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
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of his recent past, we also see the strain it has taken on his father, Calvin. Ultimately, Calvin feels responsible for not seeing the signs in Conrad leading up to his attempt at suicide. In the novel when he is narrating his point of view while pestering Conrad about his life and school, he thinks, “What, no argument? No raising of the eyebrows, no hint of sarcasm in the reply? What kind of sign is this? Surely not good” (Guest 12-13). This shows Calvin’s obsessive behavior when it comes to making sure his son becomes his old self again, and his feeling of responsibility for this to happen since he feels he was not there before his attempted suicide. As the novel continues, Calvin struggles with the thought that he is responsible for everything that happened a year before.
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…
himself. Conrad shows his feeling of responsibility also in the novel. The one main thing that pulls at Conrad’s mental health, that caused him to go off the deep end and attempt suicide, was that he feels responsible for his brother’s death, and also the death of Karen and his friend Robbie from the hospital. In Dr. Bergers office, Conrad finally admits this when confiding to Dr. Berger and they say: “What's hanging over your head?” “I don't know!” He looks up dazed, drawing a deep breath. “I need something, I want something- I want to get off the hook!” “For what?” He begins to cry again. “For killing him, don't you know that? For letting him Drown! … “Nobody needs you to be Buck.
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
a hard time forgiving him for trying to kill himself, but that he also is having a hard time forgiving her for acting coldly towards him, and for not showing the amount of love he thinks she should. This helps him accept his reality, to stop blaming himself for Buck’s death and his mother so much, and to help him evolve and get better. Throughout the novel, there are many themes that go hand in hand with helping the characters grow, but these two, forgiveness and responsibility, are the main ones that help these characters to find their way. The themes have grown during the story to evolve with the characters as well, and their impacts are always changing but are still shown through the characters growth. Whether it was confiding in a therapist or just helping them figure out the emotions they were feeling, the pressure of responsibility and their need to forgive or be forgiven has helped them realize a lot about themselves, their family, and of life.
Conrad Jarret is an eighteen years old white male who live with his parent’s Beth and Calvin Jarret in an upper middle class suburban in Chicago Illinois. He is a high school junior also part of the swim team. Within the Jarret family, Beth, Conrad and Calvin all have different problems. Beth is a perfectionist who is unaccustomed with tragedy. Conrad pursuit to find himself, while trying to please the people around him, his father Calvin is cautious about his son and his feelings. Conrad 's mother refuses to forgive him for his suicide attempt, she believes he did it in order to destroy her perfectly ordered life.
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.
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.
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).
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.
...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.
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.
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
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.
...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.
“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 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.