place under Narendra Modi’s reign as Prime Minister of India. Although many believe the rising intolerance is to be blamed on Modi, several others contradict the claim by insisting that the country has not become intolerant suddenly under the Narendra Modi led BJP government. Mr. Modi addressed this issue directly, when on a visit to the UK, the Indian Prime Minister said to the crowd: “Any event in any corner of India - it doesn't matter if there are even one or two incidents - we will not tolerate it and the law will deal with it strictly It does not matter whether such an incident is significant for a country of 125 crore people. For us, every incident is serious." Mr. Modi being...

Words: 2043 - Pages: 9

Free Essay

Lokpall

...India which will deal with the corruption. It was first introduced in 1968 in the Loksabha(Lower house) by Shanti Bushan.But it failed to pass in the Rajyasabha(Upper house).Eight futile attempts were made to pass the bill since the introduction. Another attempt was made by UPA II on 27th December 2011, which was passed in Loksabha but it is pending with Rajyasabha. Congress passed the bill in the Loksabha with the help of SP and BSP walking out, showing their opposition with the intention to help the government to pass the bill by reducing the required vote. Many amendments were raised by main opposition party BJP and the left but none of them succeeded in getting them passed because Congress was adamant in accepting the opposition's demands. As the bill passed in the Loksabha it was placed before the Rajyasabha where the Congress is minority which was forced to accept the amendments. Here the largest ally TMC opposed the bill and introduced the amendments. Two amendments were taken in hand by most of the opposition parties. One for autonomy of the CBI and the other for the creation of Lokayukta in states should be left with the state governments. If the Congress accepts the amendments in the Rajyasabha then the bill needs to be placed again in the Loksabha for the approval, so that the bill cannot be passed in the winter session. If the bill was put to vote in the current form then sure it would be rejected because of minority. So the Congress tried hard to appease TMC to...

Words: 566 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

One Shutdown Means Tk 1,600cr Losses the Daily Star

...4/4/13 One shutdown means Tk 1,600cr losses | The Daily Star THURSDAY, APRIL 04, 2013 | 02:19 RSS ARCHIVE HOME NEWSPAPER BUSINESS SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT LIFESTYLE OP-ED EDITORIAL SECTIONS MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENTS ONE SHUTDOW N MEANS TK 1,600CR LOSSES LATEST NEWS : Gas reality awaits projects A A THURSDAY, APRIL 04, 2013 One shutdown means Tk 1,600cr losses Dhaka chamber's survey finds hartals eat up 6.5pc of GDP a year STAR BUSINESS REPORT Like 2 LATEST MOST READ MOST DISCUSSED Export goes haywire KSA may take more workers Economy hit hard Hefajat warns govt BNP banks on radicals Blogger Asif arrested Govt may lose everything Website Feedback AL certificate for 3 Jamaat activists! Gas reality awaits projects Govt mulls one-day weekend 25 killed in record Argentina downpour Defence starts placing final arguments Pay as you weigh Mobile phone steps into 41st year 36 Rajshahi Shibir men arrested Govt action absurd Defence claims four charges not proved MPs press for more money Taliban kill 44 in attack on Afghan court Saudi-funded UN cash to support Gaza families A day of shutdown causes a loss of Tk 1,600 crore to the country’s businesses of all segments — from exports to retail shops, a leading chamber said in a survey yesterday. The country faces, on average, 40 days of shutdown a year, which means the financial losses stand at Tk 64,000 crore or 6.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), Dhaka...

Words: 947 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Will Foreign Direct Investment (Fdi) in Multi-Branding Retail Improve the Condition of Indian Agriculture?

...where the protagonist , Mohan Bhargava meets a poor Indian family fallen on hard times who earn their living through selling of clay pots. The unawareness of the real market prices of their goods makes the family suffer losses. Drawing parallels, the chief concerns of farmers in India have been the lack of price security of their produce which I believe, the FDI tries to resolve. The cabinet’s insistence in allowing Foreign Direct Investment in multi branding retail has met with mixed responses all across the nation with different people having varied opinions regarding its impact. With the prime minister oozing confidence over this reform, he has met a lot of opposition from people who believe this is going to harm the unorganized sector of the Indian retail while some feel that the constraints of 51% and the wave of oppositions that it faces will actually make no difference to anyone out there. The supporters of multi brand retail feel that agriculture is the sector which is going to be highly affected in a positive light by this reform. They are not wrong as the impacts are unmistakeable. The major problem that agricultural produce faces in India is that of storage. With around 33% of food getting wasted due to lack of proper storage, FDI could help in improving the cold storage conditions of the country. However, there has already been a support of 100% FDI in storage but it has not had much significance in helping t improve the conditions. The question as to whether...

Words: 517 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Has the Conservative Body Abandoned Thatcherism?

...Has the Conservative Party abandoned ‘Thatcherism’? Thatcherism was the name given to the type of policies that were put in place, by the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher. The policies primarily involved the idea monetarism, privatization, and strong law and order. Thatcherism put emphasis on the government controlling the amount of money that was in circulation in Britain, so that inflation was kept at a steady level and so it was not a hindrance to economic growth. Moreover, it also involved getting the public sector opened up, so that the private sector could get involved in it. This was done in order to once again stimulate economic growth and create jobs, as private firms run more efficiently than public ones, which allows them to employ more people and so there is more money being spent in the economy. Lastly, Thatcher also put strong emphasis on strict law and order. She believed better law enforcement would therefore create a stronger country. However, when David Cameron came to power, unlike many previous leaders, he was quick to question many of the key ideas of Thatcherism; but it has been widely debated that although he was quick to dismiss them, these ideas of Thatcherism may still be present in the current conservative party. In terms of economic policies, there still seems to be an air of Thatcherism within David Cameron’s Conservative Party. The fact that Cameron has centred his economic policy around massively reducing public spending, and his wish to...

Words: 1208 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Today's World

...arrests ex-minister over murder attempt BLANTYRE, Malawi: Malawi police said Friday they have arrested axed justice minister Ralph Kasambara over a failed assassination attempt on a corruption-busting treasury official. Paul Mphwiyo, the budget director in the finance ministry, was ... Full Story Yemen air strikes kill five ADEN: Two air strikes by the Yemeni air force killed five suspected al-Qaeda members in southern Yemen on Friday, the interior ministry said. The strikes targeted suspected militants in the town of Al-Mahfad, in the southern province of Abyan, ... Full Story Syrian opposition refuses to participate in Moscow talks BEIRUT: Syria’s main Western-backed opposition group has refused to participate in talks in Moscow with Syrian government organisations on resolving the country’s humanitarian crisis, the Russian Foreign Ministry and opposition figures said on ... Full Story US, Israel lose Unesco voting rights PARIS: The United States and Israel lost their Unesco voting rights on Friday after suspending funding to the organisation in 2011 when Palestine was admitted, a source from the UN agency told AFP. Neither the United States nor Israel “presented ... Full Story Indian Mars mission on track NEW DELHI: India’s Mars spacecraft has...

Words: 1283 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Churchill 1945

...Churchill's fame as a war leader was now a very mixed blessing. The repeated emphasis he gave to the need to finish the war against Japan suggested once more that war was his only real interest. The East End of London was flooded with rumours that he was planning a war against Russia. The result plunged him into depression ... but it was not quite as bad as it seemed. After polling on 5 July, Churchill and Attlee returned to Potsdam while the service vote was collected. On 25 July they returned home to await the results, which began to come in the following morning. By the afternoon it was apparent that Labour had won by a landslide - with 393 seats and an overall majority of 183 in the House of Commons. The notion that the Conservatives were defeated by 'the forces vote' is mistaken - as the opinion polls showed, the civilian vote was strongly pro-Labour - but war weariness was probably a factor against Churchill among civilians and servicemen alike. The result plunged him into depression and his party into shock, but it was not quite as bad as it seemed. The first-past-the-post system gave an exaggerated picture of Labour's triumph, disguising the fact that just over half the electorate had voted against them. Churchill soon recovered his spirits. He reinvented himself as a global statesman, doggedly retained the leadership of the Conservative Party, and confidently awaited what he saw as the inevitable reaction against Socialism. He had, in fact, performed one...

Words: 305 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Why Has the Concept of the Big Society Failed to Catch the Public's Imagination?

...Why has the concept of the ‘Big Society’ failed to catch the public’s imagination? The concept of the ‘Big Society’ was developed as the flagship policy of the Conservative Party as part of the 2010 election campaign, an initiative designed to transfer powers from local government to the people of the community. The Big Society encompasses everything from free schools and libraries, to supporting local sports groups and repairing vandalised or damaged public property. Despite being championed as “the most important and radical part of the coalition government’s agenda” (Bishop & Green, 2011:30), the response from the British public has been underwhelming to say the least. Indeed, in its first year, a mere 24 free schools (schools funded by the government, but ran by parents, teachers, companies, religious groups or voluntary groups) were approved and opened. Furthermore, an Ipsos MORI poll (2010a) found that 60% of the public felt that the government was responsible for improving public services and public areas, and that they shouldn’t be calling on the public to do so. Various reasons exist for the Big Society failing to capture the public’s imagination; quite simply, many people just do not understand what exactly the Big Society is. Considering the current economic climate, it is also safe to say that most people do not care about what the Big Society is, as they have more pressing issues such as feeding their families and affording their energy bill to...

Words: 3465 - Pages: 14

Free Essay

The Deconstruction of Waiting for Go Dot

...Deconstruction is a mode of interpretation which works by a careful and cautious entering of each layer within the story: “ The deconstructive critic seeks to find the thread in the text in question which will unravel it all or the loose stone which will pull down the whole building”. Deconstructive literary criticism uses binary oppositions. Binary oppositions can be defined as “ a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning.” “Waiting for Godot”, a classic of modern theatre, is a tragicomedy in two acts which tells the story of two men, Vladimir and Estragon, who are waiting to meet a man named Godot. By using deconstructive literary criticism, the play can be analyzed threw the following binary oppositions: passive/active hopelessness/hope, forgetfulness/remembrance and staying/going. Vladimir and Estragon are in a constant state of waiting for Godot: “Nothing to be done. / I'm beginning to come round to that opinion."(Waiting for Godot). Although they are being passive they try to occupy themselves while waiting for Godot. Derrida states that in binary oppositions there is a unspoken hierarchy in which the first term functions as superior to the second term which is considered inferior: “ Derrida’s procedure is to invert the hierarchy in which the first term functions as privileged and superior and the second term as derivative and inferior. By showing that the primary term can be made out to be derivative from or a special case of the secondary term”...

Words: 1146 - Pages: 5