Summary of Discipline and Punish The Birth of Prison Essay Example

Summary of Discipline and Punish: The Birth of Prison Paper Foucault himself worked in hospitals—or rather, on mental asylums—and has had first-hand experiences on the realities of life which could make them come into the arms of madness. In fact, he has written on such subject matter (Madness and Unreason: History of Madness in the Classical Age published in 1961) and his other various experiences have also been influenced by the things around him and his experiences: Foucault’s work can be traced to events in his present day. The Order of Things would have been inspired by the rise of structuralism in the 1960s, for example, and the prison uprisings in the early 1970s would have inspired Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975). (European Graduate School EGS, 2008) Many authors and other famous philosophers and writers were mainly inspired by what they saw in their lifetime or even some other author which they have read. In Foucault’s case, it was all three, as he was inspired by Nietzsche and the â€Å"uprisings† in his time. The book is a fusion of what can be called a history book and that of a book which contains opinions of a person, for that is exactly what the book brings—facts and fiction as Foucault gives factual evidences of what were supposedly recorded scenarios of prison life, while at the same time voicing out his convictions and opinions on the subject at hand: Punishment of a less immediately physical kind, a certain discretion in the art of inflicting pain, a combination of more subtle, more subdued sufferings, deprived of their visible display, should not all this be treated as a special case, an incidental effect of deeper changes? We will write a custom essay sample on Summary of Discipline and Punish: The Birth of Prison specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Summary of Discipline and Punish: The Birth of Prison specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Summary of Discipline and Punish: The Birth of Prison specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer And yet the fact remains that a few decades saw the disappearance of the tortured, dismembered, amputated body, symbolically branded on face or shoulder, exposed alive or dead to public view. The body as the major target of penal repression disappeared. (Foucault, 1977, pp. 7-8) As what the introduction of this paper states, Michel Foucault mainly focuses on the history and development of the prison system or penal system of the western world. This includes the more horrifying acts of execution and punishment of the penal system and the more subtle forms of imprisonment later on (Foucault, 1977). It can be even concluded that the entire book may be a case study of some sort of how the penal system was born and changed and what led to these changes. Of course, these changes contributed to the modern technology which later developed, but more specifically, the changes can be attributed more to the fact that the world is changing, and times back then called for more orderly, effective, and systematic forms of punishment. Although the book contains many themes with regard to its context, there are still some which are more apparent than the others and needs to be focused on. The following section of this paper will focus on the four themes of the Michel Foucaults Discipline and Punish: The Birth of Prison. The Four Themes of Discipline and Punish As with all literary works and pieces, themes are important as they say what the whole masterpiece is driving at what is its point. More than what it is all about, the theme is a universal truth in which the work is supposed to portray, and this work by Michel Foucault naturally contains such themes. The Display of Authority One of the most prominent themes of the book is the blatant display of power and authority of the penal system and the implementers—or, in the case of 18th century, it was the executioners. They can be even regarded as ruthless as they showed no mercy to the criminal. A criminal deserved to be punished and the punishment must be executed no matter how immoral it may be—both for the criminal and member of the public who were watching (Foucault, 1977).

George Orwells Classic Essay on the Homeless

George Orwells Classic Essay on the Homeless Best known for his novels Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), George Orwell (pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair) was one of the most notable political writers of his day. The following short piece has been drawn from Chapter 31 of Orwells first book, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), a semiautobiographical account of living in poverty in both cities. Though the word beggars is rarely heard nowadays, the ordinary human beings he describes are, of course, still with us. Consider whether or not you agree with Orwells thesis.After reading Why Are Beggars Despised you may find it worthwhile to compare the piece with two essays by Oliver Goldsmith: A City Night-Piece  and The Character of the Man in Black. Why Are Beggars Despised? by George Orwell 1 It is worth saying something about the social position of beggars, for when one has consorted with them, and found that they are ordinary human beings, one cannot help being struck by the curious attitude that society takes towards them. People seem to feel that there is some essential difference between beggars and ordinary working men. They are a race apart - outcasts, like criminals and prostitutes. Working men work, beggars do not work; they are parasites, worthless in their very nature. It is taken for granted that a beggar does not earn his living, as a bricklayer or a literary critic earns his. He is a mere social excrescence, tolerated because we live in a humane age, but essentially despicable. 2 Yet if one looks closely one sees that there is no essential difference between a beggars livelihood and that of numberless respectable people. Beggars do not work, it is said; but, then, what is work? A navvy works by swinging a pick. An accountant works by adding up figures. A beggar works by standing out of doors in all weathers and getting varicose veins, chronic bronchitis, etc. It is a trade like any other; quite useless, of course - but, then, many reputable trades are quite useless. And as a social type a beggar compares well with scores of others. He is honest compared with the sellers of most patent medicines, high-minded compared with a Sunday newspaper proprietor, amiable compared with a hire-purchase tout - in short, a parasite, but a fairly harmless parasite. He seldom extracts more than a bare living from the community, and, what should justify him according to our ethical ideas, he pays for it over and over in suffering. I do not think there is anything about a be ggar that sets him in a different class from other people, or gives most modern men the right to despise him. 3 Then the question arises, Why are beggars despised?- for they are despised, universally. I believe it is for the simple reason that they fail to earn a decent living. In practice nobody cares whether work is useful or useless, productive or parasitic; the sole thing demanded is that it shall be profitable. In all the modern talk about energy, efficiency, social service and the rest of it, what meaning is there except Get money, get it legally, and get a lot of it? Money has become the grand test of virtue. By this test beggars fail, and for this they are despised. If one could earn even ten pounds a week at begging, it would become a respectable profession immediately. A beggar, looked at realistically, is simply a businessman, getting his living, like other businessmen, in the way that comes to hand. He has not, more than most modern people, sold his honor; he has merely made the mistake of choosing a trade at which it is impossible to grow rich. (1933) Other Responses To find out how other readers have responded to this excerpt from Orwells Down and Out in Paris and London, visit the discussion board at reddit/r/books.