After the loss of their beloved son, the Jarrett family experiences the struggles poor communication causes, in the award winning movie Ordinary People. The Jarretts begin to break apart as they develop dysfunctional relationships, conflict management acts as a facilitator of expression, and would have helped the family to resolve their problems. Conrad, Beth and Calvin Jarrett display silence or violence actions, which results from the lack of use of management strategies to create safety and the free flow of emotions.
Subsequent to the death of his brother and suicide attempt, Conrad reveals his struggles in unhealthy ways. Conrad expresses withdrawal when he gives quick, brief answers to his parents, choosing to keep his feelings locked inwards. He also indicates avoiding, when he averts from the topics of Buck’s passing and how he copes with his grief. When confronting Conrad, people must use AMPP (Ask, Mirror, Paraphrase, Prime) in order to evoke his true pain, in a safe environment. Conrad needs sincerity from his parents as he feels his mother neglects him, causing him to lose the importance of the relationship. Beth must
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Beth exhibits silence when on the plane returning home she withdrawals and avoids her husband's company. When one confronts her they must use S.T.A.T.E in order to keep Beth from feeling she must defend herself. The same can be used when she acts violent, Beth often times tries to control the situations or mask her feelings because she wants her family to appear “perfect”. She exemplifies these violent actions when she criticizes Calvin for telling a friend Conrad sees a counselor and becomes defensive when others try to talk about their or her emotions. Beth needs the family to create safety by stating their intentions and also relay the idea that they share the same pain and want to aid each other in such a difficult
In conclusion, the Jarrett family has unresolved issues and grief that has not been properly handled, which is causing the stress in their relationships. To help them handle these issues they could have used, mutual purpose, creating safety, contrasting, working on their self, and dealing with their grief. Using these could have helped Conrad’s love and belonging needs and could have saved their relationship as a
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.
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).
...lt that he caused problems to everyone with whom he had contact. After much struggle, however, Conrad realized that he was not the problem and that he did not need to hold back his feelings. Calvin originally thought that Beth was perfect and was confused as to the extent of his responsibility as a father. With Dr. Berger's help, Calvin came to understand that Beth was not the ideal mother and that the things he blamed himself for were not really his fault. The conclusion can be drawn that one needs external help in order to develop psychologically. Calvin and Conrad voluntarily met with Dr. Berger in search of assistance while Beth refused his aid. This may be the reason that Beth was not able to reach emotional maturity while Calvin and Conrad matured greatly.
After Conrad's release from the hospital he has difficulty rekindling his past relationships, especially with his mother. His mother, Beth, seems cynical through Conrad's perspective; she doesn't show interest in any aspect of his life, she ignores
She requests that Arden’s body be brought to her and, upon seeing him, she speaks to Arden and confesses to the murder, and expresses her guilt, wishing he were still alive, by saying “...And would my death save thine thou shouldst not die” (“Arden” 8). Though she previously conveyed how free she felt, the combination of the hand-towel and knife used to kill Arden, his innocent blood stains on the floor, and his distorted, unmoving body triggers Alice to feel an overwhelming and unbearable sense of guilt. Once this guilt comes upon her, she cannot stop herself from begging her dead husband for forgiveness, though he cannot offer it to her now. The guilt of her actions causes her to expose the people who helped her enact this heinous crime. Because Alice reveals the truth behind Arden’s murder, every character pays a penance for their
Conrad gets so depressed that while his parents are away he tries to commit suicide. He doesn’t succeed because of his parents early coming. He is then sent to a hospital to heal the wounds and mental damages. After he gets out of the hospital is faced with the real world situations. When his mother and father are talking, his mother says, “He has escaped this time but even the smallest, most insignificant encounter is alive with complication and danger. He wishes himself, for a moment, back inside the hospital where things were predictable. Mercifully dull.”(Guest 114). Holden wishes that he had never gotten out of that hospital, he wishes that he wouldn’t have to deal with his mom and other people. The only person Conrad is really able to talk his feelings with is his therapist Dr. Berger. Berger is what Conrad would call a trustworthy man. In one of Conrad’s session Berger asks what the overall problem of Con’s life is, Con says, "There 's a guy in the closet. I don 't even know him, that 's the problem."(Guest 146). Conrad can 't go into the closet in order to figure out who he is running from. Berger is trying to get at the point of, how can there be a problem if there is
Elizabeth try’s the easiest way out of things. She cannot control what she does. She’ll have the loud cry for help without saying the words. Her actions speak so much louder than her words. Elizabeth had never once told someone to help her, she would just be screaming crying throwing a fit on the bathroom floor, almost killing herself.
She locks the door behind her and waits for several seconds starring in the darkness trying to hear any movements. Kelsey walks across the room with her pistol ready, finger on the trigger. Just as she gazes out the window watching flames arise on the horizon, spot light's beam the building causing the room to shine bright. Kelsey turns around and glimpses the Nazi Leader pointing a handgun at the pimple between her eyebrows. Kelsey lowers her pistol to the ground and holds her hands to the sky. The Nazi Leader speaks in some form of German which becomes inaudible for Kelsey to understand. Then a water droplet falls from Kelsey’s face and she begins to say a prayer. She speaks aloud to cause the leader to lose his focus on what he should be doing, killing her. Conversation comes up through the question of Kelsey asking the leader why he has started this movement once again. The leader replies “I chose to eliminate the weaker humans in our society. With those people gone, our community and world can develop to the next level.” Kelsey decides to yell at the leader while tears running down her face that the leader is wrong to think like that. She believes that everyone was put on this planet for a reason to contribute to society. And that the purpose of the jews might not be prevalent right now, but they will find their spot in society soon. As soon as the argument ceases and tension in the room intensifies, the family Kelsey saved in the woods barges through the door and open fires on the Nazi Leader. Multiple bullets slice through the leader’s body like tissue paper. His body collapses to the ground with a bang and silence strikes the room. Everyone looks around and checks themselves for unnoticeable bullet wounds that might not have stricken them. After all body parts are clean of bullet scratches, they all surround one another with tears of joy knowing
Lack of communication and poor communication is a big problem in the novel. Beth thinks she and Conrad have poor communication. This is clear when Beth gets mad at Conrad be cause wasn’t the first to know that he quit swim team. Calvin and Beth have communication issues too. They always have different views on things. Beth wanted to go on vacation and Calvin thought it was best to stay home until Conrad is settled again. Calvin wants to talk about everyone’s problems when Beth feels it’s best to move on, and forget about the past and only think about the future. Their lack of communication to agree on things turns their marriage from good to bad and Beth ends up leaving Calvin and Conrad.
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
The movie shows her sorrow out of losing her preferred son. In the film, we see Beth depressed majority of the time, the only time we see her laughing and smiling is during Buck’s younger years through memories. Her memories show that her cheerfulness and laugh was generally in the company of Buck, showing a mother who sincerely revered her son. Nevertheless, even with the vast feelings of discomfort that she holds, she elects not to express them to anybody. With Beth, we are able to view that the concealment of feelings and emotions specifically when they mirror sadness is harmful to one’s health. There is a belief that Beth hurt more than Calvin even with both having been profoundly struck hard by the event. The cause for this difference lies in the character of Beth who was disconnected from people in general and the death of her son consequently meant she lacked connection and love. Her technique of keeping issues under the carpet can be seen in her choice not to seek professional counseling in dealing with the
When considering your conflict management style with others, be it; personal or professional, we tend to use the style that seems appropriate to the conflict.
In order of being able to analyze the sources of conflicts regarding the clothing manufacturer, I will present the Conflict Process Model according to McShane and Von Glinow. Therefore, I will first define what conflicts are, and second present the different sources of conflicts and carve out which conflicts are involved regarding to the given case. The third step is to explain two different strategies to minimize these conflicts in future. Finally, I will provide a recommendation and conclusion.
Many people think that conflict is a bad thing; however, conflict is not always bad. There are two intentions of conflicts, dysfunctional and functional. Dysfunctional conflict is what most people think of when they think of conflict, and it is destructive. It is more of a personal kind of conflict that nothing good can come from. On the other hand, functional conflict can be a good thing. Functional conflict is where two or more people disagree about something, but they work to achieve a solution to the disagreement. This kind of conflict can actually be good because it gets people to discuss the different ideas to achieve something everybody agrees on which is usually best solution.