The Role Of Manipulating Behavior In Gillian Flynn's 'Gone Girl'

“Works of literature often depict acts of betrayal. Friends and even family may betray a protagonist; main character may likewise be guilty of treachery of may betray their own values.”

Flannery O’Connor introduces her reader’s too unique short stories. They are “Good Country People” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, having too similar characters in different setting, but with the same symbolic meaning. The comparison between Hugla from “Good Country People” to the grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard to find” is interesting, because they both suffer the same fate. In every short story O’Connor has created a intellectual individual who comes to a realization that their beliefs in there ability to control their lives and the lives of other are false. They enviably become the vulnerable, whereas they assumed it would be different. O’Connor has placed two misguide characters, that deem themselves to be manipulative and compulsive. At the end up of each short story they become vulnerable. Hugla from “Good Country People” and the grandmother from “A Good

In Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, the nurse Miss Ratched is a fine example of a realistic fictional villain. Possession of three key components is essential in identifying what makes Miss Ratched a villian. Motive is what drives the villain to commit the very acts that allow them to be considered evil in the first place, and often drive their entire being as a character. While they must possess motive, they must also have a sense of morals that coincides with their motives (typically evil, or distorted) and follow their moral compass in a way that often causes trouble for those around them. Additionally, a villain is frequently associated with their opposite; the hero who combats them. Kesey’s character perfectly aligns with these three categories of what makes a villain, and it is unquestionable that she is the villain of the novel.

The main recurring theme in Flannery O’Connor’s stories is the use of violence towards characters in order to give them an eye-opening moment in which they finally realize their true self in relation to the rest of society and openly accept insight into how they should act or think. This theme of violence can clearly be seen in three works by Flannery O’Connor: A Good Man is Hard to Find, Good Country People, and Everything That Rises Must Converge.

In the story, “Where are you Going, Where Have you Been?” the author, Joyce Carol Oates, uses literary devices to convey a message about the loss of innocence. To be more specific, Oates’s characterization of the protagonist, Connie, specifically shows the actions leading to her innocence being taken from her. The literary device of characterization gives a clear picture Oates thoughts at the time she wrote the story, expressing concern for young girls who are at risk of having their innocence taken from them.

Daisy puts up with her husband’s infidelity because of the benefits he provides, his background, his “old money”, and his reputation. When I talk to Daisy she’s always quite cheerful and peppy, but there are moments when I see how sad and lonely she is, “'All right,' I said, 'I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool – that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool… you see I think everything’s terrible anyhow… I’ve been everywhere and seen everything.” (17) In a society corrupted by greed and scandal, the best thing that one can hope for is to be too stupid to realize what’s actually going on and therefore not get hurt.

Literature is the window to realizing the negatives of society and how destructive certain norms can be. Readers are brought into a completely different story than their own, but by using similar issues in today’s world, the readers can actually learn from the story and its overall message. All writers write for a purpose, whether it’s for a new meaning to life, to live a different life than our own, or to impact others on an emotional level by teaching them to see the importance of the little things. As a reader, you search for pieces of literature that interest you whether you find the story like your own, or wish you lived the life in the story. By using issues in today’s within their works, authors are able to grab the reader's attention long enough for them to get across what they wanted to get across. Often in many works of literature, writers use societal issues as their basis for the work’s themes and symbols. By doing so, this allows the reader to question the morality behind social norms and how impactful certain ideals can be in people’s lives.

“A&P” and “Girl” both symbolized the protagonists’ oppression by an older, more experienced generation. However, Kincaid’s “Girl” was artistic with an undercurrent of selfless love and hope while Updike’s “A&P” was uninspiring with selfishness and lust. The protagonist of “Girl” discouraged her daughter’s dreams out of love. The protagonist of “A & P” encouraged the antagonists’ out of a selfish desire for self-promotion.

Achieving control is the main motive behind Adela Strangeworth and Emily Grierson’s subconscious’. Yet each woman sought control in extremely different ways. Adela sought to prevent her whole town from committing possible acts of evil. She disguised herself by writing letters anonymously, this gives her the freedom to be unknown, yet still maintain her control over her little town. Emily Grierson’s situation was different. She sought control over her own life, which her town had denied her of. They starved her of her only love, Homer Barron. The town felt that it was improper of noblesse oblige to be engaged to

People are capable of doing crazy things! Nora, in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, loved her husband so much that she committed forgery just for the sake of his wellbeing. Susan Glaspell’s character in Trifles, Mrs. Wright, murders her husband after she discovers that he killed the one most precious thing to her, her pet bird. It was out of love that these women committed illegal crimes. Nora wanted her husband to be healthy because she loved him and knew that without his salary coming in, their home would fall apart. In contrast, Mrs. Wright wanted her husband dead. He was responsible for taking the life of the only company she had for many years. Mrs. Wright loved her pet bird more than she

Miss Strangeworth All humans have the capability to be evil. Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Possibility of Evil” is an excellent example of how differently people act or think when behind closed doors. Miss Strangeworth is a nice old lady in public, but when in the privacy of her own she is a mean and cruel being. Miss Strangeworth’s character can be analyzed by considering what she says, what the narrator say about her, and how the other characters interact with her.

Amy Elliot Dunne: beautiful, funny and cool, the perfect “it” girl, or so she led us to believe. Throughout the novel, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, readers peel back the layers of Amy’s character and realize she is nothing but insecure, vengeful and most importantly, incredibly manipulative as she toys with the emotions of virtually every person she comes in contact with and alters her personality to perfectly fit into their lives. It would be very easy for someone to read this book and walk away with the stereotype that women by nature are manipulative people, especially following Amy’s lead by not being truthful regarding their personalities, looks, likes, dislikes and so on, but that is one of the many messages the author is trying to convey. In our society, women are under an incredible amount of pressure to be perfect and to be liked by everyone. The amplification of this stereotype should have readers acknowledging the stress placed on women to please

Flynn breaks down the types of violence present throughout the novel: domestic, sexual and patriarchal (or male dominance). Like combining the grotesque and violence into a text, two of the subtopics of violence (patriarchal and domestic) happen at the same time, which Flynn clearly presents in Gone Girl. Prior to Amy’s disappearance, the factor that lead to domestic and patriarchal violence is the economic downfall in which Nick calls “The Missouri Grievance” (Flynn, 4) as he “Blame[s] the economy” (4) and lost his mother to cancer. As Amy transitioned from the “Cool Girl” (Flynn, 222) to the “standard girl,” (223) this also causes Nick to lose his perception of manhood based on Amy’s role as a wife. Furthermore, the marital conflict occurs without

* It shows how deranged the protagonist's nature has become, who goes so far as to poison her rival in love

Control of Human Behaviour from within the Unconscious Mind, with reference to Freud’s Theory of Personality and Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl