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.
After a few days of grieving, Editha went to George’s mother’s house. During a tragic even in a love-war story, both sides of the family would come together and overcome the obstacle. However, in Editha when she went to George’s parent’s house the mother gave more guilt to Editha saying, “He told me he had asked you to come if he got killed. You did not expect that, I suppose, when you sent him” (1499). The mother continues to say, “When they give their men up to their country, they think they will come marching back, somehow, just as gay as they went...and they are so much the prouder of them” (1500).
Heath, J. (1991). Diana's understanding of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Th classical Journal , 186 (3), 223-243.
Updike, John. “A&P”. The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Eds. R.V. Cassill and Richard Bausch. Shorter Sixth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2000. 864 - 869.
Nashville, TN: Broadman 1977. Ovid. Metamorphoses. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces.
Updike, John. "A&P." Thinking and Writing About Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001. 981-86. Print.
American Literature. 6th Edition. Vol. A. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. 2003. 783-791
Updike, John. “A & P.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Eds. Alison Booth and Kelly
Barnet, Sylvan, William Burto, and William E. Cain. Literature for Composition. Boston: Pearson, 2014. Print
O'Connor, Frank. "Guests of the Nation." Literature for Composition. 4th ed. Sylvan Barnet, et. al. New York: Harper Collins, 1996. 590-598.
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.
Charters, Ann & Samuel. Literature and its Writers. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2013. 137-147. Print.
What are you going to do if your girlfriend asks you to give up your life for your country? The first thing I will do is pick up my cell phone to call my family doctor to schedule an appointment to check my ears and make sure they are working well, or I can put on a strong emotional face to ask her, "Are you serious?" Most people would not want to see the person they love go off to a place where they could possibly die. In William Dean Howells' short story, "Editha", however, the main character is an unusual woman, Editha, who has her own perfect ideals and pushes them on her lover, George, to ask him to fight in the Spanish-American War. In the story Howells not only brought his anti-war message about the dangers of war but also satirized the United States' governments that have foolish ideas about the reasons to go to war. To do this, Editha's personalities are irrational patriotism, selfish romanticism understanding, and unrealistic ideas about war.
William Dean Howells' opinion of romanticism is his novel "Editha" by having the character of Editha symbolize his views on romanticism. When George announces that there is war, Editha surprises her lover and audience by saying "how glorious." She romanticizes the war by calling "any war glorious that is for the liberation of the people who have been struggling for years against the cruelest oppression." It's hard to figure out if Editha truly loves George, or if she is overtaken by the thought of having someone heroic to love. One of the ways Editha views life is that to have good things one must prove himself or herself worthy of it, for instance her love. In the story when she's thinking about George, she says George, "had simply asked for her love... and she gave her love... but if he could do something worthy to have her, be her hero- it would be grander." What better way to prove his love to Editha by doing something he was not favorable towards for Editha's sake and allowing himself named captain of Company A for her amusement. Her true feelings for George come to light when she writes him a goodbye letter saying why she was breaking her engagement with him since the man she marries "must love his country first." She wrote that letter as soon as he left, it's quite unfair and she even realizes it yet still writes it to satisfy herself. Even when he enlisted, she knew that he was not for him but for her. Editha noticed he became a different person after enlisting, " he made her feel as if she had lost her old lover and found a stranger in his place," if she had truly loved him she would not have felt giddy at the thought of kissing a stranger after losing her true love.
Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. Ed. Joseph Terry. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc, 2001. 123-154.
Mandelbaum, Allen, trans. The Metamorphoses of Ovid. By Ovid. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & company, 2008.