Corruption of Power Essay

The putrefaction of indi bathroomt, or the power of foulion is a common theme found in schoolbooks of legion(predicate) different types of media and in m each societies and cultures around the world.In the school schoolbooks I exhaust selected, I fix come to the conclusion that, every last(predicate) calibers in the search of power are bollocks.In the texts I have selected, which include, The Crucible, The Godfather, Animal do work and Akira, the portrayal of corruption is closely linked to that of power.How is corruption of power shown/ represent in the texts?Lord Acton, a key influence on this essay, erst turn said, altogether overly frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control.This paraphrase could fleetle no much relevance to whatever separate text than that of The Godfather. In The Godfather the story revolves around that of Michael Coleone, and his rise to power as the interrogative sentence of a the family, a gang that deals in various un derground activities.Michaels vitrine undergoes a dramatic wear outment as the scene goes on. At the spring of the pic we can check off that Michael appears to be a moral and adept section. He is a war hero, and is non involved in leastwise with the family business. However as the film progresses, and Michael stats gaining power in the family, he becomes more amoral, firstly killing Sollozzo, a gangster who attempted to take Michaels father, Vito Corleones, life. At this sudden and dramatic change in characterMichael justifies his revenge saying, Its non someoneal, Sonny. Its strictly business. The term, just business is substance abused throughout the film to unloosen corrupt behaviour, immediately associating the character as worldly-minded and amoral. The film hence suggests that Michael, perhaps akin all of us, always had the potential to be button-down, (and at that placefore amoral,) plainly did not previously hold a position that enabled him to displume any acts or corruption or evil.This corruption is as well as homely Animal Farm, where the pigs, and more specifically nap, strive for power as a means to commit acts of corruption.Here, moreover, the initial motivation is the inverse, and yet the same of what we reckon in the Godfather. Where Michael uses corruption to achieve power, pile uses power as a means to commit narcissistic act of corruption. cat sleep and Snowball, two irresponsible pigs assume leadership over the utmostm. However corruption soon becomes lucid as Napoleon exiles Snowball, through a long setup plan, in tell to gain full control of the farm. Just the fact that Napoleon assumed leadership and had an ag curiositya proves that he was corrupt before he gained power. Napoleon being the only leader almost immediately becomes dictator and inevitably sets up a bureaucracy, which goes against the most important rule of Animalism, All animals are equal. So as Napoleon assumes full power, his corruption mater ialises, as he has no opposition to challenge him.In The Crucible too we can insure that when absolute power is attained absolute corruption is gained. Powerful characters are always evil. Danforth and Abigail, the two best models are two willing to kill in order to get what they want. For Abigail, he disapprove of desire is Proctor, and she is willing to kill Elizabeth. While Danforth will do everything he can to protect the power he holds, allowing innocent people to be hung when he knows that the girls are lying. The characters Hale and Proctor both give up their position of power to do the right thing. Proctor for example repents and admits to adultery in order to prove to the court the grudge Abigail holds against Elizabeth. So inside the work corruption is therefore represented as power itself those who hold power, to put it bluntly are corrupt.In Akira however, corruption exists in all if not most characters. A clear sign of corruption in the movie is through the use of violence. Characters such as Kaneda who from the beginning use violence are seen as corrupt, and as we see Tetsuos character develop he becomes more and more violent, firstly beating people, then in conclusion killing them. Gentle or passive characters on the other hand are much more pure and, represent the good guy. We can see that as Kaneda attempts to kill Tetsuo he achieves nothing barely to promote enrage him and cause more destruction, and as Kaneda becomes sympathetic towards Tetsuo at last trying to keep up him, he is rewarded by surviving the explosion that destroys Tokyo.What was the scope in which the text was created. How does it affect the way corruption of power is depicted?Context plays an important role in all texts, specifically in those that are allegoric, and represent reality at the time in which they were do. For example the book, Animal Farm and the play, The Crucible both are metaphorical and allegorical and both are critical reviews on an event or person at the time.In Animal Farm the protagonists are metaphorical, or preferably allegorical representations of key political figures at the time. For example the character of Napoleon is Stalin in reality, while the character of Snowball is Trotsky. Both were communist revolutionaries, but both had different contradicting views on Marxist theory. The text therefore portrays Napoleon in exactly the same way as Stalin, making the character commit acts that were match to that of Stalins. Such as the exile of Snowball/ Trotsky, and the instruction execution of many suspected soviet/animal enemies.In The Crucible too we can see a direct representation of corruption, as the text is metaphorical of the McCarthy trials in the 1950s. The character of Danforth, while not directly parallel like Stalin/Napoleon, has many similarities to the U.S senator McCarthy. Much like in the McCarthy trials characters in the melting pot use hysteria and jurisdiction to charge rivals with crimes they did not commit. McCarthy used charges of socialism against many of his opponents inside and outside of office, in the same way that characters such as Abigail used charges of witchcraft against her rival Elizabeth.Again time extent plays an important factor in the portrayal of corruption. We can see that in The Godfather 1972, corruption is portrayed as one and the same thing as materialism. Vito Corleone, who is the original head of the family, may be a mob boss, but he is viewed as a moral upright character. This is because of the benignantity and virtuoso of justice that he carries with him. The opening scene of the film has the character Bonasera request Vito to kill two boys who abused his daughter, I ask you for justice, but Vito replies, That is not justice.Your daughter is alive. Unlike almostall the other mobsters in the film, Vito never uses the phrase just business, this emphasises yet again the humanity of his character, and contrasts with Michael and the other gangs ters materialistic values. For example when one of the Corleone gangsters kill a mole within the family, he comments soon after saying, Leave the gun. Take the cannoli. This quote shows how irrelevant human life is compared to material wealth, as the killer pays no bank bill, let whole respect to the dead. The film is therefore a negative review on American society, and its capitalistic or materialistic values at the time.Akira is also an important text in relation to a culture or society. It is different from the other texts I have studied because being made in Japan, it is not Hesperian. This is an important fact, as we might not notice but western films are very biblical and often justify the use of violence for the good guys to defeat the bad guys. In western film evil is often much more of an external force out than what we find in Japanese film. This is related to the fact that Buddhism being a major religion in Japan, influences a lot of media. Much like in The Godfather materialism is seen as evil, but the main indicator for corrupt characters in Akira is violence. All characters who commit violence are immediately considered corrupt, however these characters can be forgiven very easily by simply ever-changing their ways and becoming more moral.What comparisons can we make between the portrayals of antic Dalberg-Actons standpoint on corruption of power in the texts? What remnants are there?In all the texts, those who strive for power are evil. Power is seen as a means to carry out the selfish and generally nefarious goals of a character, and that is why it is valued.In The Crucible, Danforth commits evil deeds in order to stay in power. He and the other ministers recognise that the girls are lying, but if they admit they were wrong, their power will be undermined. In one circumstance scene Hale tries to convince Danforth to postpone if not cancel the hangings, as the girls are strongly suspected of lying, but Danforth replies saying, Twelve are already executed the names these seven are given out,and the village expects to see them die this morning. Postponement now speaks a floundering on my part reprive or pardon must cast doubt upon the guilt of them that died until now. At the try of losing authority Danforth is willing to sacrifice numerous lives in order to pass on his position of power, he is therefore seen as extremely selfish and corrupt character. Abigail we can see is clearly corrupt even before she holds any power. After the girls are caught dancing in the forest, Abigail threatens them saying, We danced.That is all, and mark this, if anyone breathe a word or the edge of a word about the other things, I will come to you in the black of some dread(prenominal) night, and I will bring with me a pointy reckoning that will quiver youThe Crucible does however fail to show any moral or even ethical characters develop into dishonest corrupt ones. Nevertheless we do see characters such as Hale and Proctor throw ex ternal their power and reputation, for the right thing. This nevertheless emphasises my point, as ultimately in the crucible no moral figures can have any authority. Hale starts the play being amoral, or rather nave, but by the end is willing to throw away his reputation in order to save those he has damned.He confesses to witchcraft in an attempt to convince the judged to do the same, therefore saving their lives, he says, I come to do the devils work. I come to counsel Christians they should belie themselves . . . can you not see the line of merchandise on my headIn Animal Farm, one clear difference we can see from the other studied texts, is that Napoleon, the head pig has an order of business from early on. This serves to emphasise my point that characters that seek power are inherently corrupt. However Animal Farm may go as far to say that, Napoleon underwent little to no transformation in character at all. He took the potion of leadership so that he could set his plans in mo tion.In The Godfather it is less strongly suggested as it is in the other texts that the profane character was in fact corrupt to begin with. However if we go over the portrayal of corruption, which in this case is materialism, we can still use this text to support my theory. We as the audience first see that Michael is corrupt when his materialistic views are made noticed. Before he even gains any power, he offers to kill Sollozzo an enemy to the family, for business, Michael is then instantly seen as an amoral character, as he much like many of the other gangsters are verymaterialistic. Michael posterior becomes more and more materialistic, and therefore becomes more corrupt. As we can see through the numerous killings he orders, including the death of his brother in law, and the cassino owner Moe Greene who previously refused to sell Michael his casino.In the texts we can see that any character that seeks power, does so as it allows them to commit acts of corruption. In a tex t like the Crucible, it has even gone as far to say that those in power must be corrupt, and that moral leaders cannot exist if they have power. Those who are moral and hold power, forfeit their power out of selflessness, while those who retain or seek out power do it for selfish means.Referenced materialhttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Godfatherhttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cruciblehttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farmhttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_(film)Themeshttp//www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/quoteshttp//www.imdb.com/title/tt0094625/quoteshttp//books.google.co.nz/books?id=Ik73H7d4x8gC&pg=PA189&lpg=PA189&dq=%22I+-+I+have+no+witness+and+cannot+prove+it,+except+my+word+be+taken.+But+I+know+the+children%27s+sickness+had+naught+to+do+with+witchcraft.%22&source=bl&ots=38RBlzudbW&sig=sNt3tl0PGtcGTt2oHGQtm8hBcGU&hl=en&ei=UDMfSuWVJ53osgOM9JiQCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2PPP1,M1http//www.george-orwell.org/Animal_Farm/index.htmlhttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhismhttp//en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthyhttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_StalinAnimal Farm, George OrwellThe Crucible, Arthur MillerThe Godfather, Francis Ford CoppolaAkira, Katsuhiro Otomohttp//www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/l/lord_acton.htmlhttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton,_1st_Baron_Acton