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The School: Postmodernist Ideas - Online Term Paper

The School: Postmodernist Ideas



Barthelme's "The School" is the first postmodernist story I have ever read.
When I read it for the first time, my lips formed a bitter smile. In my
imagination, postmodernist stories differed from the classical ones in the
arrangement of the ideas and in the standard that postmodernists reject society.
True, �The School� does differ in composition, for example the absence of
introduction, but though it sounds somewhat comical, it does also have an
incorporated pessimism that makes me reflect on the story. I think this
pessimism is the cause that postmodernists reject society.
The notion of rejection comes in the story through the death cases. It
seems strange why Barthelme uses the ...

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In this school, where the children are supposed to receive education,
everything dies. The fish, the salamander, and the orange trees die though
children take much care of them. The teacher is pessimistic although life goes
on and a new gerbil walks in the school. Edgar says that "life is that which
gives meaning to life," but still this does not change that Edgar knew that the
puppy would die in two weeks. He had seen worse when some parents died in a car
accident and when two children died while playing with each other in a dangerous
place. What else, but pessimism, could one expect in an environment where every
living thing, including children, is dying?
Death's dominance in the story shows again that society, which presumably
should foster the growth of the future individuals (i.e. children), destroys
their very existence. By the end of the story, it is easy to understand that
death is the destiny of the children as well, because it would be impossible for
them to live ...

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The School: Postmodernist Ideas. (2006, February 19). Retrieved November 28, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-School-Postmodernist-Ideas/41481
"The School: Postmodernist Ideas." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 19 Feb. 2006. Web. 28 Nov. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-School-Postmodernist-Ideas/41481>
"The School: Postmodernist Ideas." Essayworld.com. February 19, 2006. Accessed November 28, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-School-Postmodernist-Ideas/41481.
"The School: Postmodernist Ideas." Essayworld.com. February 19, 2006. Accessed November 28, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-School-Postmodernist-Ideas/41481.
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PAPER DETAILS
Added: 2/19/2006 12:56:10 AM
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 567
Pages: 3

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