Walden Two

A detailed Summary of Walden Two

Walden Two was an imaginative book that created a world set aside from the real world that we know. The society was based on many of the theories of B.F. Skinner himself. It is believed that Skinner placed himself in the character of Professor Burris, a university professor who was in graduate school with T.E. Frazier. Throughout the novel, he exercises caution and common sense and represents a middle point between Frazier's radical position and Castle's reactionary one.

It is felt that the novel was written for Skinner's own reasons. That he is writing the book to see the pro's and the con's of trying to form a perfect utopia. Since most of the book was written in the form of dialog, this helps Skinner lay out the reasons for each side. Many of his theories seem applicable. He describes many of the theories in great detail, and with much reason for each. Although Castle does not agree with almost any of the theories, often times ridiculing and manipulating Frazier, making Castle seem like the con side.

Skinner has an entire community at his disposal. Although Frazier does not realize it, he is a dictator. Playing God and not even realizing it. Yet, he seems to be playing a thoughtful and intelligent God at that. Th

way, no one get hurt mentally or physically. The civilians of Walden Two are taught not to feel many "bad" emotions, supposedly making them always happy. But there might be one flaw in that, since the person is always happy, they will never feel any other emotions, so they will not really know what happiness is since they feel it all the time and not any other emotions. They inhabitants are also taught not to feel many other emotions, such as jealousy. This greatly effects the outcomes of the community, making the community seem virtually fight free. Jealousy is probably the number one reason why people fight, so if the jealousy factor is removed completely, people can live in a risk feel environment.

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The schools did not have set criteria such like the schools of today. The student found his or her talent or gift and then excelled in that field with the aid of the "teacher." The student had the option of whether or not they wanted to learn anything else. Of course the student still learned how to speak correctly and all of the other needs, but what

Even though I stated before that almost all of the theories seemed ethical, there was one thing that might not be, the starving and taunting of the young children. I can only think of how hard it would be to sit in front of a bowl of hot soup, after walking around all day, and being exhausted and tired, only to have to wait five more minutes before you can actually eat the food that sits waiting in front of you. This process would increase the patience of the child a great deal but putting him or her through that torture is just terrible to think about. Not

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Approximate Word count = 1141
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels