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Ordinary People Identity Essay

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Over the course of the novel Ordinary People, Conrad Jarrett has struggled to find his own identity. Judith Guest starts this novel off with an awkward relationship between Conrad, his mother, Beth, and his father, Calvin. After the passing of his brother Buck, Conrad goes into a super-deep depression. There are many people who have had a significant impact on Conrad throughout this novel, Karen, Lazenby, and Dr. Berger, all play a crucial role in Conrad finding his true identity. Through the ups and the downs of this novel Judith Guest has shown us what it was like as if we were in the Jarrett family. Judith Guest uses a good amount of metaphors and smilies to describe to you vividly everything that is happening in the Jarrett household. …show more content…

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. After Karen's death, it …show more content…

Crawford referred Conrad to Dr. Berger; Conrad believes that psychiatrists can’t help him with getting better, and they are just a bunch of oddballs. As proven throughout the novel Conrad has gone through many obstacles that have shaped the way that he is today.“Conrad is not easily charmed. Or fooled. Eccentricity. A favorite put-on of psychiatrists. He does not trust them. Too many oddballs are floating around the hospital. Only Crawford had behaved as if he knew what he was doing.” After many visits with Dr. Berger, they started to grow with each other, Dr. Berger understands that therapy is the last thing Conrad wants to do so he makes it all about him. If Conrad wants to open up he can make that decision on his own without being pressured to share. Conrad's lack of communication has been a common recurrence in this novel when it comes to him sharing his problems with Berger. “Maybe you gotta feel lousy sometime in order to feel better.” In chapter 12 Dr. Berger tells Conrad this because Conrad tends to feel like everything is his fault and that he should be blamed for every minor inconvenience that pops up. Dr. Berger throughout the novel has had this ambition to help Conrad’s mental wellbeing. In the beginning of the novel Conrad is this closed off, stubborn, unmotivated, and hopeless he has learned that he can not simply give up, there is no sympathy for people who just give up and don't try again. Berger has played a significant

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Unfortunately Con does not warm up easily to people, he finds it hard to share his feelings with others. However, as he gets to know and trust others he is not as scared to talk to them which is a small sign of Conrad 's independence . At Cons first appointment with Dr. Berger Con told him "I 'd like to be more in control, I guess. So people can quit worrying about me"( 43). This can give us a pretty good idea of Cons mental state right after he is released.

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Analysis of Ordinary People In the movie, the Jarrett family is a rather normal family who has just lost one of their sons. After they lose Buck the family becomes very dysfunctional as Conrad, the other son, blames himself for his brothers death, and Beth, the mother, feels anger toward Conrad. Throughout the film, the family engages in many different acts of silence and violence. Conrad and Beth tend to use violence in the way they defend themselves.

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Through Dr.Berger's advice, Conrad was able to heal after coming home from the hospital.. In the first session with Dr.Berger, Conrad told Dr.Berger he wanted more control. Dr.Beger noticed

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This was a huge obstacle in Conrad’s life. Therefore, Beth had a major impact on Conrad and Calvin, however, it may have been cold and heartless. Over all, Guest abstained from putting Beth’s point of view in the novel, Ordinary People for many reasons. The most prevalent one was to show how hard of a time Beth had with her feelings. By not putting Beth’s point of view in the novel, the author showed what everyone thought of her and how little she truly expressed her

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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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Berger who helps him grow mentally. When Conrad goes for the first time, he says he wants control. ‘“I’d like to be more in control, I guess. So people can quit worrying about me”’ (42). At first it begins as though he wants to get better for the sake of the people around him.

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If he made appointments they were very “impulsive” and he always needed to be in charge” (Ostwald 125). This control issue could be a sign of his mental illness, always needing to be control could also stem from how he was raised by his mother was similarly the same way. Going through life Gould turned to his own methods of therapy to help him. He began taking “sedatives to help him sleep” (Ostwald 29). He thought of himself as a self-proclaimed doctors because the drugs were helping him.

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He would always be so confused with her. She would try and tell Conrad how she felt, like he would only be rude to her. (Han, Page 244) “Well you shouldn't, I'm not the one.'' But then he would. The things he would say to her absolutely destroyed her constantly.

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She became very confused and angry, which cause her to go up to him and confront him. She assumed that he was being cold to her because he didn’t want to face the feelings he had for her. Belly soon found out that Conrad wasn’t being rude because he likes her, but the woman who raised him was dying. People deal with grief in different ways, most people are like Conrad and are angry and distant from everyone. My grandma passed away two years ago and I was angry.

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Conrad is on his school's swim team and tries to socialize with his old friends. They both know that their tragedies have affected them and that they will be different people in the end. They know that they will have to change. They can’t go back to how their lives were before the death of their brothers.

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Since Buck, Conrad’s brother, is dead, Conrad is feeling depressed seeing that the house is more empty now that Buck is gone. Conrad also shows deep depression in school when his teacher questions him asking, “Why are you writing all this about violence and war? Aren’t there other things you’d like to say, Conrad? This doesn’t sound like you.” (Guest 19).

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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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He has suicidal urges all over again, but this time he fights them and frantically makes an emergency appointment with Dr. Berger. He shows up at his office in a broken state in the middle of the night. Conrad sobs uncontrollably and everything comes pouring out: the whole story of the night Buck died and how he blamed himself, his mother’s hatred for him, and how he was never good enough. Dr. Berger listens and holds him like a parent would hold a child and finally, Conrad begins to calm down. Through psychotherapy, Berger has allowed his client to work through his guilt, anger, and grief successfully in a painful and moving emotional battle.

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