“The Good Smile in a Child’s Eye”: The Threat of Normalization in Peter Shaffer’s Equus The analysis of Equus by Peter Shaffer reveals one challenge facing mankind: the effect maturation has on normalcy. Shaffer states in his novel that, "The Normal is the good smile in a child’s eyes” but also as “the dead stare in a million adults” (Shaffer 62). Maturation plagues the eyes of the youth with the normalcy of adulthood. As aging occurs, desires are stigmatized by normalcy. Alan challenges the ideas of normalcy in creative ways; he finds alternative ways to fulfill his desires. Dysart and Alan act as foils for one another throughout the play, they both desire the other but for very different reasons. Because they both yearn for what the other attains, they create a tension throughout the play. Such tension is balanced by their enchantment in each other’s lives. Dysart throughout the majority of the novel yearns for Alan’s …show more content…
He doubts his professional work; these doubts are demonstrated by his passionless, sterile relationship with his wife. In youth, one is free of the expectation around fertility; normalcy lives in its own separate sphere from societal standards. Yet, in his youth, Dysart's infertility means nothing. He craves his youth because it was a time when Dysart could express his Dionysian side, he had no social cues to conform to because he was simply a child. Learned stigmatization comes with age. Adam and Eve experienced such within their own allusion. It was only when Adam and Eve learned knowledge that they became aware of their shame. The same situation is true with children; it is only through maturation that they become aware of normalcy. Once knowledge is secured, there is no going back, it must be erased from one’s
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.
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.
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
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
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.
Dr. Sandra D. Wilson (2001) asks, “Have you ever felt as if you were the only caterpillar in a butterfly world? Do you often feel as if you have to do twice as much to be half as good as other” (p. 16)? If you answered, yes, then that is what Wilson (2001) calls binding shame. “Shame is the soul-deep belief that something is horribly wrong with me that is not wrong with anyone else in the entire world. If I am bound by shame, I feel hopelessly, distinguishingly different and worthless (p. 16).
Margaret Dysart: the shrink's shrink.” Within this quote, Dysart’s usage of “familiar”, a superlative, after titling her as “the” shows a reference to an object rather than a person – and his description of his wife as a “monster” shows his lack of empathetic understanding with his wife. “Domestic” seems to imply a certain mild mannered tenacity: rather than being an out and out “monster”, Dysart’s view on his wife is perhaps strikingly similar to many people’s depiction of a badly behaved cat – a domestic irritation towards him that is unable to bother him within the workplace. His dislike towards his wife infers to the reader that his work, disturbing though it is to his mental state, is his own relative form of escapism from his everyday life. His use of medical lexis when describing her as having “antiseptic proficiency” also reveals a division.
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
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.
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.
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.
Draft thesis: The ideas of appearance vs reality, development of maturity and love are ideas explored through techniques,
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.
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.
Profoundly interpersonal, the experience of shame is also therefore social and cultural. Shame is the result of feeling deficient, whether in relation to a parent, an admired friend, or a more powerful social group (39).