Samuel Beckett’s play ‘Endgame’ is a story about nothingness. The four people in the play represent emptiness and the damp room is purgatory. Throughout the play the four people constantly argue about illogical things that do not contribute to the play. The purpose of the arguments are to precisely show how illogical communication is. The conversations the four people have with one another also do not become clear as the story progresses. Furthermore the conversations purposely seem as though they do not make sense because Beckett wants the reader to feel as confused as possible. The conversations and arguments the four people have constantly deviate into other topics and they also incessantly interrupt one another which leads the reader to be even more confused.

The nihilistic tone of the play challenges readers to contemplate existence. It’s strange to realize how insignificant people are the moment one understands how enormous the universe is. I believe the play is trying to convey that message. Although the conversations throughout the play do not make sense, it’s interesting to see that the people in the room are having conversations and arguments to begin with. It’s heavily implied that the people in the room haven’t fully grasped the idea that there is literally nothing outside but that they are some what aware that it’s a possibility. Yet they argue over petty disputes and ramble incoherently. It’s also very unusual that the first man we are introduced to wakes other members of the room and the reader finds out that the man would like to leave but cant.

The blind man has a very interesting outlook on life. He constantly asks the first man to see what’s outside. It seems as though the blind man already knows that there is nothing outside but still has hope that one day something might change. Each character has some sort of disability which forces them to be dependent on one another which could possibly be the reason none of them venture beyond the room.

Un Chien Andalou and Ballet Mécanique are two short films from the 1920’s that portrayed surrealism through the big screen. Un Chien Andalou is a film about sex, horror, and sadism,. Ballet Mécanique portrays futurism in an interesting way. Un Chien Andalou is a film about the many sexual desires and fetishes that humans crave and in other cases fear. The symbolism in this film depicted through limbs illustrates the fine line between pleasure and pain. There are many scenes that emphasize the movements of hands, which are mainly portrayed in the film as a representation of what hands can do. In particular the scene of the man in the woman’s home who has ants pouring out of his right hand. The ants coming out of the hand is difficult to interpret, it can possibly suggest that something is clearly wrong, or it can simply mean ants are coming out of the mans hand. In any case, the scene moments afterwards depicts the man sexually assaulting this woman after being aroused from an accident which occurred outside. The man was a self hating sadist who tried to rape this woman but could not do it because his hands were stuck to the door which can mean that he enjoys hurting woman but also is so ashamed of it that the ants eating away at his hands are also what is stopping him.

The film is trying to show what happens to a person when they accept who they are but also how they can be deeply ashamed of it to a point where their shame devours them. Near the end of the film a second man appears who orders the first man to stare at a wall as if he was a child, the second mans swift and firm hand could possibly portray the first mans consciousness who wanted the first man to feel terrible for what he tried to do.

Ballet Mécanique is a film that flashes over hundreds of images to cause epilepsy and confusion. The film shows thing such as triangles, hardware, numbers, lights, and gears. I believe the film is illustrating futurism through its fast tempo and machines. Futurism was a movement that encouraged people to express art through technology, speed, and youth which are clearly shown throughout the film. None of the images have any coherent meaning to them which is related to surrealism since the movement was about freeing the mind and allowing it into tap into the unknown.

The Diary of a Madman by Lu Xun is a story about a man who one day sees the natural order of society. The man had been isolated from society for over thirty years but on a whim decided to take a walk. Throughout the story the man realizes that his walk through town was unusual because he saw how strange the people of the town were acting. Whenever his presence was known he heard whispers from his neighbors and could not understand why he felt as though he was ostracized. He recalls that a criminal was beaten to death in a neighboring town and his organs were consumed which lead him to conclude that the people of his town were also cannibals plotting to kill and eat him. He compares people to cannibals because of the traditions and cultures that influenced China during the early 20th century.

The man sees the people as predators who were willing to eat one another for their own survival. Furthermore the man wonders why the people of the town decided to eat one another and states “I tried to look this up, but my history has no chronology, and scrawled all over each page are the words: “Virtue and Morality.” Since I could not sleep anyway, I read intently half the night, until I began to see words between the lines, the whole book being filled with the two words—”Eat people.”All these words written in the book, all the words spoken by our tenant, gaze at me strangely with an enigmatic smile.” (III). Virtue and morality are traits that represent the goodness in people but his interpretation of the two behaviors is that it is a facade. Any person can act virtuous or moral but their real intentions can be cannibalistic. The madman begins to question his own place in society and asks himself if he is to eventually be a cannibal as well. He hopes that the children are not influenced by this evil and can one day stand firm against turning on one another and can be better than the previous generation.

The Diary of a Madman relates to Kafka’s Judgement because of how different the two characters are. Georg in the Judgement was an indecisive man who was influenced by what others told him and always felt inadequate. He had marital problems, his father constantly scolded him, and he was envious of the free life that his friend seemed to enjoy. Georg never stood up for himself from his father’s harsh words and allegations which eventually made him commit suicide. The madman was the complete opposite of Georg in that he always made conclusion based off of what he saw and believed to hear. He mustered his courage and stood up against the cannibals clearly shown when he confronts the cannibals and states “All these people wanting to eat human flesh and at the same time stealthily trying to keep up appearances, not daring to act promptly, really made me nearly die of laughter. I could not help roaring with laughter, I was so amused. I knew that in this laughter were courage and integrity. Both the old man and my brother turned pale, awed by my courage and integrity.” (IV). He believed that people needed to rise up against their oppressors and that the way people conformed to the idea of eating one another to survive was not the answer. The comparison he makes of cannibals in the story relates to events that occurred in China during the early 20th century such as the Russo-Japanese War and the Xinhai Revolution. During the Russo-Japanese War, China and Korea were occupied by both Russian and Japanese forces which caused many innocent casualties in both of the oppressed countries. Furthermore the Xinhai Revolution is considered to be one of the most historic events in China as it lead to the successful coup of the last Chinese imperial dynasty which allowed China to transition into the Republic of China.

Friedrich Nietzsche’s essay is about intelligence and dissimulation. He claims that our hunger for the truth is illogical since our intelligence was created for the purpose of survival. Nietzsche explains that by ‘knowing’, humans inherently lie and deceive to survive in society and that our intelligence created language which was the concept of taking an image and sound and translating it to speech. Through speech humans classify what is true or false but Nietzsche claims that knowing what is true and false is pointless because every truth or lie was created by man and that there is not an accurate method to prove it otherwise.

Nietzsche believed that intelligence was conceived from our ancestors and through knowing, humans designed a game of cloaks and daggers. Although there were many species living on earth prior to humans, Nietzsche claims that the ability for humans to think enabled them to have dominion over the planet. Eventually the power of intelligence allowed humans to lie, deceive, and manipulate others. Nietzsche further explains that humans are able construct faces and personalities which are used to lie and manipulate for the purpose of being on top and that it is also used for social interactions so that one can be accepted into a group or make peace. Nietzsche also states that people are able to mentally categorize sounds, smells, and images which we then are able to distinguish specific objects in our environment but Nietzsche argues that this is also illogical since our sense of sound, smell, and sight are completely subjective. For instance humans know what colors are because people decided what they were. Furthermore it is explained that language itself is deceptive because it was man made and that every truth and lie expressed through speech which we then can accept or deny is futile because the very concept of truth and falsehood is subjective.

Nietzsche further explains that humans are able to categorize and form concepts for any encounters. He claims that people categorize things in their environment which produces a sense of truth even though a certain object or thing is individually distinct in some way. Nietzsche states that people use science to confirm their concepts and beliefs but claims that concepts do not exist in nature since every thing in nature is unique and cannot simply be categorized. Nietzsche believed that knowledge was created for the purpose of lying and deceiving others. He believed that concepts were man made and that knowledge acquired throughout human history is subjective and that language was a means for humans to survive by either spewing lies or through manipulation.

In the first chapter of “The Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Marx describes the distinction between people in society. He explains how people were once separated into many classes in society by stating “Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed.” (14). Marx argues that the French Revolution had an enormous impact on social classes as they had begun to dwindle into two classes, the Bourgeois and the Proletarians. Marx claims that the reduction in classes did not mean that social struggles ceased to exist or that people were not being oppressed, on the contrary he argues that new struggles and conflicts would occur from the class system.

The manifesto explains that the discovery and colonization of the Americas rapidly pushed the development of production and machinery which inevitably eradicated the traditions of the past such as feudalism and brought forth capitalism. The Bourgeois eventually took political power in Europe and constructed a society based on free trade and profits. Marx claimed that Bourgeois would do everything in their power to end all traditions that were not capitalistic in nature and that “It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his “natural superiors”, and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self interest, callous “cash payment.” (15). They also consistently innovated technology which forced other nations to globalize and follow the practices of the Bourgeois.

The Bourgeois were so influential in the global market that they would single handedly crash markets by over producing and would seek new markets to control, but Marx argues that the practice of capitalism itself cannot be fixed as the very idea of capitalism is corrupt. Marx claimed that the Bourgeois would make it their mission to build relations in every and all types of markets as a way to expand their ever growing empire. They would produce goods that were sought by many and would distribute them at cheap prices which even convinced the most archaic nations to submit to Bourgeois culture.

The second class Karl Marx reflects upon is the Proletarians. This second class of people in society as stated by Marx were “a class of laborers who only live so long as they can find work, and who work only so long as their labor increases capital” (18). Furthermore Marx claims that the wage of the workers hardly covered the worker and his family. The Proletarian were considered to be slaves to the Bourgeois but as technology advanced the communication network of the Proletarians increased and as a result educated and notified people that they were being wronged. The cruelty of the Bourgeois ultimately caused an insurrection of the Proletarians as they denounced all things considered Bourgeois and deposed them. The way of life of the Bourgeois went against romanticism which was a period in time when people were reminded of their individuality were reminiscent of the past. Furthermore the Industrial Revolution sought to remove any form of identity which was replaced by numbers and workers.

The Despotic Chiefs of Kau are folktales from Hawaii which depicts three chieftains that were cruel to their people. The story of Halaea is about a chieftain who would constantly take fish from the fisherman of his land and would leave them with scraps. The people of his land were enraged and plotted to end his reign. By the time the season of fish came about the fisherman took everything they needed to catch as much fish as they could and came to an agreement that every single fish they caught would be stored in the chieftains canoe. As the chief ordered the fisherman to store more fish into his canoe he realized that his canoe was overflowing with fish and that it was sinking which eventually lead to his demise.

Koihala was the second chieftain of Kau who ordered his people to arrange a feast on his arrival to Ko-na. His servants would setup the feast but as they saw him approach the land he would deviate from his route and go to another island. The servants saw this and setup the feast on the island that he was landing on but Koihala would once again change his route and went to another island. The servants were annoyed and ate the food that was originally supposed to be for the chief. The chief saw this and rushed to the island but was killed by his servants as they stoned him to death.

Kohaikalani was the last chieftain of the despotic chiefs who commanded his people to build a temple. When the people gathered all the stone to build the temple, two priests warned them that the chieftain was planning to use them as sacrifices after it was built and the way to prevent this was to ask the chieftain to choose a tree which was the last piece section of the temple and to get it himself. Knowing the intention of their chief, the workers convinced the chief to choose an ohia tree and as he was lifting it up the cliff the workers responsible for pulling it up dropped it on him.

The stories about the three despotic chieftains of Kau are a lesson about greed, indecisiveness, and deception. In the same way that the people of France revolted against their oppressors for all the transgressions they committed. Each story described how the people were being wronged in one form or another and that the reign of their oppressor was shortly lived as the people rose up and deposed them.

The Carcass by Charles Baudelaire is a poem about the inevitability of death. Baudelaire describes how hideous the carcass was by stating “Her legs were spread out like a lecherous whore, Sweating out poisonous fumes, Who opened in slick invitational style Her stinking and festering womb.” Although Baudelaire depicts how terrible the carcass appeared, his perspective on death also stimulates his mind to see the beauty in it by describing how the carcass essentially fed the land.

In the 10th stanza Baudelaire explains how his lover will also inevitability turn rotten and decompose. Furthermore the circle of life is clearly shown when the carcass is consumed by flies, maggots, and birds while he is explicitly stating how repulsive his lover will appear when she dies and that her body will also be consumed by nature. I Believe that the message Baudelaire is trying to convey in this poem is that nature is not prejudice or discriminate, it takes life and gives life because it’s simply nature and that even though death is ugly there is also an oddly alluring beauty to it as well. 

Liberty or Death by Jean Jacques Dessalines was a proclamation that addressed the issues of slavery during the 17th century. Jacques Dessalines, governor-general of Hayti claimed that the concept of the Tree of Liberty was an absurd representation of what the common people of France were fighting for when they themselves oppressed others. Furthermore Dessalines described the inhumane conditions and treatment of slaves as “a cannibalistic consumption of fellow human beings” (36). Dessalines hatred of Europeans stemmed from the cruelties committed by the colonist such as when he states “It is necessary, in order to strengthen these ties, to recall to your remembrance the catalogue of atrocities committed against our species; the massacre of the entire population of this island, meditated in the silence and sang froid of the cabinet” (38).

Dessalines felt justified in killing the European colonist on Hayti for the enslavement of his people who were forced to work the land and all the lucrative resources that were siphoned out of Haiti that were distributed between the European countries and all of the crimes committed on the natives. Dessalines understood that the cruelties and immorality of the colonist had no limits as he was forced to kill his oppressors and free his people from subjugation. Although near the end of his proclamation he expresses the need for a new beginning, he also recognized that the Europeans would always be a threat and that the people of Hayti had to be ready.

The Age of Enlightenment occurred during a period in time where people recognized the crucial need for logic and reason. Accepting facts and truths declared by a monarch or priest was no longer acceptable. Instead the enlightenment pushed for people to develop their own thoughts and rationale for things they questioned.  The Age of Enlightenment also influenced thinkers to separate religion and ethics as it was determined that a person would truly be in control of their own thoughts and action once they eliminated the influences of outside forces and actually thought for themselves.

The Age of Enlightenment was also a movement to improve a persons quality of life. Benjamin Franklin believed that by abandoning the archaic traditions and cultures of the past would inevitably bring forth technological advancements and innovations that could solve social, political, economic, and environmental issues which in turn would educate the masses and allow even more people to become thinkers.