Cultural Text Analysis - Essay Example

Title Author Institution affiliation Cultural text analysis Introduction Various cultural texts are designed to communicate ideas in different ways. The concepts of communication theory can be applied to these cultural texts in order to understand the ideas being communicated (Barcelona 2003). Cultural texts may include video games, books, films and designed objects. Metaphors, metonyms and connotation are used in various cultural texts for communication purposes .Authors may use figures of speech as literary devices to achieve their goal in writing. In this essay, all the two cultural texts or books analyzed are authored by different people. The two books are; The Lord of the Flies by William Golding and Nice Works by David Lodge. The two authors make use of metaphors, metonymy and connotations in various ways in their books. The focus of this essay is to analyze the use of connotation, metaphor and metonymy in the two selected cultural texts. It also seeks to define the words metaphor, connotation and metonymy. Metaphor, Connotation and Metonymy A metonym is basically a figure of speech whereby a thing or any given concept is referred to not by its name but by another name belonging to something that has an intimate association with that concept or thing. For example, Washington DC could be used to refer to the government of the United States as a metonym (Barcelona 2003). A metaphor is also a figure of speech whereby an idea or particular object takes the place of another in speech to show that there is an analogy or likeness existing between the two words (Dirven, Pörings 2003). A connotation is an emotional or cultural association understood by many people to be associated with a particular phrase or word apart from the literal meaning of that word or phrase (Barcelona 2003). This literal or explicit meaning is what that phrase or word is used to denote. The books discussed below have several of the above concepts of communication theory which are applied to the books in the analysis. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding William Golding in his book, “The Lord of the Flies” uses a lot of the metaphors, connotation and metonymy. The book shows that some school boys get to a certain island that is deserted. They do not have any social mores safe for the ones the came with. They arrive on the island when they are civilized but when they stay there for some time their civilization begins to go away (Bloom, 2010). Golding uses many religious connotations. Evil erupts in the form of “the beastie.” This beast is only mythical but the boys are convinced that it exists in reality. It is just the body of a lifeless piolet and his parachute but since the boys are fearful, they become so anxious. The change observed in the behavior of the boy is a religious connotation as well. In the text, Simon, Jack and Ralph stand for different religious aspects. The beast in the “Lord of the Flies” is a metaphor that appears as a real object causing fear on the boys on the island. The beast is after all internal and the Lord of the Flies exists in the boys’ minds which leads them to the normal chaos in a community that does not have any adults. It Simon alone who seems to comprehend the real meaning of the beast but he dies as he attempts to reveal to the boys about the Lord of the Flies (Freeman 1995). Jack stands for evil while Ralph stands for good. Of the three boys, Jack takes the role of a god. The rest of the boys give him service that deserves for a god. Simon symbolizes the spiritual side and he therefore does the meditation. He goes away on his own to contemplate. He goes on to confront the false idol of the head of the hog (Reiff 2009). At that time, he is in hallucination but he talks to the head about men and the evil in them. He dies and his body is glowing because of the light it is reflecting at the beach when it washes off. The hog head is seen to be the false idol which Jack puts on a stick so that all people can be able to see it. The head has an implication of the evil and the kill which represent mankind’s cruelty and the evidence of the bad that is in man. Golding uses metaphors as well in his book. However the metaphors are also seen as symbols symbolizing different things. His metaphors are also combined with similes. He uses the metaphors and symbols to communicate the main theme in the “Lord of the Flies.” The boys’ society that Golding uses in the book is metaphorically symbolizing the real world. It is important to note that their stay of the island ends in war although they have been appearing innocent before this (Reiff 2009). Golding tells the reader that even children have a dark area in their hearts and this is why they hunt one another in order to kill. The boys were taught to kill by nobody but they just find themselves doing it naturally. Another metaphor that Golding uses to symbolize man’s dark heart is the beast. This beast is non existent. The beast exists but only in the dark fears that the boys have. The beast is alive in the dark minds and hearts of the healthy and wholesome boys. Golding uses the children as the authors of the story to show that the heart of mankind is full of dark imagination, evil and fear. The title “lord of the flies” is also used metaphorically. There are so many more metaphors that Golding employs in his book. The Conch cell for example is a symbol for the law and order common in the old world of the adults which Piggy struggles to protect. The conch is a metaphor for the authority that the boys obey all the time. Upon destruction of the conch by Roger there is anarchy which comes in quickly because no body is pursuing the hope of firm central governance (Bloom, 2010). The society on the island is quickly engulfed in chaos. Golding uses face paint as a metaphor to symbolize the excuse that most of the boys make use of in their lives of hunting savages instead of being civilized citizens of England. Specifically, the face paint is the symbol for the smoke screen used by the beast in his business of infiltrating the young souls of the boys (Freeman 1995). Another visible metaphor that Golding applies is the smoke and fire. This is the symbol for the last credible hope for the rescue of the boys. Ralph and Piggy see the fire as the moral influence that they had in their former life in England. Upon the going out of the fire, Ralf is seen to lose his bearings and is not sure of what to do next. The fire is against hunting which is an activity representing anarchy on the island. The author of the book took the island as the ideal metaphorical symbol for the landing of the plane that crashed since an island in itself is isolated from the mainland. The boys are isolated and they have no links to the outside society. This forces them to struggle to solve their problems by themselves. The island in this case is isolated and tits isolated state is the metaphorical symbol for the frailties that can be seen in human nature everyday (Freeman 1995). Glasses are a metaphor for logic and reasoning in the boys. Piggy is seen defending the glasses more than he does for the conch. Piggy is a representation of the society’s and boys’ super ego and their collective personality and he makes use of his glasses to get the answers to the issues facing the boys. The glasses get to the solution of lighting a fire which is the best opportunity for the rescue of the boys (Reiff 2009).The symbol of the parachute man is a metaphor used by Golding whereby the corpse in the parachute stands for the end of supervision by adults for the boys on the island. As the parachute man flies over the island, showing a strong image of his extended death, the Lord of flies otherwise called the beast, is increasing in its new found influence over Jack and the rest of the boys living on the island at the time. As the adult world’s law and order influence is dying out, there is fast growth in the chaos being perpetrated by the boys. The parachute man is connected in a special way to Simon. He goes up the mountain to see if the parachute man is still alive (Bloom, 2010). Simon gets a nervous breakdown upon discovering that the parachute man is dead and that the Beast is the one that is a live. There is a moral confrontation that takes place where Simon talks with the Lord of the Flies. This is a symbol for inability of man to bring under control, the devil’s evil anarchy. The “Lord of the Flies” statement is associated to the devil. This association is comparable to the Bible where there is the mention of the word Beelzebub or Baal-zebub. This word appears for the first time in the Old Testament and the Hebrew language uses Baal for Lord while Zebub is a big fly causing destruction. The New Testament had Greek as its first language of writing and in Greek the word Baalzebub or Beelzebub or Beelzebul basically means Satan (Reiff 2009). Nice Work by David Lodge David Lodge uses a lot of metonyms and metaphors in his novel called Nice Work which is written in the form of a dialogue where two people are conversing. The two people are Vic and Robyn. In their conversation they show the different ways in which metonymy and metaphors apply to the novel (Sramkova 2005). A good example is the bitter arguments the two people held over the Silk cut advertisement. After a few miles it looks like they went past the same big poster on the side of the road. It was a huge photograph showing a wide piece of purple silk that had a slit in it. The material looked like it had been cut using a razorblade (Otal, Campo, and Fortuño 2005).Robyn says that the slit in the purple silk metaphorically stands for the genitals of a woman. He says that silk does not have anything to do with tobacco. It is only a metaphor which refers to the smoothness in the silk, “as smooth as silk.” The advertisement the two people saw did not have any words on it. The only words visible were the warnings of the ministry of health on the dangers of smoking (Sramkova, 2005). This image that flashed at regular intervals made Robyn intrigued and irritated so that she started her semiotics on the hidden structure behind the bland surface of the structure. In the beginning it was a riddle that needed knowledge about the existence Silk Cut cigarette brand so that decoding may be easy. The poster represented in an iconic manner the missing name such as a rebus. However, this icon was a metaphor as well. The shimmering piece of cloth or silk having its sensuous texture and curves was a symbol for the body of a woman. According to Robyn the elliptical slit with a lighter color in the foreground seen through it was the metaphor of a vagina. Semiotic Robyn is a woman who apparently has more information than Pragmatic Vic. She says that the advert appeals to sadistic as well as sensual desires for mutilation and penetration of the female body respectively (Lodge 2012). In the book, Robyn tells Vic that there is a metonymy connection established between smoking the brand and the cowboy’s life which is spent outdoors and looks heroic and healthy. The metonymy comes out when the advert says that when one buys the cigarette he buys the lifestyle or at least the fantasy of that life. Another metonymy comes out in the conversation of Robyn when she says that saying a man has balls is a metonymy and saying that something is a lot of balls is metaphorical (Warnke, 2009). Some other connotations are evident in the book as well. For example Vic asks Robyn to “take things at face value.” Face value in this statement is a connotation for the reality of things. She wants things to be taken literally without fishing out for deeper or hidden meanings. David Lodge makes use of metonymy and metaphorical language more than any other communication theory concept (Otal et al., 2005). Aspects of authority and hierarchy in communications There is always the possibility of people abusing managerial authority because of the style of hierarchical communication that most organizations use (Friebel and Raith 2001). Some authors advise that unrestricted communication should be allowed so that information and ideas can flow without hindrance. However some companies stick to hierarchical communication. This type of patterns permits information to be restricted to direct interactions between subordinates and their superiors. Hierarchical communication is at times a reflection of the command and control hierarchical kind of authority. Even where there are no rules, it is obviously expected that communication will go as the hierarchy goes (Friebel and Raith 2001). Some organizations have regulations that prohibit skip communication. In organizations, closer scrutiny reveals that middle managers care about what their seniors could be told about them by their subordinates (Friebel and Raith 2001). This is a source of problems in any organization because the middle managers wield power over those under them. Scholars of management cite various reasons as to why managers are concerned about the communication of their subordinates with top managers. Research shows that organizations are concerned about fear for the restrictive behavior displayed by managers instead of optimal processing of information whenever they prohibit communication between top managers and the low ranking employees (Friebel and Raith 2001). Conclusion In conclusion, the essay focuses on the definitions of the concepts of communication theory namely; connotation, metaphor and metonymy. The essay also analyses this concepts as applied to the two chosen cultural texts. The two texts include the Lord of the Flies by William Golding and the Nice Work by David Lodge. Golding and Lodge apply these concepts in different ways in their books. In the Lord of the Flies, Golding uses many connotations such as the hog head, the beast and evil. He also uses metaphors. The Conch cell for example is a symbol for the law and order common in the old world of the adults which Piggy struggles to protect. Specifically, the face paint is also used as the symbol for the smoke screen used by the beast in his business of infiltrating the young souls of the boys. In the book Nice Work, Lodge applies the use of connotations, metaphors and metonymy as well. A good example is the bitter arguments the two people held over the Silk cut advertisement. Robyn says that the slit in the purple silk metaphorically stands for the genitals of a woman. Connotations are evident in the book as well. For example Vic asks Robyn to “take things at face value.” Face value in this statement is a connotation for the reality of things. She wants things to be taken literally without fishing out for deeper or hidden meanings. The two authors have therefore made good use of these three communication concepts in their books. References Barcelona, A. (2003). Metaphor and Metonymy at the Crossroads: A Cognitive Perspective. JHU Press. Bloom, H. (2010). William Golding’s Lord of The Flies. Routledge. Dirven, A., Pörings, R. (2003). Metaphor and Metonymy in Comparison and Contrast. GrinVerlag. Freeman, W. (1995). William Golding’s Lord of The Flies. Routledge. Friebel, G., Raith, M. (August 2001). Abuse of Authority and Hierarchical Communication. Retrieved from http://neeo.univ-tlse1.fr/1228/1/friebelraith.pdf Lodge, D. (2012). Nice Work. Random House. Otal, J., Campo, J., Fortuño, B. (2005). Cognitive and Discourse Approaches to Metaphor and Metonymy. Oxford: Oxford University. Reiff, R. (2009). William Golding: Lord of the Flies. MIT Press. Sramkova, B. (2005). Elements of Parody in David Lodge’s Nice Work. John Wiley. Warnke, S. (2009). A clash of two different worlds in David Lodge’s Nice Work. Grin Verlag. Read More

The beast is after all internal and the Lord of the Flies exists in the boys’ minds which leads them to the normal chaos in a community that does not have any adults. It Simon alone who seems to comprehend the real meaning of the beast but he dies as he attempts to reveal to the boys about the Lord of the Flies (Freeman 1995). Jack stands for evil while Ralph stands for good. Of the three boys, Jack takes the role of a god. The rest of the boys give him service that deserves for a god. Simon symbolizes the spiritual side and he therefore does the meditation.

He goes away on his own to contemplate. He goes on to confront the false idol of the head of the hog (Reiff 2009). At that time, he is in hallucination but he talks to the head about men and the evil in them. He dies and his body is glowing because of the light it is reflecting at the beach when it washes off. The hog head is seen to be the false idol which Jack puts on a stick so that all people can be able to see it. The head has an implication of the evil and the kill which represent mankind’s cruelty and the evidence of the bad that is in man.

Golding uses metaphors as well in his book. However the metaphors are also seen as symbols symbolizing different things. His metaphors are also combined with similes. He uses the metaphors and symbols to communicate the main theme in the “Lord of the Flies.” The boys’ society that Golding uses in the book is metaphorically symbolizing the real world. It is important to note that their stay of the island ends in war although they have been appearing innocent before this (Reiff 2009). Golding tells the reader that even children have a dark area in their hearts and this is why they hunt one another in order to kill.

The boys were taught to kill by nobody but they just find themselves doing it naturally. Another metaphor that Golding uses to symbolize man’s dark heart is the beast. This beast is non existent. The beast exists but only in the dark fears that the boys have. The beast is alive in the dark minds and hearts of the healthy and wholesome boys. Golding uses the children as the authors of the story to show that the heart of mankind is full of dark imagination, evil and fear. The title “lord of the flies” is also used metaphorically.

There are so many more metaphors that Golding employs in his book. The Conch cell for example is a symbol for the law and order common in the old world of the adults which Piggy struggles to protect. The conch is a metaphor for the authority that the boys obey all the time. Upon destruction of the conch by Roger there is anarchy which comes in quickly because no body is pursuing the hope of firm central governance (Bloom, 2010). The society on the island is quickly engulfed in chaos. Golding uses face paint as a metaphor to symbolize the excuse that most of the boys make use of in their lives of hunting savages instead of being civilized citizens of England.

Specifically, the face paint is the symbol for the smoke screen used by the beast in his business of infiltrating the young souls of the boys (Freeman 1995). Another visible metaphor that Golding applies is the smoke and fire. This is the symbol for the last credible hope for the rescue of the boys. Ralph and Piggy see the fire as the moral influence that they had in their former life in England. Upon the going out of the fire, Ralf is seen to lose his bearings and is not sure of what to do next.

The fire is against hunting which is an activity representing anarchy on the island. The author of the book took the island as the ideal metaphorical symbol for the landing of the plane that crashed since an island in itself is isolated from the mainland. The boys are isolated and they have no links to the outside society. This forces them to struggle to solve their problems by themselves. The island in this case is isolated and tits isolated state is the metaphorical symbol for the frailties that can be seen in human nature everyday (Freeman 1995).

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