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Ordinary People Sparknotes

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After a traumatic event, it is the people in your life that can help you recover. This relates to the book, Ordinary People, by Judith Guest. In the book, the main character Conrad goes through lots of suffering in his past, but shows his commitment to getting better. His brother dies, he becomes very depressed, tries to commit suicide, and goes in and out of a hospital. When he comes back from the hospital, the school year starts, and all he tries to do is get through it. He starts seeing a therapist, and kind of has a group of friends, and he is on the swim team. As he meets new people, and does the things that make him happy, he starts to noticeably change, mentally and physically. With the help of the people around him, Conrad goes from …show more content…

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. At this point in the story, if something had happened to disrupt his life, he probably would have spiraled like he had in the past. You learn that later in the story, his hospital friend Karen, takes her own life and it does send him spiraling despite the progress he has made. He gets flashbacks of what happened in the past, and gets worried he is going to do something bad to himself so he calls Dr. Berger. When he gets the chance to speak, he can't bring himself to let his feelings out. ‘“You keep at me, make me talk about things I can't talk about, I can't!”’(222). 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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