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Depression In Judith Guest's Ordinary People

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Ordinary People is a novel telling a story of an American family and their struggles after the family’s oldest son dies. It was written by Judith Guest (born 1936) and was first published in 1976. The main character of the story is the younger son of the family, Conrad, who’s a junior in high school. After his brother’s death Conrad gets deeply depressed and tries to take his own life. The story begins after his suicide attempt, a month after his release from hospital, and follows his story towards recovery from depression. Conrad isn’t very interesting or striking character but I think he’s written to be that way on purpose – he’s not supposed to be either of those qualities. Writing Conrad’s character like this makes him seem more realistic …show more content…

Besides mental health love is an important theme. It isn’t presented as a magical power that heals all mental wounds in a blink as it in some stories seems to do, but as an everyday thing that can be painful too. One of the strengths of the book was the realistic portrayal of depression from the point of view of a depressed person, Conrad. The depression wasn’t romanticized or exaggerated nor was it written in a too clinical way. Conrad’s indifference and somewhat apathetic attitude, and his dark thoughts about his brother’s death are both presented without unnecessary dramatization. Ordinary People doesn’t offer too happy endings and in my opinion this was one of the things that made it feel realistic. Too many stories dealing with difficult issues tend to rush the dealing with the issues just to get a happy ending even if it’s this way completely unrealistic. This is where Ordinary People did well; in real life problems don’t solve themselves quickly and easily and all endings aren’t happy in every aspect. Life is not always sunshine and rainbows. I think that as whole Ordinary People is a great book that deals with important issues that often are not talked about enough in a realistic and honest manner. In the end the message of the book is simple but extremely powerful in its own way – terrible things happen but life is still worth

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Beth doesn’t let herself feel, she is a perfectionist, and cares about what people will think. I feel like I relate to Conrad in the depression part. Recently my parents got a divorce and that was hard for me, I started to feel depressed and it was hard to get up every morning and keep going knowing that every

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686 Words | 3 Pages

Ordinary People Lack of communication leads to much dysfunction. Ordinary People based on the book by Judith Guest revolves around the Jarrett family and their efforts to communicate. Conrad Jarrett, the son of Calvin and Beth Jarrett, struggles with PTSD and survivor’s guilt after the death of his brother in a boating accident. Additionally, Beth, who favored her older son, has isolated herself from Conrad. She distances herself emotionally, whilst trying to maintain the family’s idealistic reputation.

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Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening are novels that represent the traps that society has set forth for them. In both novels, suicide is seen as the only way to escape from their constricted circumstances in which these people are expected to live in. The Frome’s and The Pontellier’s have very similar circumstances, such as blaming each other for their problems, and having marriage’s which they are not happy in. “Her marriage to Leonce Pontellier was purely an accident, in this respect resembling many other marriages which masquerade as the decrees of Fate.”

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1055 Words | 5 Pages

Considering Conrad’s circumstances directly after the death of his brother, Buck, it’s understandable that he would develop disorders associated with the refusal to openly grieve. Conrad used extreme measures to avoid the grieving process, such as avoiding people he associated with his brother, which manifested into severe cases of both a trauma/stressor related disorder and a depressive disorder. There

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515 Words | 3 Pages

The film Ordinary People follows the family of a once suicidal teenage boy, Conrad, who is dealing with severe survivor's guilt after the death of his older brother, Buck, at sea. Throughout the movie, dysfunction within the family is very evident on many different occasions. Each of the three remaining members of the household; Beth Jarrett, Calvin Jarrett and, as mentioned before, Conrad Jarrett, demonstrate many instances where inadequacy in conflict management is clearly shown. If not for these deficiencies, however, the family would have been able to better cope and recover from the loss of Buck.

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655 Words | 3 Pages

Beth suppresses the thought that her family has problems, and just wants to think of her family as a normal family. Calvin wants to be the positive character, when in reality, is being silent about his feelings of the incident. First of all, the film shows Conrad expressing examples of silence and violence towards the incident involving his brothers death. As shown in the film, in the past, Conrad had previously tried to commit suicide, because he felt guilty

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637 Words | 3 Pages

Next, you learn that he feels responsible for the death of his brother, and that's why he's suffered so much the past few years. ‘“For killing him, don't you know that?”’(223). Once Conrad calms down, Berger says to him that it was good he had a breakdown. ‘“Feeling is not selective, I keep telling you that”’ (227). Throughout the course of the sessions held, Berger talked to Conrad about feeling, and in the beginning of the book, he wasn't able to let himself feel

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1003 Words | 5 Pages

In George Saunders’ essay from The Guardian, he states, “We often think that the empathetic function in fiction is accomplished via the writer’s relation to his characters, but it’s also accomplished via the writer’s relation to his reader” (The Guardian). In Kurt Vonnegut’s story “Harrison Bergeron”, we can see this idea shown through the reader’s connection with Harrison.  Vonnegut uses the main character of the story, Harrison Bergeron, as a symbol of empathy by allowing the reader to relate to his desire for individuality.

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Karen and Conrad have bonded over their time in the mental hospital; Once they leave the hospital there is no real reason for them to keep in contact unless it is to just check up on one another. “The only one who can help you is you,” Karen tells Conrad this when they meet at a diner to catch up. Later Karen says that she needs to leave early because she has things to do but Conrad thinks that he did something to make her leave, he feels like he is always the one driving people away. This brings Conrad's confidence down significantly, he has trouble making friends let alone keeping them and when he finally had someone to talk to she left. As the novel continues Conrad gets worse and he can't seem to find a way out of his depressive episode until one day he read the newspaper; “Teenager committed suicide” Conrad instantly was overflowed with a wave of shock and guilt, he couldn't believe she had given in and let her thoughts overpower her.

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In the foreword of the novel, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, there is a quote that reads: “But it’s so much more than a book about depression. It’s about the promise of hope, strength, and the desire to live” (Cohn 1). This quote describes the feeling of the whole novel, which is about a kid named Craig Gilner who is battling depression, but also figuring out who he desires to be. Consequently, you’ll soon detect that Craig has an unexplainable strength that he doesn’t think he has till later through his journeys through a psychiatric hospital. In this journal I will be evaluating the person that is Craig Gilner, visualizing the psychiatric hospital he sojourns in, and predicting what choice he will compose when it comes to his life.

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435 Words | 2 Pages

This grief can be seen when Conrad says, “Conrad Jarrett the Anxious Failure dress this guy in blue and gray.” (Guest 2). This reveals that Conrad is in a deep depression because he doesn’t see himself as anything more than a failure. He associates himself with the two colors he recognizes as anxious and failure, he believes that he is missing a sense of humor. This connects to the stage of grief, depression, because when people are at this stage of grief they tend to put themselves down and think about the negative things in life.

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456 Words | 2 Pages

From the beginning, Conrad had various problems in the way he thinks. From start to finish Conrad made a radical change in his life. He learned that his brother’s death wasn’t his fault and came to terms with the fact that his mother could never deliver him what he wants and needed to stop holding a grudge against her for that. Conrad was not the only one who experienced change; his mother, Beth, did as well. Beth realized that she could not love the way her family wanted her to and decided that herself and her social status were more significant than her own sons well-being.

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1320 Words | 6 Pages

Conrad uses psychological influence throughout the novella specifically in the areas of, physical health, geographical surroundings, and eerie obsession to lead to the overall truth of madness. An image of such madness is apparent through Conrad's works of psychological influence within physical and mental health. The mental well-being of the characters,

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1658 Words | 7 Pages

Conrad has a significant breakthrough on his path toward recovery. Thus, Conrad confronts his survivor’s guilt and allows himself to begin to enjoy life. He also forgives his mother. There’s a heart-wrenching scene at the end of the movie where Conrad tries to give his mother a hug.

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1443 Words | 6 Pages

What is particularly interesting is that Conrad transformed a personal experience into a fiction of general historical and cultural significance. With little sense of strain, he moved from self to society; it was one of his eccentricities to mythologize an historical self, to place his own life at the heart of historical conflicts. (Ross) The ‘Heart of Darkness’ is representative of the African continent which is perceived to be at the centre of the Earth and that which was believed to be lagging in terms of progression and development. But by the end of the novella, readers question this notion: is it really Africa that is hidden away in darkness or the hearts of the brutal colonizers under whom the natives have suffered in their own land?

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