Corruption of Power Essay

The subversion of office staff, or the power of decadence is a public theme found in texts of umpteen different types of media and in many societies and cultures much or less the world.In the texts I have selected, I have answer to the conclusion that, all book of itemss in the pursuit of power atomic number 18 corrupt.In the texts I have selected, which include, The melting pot, The Godfather, savage do work and Akira, the portrayal of corruption is intimately linked to that of power.How is corruption of power shown/represented in the texts?Lord Acton, a key influence on this essay, once said, All too ofttimestimes men with the mentality of anchor ringsters get control.This quote could nourish no much(prenominal) relevance to any former(a) text than that of The Godfather. In The Godfather the story revolves around that of Michael Coleone, and his rise to power as the head of a the family, a gang that deals in various underground activities.Michaels contribution u ndergoes a dramatic learning as the celluloid goes on. At the beginning of the film we lot travel to that Michael appears to be a moral and upright character. He is a warf ar hero, and is not involved in anyway with the family business. However as the film progresses, and Michael stats gaining power in the family, he be arisings to a greater extent amoral, firstly butchering Sollozzo, a gangster who attempted to take Michaels father, Vito Corleones, life. At this sudden and dramatic permute in characterMichael furtherifies his revenge saying, Its not personal, Sonny. Its strictly business. The term, just business is practised by means ofout the film to justify corrupt behaviour, right off associating the character as materialistic and amoral. The film hence suggests that Michael, perhaps wish all of us, perpetually had the potential to be materialistic, (and and thence amoral,)but did not antecedently hold a position that enabled him to contribute any acts or corrupti on or evil.This corruption is also evident Animal Farm, where the pigs, and to a greater extent specifically Napoleon, give for power as a means to commit acts of corruption.Here, however, the initial motivation is the inverse, and to that extent the corresponding of what we see in the Godfather. Where Michael uses corruption to secure power, Napoleon uses power as a means to commit self-centered act of corruption. Napoleon and S in a flashball, two authoritative pigs assume leaders e actuallyplace the farm. However corruption soon becomes evident as Napoleon exiles Snowball, through a long setup plan, in order to gain all-encompassing control of the farm. Just the fact that Napoleon assumed leadership and had an schedule nurtures that he was corrupt before he gained power. Napoleon being the just now leader nigh immediately becomes dictator and inevitably sets up a bureaucracy, which goes against the most eventful rule of Animalism, All animals are equal. So as Napoleon assumes full power, his corruption materialises, as he has no immunity to challenge him.In The Crucible too we can see that when irresponsible power is attained absolute corruption is gained. Powerful characters are always evil. Danforth and Abigail, the two best ex angstrom unitles are both departing to obscure in order to get what they want. For Abigail, he object 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 contract 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 within the play corruption is wherefore 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 prepare he becomes more and more violent, firstly beating people, then eventually killing them. Gentle or passive characters on the other hand are much more pure and, represent the frank guy. We can see that as Kaneda attempts to kill Tetsuo he achieves nothing but to further enrage him and cause more destruction, but as Kaneda becomes sympathetic towards Tetsuo eventually trying to save him, he is rewarded by surviving the explosion that destroys Tokyo.What was the context in which the text was created. How does it take the way corruption of power is portrayed?Context plays an important affair in all texts, specifically in those that are allegorical, and represent public at the time in which they were made. For example the book, Animal Farm and the play, The Crucible both are metaphorical and allegorical and both are diminutive reviews on an event or person at the time.In Animal Farm the protagonists are metaphorical, or kinda allegorical representations of key semipolitical 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 thereof portrays Napoleon in exactly the same way as Stalin, making the character commit acts that were parallel to that of Stalins. such(prenominal) as the exile of Snowball/ Trotsky, and the execution of many suspect 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(prenominal) like in the McCarthy trials characters in the crucib le use hysteria and jurisdiction to charge rivals with crimes they did not commit. McCarthy used charges of communism against many of his opponents inside and alfresco of office, in the same way that characters such as Abigail used charges of witchery against her rival Elizabeth.Again time period 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 humanity and sense of justice that he carries with him. The inauguration scene of the film has the character Bonasera asking Vito to kill two boys who ill-treat his daughter, I ask you for justice, but Vito replies, That is not justice.Your daughter is alive. Unlike almost all 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 gangsters materialistic values. For example when one of the Corleone gangsters kill a mole within the family, he comments soon after saying, encounter home the bacon the gun. Take the cannoli. This quote shows how irrelevant human life is compared to material wealth, as the killer pays no notice, let alone respect to the dead. The film is wherefore 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 western. 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 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 changing their ways and becoming more moral.What comparisons can we make between the portrayals of John Dalberg-Actons stand layover on corruption of power in the texts? What differences are there?In all the texts, those who strive for power are evil. Power is seen as a means to contract out the selfish and generally immoral 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 particular scene Hale tries to entice Danforth to postpone if not cancel the hangings, as the g irls are strongly suspected of lying, but Danforth replies saying, Twelve are already executed the names these septet 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 mold doubt upon the guilt of them that died until now. At the risk of losing authority Danforth is willing to apply numerous lives in order to keep his position of power, he is therefore seen as extremely selfish and corrupt character. Abigail we can see is distinctly corrupt even before she holds any power. After the girls are caught jump in the forest, Abigail threatens them saying, We danced.That is all, and mark this, if anyone breathe a word or the saltation of a word about the other things, I will come to you in the black of some terrible night, and I will bring with me a pointy reckoning that will shudder youThe Crucible does however ease up to show any moral or even ethical characters develop into dishonest co rrupt ones. Nevertheless we do see characters such as Hale and Proctor throw apart their power and reputation, for the right thing. This still 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 witchery 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 contravene themselves . . . can you not see the blood on my headIn Animal Farm, one clear difference we can see from the other studied texts, is that Napoleon, the head pig has an agenda from early on. This serves to emphasise my point that characters that essay power are inherently corrupt. However Animal Farm may go as far to say that, Napoleon underwent pocket-sized to no transformation in character at all. He took the potion of leadership so that he could set his plans in motion.In The Godfather it is less strongly suggested as it is in the other texts that the corrupted character was in fact corrupt to begin with. However if we re-examine the portrayal of corruption, which in this nerve is materialism, we can still use this text to support my theory. We as the earreach first see that Michael is corrupt when his materialistic views are made noticed. beforehand 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 very materialistic. Michael later 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 casino owner Moe Greene who previously refused to contend 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 text like the Crucible, it has even deceased 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/ gloss/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& ampresnum=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