Judith Guest's Ordinary People: Internal & External Conflicts as They Result from the Suppression of Emotions

Based on Conrad’s character in the movie, he could be described as having more of an intuitive grieving style. This style of grieving utilizes more of the affective domain and uses little of the cognitive (Martin & Doka, 2011). For the intuitive griever, grief is characterized by the experience of painful feelings. The feelings of guilt and sadness were those that Conrad experienced the most. After

To honor the Beowulf’s heroic life and battles, I’ve been assigned as one of his closest warriors to exclaim his appellation and share the stories of his battles. One of the citizen came up to me and asked, “I heard that Beowulf was an amazing guy, but I never fully knew him. Could you tell me more about him?” I was extremely excited as this man was the first person to ever ask me about Beowulf. “Beowulf was a strong leader and a great friend. Although he might not have been a very humble man, he was nowhere near being a bully. He’s the type of man that would belittle anyone who hurts the weak and innocent. Beowulf was mettlesome and was never intimidated by any menace.” The man’s eyes were already widen. “He sounds like a guy I would wanna be protected by,” the citizen said, “Can you tell me about one of his battles?” I prepared myself as I was about to begin a long lecture of how strong Beowulf was.

Regarding psychological functioning, Conrad is under the vicious cycle of depression. His brother’s death led him to adapt a negative explanatory style. This in turn resulted in his depressed mood and cognitive and behavioral changes. He also believes that he has disobeyed his parents and does not deserve their forgiveness or affection (1:09:38). Conrad lives with a sense of guilt, not only for attempting suicide, but for things he had no control over (ex. Karen’s death). From a socio-cultural approach, Conrad depression worsens due to his unstable relationship with his mother, along with other relationships in his life. Throughout the movie, we clearly see that Conrad’s mother does not understand the severity of Conrad’s mental state. She frequently believes that Conrad is fine and wants their lives to ‘get back to normal’ (0:24:37). She believes Conrad’s mental health is a phase that can be fixed by simply being harder on him. The movie also takes place in a time where discussing mental health is taboo. Mental illness was significantly less common and thought to be a touchy subject. Throughout the movie, we can see that people do not know how to approach the Jarretts about Conrad’s state and frequently stumble through conversations or do not understand the situation (0:22:14; 0:31:52; 0:48:05). This plays a part in Conrad’s depression because he feels he can’t talk to or relate to anyone

Beowulf has delighted and intrigued a wide array of people for centuries. The timeless nature is visible in modern-day extensions of this epic, through heroics and battles of good versus malevolent forces. Beowulf continues to appeal to sophisticated audiences because it tells the story of a great hero prevailing over evil, a timeless theme valued by society and portrayed by his counterparts in modern media, although these new heroes display more complex qualities.

Whether you are arguing with your siblings, with a stranger at a baseball game, during a debate, with your parents or children, you are fighting for what you believe is right. You perceive yourself as the “victim” in the situation by trying to justify your reasoning behind the argument. Some people may perceive you as the good or as the evil because they believe that you have done nothing wrong, you were being perverse or fighting for the wrong reason. The epic poem Beowulf, is a super-eminent literary example that represents the good and evil in the characters and what they are fighting for. In this fictional poem, in which the author is unknown, the protagonist Beowulf encounters three major battles with a monster named Grendel, Grendel’s Mother, and a dragon. Each character is fighting for a certain reason and believe their reason is more dominant. The two audiences that view the characters as good or evil is the Danes and the narrator. Since the characters in the poem believe they're justified in their actions, they prove to not be all evil or all good. In fact, they should be judged based on the rationale behind their actions to fight.

This ending adds more obscurity to the work as a whole and goes right along with how Conrad wrote the novel in its entirety. This is how he shaped his characters as well. Vague descriptions and details make the readers think and try to process things on their own instead of the narrator telling them. That is why this ending and novel as a whole is one of the hardest to understand and

The emotional agony that Conrad experienced following the death of his brother almost led to his end. The conflict inside of Conrad is only the beginning of his suffering. The emotions that engulf one's mind can swallow them up and eat them from the inside out. They demand to be felt, but the management of the emotional conflict has been just as important. For example, when the Jannett family is together to take family photos, including the grandparents, the disconnect between Conrad and his mother are clearly visible to the naked eye. After being asked to take a picture with her son, Beth hesitates, violently insisting a different photo to be taken in order to avoid accepting and showing the increasing disconnect between her and her son. Siting and watching, Conrad struggles internally to decode the intentions of the scene depicted in front of him before he burst into an outrage. Initially, Conrad practiced silence in the form of withdrawal. Thus, he situated himself in the isolated window chair. The actions of his mother spoke to him in the sense that she hated him, wishing to have nothing to do with him. The silence remained silent until he burst with rage, projecting the instructions of his father for the camera to be given to his emotionally silent mother. Conrad rested on the assumptions he formed based not only on his mother’s current action, but passed actions as well, to reveal what he

As a great benefit, Joseph Conrad writes very well indeed. He even recognizes the subjective and changes from proper usage in his disquisitions to colloquialisms in conversation.

He was used to live in his brother’s shadow, but when the boat accident happened to them, he was the only one to survive. As he was always indentifying himself the less important one, he considered it was wrong that he was the one who would still have a life. As a result of nervous breakdown, he tried to kill himself with cutting his wrists in the bathroom, fortunately his father found out and save him. Then he went to the psychiatric for four months. When he comes back, there are still issues he needs to deal with.

The stages of grief are demonstrated in Conrad’s relationships with his family and friends. Conrad has experienced depression and a suicide attempt in response to his brother’s death. At the beginning of the book, Conrad is going through the first stage of grief, which is shock and denial. Conrad’s father, Cal, worries about Conrad’s mental health and gives him the name of a therapist. However, Conrad does not call him. Cal believes that Conrad, “ ought to stick with the plan --’” (13) However, Conrad “can’t [because he] is swimming every night…[He doesn’t] need to see anybody. [He] feels fine’ (13). Conrad is uncomfortable talking about the death, and seeing a therapist would require him to talk. Conrad is afraid to feel his emotions. He thinks if he just avoids thinking about his brother’s death, he will be okay. The second

Berger, "She loved my brother, too.  It's just me"(120).  He concluded that Beth could not love him because there was something wrong with him.  After the big fight that Conrad had with his parents, he revealed to his father his opinion of Beth's feelings for him. Conrad tells him, "All right, then.  She hates me"(114).  Because Conrad felt that there was something wrong with him, he did not know how to react to situations nor did he know when to express his feelings.  For his Christmas present, Conrad's parents and grandparents bought him a car.  His response to this extravagant present was, "Yeah, okay… Thank you both, it's beautiful really.  It's terrific"(126).  He was not overly excited, as one should be, on receiving such an extraordinary gift.  He was not quite sure how to act, so he repressed all of his feelings.  In an early conversation with Berger, Conrad said, "What I'm doing here is that I had to come"(41).  This proves that Conrad was in denial of his psychological state and foreshadows Conrad's severe state of depression.  Conrad repressed all of his feelings and emotions.  He told Berger, "I don't feel anything"(98). Later on in the conversation, Berger told Conrad that the "Only way you're ever gonna get to know him [the guy in the closet] is to let him out now and then."(100)  This alludes to the fact that Conrad repressed his feelings and was extremely depressed.  All of these factors led to

Since humans first emerged into the intellectual sphere of literature, extravagant tales of mystical lands, bloody wars, and gallant heroes spread far and wide. All treasured tales transpire time, From trespassing viking warlords, to poetic french vineyards, and indian tribes across the sea, each culture remains coated in these tales. In the twenty first century there is no need for memorizing stories, however in times gone by stories were circulated by tune or voice until christianity began to spread worldwide. Beowulf, written by an anonymous christian monk, possesses a timeless approach of a classic fight for love and glory; a case of do or die to audiences across the span of a lifetime with intricate tones,

Conrad's father does most of the worrying because he blames himself for Conrad's suicide attempt. Though the logical part of Cal's brain tells him it wasn't his fault he still believes that he should have paid more attention to Conrad. Conrad's mother, Beth, on the other hand thinks that Cal worries too much about Conrad. Beth thinks that Conrad is just trying to hurt her. Conrad tells Beth that he would tell her more about him if he thought she "gave a damn." Conrad tells Beth that he thinks she is the one trying to hurt him. Conrad finally releases all of his emotions when his mother confronts him about his quitting the swimming team. Conrad tells Beth how what he thinks of her visiting other countries instead of visiting him at the mental institution. After the fight, Conrad tells his father "She hates me. There's nothing I can do about it." Beth is a very unforgiving person, and Conrad doesn't think that she will ever forgive him for his suicide attempt.

Chalk-faced, hair-hacked Conrad seems hell bent on continuing the family myth that all is well in the world. Their initial sessions together frustrate Dr. Berger because of Conrad's inability to express his feelings.

It is not the differentness that worries Conrad but the lurking hint of kinship, of common