Ordinary Control Freaks in Ordinary People The Most interesting form of Literature is American Literature. Usually dealing with a struggle that must be overcome, American literature deals with real-life situations which one can empathize with. One of the most interesting novels written by an American author is Ordinary People, by Judith Guest. Ordinary People tells the story of an ordinary family struggling to cope with the loss of a family member following a boating accident. Brilliantly
In Ordinary People by Judith Guest, Guest takes an extraordinary family and makes them seem ordinary. By using the title, Ordinary People, Guest tricks the reader into questioning outrageous situations with a sense of normalcy. She makes the situations appear to be a typical part of life. But the irony of the title is that because of the obstacles the Jarrett family, has had to face, they are no longer ordinary people. They are extraordinary. Guest goes to great lengths to make everything in her
The Ego and Despair in Ordinary People Ordinary People by Judith Guest is the story of a dysfunctional family who relate to one another through a series of extensive defense mechanisms, i.e. an unconscious process whereby reality is distorted to reduce or prevent anxiety. The book opens with seventeen year old Conrad, son of upper middle-class Beth and Calvin Jarrett, home after eight months in a psychiatric hospital, there because he had attempted suicide by slashing his wrists. His mother is a
People that have the advantage of having someone come into their life, and help them form a healthy identity are quite lucky. In Ordinary People, by Judith Guest, Conrad was an adolescent who was severely depressed until he met that person that helped him form a healthy identity. The person who did this was his psychiatrist named Dr. Berger, and he helped Conrad transform his identity from a confused to a confident person. Conrad’s psychiatrist prevented him from self harm, helped reduce his guilt
The book I chose for my report is titled “Ordinary People” and was written by author, Judith Guest. Viking Penguin Incorporated first published the book in the United States in the year 1976. Also in the year 1976, the Macmillan Company of Canada Limited published it for the first time in Canada. The book has 259 pages and 31 chapters and is placed under the juvenile fiction genre. “Ordinary People” is a book about a seventeen-year-old boy named Conrad Jarrett coming home from a mental institution
Joseph Conrad’s s book Heart of Darkness portrays an image of Africa that is dark and inhuman. Not only does he describe the actual, physical land of Africa as “so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness”, (Conrad 154) as though the continent could neither breed nor support any true human life. Conrad lived through a time when European colonies were spread all over the world. This event and the doctrine of colonialism bought into at his time obviously
The Immortality and Blindness to a Dark Continent Joseph Conrad’s s novel “Heart of Darkness” portrays an image of Africa that is dark and inhuman. Not only does he describe the actual, physical continent of Africa as “so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness”, (Conrad 2180) as though the continent could neither breed nor support any true human life. Conrad lived through a time when European colonies were scattered all over the world. This phenomenon
Search for Identity in Ordinary People When we are young, we live life by the day. In our preteen and teenage years, the process of self discovery begins. For some people, this could take years. For others, it could happen within a week. No matter how people discover themselves, who they really are, and what they stand behind, everybody goes through it. Especially the characters in the book Ordinary People by Judith Guest. As they struggle through death, guilt, and a lack of understanding;
variety of literary works, including Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, “Oedipus Rex,” by Sophocles, and Ordinary People, by Judith Guest. Alienation assumes five stages: initial alienation, initiation, journey, suffering, and reconciliation. Although alienation fully occurs in this manner, the extent to which each of the characters experience the process is distinct. For example, Conrad Jarrett of Ordinary People undergoes the alienation cycle in its entirety, while Oedipus in “Oedipus Rex” lacks the essential
Ordinary Feelings in Ordinary People Ordinary People is a book that examines the life of a typical American family that seems to have it all together. It exposes the major conflicts among them; pain, misunderstanding, hurt, forgiveness, and ultimately if possible healing. Conrad - with the story told mostly through his perspective, he being the one furthering the resulting course of events and at the same time the protagonist and antagonist ? is the main character of the story. While boating