Point Of View In Judith Guest's Ordinary People

Many people choose to put their feelings away rather than expressing them. Those who have the ability to show emotion are usually more likely to open up and connect with others. In the book Ordinary People, Beth was a character who struggle with many personal issues. One being that she didn’t like to show people how she felt; which is lead to believe why her point of view was not in the book. Beth’s point of view is not in the novel because Guest tried to show how cold and emotionless she was; expressing feelings came easy to Conrad and Calvin where as Beth struggled with emotion. Beth was portrayed as an emotional, cold hearted person in the novel written by Judith Guest. Both Calvin and Conrad struggled with Buck’s death as seen through their point of view. However, readers were unable to see or interpret how Beth felt towards many things. For example, when Beth and Calvin are at the dinner party Guest says, “‘He’s fine,’ Beth says. There is something final and forbidding about the answer, but Sara doesn’t hear it”(66). The short insight of her inside emotion

However, this would be false because Beth played an important role in both Conrad and Calvin’s life whether that be good or bad. For example, Guest said, “‘Okay,’ he says. ‘Alright. Once I tried to kill myself, how’s that?’”(119). Conrad carried his guilt around because he knew it made his mother upset. 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