Free Essays on Age Of Innocence

One critic has called the final chapter, â€Å"A sentimental endorsement of the tribal code.† Evaluate how effective you think Chapter 34 is as the concluding chapter of the novel. Wharton’s story of the upper classes of Old New York, and Newland Archer’s impossible love for the disgraced Countess Olenska, perfectly captures an era when upper –class culture and ‘society’ had rules as rigid as any in history. The city in which the story is set is a well–defined and tightly–knit community; New York was much smaller both geographically and socially. The novel makes clear, the strict code of conduct, which was maintained but we can see how this determined the behaviour of people in the society. This critic has implied that New York society has made no change or progression and that by the end of the novel it is still sticking to the ‘old’ traditions but this contradicts the important theme of change in the novel. Wharton herself stated in her autobiography, â€Å"The first change came in the eighties†¦.there were fewer differences than between my father and the post-war generation of Americans.† We can see that any change in society remained static for years but in the last chapter many things have changed as the years have passed. May is dead, and their three children are grown. New York society, too, has changed. For instance, Dallas is engaged to Julius Beaufort’s daughter, Fanny. Their engagement would have shocked the old society, but now no one remembers Beauforts financial scandal. ‘The Age of Innocence’ concerns itself with change but also with the consequences of the failure to change, in both personal and cultural terms. Wharton began the novel with a critical and sarcastic tone towards New York’s society. She humoured over their ‘Tribal code’ although remained subtle in doing so, â€Å"..conventions on which his life was moulded : such as the duty of using two silver-backed brushes... Free Essays on Age Of Innocence Free Essays on Age Of Innocence One critic has called the final chapter, â€Å"A sentimental endorsement of the tribal code.† Evaluate how effective you think Chapter 34 is as the concluding chapter of the novel. Wharton’s story of the upper classes of Old New York, and Newland Archer’s impossible love for the disgraced Countess Olenska, perfectly captures an era when upper –class culture and ‘society’ had rules as rigid as any in history. The city in which the story is set is a well–defined and tightly–knit community; New York was much smaller both geographically and socially. The novel makes clear, the strict code of conduct, which was maintained but we can see how this determined the behaviour of people in the society. This critic has implied that New York society has made no change or progression and that by the end of the novel it is still sticking to the ‘old’ traditions but this contradicts the important theme of change in the novel. Wharton herself stated in her autobiography, â€Å"The first change came in the eighties†¦.there were fewer differences than between my father and the post-war generation of Americans.† We can see that any change in society remained static for years but in the last chapter many things have changed as the years have passed. May is dead, and their three children are grown. New York society, too, has changed. For instance, Dallas is engaged to Julius Beaufort’s daughter, Fanny. Their engagement would have shocked the old society, but now no one remembers Beauforts financial scandal. ‘The Age of Innocence’ concerns itself with change but also with the consequences of the failure to change, in both personal and cultural terms. Wharton began the novel with a critical and sarcastic tone towards New York’s society. She humoured over their ‘Tribal code’ although remained subtle in doing so, â€Å"..conventions on which his life was moulded : such as the duty of using two silver-backed brushes... Free Essays on Age Of Innocence Look again at Chapter One, which presents Old New York coming under threat from the forces of change. Edith Wharton noted that she wished to establish, from the very opening pages of the novel, a sense of the certain ‘doom’, which faced her characters. On the other hand an early review of the novel argued that â€Å"The plot is unobvious† Evaluate how effective you think this chapter is introducing the reader to the novel. The Age of Innocence was published in 1920, but is set in the time and the place of Edith Wharton’s girlhood, New York in the 1870’s. Wharton draws our attention, quite straightforwardly, to the fact that she is writing a historical novel – and writing a historical novel is only really possible if dramatic differences mark out one period from another. This suggests change and may relate to the ‘certain doom’, which lingers over her characters. Chapter One concerns itself with change but also with the consequences of the failure to change, in both personal and cultural terms. Could this failure to change or fear of change be the ‘certain doom’, which Wharton has referred to? From the very beginning of the novel Wharton makes it evident that the Old New York society has a strong resilience to change, â€Å"..the world of fashion was still content to reassemble every winter in the shabby red and gold boxes of the sociable old Academy.† This society is not ready to embrace any kind of transformation, even if it is for the better. Change is seen as a threat to Old New York. The society is so focused on their strict conventions that they don’t want any hindrance such as alteration to obstruct it, â€Å"..thus keeping out the ‘new people’ whom New York was beginning to dread and yet be drawn to..† If New York manage to keep out the ‘new people’ then their society will never change; there will not be any controversial ideas or risk of moving forward. This may seem absurd to ...

What You Can Learn From Obamas Biggest Failure

What You Can Learn From Obamas Biggest Failure Everybody fails. Even the fanciest and most successful of celebrities, historical figures, and our most idolized idols. Including the President of the United States, Barack Obama. Here’s a look at Obama’s biggest failure in his career and how it paved his path to the presidency. You know Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States and an all-around successful  guy, helping dig the economy out of it’s 2008 chasm, presiding over recovery, stimulating job growth, improving global opinion, etc., But did you know that he was once a big fat failure? Really.He lost. Big time.His first bid for national office was a total flop. Having spent two terms in the Illinois Senate, he made a run for Congress in 2000- running as a practical nobody against an opponent who was both a household name and had a 70% approval rating. His first failure was choosing the race. His second? The race itself. He lost by 31 points.Part of this was out of his control. His opponentâ €™s son was shot and killed during the campaign. And while Obama suspended his campaign for a month and worked to help champion gun control legislation, circumstances found him stuck in Hawaii caring for his sick daughter when the vote occurred. The story told by the news media? He was lounging on a beach instead of helping to make Illinois a safer place.He made up for it.What matters is what he did with that failure. First he went back to the state Senate, then he ran successfully for U.S. Senate in 2004. Somewhere in there he retooled his message, shooting bigger and higher, focusing on hope. He wrote his book, The Audacity of Hope, and set his sights on the presidency.Without that one humbling failure, Obama may never have had to do the kind of soul-searching and message re-thinking he did in 2002. The next time you fail, take a few steps back and remember how a guy from Chicago went from getting spanked in a run for Congress, and turning that failure into the spectacular suc cess of a two-term presidency of the United States.President Obama: A Profile in Failure