Conrad – Main character of Ordinary People, is struggling to deal with the death of his brother, so much so that he attempted suicide and was placed in a mental health facility in which he was recently released from. He is seen having trouble sleeping due to dreaming/reliving the incident involving his brother’s death. He has significant trouble communicating with Beth after the incident. b. Beth – Conrad’s mother, appears to be very cold towards Conrad due to the incident that killed Conrad’s brother, Buck. She is also having trouble coping with the death of her son, and is taking it out on Conrad. She struggles to hold meaningful conversation with Conrad and changes subjects sporadically. c. Calvin – Conrad’s father, appears affectionate …show more content…
and is trying hard to keep the family together despite Conrad and Beth’s difficulties. He pushes Conrad to speak to Dr. Berger. d.
Bucky – Conrad’s older brother who died during a boating accident when he was with his brother. Buck’s death is the central plot element of the movie. e. Lazenby – Conrad’s friend and teammate on the swim team, appears to be a stereotypical jock type student. f. Dr. Berger – Conrad’s psychiatrist, is very sarcastic in his personality and generally aggravates Conrad with his line of questioning, despite his sincere want to help. g. Karen – Conrad’s friend from the mental facility, Conrad feels comfortable around her more so than his high school friends, and reaching out to her to meet at a local diner. She appears to be handling being out of the hospital better then Conrad, which adds to Conrad’s inner confusion. h. Janine – In choir with Conrad, meets him after swim practice. Appears to take a liking to him. 1. Give a brief overview of the setting and plot after watching the first segment of the film. Ordinary People appears to be set in a suburban upper-class Illinois town, and tells the story of the family struggling to deal with the tragedy of the death of their other son, Buck, in a boating accident where Conrad was present. Conrad is the central figure, as he attempted suicide before the movie’s beginning and is attempting to readjust to ordinary …show more content…
life. a. Give an example of a communication interaction between characters that you believe indicates they potentially have a relationship issue. Throughout the first 45 minutes of the film, all interactions between Conrad and his mother, Beth, are cold and awkward. They struggle to hold a conversation and constantly change subjects. Most prominently, they don’t appear to listen to one another. An example of this is the final scene where Conrad and Beth speak outside, they don’t particularly hear anything of substance from one another and end up speaking over each other constantly. To make matters worse, the interaction ends with Beth coldly leaving to go back inside. This indicates to me that Conrad and Beth have severe relationship issues stemming from Buck’s death. 2. Conrad is reconnecting with friends from High School. a. What communication behaviors are his friends engaging in that will have positive results for maintaining their friendship? Refer to the three main stages of friendship development in the text Conrad’s reconnection attempts with his high school friends seem to hit on two of the three main stages of friendships development, contact and involvement.
This is mainly done through Conrad’s interactions with Lazenby. Although we see interactions between Conrad and his friends for only a short period of time to this point, they appear to be making an effort to have genuine involvement with Conrad, (although Conrad himself seems to be stuck in the contact stage, as he is being distant) both through being on the swim team together, and his friend’s welcoming behavior towards him when they pick him up from school early in the
film. b. Give an example of a friendship interaction where you believe the communication interaction may lead to relationship dissatisfaction. Be sure to explain why. The interaction between Conrad and a few of his teammates when he meets Janine could be particularly troubling, as they poke some fun at Conrad for his awkward interaction with Janine. This could certainly make Conrad hold his guard up even more around his teammates, and drive him further away from them. Conrad perhaps makes a mention of this with Dr. Berger when he says that his high school friendships aren’t going well. Part 2 (pages 3 and 4 of worksheet) 20pts Directions: Complete Part 2 of the worksheet based on the portion of the film beginning with Track 5. You can re-watch the last scene or forward to Conrad and Beth in the dining room. Watch approximately 45 minutes ending with Janine and Conrad in the car in front of her home. 1. According to the authors, it is important to communicate with equality. Give a specific example from the film that indicates how each character below does (or does not) “communicate with equality.” c. Beth – When Calvin and Conrad bring in the Christmas tree, and they all begin to argue, Beth is unwilling to hear Conrad’s feelings, and does not want to understand any viewpoint but her own; that Conrad is hurting her, but not the other way around.
Throughout the novel one person who had an affect on Conrad was his father. From the beginning of the novel, Con’s father had an understanding of him. From talking to spending time with Con, his father was there most of the time. When Conrad was confused or had a question, his father would try to help and answer him to the best of his ability. Because his father was put into a home I think that he was able to understand Con a lot more. Just as understanding he was also caring. Whenever Con felt upset or happy, his father was there to share the experience. His father would always make sure that Con was all right. His father cared so much that he gave Con a number of a psychiatrist. Unlike the mother, the father would like to see Con back to normal.
...ld have been furious. But he stayed calm and by doing that Conrad could trust him and knew he was a good person. The third piece of evidence is when Conrad wouldn’t tell Dr. Berger anything about himself, he didn't scream at him saying you're wasting your money or anything like that. He opened him up with techniques and stayed calm. Conrad wouldn't tell Dr. Berger much. He kind of just painted a vivid picture in Dr. Berger’s head. But dr. Berger didn’t get frustrated he kept working at Conrad calmly and soon saw the picture in HD. So By Dr. Berger stays calm at all times made Conrad feel safer and better, faster even when Conrad would scream and swear at Conrad Dr. Berger stayed calm and content. In conclusion Dr. Berger helped Conrad and Calvin a lot by treating them as family, Dr. Berger being there for him at all times, and Dr. Berger staying calm at all times.
Conrad experienced a tremendous amount of psychological pain because of the loss he felt, he had no one to talk to about the death of his brother and best friend in the boating accident which resulting in a suicide attempt. The relationships he had with his mother Beth and his swim team friends suffered dramatically because of all of the pain he held
While dealing with their first major struggle; death, Calvin, Conrad's father, Beth, Conrad's mother, and Conrad begin their road to self discovery. They all deal with Conrad's suicide attempt in different ways. Calvin is the most concerned person about Conrad.
Ordinary People is a movie that chronicles the struggles of a “normal” family reamed by the death of their eldest child Bucky and the attempted suicide of their youngest, Calvin. The Jarrett’s are a middle class family in the suburbs of Chicago who, at least to outside appearances, have a fairly typical life, though we learn this is in fact not the case. Conrad has just returned from the hospital and seems to be experiencing not only depression but also PTSD. Conrad is the seemingly identified patient, even though the whole family is struggling in their own way, especially Beth. We start to see the background of the Jarrett family through Calvin’s therapy sessions with his new therapist, Dr. Berger.
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: -
Conrad's psychological problems generated from the facts that he repressed his feelings and that he looked to others for approval. He hid all his feeling and emotions and judged himself based on what others saw and thought. When Miss Melon, Conrad's English teacher, asked him, "Do you want an extension?" Conrad's immediate response was "NO"(18). He rejected her offer of assistance because he felt that help took away from his dignity and self pride. Conrad internalized what everyone else said and did and judged himself based on this. Conrad thought about himself: "All his fault. All connections with him result in failure. Loss. Evil… Everywhere he looks, there is competence and good health… He does not want to contaminate, does not wish to find further evidence of his lack of worth"(116). Conrad looked at everyone else and concluded that everyone else was "ordinary" and that he was a problem. He was afraid that since he was not "normal," ...
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.
Joseph Conrad states that “they, the women are out of it, should be out of it. We must help them to stay in that beautiful world of their own.” (pg.122) In The Heart of Darkness women are portrayed as naive, innocent creatures who cannot face reality or the truth, hence they remain delusional. A perfect example of this is the Intended, who is incapable of accepting the truth and is the only character who remains in her delusional world. Conrad describes the women in a stereotypical, old-fashioned manner and this is why he receives criticism from Nina Pelikan, who says, “Marlow presents a world distinctly spilled into male and female realms, the first harbouring the possibility of truth and the second dedicated to the maintenance of delusion.” In The Heart of Darkness, Conrad has exhibited a male dominant society where men have the upper hand and women are subservient to men. The Intended is a perfect example of this, she remained servile to Kurtz, who was the dominant figure in her life and controlled everything. Conrad shows the innocence of women in the beginning when Marlow’s aunt views him as an emissary of light who will educate the African native, but Marlow tells her that the company is run for profit, not missionary work and later tells his friends how women are out of touch with the truth. It is ironic how Conrad depicts women as a symbolism for innocence, yet it is the women who facilitate the men at
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
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.
In Joseph Conrad’s short story, “Heart of Darkness,” the narrator has mixed emotions about the man Kurtz. The narrator spends a large portion of the story trying to find Kurtz. During this time the narrator builds a sense of respect and admiration for Kurtz; however when he finally finds Kurtz, he discovers that he is somewhat disgusted by Kurtz’s behavior. The narrators somewhat obsessive behavior regarding Kurtz is quickly changed into disappointment. The narrator sees that the man who Kurtz is, and the man he created Kurtz to be in his mind are two very different people. He finds that Kurtz is not a reasonable man of justice and reason, but an unstable man whose cruelty and deception is awful. In Joseph Conrad’s short story, “Heart of Darkness,”
So why did he take what starts out looking like a fictionalized autobiographical account, and then half way through the story start being totally fictional? The important changes made seems to be that he is in charge of the boat, and thus is in control of his own journey to the heart of darkness. The other is the significance of the Kurtz character. Prof Abel mentioned Kurtz was loosely based on someone named Klein, but presumably the significance of Kurtz is much more symbolic than biographical. Perhaps Conrad creates Kurtz to embody the issues that he thought about during his trip on the Congo, but which never actually personified themselves so concretely.
Ordinary People starts off already in a broken world. Buck has died, and Conrad has already attempted suicide, therefore, healing is a main focus throughout the book. Beth and Calvin’s marriage is also very rocky and they together are trying to see if things will work out by healing and saving their relationship. Judith Guest shows the journey through Conrad’s life and his progress to becoming completely healed. Beth and Calvin’s relationship is also monitored and in the end just goes downhill by Beth leaving.
...o, while the novella’s archetypal structure glorifies Marlow’s domination of Kurtz. These two analyses taken together provide a much fuller and more comprehensive interpretation of the work. Conrad presents the idea that there is some darkness within each person. The darkness is is inherited and instinctual, but because it is natural does not make it right. He celebrates – and thereby almost advises – the turn from instinct. By telling Marlow’s tale, Joseph Conrad stresses to his audience the importance of self-knowledge and the unnecessity of instinct in civilization.