Ordinary People Death Theme

The Long Weary Road; What Comes After a Loss
Death is amongst one of the greatest tragedies that one can experience; when it occurs within a family, the family dynamics are altered forever. This is a recurring and significant theme in Judith Guest’s novel Ordinary People. Centered around the Jarret’s, a strained family in the midwest, Guest explores the detrimental effects that the death of Jordan Jarret, beloved son and brother, had on the remaining members of the Jarret family. The mother, Beth Jarret, plays a significant role in what followed after Jordan’s death. Beth destroyed the family by becoming completely isolated from her family; essentially ignoring her husband and son.
The troubling period of time that Conrad went through after

the death of his brother Jordan is a thorough example of his mother’s devastating effect on his mental health. Beth damaged the already strained relationship between herself and Conrad by her absence as a mother in the time when he needed her most. In fact, while Conard was in a mental hospital for eight months after trying to commit suicide, his mother did not visit him even once. This heartless act of Beth was mentioned several times by Guest in the text to show the suffering that besieged Conrad due to his mother ignoring him in his time of need. As he already felt extremely guilty over surviving the boating accident, his mother only made it worse when her job as a mother was to make him feel better. Furthermore, Beth caused Conrad to feel a wide array of negative emotions that only worsened Conrad’s unstable mental state. Conrad acknowledges his mother’s clearly negative feelings toward him: “I am never going to be forgiven for that,” Conrad exclaims to Berger, “never! You can’t get it out, you know! All that blood on her rug and her goddamn towels-everything had to be pitched!” (Guest 119). In this quote the rug and other materialistic items symbolizes something much deeper. Conrad does not truly believe that his mother is upset with him because of the rug but because of what he did to himself and the tragic situation when Jordan died.
Although there were many reasons why tension ran sky-high between the Jarret family members, the ultimate strain on the family that eventually causes separation was the one sided relationship between Beth and Calvin, a tense and troubled marriage.

It travels back and forth several times in the book as Calvin goes through stages where he loves her more than anything and then other stages where he gets very frustrated with her and her selfish behaviors. A significant expression of this frustration is when Calvin and Beth argue over their vacation plans. In this situation, Beth was disregarding Conrad’s needs and Calvin's concerns and only thinking about what she wanted. Calvin then begins to show his anger when he comments to himself that “Self-possessed is what she [Beth] is...” (Guest 26). To add onto the previous idea about Calvin’s stages of emotions; I noticed that the negative emotions towards Beth become more frequent and intense as the novel progresses up until the point where Beth leaves. In comparison to the end of Ordinary People, the beginning starts off with Calvin always being overwhelmingly in love with Beth and seeing no faults in her. He describes his undeniable admiration of Beth: “Beautiful hair, the color of maple sugar. Or honey. Natural, too. The blue silk robe outlines her slender hips, her breasts (Guest 6). Guest hints at the possible weak and superficial relationship between Beth and Calvin in this fragment of Calvin thinking to himself. The superficiality is indirectly referenced by the fact that Calvin does not mention or notice one thing about Beth’s personality, but rather it is all focused on physical characteristics. This is subtle foreshadowing of the later downfall of this seemingly perfect

marriage.
Judith Guest makes a very clear statement about Beth’s character without even having to mention in in the text. She does this by not including Beth’s point of view at all in the novel. While Conard and Calvin’s point of view switch off between chapters, the most complex character, Beth Jarret, is left a mystery for the readers to piece together themselves. I believe that the author purposefully left out Beth’s point of view in order to guide the reader’s to the conclusion that Beth was ultimately the reason why the family collapsed following Jordan’s death and Conrad’s suicide attempt. My final reason why Beth’s reaction to the negative events that recently occurred continued to make everyone in the family suffer even more is connected to the idea that Beth is overall a complete mystery. Her interpersonal conflicts prevent her from properly connecting and grieving with her husband and remaining son. The novel starts with the beginning of Beth’s isolation and results in full blown abandonment when she leaves Calvin and Conrad on their own.
In conclusion, besides the damaging effects on the Jarret family, the major factor that leads the family into separation is Beth’s personality and actions. These actions refer to her neglect towards her husband and son and her harsh attitude in general.