Loss Of Originality

Many factors influence one’s decision in doing and/or creating something, so, to what extent is it possible to still be original? Original is the idea that something was created directly by one person without the influence or imitation of someone else’s earlier ideas or work. In “Biographies of Hegemony” Karen Ho discusses the challenges that many Ivy League students face while trying to meet their institution 's expectations, as well as the heavy recruitment by Wall Street bankers on college campuses. In “The Naked Citadel” Susan Faludi, addresses the violence among students at the Citadel, as well as their lack of originality and suggests that the cause is due to the rejection of society. In “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism” Jonathan

Lethem also seems to be downplaying the idea of plagiarism, and is saying that borrowing others work is easier and better than creating original ideas. Lethem complicates the argument made by Faludi, saying that this loss of originality is done out of love, whereas Faludi implies that this loss of originality is theft to the individual losing their originality. Both The Citadel cadets and the authors that Lethem describes have all lost their originality based on a system that occurs over and over again. In the case of The Citadel cadets they are placed in this fourth-class system, where they lose all originality and receive the title of knob distinguishing them as a freshman. They also have the views of the Citadel imposed upon them and taught to impose their views on others as part of becoming the “Whole Man”. In the other case there are the authors Lethem describes who are influenced by the work of prior authors, meaning they are not producing their own thoughts, but rather using the thoughts of others to create their new ideas for books or stories. Lethem believes that these authors are “borrowing” from other authors out of love and appreciation. This is contrary to the beliefs of Faludi where she believes that The Citadel are thieves and they are stealing the originality from these freshman cadets by imposing their views on the cadets and transforming the cadets into the “Whole Man”. In both the cadets and the author’s cases, they are influenced by the thought of others, in the case of the cadets, it’s their institution The Citadel, and for the authors it’s the thoughts of other authors. If the cadets of The Citadel are not allowed to keep their original identity and must be transformed, and