Context means the conditions under which something occurs. The historical context would be the time and place that the work of fiction was written (like the setting of the author). The cultural context is like the social context of the author. The cultural context influences the author's perspective.
For a story or novel that you've read, tell us about the historical or cultural context in which it was written and how it affected the story.
In the story, Marriage is a Private Affair, the cultural context of the characters was the cause of the conflict that happened in the story. The main character's father, Okeke, strongly believes in the tradition of his own tribe. Therefore, he wanted his son to marry a women that would be approved the tradition.
ReplyDeleteHis son fell in love with a girl which does not meet the requirements of the tradition. This cultural context affected the story deeply by affecting Okeke's beliefs. Since tradition is something that's passed down from their culture, this context caused the conflict in the story.
In the story, Marriage is a Private Affair, the historical context of Okeke's family's long life tradition has always been to have an arranged marriage with a wife that comes with a good character and a Christian background. Okeke strongly believes in this, but Nene comes from that of another ethnicity and is also a teacher which Okeke strongly dislikes due to his cultural beliefs that women cannot and should not teach.
ReplyDeleteThe author of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell was affected by the cold war that was happening during that era. He also witness the totalitarian government in Spain and Russia. So he wrote this novel to warn the reader about the dangers of totalitarian government.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel Fahrenheit 451, the author expressed vividly how he feels about the world he was living in indirectly. He was afraid that technology was going to overwhelm the existence of traditional, written books. The novel was published in the year 1953, that was the time where usual-day technology got to its height in the 20th century. That was when Ray Bradbury see the dystopian world his imagined coming to its shape little by little. He projected his thought onto the novel and made it so exaggerated that the readers can feel as desolate as he felt toward the society he lived in. It was because he lived through the border of the paper era and the digital era that he felt the strong difference about this situation. And that he had to do something to let people know.
ReplyDelete"And of Clay We Are Created" written by Isabel Allende is based on an event that happened in real life. On November 13, 1985, the Navedo Del Ruiz volcano in Columbia erupted. Also as an journalist in her early years, she'd once admitted that she could never be objective. She would exaggerated and twisted the reality., which was also mentioned in the story.
ReplyDelete"Animal Farm" by George Orwell was influenced by historical context. The story is about Russia under Stalin. It is clear that this book was influenced by history context since it was also published right after World War II ended.
ReplyDeleteHarper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" reflects a lot on the problems of the day's society. Lee challenged the social and caste system of then, and focused especially on the problem of mistreatment of African Americans. The time the book was written (1960), the US was right in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, so ultimately, that had affected greatly on why the author chose this specific theme and story to tell. Where Lee grew up, racial segregation was a big problem, and several times in her life, she encountered controversies and court cases dealing with accusations of crime against the African Americans (her father was also an attorney). Lee was obviously influenced by the location of where she lived, which was considered in the "Deep South" of the US.
ReplyDeleteDuring the civil war, a book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was written to criticize the slaveowners of the South. The author was living in and watched the immoral acts that were being done to the slaves. Therefore, the content of the book was affected.
ReplyDeleteThe time that "Everyday Use" written by Alice Walker was during the 1960s and 70s, which was the period of civil rights movement. The short story is written in first point of view in the mother's perspective. The author herself pays a lot of attentions to rights of African Americans and womens. That is probably why she writes a short story regarding preservation of African culture ("Everyday Use") so that the culture won't vanishes.
ReplyDeleteIn the " Diary of Anne Frank", the setting is really what made the story. Anne Frank's last few years, her relationship, and all the conflicts in those few years of her life were caused by the historical setting- the Nazi Era.
ReplyDeleteIn the story "By the Waters of Babylon", people were living in the "stone ages" in which is because it's after a nuclear explosion that wiped out everything. Somehow people in the story had some information about the people before the explosion, and because of their culture, they think that their ancestors or Gods. Their culture made them a generation of people that believes in all kinds of myths and that they can not do a certain type of things.
ReplyDeleteIn the book, "The Great Gatsby", the author published the book in the 1920s. The historical context was right after World War I, in which the society suffered after the devastation of the war. The 1920s was an era of optimism since people hoped to seek pleasure to get rid of the nightmares regarding the war. Furthermore, great amounts of immigrants came to the United States with their American dreams to become wealthy, powerful and embrace freedom. It affected the story since it was the motivation of Gatsby pursuing fortune, love, and fame.
ReplyDeleteIn this story I feel that the historical content doesn't really affect the story a lot. But as for the cultural content, it does. Okeke strongly supports the old culture of arranged marriage, while his son Nnaemeka wants to choose a wife for himself, this cultural difference is also the main conflict of the story.
ReplyDeleteIn Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, it was culturally influenced because Steinbeck was traveling through California while he was writing it. The characters in the book strongly represent several people he met throughout his journey around the farms/ranches in California; the characters that are based off of the people are surprisingly accurate (apparently).
ReplyDeleteThe short story "The Seventh Man", by Haruki Murakami, was published in 1996. On March 3rd of 1933, a tsunami hit Japan and wrecked the area. The story also took place in around the 1930's, and since the author is Japanese, it is extremely likely that he based his story off of the tsunami. In the story, the terror and horrors of the tsunami were described and it specifically focuses on one person's, the seventh man, loss from the tsunami and his journey to recovery.
ReplyDeleteIn the book "The Kites Runner", it was deeply influenced by both the cultural and historical context. The main character's father have an idea that all boys should be strong. The story was took place during a war, so the characters' daily life are all affected by the war.
ReplyDeleteIn the story, When Mr. Pirzada came to dime, the culture background of India deeply influenced the story. For example their culture value and what they say and eat.
ReplyDeleteThe story "searching for summer" by Joan Aiken took place in an exaggerated dismal future world. It is probably what Aiken see in the recent world that every one took things for granted. Although it didn't focus on the "too much technology" part of the present days, she did described a dystopia that has no more sun light and green grass. People in the story don't talk to each other as much we were before, and they are evil and selfish. Aiken's father was an American poet, and her stepfather was a fiction writer, these two might had both contributed to her style of writing.
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