The Fixer: Irony :: Bernard Malamud The Fixer

The Fixer: Irony Irony is an overpowering force in Bernard Malamud's The Fixer. The sequence of events which Yakov Bok goes through makes the entire novel ironic. The chief irony of the novel lies in the fact that what Bok is attempting to escape, he cannot escape. To understand the irony in the novel, it is necessary to examine two major events in the circular life of Yakov Bok. Bok is attempting the escape his life in the shetl. He is wrongly persecuted for a ritual murder and attempts to escape his physical and mental torture. In each case, Bok is attempting to escape his Jewishness. The novel has an overall ironic tone. Bok leaves the shetl in which he has lived the majority of his life to go to Kiev. In Kiev Bok hopes to find opportunities for work and education. Mainly, though, Bok seeks relief from his earlier shame of being cuckolded. While in the shetl Bok sees himself as a victim of his wife's barrenness (Unger 447 ). The irony lies in the fact that that even after escaping the shetl and being in a different kind of hell, prison, Bok's life in the shetl comes back to haunt him. Bok learns of a child that Raisl has had with her lover and gives his bitter sentence of "a black cholera upon her" ( Malamud 254 ). The one thing that might have given him happiness in his life before has now gone to someone else. This event brings Yakov shame that he could not father a child with Raisl while another man could. Thus, the problems of the shetl which Bok has tried so desperately to escape have come back to haunt him once again. Bok's life is very circular. Later in the novel, Raisl visits Yakov in prison in an attempt to end her own ostracism in the shetl. Yakov could here exact some kind of revenge upon Raisl by allowing her to be ostracized for having an illegitimate child the way he was ostracized for being cuckolded. However, Yakov eventually signs the document which says "I declare myself to be the father of Chaim, the infant son of my wife Raisl Bok... Please help the mother and child, and for this, amid all my troubles, I'll be grateful" ( 262). Bok, now having on paper what he once wanted most, a son, cannot enjoy it.

Why Was Hitler Appointed Chancellor in January 1933

Why was Hitler appointed Chancellor in January 1933 On the 30th January 1933, one of the most important events of the twentieth century occurred, Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, became Chancellor of Germany. From its foundations as a small, anti-communist party in the aftermath of World War I it was now the leading political party in Germany. Hitler would eventually become Fuhrer and provoke a second world war.Hitler’s rise to power was based upon long term factors and can not be attributed to one event but a mixture of factors including events occurring outside Germany, the strengths of the Nazi party, the weakness of the other parties within Germany, resentment in the German people, the weakness of the Weimar system which he took advantage of through propaganda, the terror of his storm troopers and the fineness of his speeches. Hitler used these factors to his benefit and in 1933 he legitimately gained power to become chancellor.November 1923 was when Hitler first tr ied to seize power in the Munich Putsch he marched to Berlin with his followers to take over control but they never actually left Munich. During this time 16 Nazi’s were killed and 3 policemen. Although Hitler went to prison for this, he used this time to dictate his book ‘Mein Kampf’, he had show trials which boosted propaganda and became an almost celebrity. Hitler was meant to be in jail for 5 years, but was let out after 9 months. By now he was already starting to catch the attention of the public – a strong nationalist leader appealed to them.In 1929 the American Stock Exchange collapsed and caused an economic depression this was called the Wall Street Crash and led to America calling in all of its foreign loans, which in turn destroyed Weimar Germany. Unemployment then rose to 6 million in Germany. The government cut expenditures, wages and unemployment pay and they started to print more money, by now Germany was in a really bad state and no one knew how they would get themselves out of this rut. Many workers turned to communism which inevitably frightened wealthy businessmen who ‘fueled the fire’ by giving Hitler the money to run his propaganda election campaigns.Deep anger about the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles created an underlying bitterness to which Hitler’s viciousness and expansionism appealed. Nazi propaganda persuaded the German masses to believe that the Jews were to blame and that Hitler was their last hope. In fact, there were many people in Germany who wanted a return to dictatorship. Hitler was a brilliant speaker; he was a good organiser and politician. He was a driven, unstable man, who believed that he had been called by God to become dictator of Germany and rule the world. This kept him going when other people might have given up.His self-belief persuaded people to believe in him. Propaganda alone was a really important factor in Hitler’s rise to power, it ‘brai nwashed’ the German people into electing them through techniques of persuasion and reinforced existing attitudes and beliefs. Parades, symbols, uniforms, banners, bands and the marching columns of the SA attracted attention and interest. Germans turned to Nazism because they were desperate, the number of Nazi seats in the Reichstag rose from 12 in 1928 to 230 in July 1932. In November 1932 elections the Nazis again failed to get a majority of seats in the Reichstag.Their share of the vote fell – from 230 seats to only 196. Franz von Papen who was the current Chancellor could not get enough support in the Reichstag, therefore Hindenburg and von Papen were having to govern by emergency decree under Article 48 of the Constitution and offered Hitler the post of vice-Chancellor if he promised to support them. Hitler refused – he demanded to be made Chancellor, so Von Papen and Hindenburg took a risk believing that by having only 2 other Nazis they would be able to ke ep control. Many people believe that Hitler took control by force but, in actual fact, he was given it.

Sociology and Social Integration. D. - 1725 Words

Refresher on Lecture 1 Student Name: _____________________ 1. Peter Berger described using the sociological perspective as seeing the ______ in the _______. a. good; worst tragedies b. new; old c. specific; general d. general; particular 2. According to Emile Durkheim, a category of people with a higher suicide rate typically has: a. more clinical depression. b. less money, power, and other resources. c. lower social integration. d. greater self-esteem. 3. The pioneering sociologist who studied patterns of suicide in Europe was: a. Robert K. Merton. b. Auguste Comte. c. Emile Durkheim. d. Karl Marx. 4. C. Wright Mills claimed that the sociological imagination transformed: a. common sense into laws of society. b.†¦show more content†¦d. neither nature nor nurture creates the essence of our humanity. 3. Our basic drives or needs as humans are reflected in Freuds concept of: a. superego. b. ego. c. id. d. generalized other. 4. According to G. H. Mead, children learn to take the role of the other as they model themselves on important people in their lives, such as parents. Mead referred to these people as: a. role models. b. looking-glass models. c. significant others. d. the generalized other. 5. When people model themselves after the members of peer groups they would like to join, they are engaging in: a. group conformity. b. future directedness. c. anticipatory socialization. d. group rejection. Refresher: Lecture on social interactions in everyday life Student Name: 1. At a given time you occupy a number of statuses. These statuses make up your: a. master status. b. role set. c. achieved statuses. d. status set. 2. What concept refers to a social position that is received at birth or involuntarily assumed later in life? a. passive role b. master status c. ascribed status d. achieved status 3. Julie is a police officer who finds that, wherever she goes in her small town, people seem to think of her as a cop. 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