Peter Shaffer's Equus: The Threat Of Normalization

First, the forms of aging and life course structures depend on the nature of the society in which individuals participate. Second, while social interaction is seen as having the greatest formative influence in the early part of life, such interaction retains crucial importance throughout the life course. Third, that social forces exert regular influences on individuals of all ages at any given point in time” (Theories of Aging. (n.d.)). The movie portrays aging being more about living the rest of life rather than dyeing in them.

He has reached a point in his life where he is expected to follow many more rules and essentially 'how to be a proper responsible adult' guidelines. Instead of being curious about his growth and the developing relationships around him, he convinces himself that the adult world is entirely dishonest and uninteresting. He also calls adults phony.

How can young adults pursue personal desire if they are trying to conform into society's unwritten rules? Every day, young men face conflicts where they are forced to make a decision. For array of young male individuals, they are entering the coming-of-age stage where they must choose a path they will pursue in their future lives. In the short story “The Glass Roses”, Alden Nowlan suggests the idea that young men are impressionable by external forces, which then alter their pursuit in life and he explores this idea through the protagonist Stephen. Stephen along with many young males struggle to choose between personal desire into shaping their own identity or conforming into society's expectations from them. Stephens journey in chasing personal desire is demonstrated in the short story through the setting, the conflicts that take place in the story and character development. Moreover, the location of where young male adults mature can have an immense alteration.

Often, we think of older people as being smarter, wiser, and generally more mature, but this is not always the case. Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger gives a number of examples that shatter this generalization, offering an alternative to age as the primary factor in one’s level of maturity. Ordinary Grace shows how maturity is a result of circumstance and does not necessarily correlate with age.

Adolescence is defined as the transition between childhood and adulthood. Many changes happen at this stage. Adolescence involves things such as puberty, greater independence, and a time when someone begins to construct their identity. Identity means their life value and goals including a secure sense of who they are in terms of sexual, vocational, and moral ethics. In the next few paragraphs I will be discussing my Virtual Child, Maeve as she went through adolescence (ages 11- 16). I am going to delve into the different changes I saw in her and how they relate to theories proposed by Piaget, Erikson, Marcia, and Gardner. Each

Coming of age is a recurring theme that is universally known throughout many different pieces of literature. Whether it’s influenced on true experiences, childhood memories, or even based on one’s current juvenile reality, many of theses works have a correlation between them that include many similar ordeals and struggles that the character goes through in order to metamorphosize into taking their first step out of childhood. One prominent theme that often appears is how one experiences and faces a time of tribulation and other walls that stand in one’s path. In effect, hardships mature and enlighten one, causing the loss of something such as childhood innocence. Lastly, these three combined points finally lead to one’s metamorphosis out of childhood. All in all, these three factors take one out of childhood, and slowly allows one step out into the reality of this world.

To truly understand what adulthood means, grasping who we are as people, we all must first undergo a metamorphosis. This transformation from boy to man has overtime been a common theme amongst writers. Typically, the passage a young adult must make to enter adulthood is romantic or sexual, experiencing their first relationship, or purchasing their first condom. However, a severe, twisted and arguably more meaningful test into adulthood is understanding mortality, and one’s depth of humanity. Mercilessness of individuals and our world is often viewed as a theme amongst horror novels, creating an ideal platform for a coming of age adventure. In all forms of storytelling, character archetypes are expressed. How they react in various

Draft thesis: The ideas of appearance vs reality, development of maturity and love are ideas explored through techniques,

Growth is a strong component that symbolises how the human condition can be shaped to become today’s society’s perception of moral standards through generations; this is clearly represented through the film’s change between the teenagers of the 1950s and the 20th century eras.

This image can be evidenced in the rosy cheeks of warm bodies on a cold night. So many parents can attest, raising an adolescent, is mostly to watch them run through life with blinders on.

Since the creation of living things, more specifically, people. Humans have learned to evoke remorse and shame for one’s misguided decisions. In Genesis 2, the story of creation, it states that Adam and Eve were both originally naked, "but they were not ashamed." Only after they ate form the Tree of Knowledge, we are told that "the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked." Furthermore, scripture exhibits to the world, about how after a forbidden effort is committed, the conscience of person begins to contemplate and comprehend the consequences of one’s maneuvers.

Whether it be due the malleable minds of children, or the turbulent world around them, dramatic changes in life are an absolute certainty. Young, naïve children are highly impressionable. Their parents teach them one thing, their friends another, and society, yet something else. Fickle, they morph in and out of the plethora of ideologies and mindsets laid out in front of them. This leads to a disorienting and rather confusing child-to-young-adult life, one without a clear sense of morality. The lack of focus upon what is right and wrong, inherently subjective terms, continues into our early adult hood and, for better or worse, seemingly defines the child for the rest of his or her life. This universal theme has been explored for many years through films aptly called “coming-of-age” stories, recently, and perhaps most effectively in Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom (2012). This film revolves around Sam and Suzy, two recently pubescent kids, their romantic affair, and their effects on the world around them. The film not only captures the youthful dynamic between the two protagonists, but explores the “coming-of-age” theme through Anderson’s signature flat perspective and through the actors’ portrayals of these characters.

Peter Shaffer’s psychodrama Equus explores themes such as love, worship, and marriage throughout the text. Dysart’s dialogue with Hesther in scene 18 reveals Dysart’s feeling of entrapment simply on a marital level, whilst also highlighting his perception of Alan as changing his viewpoints on issues. Shaffer's exploration of marriage starts at the beginning of Scene 18, when Hester asks Dysart “Do you understand her?” which Dysart replies with: “No. Obviously I never did”.

It is no surprise that adolescence would be a turbulent time due to the very nature of the biological changes that occur in a young person’s body. Between hormonal and physical changes, cognitive development coupled with sexual maturation it’s no wonder some young people experience high levels of conflict and exhibit acts such as insurrection. Mead’s message regarding the state of adolescence is that although adolescence is an inevitable experience, those changes are more so a consequence of the environment and culture to which one belongs. Mead presents this view when speaking of a “primitive adolescent girl” “Her whole material environment was different…this routine of life which was so different from ours, so her social environment in its attitudes towards children, towards sex, towards personality, presented as strong a contrast to the social

Consciousness can be defined as one’s awareness of their actions, thoughts, or surroundings. It is the ability to understand things beyond our eyes. And what I mean by that is one can see things through their eyes, but consciousness allows one to comprehend it on a deeper level. It leads to how we behave, how we function.