Self-perception of an individual plays a key role on developing their identity. It often deals with the conflict between illusion and reality. Nicolas Chamfort once said “Pleasure may come from illusion, but happiness can come only of reality.” In the story of “Touching Bottoms” by Kari Strutt we witness how Protagonist struggle to believe in herself and encounter her fears on her own. Often individual are put in the situation that force them to believe that everything is going to be prosperous without any substantial efforts building a sense of false perception around them and when they encounter the reality they tend to stumble and try to escape from them. However, if we chose to faces the reality and encounter our fears we tend to develop …show more content…
The protagonist was going through the same experience in her life and was depending on individuals particularly men to be facing her fears of murky water and to be contented with her life. She was always dependent on father and we witness when the author quotes “That fall my dad signed me up for the Red Cross Swimming Lessons In a pool…….I’m sure there are no leeches at YMCA, but I’ll come and watch, just to be Sure. When we got to YMCA, Dad and I walked around the pool together, looking for the leeches. I thought I saw one, but it was just a Band-Aid.” It tells us that how her father took decisions for her and she didn’t want to YMCA without her father making assure everything was alright. Although, she did not realize that doing so it was waning her confidence and self-potential. Her illusion of being happy by being dependent not facing her fears was not helping. In return she only received betrayal from her husband. The illusion of life can keep you pleased for a certain time, but as soon as reality kicks in, the illusions of happiness shatters away like a broken
Paranoia and distrust heavily lingered on Claire’s mind when she discovered the inhumane response of her husband Stuart and his friends towards the cold, deceased body of an innocent young girl they found drifting through the Naches River during their fishing trip in the short story: “So Much Water So Close To Home,” by Raymond Carver. Throughout the story, a significant theme that the author attempts to convey through the story is when seeds of doubt are left to grow, even the strongest of bonds may be put into question. Over the course of the story, Claire struggled internally on whether or not she could bring herself to trust her husband anymore when he showed no remorse or desire to contact the authority when he found the dead body; rather, he just ignored it while he and his friends partied until morning. Triggered by these events and traumatic memories from her childhood event, she began to question the her husband’s humanity and moral code; thus, it is emphasized that even even a single random occurrence, such as discovering your husband’s cold hearted behavior, distorts one’s previous perspective as well as completely change the way they view something or someone.. Sadly this fact is apparent in everyday life and the trauma and distrust cannot be undone so easily.
Stephanie Ericsson is a writer of all sorts who pulls events from her life to use as starting points for her work. She does this to make everything she writes deeply personal. The essay, “The Ways We Lie” was originally published in the Utne Reader. The Utne Reader is a reader’s digest based out of Topeka, Kansas. It presents new and fresh ideas in art, culture, politics, and spirituality. Utne readers are people who are motivated for social change, and they want to make the world a better place. The readers want to be well rounded on current events. That is what the Utne Reader has provided its readers for over thirty years. It is a combination of reprints and original writings. The Utne Reader is published monthly online for its readers to enjoy (citation). Does the Utne Reader give credit to those whose articles they reprint? How large is the fan base for this digest? Does anyone in our school subscribe to the Utne Reader?
For this essay, I am going to be discussing the short story “Swimming” found on the New Yorker, and written by T. Cooper. I have chosen this story for many reasons, and among those reasons is the personal sadness I felt when I first read the story, almost as if the universe was placing a certain theme in my life, that only the main character could possibly understand. I am talking about running, the god given instinct felt by all men, inherent in the nature of fear, and brought out in all who feel sadness in its full intensity. Though in my short life I can not compare the sadness I have felt with that of losing a child at my own hand, but if I had been placed in that situation, if fate had tempted my soul with such a sequence of events, I would like to think I could find the strength to endure and the courage to not abandon all I had previously known. Yet I am able to reconcile the themes of grief, the mode of recovery, and the longing to escape such a terrible tale. I think in this piece, as I will discuss in later parts, the author was able to put into words a transformation we rarely get to observe in closeness, the kind of transformation that turns a kind man into a “just man” the kind of death that turns this world from a beautiful and happy place into a world that is closing in on our main character, that is forcing him to surface temporarily and gasp for air, much like he does when he finds peace in the water, wading breath after air, after sea. I firmly believe that
The father’s way of dealing with his inner issues is reflected by the way he distracts himself with hobbies of the women he loves. This illustrates how a sudden tragedy can influence someone’s lifestyle. In fact, before his first wife passed away he showed a lot of interest in art and when she died he was lost and devastated ,” (…) after mom died, my sister and I used to worry about his living alone. And he was lonely.We knew that after putting in his usual twelve-hours workday, he would return to the empty house (...) then read medical journals until it was time to go to sleep.”(16). This implies that
A long time ago the difference between perception and reality was defined as the act of understanding in contrast to the act of being real. Reality could be tricky; most of us including myself depending on scenarios of our lives tend to give in to ideas which are not applicable to reality as a whole. The best example of this is written in the short story “All Over” by Guy de Maupassant. In which his main character Lormerin is very self conscious and narcissistic also Lise de Vance, a former old love plays a big role in hurting Lormerin ego and opening his eyes by showing him, his real self. Many would say that when reality knocks it could be harsh and confusing. In the next couple of
In the story the author portrays the protagonist differently from the other characters because she talks about the physical appearance of other characters and when it comes to the narrator we have no idea what she looks like but she is developed partially through her relationship with other characters, although we the readers do come the find out that the narrator is around the age of 15-17 years old and we can assume that she has a bad relationship with her parents because first of all she talks about them maybe once or twice in the whole story and second of all we know that they sent her to boarding school so that alone proves that her relationship with them is lacking. As readers we also know that she has trouble opening up in the story she say “To open your heart. You open your legs but can’t, or don’t dare anyone, to open your heart” (237). This is a prime example of how author characterizes the protagonist as broken and emotionally damaged. And as the story progress the author becomes more honest with us the readers and herself, she starts the reveal the pain she is in and how lonely she feels. The narrator gives us an example of how she feels after sex by saying “After sex, you curl up like a shrimp, something deep inside you ruined, slammed in a place that sickness at
Poetry is like a song without music, it has the ability to awaken your emotions and the ability to tell stories that can paint beautiful, relatable, imagery in the viewer’s mind. Upon reading the poem, “My Son the Man” by Sharon Olds, she presents a unique view on her bittersweet experience of watching her son gravitate towards manhood, “Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider” (line1), while realizing he is astute enough to escape his mother’s strong hold, “to learn the way out” (line 16). As a mother myself, I began to recognize how I can relate to the speaker’s challenges of understanding a child’s need to test limits and break free from dependency. I realized through the speaker’s obvious allusions to Houdini expressing the need to break free, the contrast used to convey the indirect references to Houdini, and the similes used to express emotion toward reflecting back on a time of innocence, accepting the need of a maturing child’s independence proves the strength of a mother’s love.
Thomas Hardy, a famous novelist once said, “Fear is the mother of foresight”. This quotation may be interpreted in many different ways, one being that by experiencing fear, an individual begins to develop an ability to predict possible outcomes of their decisions. In Kari Strutt’s short story “Touching Bottom”, the protagonist decides to overcome her fear of murky waters, an action that results in her ability to foresee her future as being very independent. The main character’s fear affects her decision making process for much of her early life; if not for the interplay between the protagonist’s distressing emotions and inability to see her life as an independent woman, her choices may seem foolish and insignificant. The unnamed woman’s act of overcoming her fear by literally “Touching bottom” results in her movement away from her husband to enjoy a life on her own.
The methods in which men and women communicate are eminently different. This being so, their external state is an indicator of their inner state, but men and women have different external states to express themselves. This is especially evident among children and individuals in relationships, and altered between a couple who tries to adjust their behavior. Deborah Tannen, the author of “Sex, Lies, and Conversation,” argues that boys are girls are taught to have a differ inner state, that males and females usually have the same inner state but express them differently when communicating, and that individuals in romantic relationships can alter the way they present their outer state to represent their inner state in a way their partner can relate to.
In the essay The Ways We Lie, author Stephanie Ericsson writes in depth about the different types of lies used by most people everyday. While listing examples of them, Ericsson questions her own experiences with lying and whether or not it was appropriate. By using hypothetical situations, true accounts, and personal occurrences, she highlights the moral conflicts and consequences that are a result of harmless fibs or impactful deceptions. In an essay detailing the lies told to ourselves and others, Ericsson points out one bold truth; everyone lies. Through her writing, Ericsson causes the reader to look into how they’ve lied in the past and how to effects others and the general greater good of society.
In conclusion, a person must go through a series of step/stages to reach “self-actualization.” They must achieve his/his “safety” and “physiological” needs “(basic needs).” “Esteem” and “belongingness and love” needs “(psychological needs)” to reach the stage of “self-actualization.” Psychological theories helps us better understand why a character does what he/she did. Using the psychological theory can help people reach the stage of self-actualization. Although, some may not reach this stage due to natural or un-natural
hostile environment his father sought to escape. His mother betrayed him as she never embraced
In today’s American society, lying has become something that we are accustomed to using almost every day without even realizing it. In “The Ways We Lie”, Stephanie Ericsson, screenwriter, advertising copywriter, and writer, elaborates on the act of lying and how it is used by everyone on a daily basis. She comes up with a list of the common, different kinds of lies that we all have told. Furthermore, the text goes in depth about the significance of lying and how it is an essential part of every human’s life. Ericsson’s essay effectively conveys this idea through the use of pathos, logos, ethos, personal examples, rhetorical questions, and analogies which helps the reader better understand the reasoning behind lies and how it affects our
Self reflexive writing is a method used by authors where they write about writing. It is often an abstract concept, and the way that David Arnason uses it in his narrative “A Girl’s Story” adds a unique perception to the story. Throughout the story it is made clear that, at times, things may be entirely different than they appear to be at first glance, and how, in general, meanings are not absolute. The piece of writing “A Girl’s Story” is a story about a writer, writing a story about a girl who is having problems with her fiancé as she feels unfulfilled. It is supposed to be a somewhat cliché short story, as the writer even acknowledges that himself. He does this by stating why he made various decisions when constructing the main character such
“When an individual enters the presence of others, they commonly seek to acquire information about him or to bring into play information about him already possessed. They will be interested in his general socio-economic status, his conception of self, his attitude towards them, his competence, his trustworthiness, etc. Although some of this information is sought as an end in itself, there are usually quite practical reasons for acquiring it. Information about the individual helps to define the situation, enabling others to know in advance what he will expect of them and what they may expect of him. Informed in these ways, the others will know