ordinary ppl

A detailed Summary of ordinary ppl

Ordinary People by Judith Guest is the story of a

dysfunctional family who relate to one another through a series of

extensive defense mechanisms, i.e. an unconscious process whereby

reality is distorted to reduce or prevent anxiety. The book opens

with seventeen year old Conrad, son of upper middle-class Beth and

Calvin Jarrett, home after eight months in a psychiatric hospital,

there because he had attempted suicide by slashing his wrists. His

mother is a meticulously orderly person who, Jared, through

projection, feels despises him. She does all the right things;

attending to Jared's physical needs, keeping a spotless home, plays

golf and bridge with other women in her social circle, but, in her

own words "is an emotional cripple". Jared's father, raised in an

orphanage, seems anxious to please everyone, a commonplace reaction

of individuals who, as children, experienced parental indifference

or inconsistency. Though a successful tax attorney, he is jumpy

around Conrad, and, according to his wife, drinks too many

Conrad seems consumed with despair. A return to normalcy,

school and home-life, appear to be more than Conrad can handle.

Chalk-faced, hair-hacked Conrad seems

study, the attacks on the self are revealed to be unconscious

"She had not cried at the funeral.... She and Conrad had been

me?" Conrad expresses a similar thought in remembering the

their development stage (Erikson), "ego integrity vs. despair".

emotion and denying emotional investment in a thing or person.

also turns his anger on himself and expresses in extreme and

situations in which they behaved selfishly (Conrad held on to the

me? My mother is a very private person." This sort of response

with Conrad, moving closer to him, while his mother goes off on her

Beth, Conrad's mother, is very self-possessed. She appears

Approximate Word count = 1418
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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