An Ordinary Man Analysis

In the film Ordinary People, we see the main protagonist, Conrad, suffer from major depressive disorder. Throughout the film, he shows symptoms of depression through challenges regulating sleep, depressed mood, thoughts of death and suicide, along with multiple other symptoms. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or the DSM-V, lists the symptoms of depression as: depressed mood most of the time, reduced interest or enjoyment in most activities, challenges regulating appetite and weight, challenges regulating sleep, physical agitation or lethargy, having much less energy, unwarranted guilt, problems thinking, concentrating, or making decisions, and thinking of death and suicide (Meyers, 629).

Lying is only okay sometimes. Sometimes telling a small lie is better than hurting someone. However, if lying becomes a habit, the people around you might start to mistrust you. You should think about the consequences before lying, the outcome will be different if the truth is told. This is why lying is only okay sometimes.

A lie is considered a false statement given to fool someone. At some point throughout the day everyone will stretch the truth. Are lies just really some version of the truth or are they bold and deliberate? Lying is discussed in-depth in "The Ways We Lie" by Stephanie Ericsson and in the article "Is Lying Bad for Us" by Richard Gunderman. The two articles discuss the types of lies, reasons people lie and the consequences suffered by all. It can be determined after reading the texts that lying causes undue stress and telling the truth is beneficial in more ways than one.

The story “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” was written by Richard Wright. Wright was born near Natchez, Mississippi. When Wright was five, his father abandoned the family so wright was raised by a series of relatives in Mississippi. Wrights education never went further than junior high school. Wright then moved to Chicago, where he joined the WPA Writes Project. Wright wrote many story’s in his time and was well known for them. “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” is about a kid who thinks is a man, so he goes out and buys a gun, then practice’s shooting it while working and ends up killing a mule then runs away. The theme of “The Man who was Almost a Man” symbolizes the coming of age, racism and self-deception of the kid.

Parents are perhaps the greatest influences in a person life. They mentor us, shape us and model us into the type of people they would be proud of. This is no different in the movie, Ordinary People which portrays a family of three struggling through a tragedy and its byproducts. The movie highlights the three different parenting styles through the two parents, Beth and Calvin, of Conrad. Furthermore the movie underscores the impact of externals events on parenting styles relating the Person-Situation Controversy to Parenting styles.

Christopher R. Browning’s “Ordinary Men” chronicles the rise and fall of the Reserve Police Battalion 101. The battalion was one of several units that took part in the Final Solution to the Jewish Question while in Poland. The men of Reserve Police Battalion 101, and other units were comprised of ordinary men, from ordinary backgrounds living under the Third Reich. Browning’s premise for the book is very unique, instead of focusing on number of victims, it examines the mindset of how ordinary men, became cold-hearted killers under Nazi Germany during World War II. Christopher Browning’s “Ordinary Men” presents a very strong case that the men who made up the Reserve Police Battalion 101 were indeed ordinary men from ordinary background, and

Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning is subtitled Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. This title is a perfect overview of the subject of the book. Browning discussed Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the part it played in the World War II during the Holocaust, especially in the “Final Solution”, which was the attempted eradication of Jews. Not only does Browning discuss Battalion 101, but he uses them as an example of how ordinary people can commit atrocities such as mass murder.

Christopher Browning describes how the Reserve Police Battalion 101, like the rest of German society, was immersed in a flood of racist and anti-Semitic propaganda. Browning describes how the Order Police provided indoctrination both in basic training and as an ongoing practice within each unit. Many of the members were not prepared for the killing of Jews. The author examines the reasons some of the police members did not shoot. The physiological effect of isolation, rejection, and ostracism is examined in the context of being assigned to a foreign land with a hostile population. The contradictions imposed by the demands of conscience on the one hand and the norms of the battalion on the other are discussed. Ordinary Men

Both Paul Rusesabagina’s An Ordinary Man and Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail use appeals to pathos and ethos to instill their ideas of racial equality. Rusesabagina and King strengthen their works through use of emotion and integrity as a means of literary persuasion. “The central concern of rhetoric has always been method and manner: how to discover the most effective way to express a thought in a given situation, and how to alter its expression to suit different situations.” (McQuarrie and Mick 424) King’s letter discusses his approach in dealing with the racial segregation experienced by African Americans in the United States. Misplaced hatred and prejudice fuel King’s desire to rationally present his personal experiences, religious service, and logic arguments for desegregation. In contrast, Rusesabagina focuses on simplifying and clarifying his involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Past experiences, desires to protect human lives, and ethics drove Rusesabagina to tell his account of the genocide. King and Rusesabagina’s choice to confront racial adversary through their words and actions undoubtedly introduced change to the lives of many oppressed people.

In the book “Ordinary Men” by Christopher R. Browning, he shows a different side of the Germans during the Final Solution, and how not every last one was a terrible person, by explaining how some men would hide from killing, opt out altogether, or say they were just following orders. Though there were still some who embraced their newly found jobs, this book argues there was still a sense of morality, but does not excuse the acts that took place. However, as much as the perpetrators were emotionally scarred, and this book does show us that, there are still some flaws in the content used to write this book.

Racial hatred is prejudice and hostility targeting groups of color or ethnic backgrounds in various ways. “Night” by Elie Wiesel is a story about the author's experience during the Holocaust and how he survived through the harsh treatment of the concentration camps. Paul Rusesabagina’s “From An Ordinary Man” is about how the author saved many people from an ongoing tribe attack by putting them in his hotel. In Elie Wiesel’s “Night”and Paul Rusesabagina's “From An Ordinary Man”, both the author's use of overall purpose, theme, and use of rhetoric help tell the stories of survivors.

Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland by Christopher R. Browning is an insightful book that provides information as to how ordinary people may be susceptible to committing heinous, evil acts. Browning explains this through analyzing judicial interrogations, which occurred in the 1960’s, of about 125 men of the Reserve Police Battalion 101 (Browning, pg. xviii). The Reserve Police Battalion 101 was a unit of the German Order Police formed in Hamburg, Germany, under the control of the SS which was under Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party (Browning, pg. xvi-xvii). They consisted of German police and sheriffs who were middle-aged men of working and lower middle class. The Reserve Police Battalion 101 was formed as the

1. Rusesabagina writes that “a false view of history is a toxin in the bloodstream.” How have you experienced this is your own life? Is there such a thing as a completely true view of history?

Lies can be one kind of believe and have fun. For example, if the father and mother tell their kids about Christmas has Santa Claus, who gives Christmas presents to their kids. Some kids usually believe in Santa Claus. In the future, the kids will know it is not true, but they will think it was a good memory in their childhood! I think it is a good way to use lie. Lying can be fun, but doesn’t use it in a bad way on other person because it will lets the person get hurt like my classmate.

Judenfrei was the goal. In many cases, this was achieved. Germany hoped to create lands free of Jews; judenfrei. German blood was perceived as pure, creating the need to cleanse the nation of the unkempt, parasitic Jews (Browning 44, 152). Ordinary Men by the historian and author, Christopher Browning, follows the men of the German Reserve Police Battalion 101 as they work towards this goal of extermination The story leads readers through these men’s first experiences “clearing” the area of the Jewish population, to these events becoming routine, all the way through the trials which brought all of this to public light through Browning’s extensive knowledge of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust with his MA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (“Christopher R. Browning”). The men of Battalion 101 begin following their indescribably violent orders with great hesitation and fear, only to grow senseless to all which they were inflicting on the Jews, all while allowing insight into various points of view which seek to answer the most prominent question of anyone who would like to know, “how did this happen?”