Kelsey Glidden
College Composition-Critical Analysis
Mrs. Burton
05/03/16
Themes in Ordinary People There are many repeating themes in Ordinary People that build up the story and the characters. Two of these themes include the act of forgiveness and responsibility. Throughout the novel, these two themes are portrayed mostly within the characters of Conrad, Calvin, and Beth, with support from other minor characters like Lazenby and Dr. Berger. Forgiveness and responsibility are two themes that led to the growth of these characters, and ultimately led to the acceptance of their reality and Buck’s death. Responsibility is a theme portrayed throughout the book countless times. At the beginning of the novel when we first meet Conrad and learn
…show more content…
After the fight with Beth about going away for Christmas, he thinks, “He does not believe himself to be innocent. It has to be his fault, because fault equals responsibility equals control equals eventual understanding” (Guest 34). He believes he is responsible for all his family’s issues that had shattered his “perfect” family he has before, and this helps him to come to the understanding that him and his family are just “ordinary people”. It seems sorrowful, but for Calvin, it was a way to accept his past and his reality that his son had died, he does not have a perfect marriage, and that Conrad did try to kill …show more content…
It’s okay to just be you” (Guest 223).
This shows Conrad’s instability over the situation of his brother’s death where his brother drowned but he survived. His constant feeling that he is responsible for his brother, Karen and Robbie’s fate, and his feeling that he is responsible for replacing Buck led to him finally opening up to Dr. Berger and others about his thoughts. This leads to his growth and acceptance of Buck’s death that he receives from the help of Dr. Berger. The other theme, forgiveness, also plays a crucial role in Ordinary People. One of the main places we see forgiveness represented is in the relationship between Beth and Conrad. You see the strain on their relationship from the very beginning as you see that Beth is significantly less impressed than Calvin is by Conrad’s small victories like good grades and just getting ready routinely. She also is more cold and less loving than you would expect a mother would be to a child who was depressed. Beth’s coldness towards Conrad leads to a huge setback for him, and he feels like she does not love him and can never forgive him. He has an epiphany about this, however, when he says, “‘I am never going to be forgiven for that, never! You can’t get it out, you know! All that blood on her rug and her goddamn towels’... ‘I think I just figured something out,’ he says… ‘Who it is who can’t forgive who’ (Guest 119-120). While talking to Dr. Berger he realizes that yes, maybe Beth is having
Dr. Tyrone C. Berger helps Conrad by taking him back through the death of his brother and anguish of life without Buck, his older brother and idol. He teaches Conrad and his family that love, openly shared, is the only thing they can count on to give them strength for the test they call life.
One of the occurring themes is of bravery. The Walls children face adversity when moving from place to place, dealing with bullies and their father goes into an alcohol induced rage. “Brian, Maureen, Lori and I got into more fights than most kids.” Walls tells the readers on page 164. The kids had to learn to stand up for themselves in a harsh community; they had to be brave. Walls also used the theme of forgiveness to teach about the importance of forgiving those who wronged you. Her parents constantly ignored their children’s needs and mistreated them, but in the end they were forgiven for all of that and they were a regular family. “We raised our glasses. I could almost hear Dad chuckling at Mom’s comment in the way he did when he was truly enjoying something.” (Walls 288). The purpose of this comment is to wrap up the story, but it also shows forgiveness and growth. By the end of the book all was forgiven, the neglect, the stealing, the cheating and the lying, and they were family. These themes in the book are an overarching device that is a great tool to show the moral or lesson of the certain story.
There are many important themes and subjects addressed in the book. Most importantly is how Conrad deals with his emotions and comes to accept and forgive what has happened to him. And the author shows us that this can only be done by love, support, and trust. Conrad thinks by not expressing his emotions he is less vulnerable but instead he drifts farther apart from his family. The ordeal of attempted suicide and treatment has left him feeling insecure and vulnerable and he instinctively puts up shields. Trying to appear calm and determined on the outside, he is still very confused, angry and is afraid he slip away again only to kill himself. He still feels responsible for his brother's death due to the fact his mom doesn't want to forgive him and the only way to punish himself is to deny, suppress, and control his feelings lest they give him away. It is not until the very end when Conrad?s father, Calvin finally stops skirting around the subject but tells him that he loves him and that they finally develop a sense of trust and security in one another: -
The major theme of the book is shown through the bonds of friendship and how in the most of unlikely circumstances friendship can survive and exist between people possessing an extensive and most restrictive division. A second theme is the evil and the intolerance which existed around these times of the Nazi regime and the Holocaust, as seen by the Germans having the Jews in the concentration camp. And the third theme is the curiosity and innocence of Bruno, Shmuel and Gretel, who all seem to fail to properly notice and understand what is really happening in the world around them, all contrasting with the well acknowledgement of others, such as Lt. Kottler.
In Heart of Darkness, all of Joseph Conrad’s characters seem to have morally ambiguous tendencies. The most prominently morally ambiguous character is Kurtz, whose distance from society changes his principles, and leads him to lose all sense of decorum. Conrad takes a cynical tone when describing Marlow's journey. Marlow's voyage through the Congo gives him insight to the horrific, dehumanizing acts that his company and Kurtz conduct. Conrad creates a parallel with the tone of his writing and the misanthropic feelings that the main character experiences. Furthermore, Conrad creates a frame story between Kurtz and Marlow, adding to the symbolism and contrast between contextual themes of light and dark, moral and immoral, and civilization and wilderness. After being sent on a horrific journey into the Congo of Africa, as an agent for the Company to collect ivory, Marlow finds the infamous and mysterious Kurtz. Kurtz, who has totally withdrawn from society, and has withdrawn
In the movie Ordinary People, Beth Jarrett is unable to cope with the loss of her eldest son, Buck who died in a boating accident. This situation creates a strain on her relationships with her husband, Calvin, and her youngest son, Conrad. Moreover, Beth is bitter towards Conrad because she believes he is the sole cause of Buck’s death. Meanwhile, Conrad begins meeting with a psychiatrist named Dr. Berger to help deal with his suicidal tendencies. Unlike Beth, Calvin Jarrett longs to connect with his son and give him the love that he needs. The Jarrett family could have avoided these problems if there had been stronger communication and conflict management skills. All the main characters deal with conflicts in one of two ways: silence or violence.
Conrad asked his therapist “So what should I do now?” The therapists responded with information and advice “Recognize her limitations” etc. These were educational comments about the mother’s probable narcissistic character disorder which were intended so Conrad might begin to understand his own conflicts about her love Conrad’s focus was initially external when he then questioned ” you mean why she can’t love me”. The therapist responded to an internal psychological explanation aided by educational comments about the mother’s personality limitations.
...l- this same method is used when Beth leaves. Calvin is able to recognize his role in things as well as what happened and simply acknowledge the after-effects and continue to move on. Beth, however, did not to do in any way, shape, or form. Although she physically ‘moved on’ from the situation, she was unable to emotionally come to grips with things and as a result was unable to achieve change for the better. Overall, there is no way to tuck messy emotions into neat packages just as there is no typical response to loss as there is no typical loss. Our grief is as unique as our lives.
Kurtz was not always the power hungry man portrayed in Conrad’s book. According to his Intended, Kurtz was an admired man who had a “generous heart” and a “noble mind” (Conrad, 70). However, after his expedition into Africa, he became a changed man; an “insoluble problem” (Conrad, 50). The new Kurtz “[kicks] the very earth to pieces” (Conrad, 61). “Let us say – nerves, [go] wrong, and [causes] him to preside at certain midnight dances ending with unspeakable rites” (Conrad, 45). He has dropped all sense and morality and continues to live on according to his various lusts.
After coming out of the hospital, Conrad is forced to relearn how to deal with every day situations. Learning how to establish routines and manage his own life is Conrad's first step on his way to recovery and self-discovery. Beth deals with Conrad's suicide attempt in a very different way, she is very enclosed and in a constant state of denial. This is just the first of many actions until she reveals her true colors. "Will you talk to him this morning? About the clothes. He's got a closet full of decent things and he goes off every day looking like a bum, Cal" (7).
“It’s not summer without you,” says Belly as she gazes into Conrad’s eyes. Belly has strong feelings for Conrad, so strong that she catches herself getting jealous when she sees him with another girl. It has only been a few months, since her and Conrad last dated, and Belly can’t seem to get him off of her mind; with Susannah dying, and the boys, Conrad and Jeremiah, going off to college Belly seems to be falling apart. Unfortunately, Belly is not the only unstable one at Cousins Beach. Conrad, who is usually very nonchalant, runs away from home, also known as all his problems. As I dig deeper into my book, my brain runs wild with questions, predictions, and connections.
The act of forgiving a murder is out of the question for most people. Simon is confronted with this very dilemma in The Sunflower. Karl, a dying Nazi, is asking forgiveness from a Jew, the narrator. The narrator leaves the dying Nazi with no answer, leaving him with an agonizing thought of whether he did or did not do the right thing. Due to the fact both Karl and the narrator’s psychological well-being is affected by not only wartime but other extenuating factors, the narrator should grant Karl forgiveness, as this dying man is an individual who is genuinely repenting for the crimes he has committed. Forgiveness will allow Karl to die with piece of mind while the narrator will continue life with a stable and clear conscience.
The method of this essay is firstly to discuss Conrad's life and then to try to find out what kind of similarities and differences Heart of Darkness and The Secret Agent contain and also to try to discover how Conrad's own experiences relate to these works ( and his other works in general). I will also try to relate Conrad's works to some other writers' styles whenever I am capable of doing so despite of my poor knowledge of Conrad's contemporaries and despite of the fact that I was unable to get hold of such works as Conrad and His Contemporaries which surely would have been useful. My sources for carrying out this task are Conrad himself, his critics and my own opinions/interpretations of the two works by Conrad.
...rlow, and the frame narrators position as commentator, their journies - both physical and psychological, position the reader to such an extent that possibilities become infinitely clearer. The darkness evident initially, including the overpowered Kurtz and the gloom encompassing the stark nature of man underneath "ornaments" and "rags" are all portrayed in such scenes by the narrators. Futhermore Conrad envisages the reader being successfully positioned - recognising their own true heart of darkness - and that of the materialistic, possession driven "civilisation" they live in.
Henricksen, Bruce (1992) Nomadic Voices: Conrad and the Subject of Narrative. Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press.