Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.

Progress, for whom?...

I truly believe that no one is against "progress”, because the word progress supposedly implies an “improvement" for the society that is changing. But, the big problem that the social-economical progress has it is related to how just some people can have access to that change, take advantage of it and be influenced in a positive way. On the other side there is a very expensive price of progress that some people have to pay, due to the fact that progress is not just measured in a monetary way it also can be measured in the amount of suffered lives, especially those lives that didn’t have the opportunity to take advantage from the progress.

As far as we are concerned Governments have been pushed progress on non educated people to obtain monetary gains and increase their economic development, but we just need to observe what is really happening; poor people is becoming more vulnerable and rich people is increasing their profitst at the expense of those disadvantaged population.

During the Victorian era in England this situation was not completely different from the situation that we are living in today’s world. The British considered themselves as the model of the civilized world. However, beneath the surface of this great empire laid millions of subjugated people. This unfair social and economical situation experienced among the poorest it is also very well depicted in “Oliver Twist”, a novel written by Charles Dickens in the XIX Century. The main character of this novel, Oliver Twist was a poor and an orphan child who also experienced the injustices of life paying the price of the British progress during the industrialization process.

From my personal point of view, I believe that Oliver's experiences demonstrate the legal silence and invisibility of the poor, because the main character also represents the typical stereotype of the poor. However, Dickens himself exhibits middle-class prejudice, because he reproduced through the story the worst anti-Semitic stereotypes in Fagin, the"old" and "villainous Jew” who abused of some children to obtein money. This is in itself another problematic in our contemporary society, as the inherent anti-Semitism which attaches to Dickens’ descriptions of him are difficult for the modern reader to dispassionately assimilate.

To conclude, I think that we have to bear in mind the Universal Declaration of Human rights when we contemplate what is happening in our society and we cannot forget that this Declaration is not only concerned with civil and political rights but also with what are known as economic and social rights. Changes and progress for all societies should be always part of every single human being.

"The Signal-Man" by Charles Dickens.

This English literature course have made me think about how through fictional and non-fictional stories, literature makes us reflect and appreciate societal issues. Since we have been reading and discussing some literature pieces we are being able to realize that literature is the mirror of society and it gives voice to those who are voiceless, it gives life to the lifeless and it also gives hope to the hopeless. However, because literature is the mirror of the society, some writer attempted to write or describe the flaws of life and weaknesses of humanity to justify both sides of mortal and immortal life.

If we start to analyze the book called “The Signal-man” a ghost story written by Charles Dickens we are going to realize that his author wanted to portray to the readers societal issues that were occurring during the Victorian time as well as his own view of life. As we know “The signal-man” was setting in the middle of the 19th century, a period of time in which industrialization and progress were the main issues among the European society.

As I mentioned before, there are many real elements of a society that we can find in a literature piece and sometimes those real elements are mixed up with non-fictional literature elements in order to represent in an enjoyable way of reading the society problems. In the signalman both elements; societal issues, non-fictional elements and metaphors were portrayed to show to the readers how the main character saw the society, he was just a specter of what was happening in the 19th century mechanized environment.

Literature elements such as; supernatural things (the ghost) and the box in which the signalman used to lived, represent Charles Dickens’ state of mind. He also wanted to depict in his book his realistic perspective in which he was feeling the societal changes and the mechanization of humanity.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

While I was reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley I had the opportunity to imagine the entire story and I felt like a little child while reading it, because I was able to open my mind and think as a kid who is always wondering why things happen.

According to the period in which Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, she was very influenced on the nature of Romanticism as well as her own experiences with life. If we think about the hidden message that Mary Shelley presented us in the book, we are going to realize that the story can be read as a tale of what happens when a man tries to create a child without a woman. Furthermore, the fact that the main character, Victor the modern scientist who created the monster was challenging the nature through his experiment represents how science and religion were confronting at each other, because it can be represented the powerful idea that man could change nature and being seen as God when having control of technology.

If we want to see the societal issues that Shelley depicted in her book, we just have to focus our attention in the main character, Victor, the modern scientist who unleashed upon an unsuspecting society. He was not fully aware of the consequences of his creation, the monster called Frankenstein, a new race of human beings. He spent his entire life trying to destroy the same creation. His excesses finally destroy him. From my point of view Victor represented the part of the psyche that is governed by the instinctive impulses of sex or aggression, as probably Freud could also describe him in his office.

To conclude I’d like to mention that I really like this book, because even though I’ve had read it before, this second time I could realized the context in which it was written. Besides, I also was able to open my mind and read as a child, due to the fact that through the image of Frankenstein I remembered the period when I was a child and as him I had to learn through my observations and by imitating what I saw, as well as Frankenstein Jr.

"I wandered lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth.

Wordsworth poem “I wandered lonely as a cloud” can be very easy for us to interpret it if we know something about the Romantic era and its poetry, due to the fact that it emphasized on feelings such as freedom from rules, spontaneity, solitary life, intuition, love of beauty and nature and some irrational ideas about the self.

From my point of view, I believe that this poem puts the reader in the poet's state of mind, because it describes his process of thinking as someone who was wandering of a cloud, in its celestial route above earth in order to represent a peaceful factor such as loneliness. Although, to me loneliness does not carry a negative connotation; one can read this line as peaceful solitude as opposed to loneliness. Moreover, we can see through the poem that Wordsworth was not only alone, in fact he was happy to be alone as he enjoyed the tranquility of solitude while contemplating daffodils’ beauty.

To conclude, I’d like to relate this poem to my own experience with loneliness and what I always do to fight against that feeling. In Wordsworth case, the contemplation of nature was his only way to avoid sadness. In my own case to look at the stars give me the strengths and the hope I need to proceed when I feel sad and alone. Some other times I just appreciate the stars and the sky without having any reason, just to observe God's creation and realize what life has giving me. Some people sometimes fail to appreciate nature's wonders as they go about their daily routines. We have to learn to appreciate our environment.