Essay Example on Eugenie Grandet and Hero of Our Time

Eugenie Grandet by Balzac

Eugenie Grandet by Balzac is a seasoned provocative, moral entertaining tale written in 1833. Despite the fact that it was written over 100 years ago, the story remains astonishing, entertaining, and relevant to today's context. The book focuses on exploring the dark side of capitalism, where instead of pitying the less privileged in the society, and those with fewer means or the have-nots. Balzac is skewed to showing how Grandet developed parsimonious habits to only deal with few of his class and not the mare town people into his house, not out of moral outrage but in a humorous manner. Eugenie Grandet is classic realistic literature that points out the shortcomings of our culture in a comical and entertaining manner.

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The story is about Grandet, a master cooper who turned to become a winegrower. Felix Grandet married a daughter to a wealthy man who was a timber merchant and used her wife's dowry and his savings to acquire land and become a winegrower. Due to the advantageous marriage, he amassed fortunes to become an investor. Her daughter, due to her father's fortune, was raised in wealth. Due to Felix's thirsty for financial advantage, he plans for the marriage of her daughter who, unfortunately, due to her innocence and naivety without consideration of wealth as a factor, she falls in love with a penniless cousin whose father had been bankrupt. Felix tries to cover up his brother's bankruptcy by indicating that he has liquidated the business. The proposal of Charles to marry Eugene is rejected based on his father's bankruptcy, as Felix would not want his family to be associated with bankruptcy. Although the story is entertaining and comical, it provides an insight into how capitalism provides shortcomings to our culture.

Critical Thinking of Eugenie Grandet by Balzac

The idea behind the story is the impact of capitalism on our culture and society. From Felix fortune that came up by his advantageous marriage, it is evident that once he became a landowner from a cooper, his quest for more wealth was ignited. Felix was referred to as a miser in the family, meaning he worked hard to acquire wealth and spend less. From this scenario, it is possible that in 1800 the society was guided by capitalism, and those who were wealthy had a different class, which is considered higher than those who were poor. People struggled to become wealthy, and the wealthy guarded their wealth not to become poor.

Capitalism stratified the society between the wealth and the have not's. From the social stratification, the association between the two groups was also restricted. When Felix had acquired wealth, he developed parsimonious habits, and his town people could not access his house with the exception of two people who knew him before he became rich and kept his past life a secret to others. From this scenario, it is possible to think that due to the social stratification, the normal social structures in the society were eroded, and wealth had to keep close to the wealth and separate themselves from the poor.

Protecting one's wealth in the family was very important during the 1800s. Acquiring wealth was not easy, but also protecting the wealth in the family required sacrifice. This is depicted by the fact that Felix was a miser to keep his wealthy growing and also by the fact that he had to make a marriage decision to her daughter to protect his family from getting marital ties with the poor. It can also be thought that with capitalism in the 1800s, the quest for wealth was the main source of power for the corrupt and tyranny generation who believed that money was the God of those days.

Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov Review

The Hero of Our Time is a classic 1840 story with a superfluous man genre. The story provides a peculiar and fascination with Byronic anti-heroism. The book provides a recount of the adventure series of Pechorin, a military officer in his travel across the Caucasus. With events like the kidnap of Bela who was a beautiful daughter to one of the tribesmen in the Caucasus, involvement with smugglers as well as schemes to win Muscovite princess affection while in an affair with Vera, his former lover, the milliary officer is led him to combat with his fellow military officers. Pechorin is more of an unnecessary man and adopts a concept that Russian literature referred to it as a "superfluous man." Pechorin takes an individualistic character and is sensitive but receives constant cynicism, though with a sense of boredom. In his endeavors, Pechorin tries to distance himself from emotional manipulations and asks himself why to engage in thinks that he has no desire for.

In Lermontov's novel, the concept of landscape is also central, and it has been used to depict memorable descriptions of the physical scenery that is mainly characterized by a vast mountainous landscape. Descriptions like "draped reddish crags with handing ivy..... grooved yellow cliffs with torrents..." provide a sense of the wild. However, the concept of nature was also used to depict the romantic aspect of Pechorin's endeavors. When the story talks of the landscape being impenetrable, it refers to Pechorin's nature, which is both inscrutable and wild. The novel portrays how life tries to overshadow the real concerns of today. The concept of "superfluous man" is an indication of the modern terror revolution an intractable problem in the 1840s than it is now. The use of stark depicts the relationship between men and women that was cold in the 1800s.

Critical Thinking of Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov

The novel Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov points out many aspects of Russian society in the 1800s. First, it depicts the aspect of corruption in society by those with means like the military. Pechorin is corrupt, and he exploits those around him, specifically those he can note a weakness and further debase them. For example, to the kidnap of Bela, who was a beautiful daughter to one of the tribesmen in the Caucasus, he indulges another person in stealing. He also corrupts Princess Mary, exploits her vanity and innocence, and leaves her when her reputation is not pure. This is an indication of the power of the able in the society in using corruption in exploiting others for their gain.

There is also the element of love in Russian society. Russian men have a strange sense of love and can shower women with love until they reciprocate for the love shown to them. In the novel, Pechorin showed all women he loved a great sense of love, but the moment they also showed him love and absolute devotion, Pechorin started distancing himself from them. The concept portrayed in Pechorin's behavior is his inscrutable and wild, making him unattainable by others. There is also the concept of manipulation portrayed in the novel by Mikhail Lermontov. Manipulation took a central part in Russian society in the 1800s. In the novel, Pechorin portray himself as a master manipulator who manipulates Princess Mary, Bella, Azamat, and others. Through manipulation, in society, the wealthy or those with the means can be able to command their authority in society.