When one hears the word “rebellion,” he is inclined to imagine a brave, intelligent revolutionary who does not blindly conform to the majority, but does what he deems right and just. A rebel will do whatever it takes to bring into existence the world he wishes to see. This may be an admirable image, but it is not always the case. On many occasions, rebellion results from selfish, unpretentious desires. Rebellion is not only synonymous with independence and brilliance; it is also linked to immaturity and ignorance. This is evident in “Editha” by William Dean Howells, John Updike’s “A&P,” Ovid’s piece, “Metamorphosis,” and “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas.
In “Editha,” Howells uses exceptional imagery in order to tell the tale of an ordinary young couple. Editha, a bold, demanding, and stubborn woman, wants her fiancé, George, to fight in the Spanish-American War of 1898. George, an enigmatic pacifist, was brought up to see war as a brutish monster created by man. Editha, a hopeless romantic, wants George to serve his country in order to be “her hero” (Howells 216). After much thought, George decides to rebel against his own beliefs in order to conform to a woman’s standards of something she knows nothing about. George may be going against his family’s mantra, but not for a noble cause. He is merely doing it to please his juvenile fiancé. He blindly states, “When I differ from you I ought to doubt myself” (Howells 216). As a result of his foolishness, George is killed in a war he does not agree with in the first place. In this instance, rebellion is unwise.
It is also unwise for one to quit his job in an attempt to impress a group of beautiful young women. This is the scenario Updike presents...
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... parent’s wishes. One should not follow the majority if it is cruel, unjust, or undesirable, but one should not rebel without reasonable grounds. An individual should follow his desires, but he should consult his own intellect first.
Works Cited
Howells, William Dean. "Editha." Nash, Quentin Miller and Julie. Connections: Literature for Composition. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008. 215-224.
Ovid. "Metamorphoses." Nash, Quentin Miller and Julie. Connections: Literature for Composition. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008. 393-395.
Thomas, Dylan. "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night." Nash, Quentin Miller and Julie. Connections: Literature for Composition. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008. 303.
Updike, John. "A&P." Nash, Quentin Miller and Julie. Connections: Literature for Composition. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008. 244-249.
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...n & Co., Inc., 1962); excerpted and reprinted in Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol. 3, ed. Carolyn Riley (Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1975), p. 526.
Meyer, Michael, ed. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999.
Updike, John. "A&P." Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. Robert DiYanni. 5th ed. New York, NY: McGraw, 2002. 27-31.
Carver, Raymond. Cathedral. Exploring Literature: Writing and Arguing About Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. Ed. Frank Madden. 4th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. 1151-61. Print
... Now, because Editha remained naïve about the issues of war and the loss of her husband, she resumed to believe that sending George off was the right decision. “If Editha had changed her views, she would have had to admit to herself that she sent George off to die in a war and fought for the wrong reasons. Why live with the guilt when there is the ability to pretend that George died for very noble purposes” (Belasco and Johnson 113-24). Editha limits her fault by remaining unaware and therefore feels innocent of the harm she’s inflicted on the people she cares about. The significance of the stories is to appreciate life for what it’s worth. We are given a chance to create something extraordinary and trying to change those around us will affect us for the worst. The accepting of others for who they truly are is what defines the character of one person from the next.
Urgo, Joseph R. "A Prologue to Rebellion: The Awakening and the Habit of Self-expression." The Southern Literary Journal 20.1 (1987): 22-32.
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Historical abolitionist Frederick Douglas famously once said “The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion.” Rebellion only happens because a group of individuals is dissatisfied with authority. Without this conflict between society and authority, humanity will not advance. Many conflicts occur frequently, but what is the frequency of individuals rebelling against authority? Some may choose to believe that this conflict is a rare occurrence, while many authors throughout history may believe that rebellion occurs more often than one might think. Rebellions against society can all be refined down to a rebellious action, a reason for rebellion, and a response from authority.
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Glaspell, Susan. “Trifles” Literature of Composition. Ed. Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, and William E. Cain. 10th ed. New York: Pearson, 2014. 443-453. Print.
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"Editha" is a story about a woman who loves her country so much that she would be willing to give up anyone who does not feel as she does. Her fiancé George was not enthusiastic about the war. To George the war was about senseless bloodshed, but to Editha it was about taking pride in a country that she loved. She told George, "I call it a sacred war. A war for liberty and humanity, if ever there was one"(Howells 363). Editha could not understand how George or anyone could not see the importance of the war. Because of George's lack of enthusiasm for the war Editha writes him a letter and says, "But the man I marry must love his country first of all"(365). These words from Editha show how much she believed in her country.
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