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A Great Change
Old Historical Criticism Essay
Courtney Stiefvater
May 17, 2013
The 1970s was a period of continued change and growth for the United States. Minority groups continued to fight for equal treatment and the United States continued to play a part in world affairs. Many books written in this decade were written and interpreted differently. Most of them were about the Vietnam War but people didn’t want to read about it because they didn’t want to experience it again. So authors like Judith Guest wrote about other things like teen suicide. Some would interpret the book as having nothing to do with a certain person or group but the way I believed it was about the United States society and its struggles through the Vietnam War and post-war. These struggles contributed to the changing of society and the way they deal with it. Teen suicide ties in with this because they go through the same subconscious thought as the 1970’s society’s.
In Judith Guest's Ordinary People, Conrad and Calvin Jarrett go through the struggles of their lives. Conrad is the son of Calvin and Beth. Conrad was involved in a boating accident with his brother, Buck, which left Buck dead. A year later, Conrad tried to commit suicide but failed. He was forced to spend time in a hospital. At the beginning of the novel, he has been out of the hospital for a month. He is trying to get his life back on track but has no motivation and feels little purpose in life. He then begins to see Dr. Berger to help him recover from the traumatic event. Conrad begins a steady relationship with Jeannine Pratt and rebuilds some of his old friendships.
Calvin is the father of Conrad. He blames himself for most of the negative things that occur in his family. He is married to Beth, who just wants to move on from the past event that happened and not dwell on it. This attitude conflicts with Calvin, who thinks that the family needs to talk about the past. This drives a wedge between them and eventually Beth leaves.
In this novel, a major theme that runs throughout is the importance of communication. Conrad and Calvin go through this in different ways. Conrad was able to realize he no longer has self-control and heals himself by having a particular session with Dr. Berger after learning that his friend Karen from the hospital had committed suicide. Conrad was scared that he would end up like Karen and kill himself. So when he went to his therapy session, Dr. Berger helped him.
“‘Ah, God, I don’t know. I don’t know, it just keeps coming, I can’t make it stop!’
‘Don’t, then.’
‘I can’t! I can’t get the through this! It’s all hanging over my head!’
‘What’s hanging over your head?’
‘I don’t know!’ He looks up, dazed, drawing a deep breath. ‘I need something, I want something---I want to get off the hook!’
‘For What?’
He begins to cry again. ‘For killing him, don’t you know that? For letting him drown!’” (Guest 205,206)
Dr. Berger helped Conrad release the thoughts he was holding on to. Throughout their conversation, Conrad kept blaming himself, even after Dr. Berger told him all the logical reasons as to why he didn’t kill his brother, Buck. “‘You were on opposite sides of the boat...And he was a better swimmer than you. He was stronger, he had more endurance.’” (Guest 206) Eventually Conrad realizes that he shouldn’t feel guilty at what happened. So when he does realize this, he becomes closer with Jeannine. Conrad formed a close relationship with Jeannine Pratt throughout his therapy. She was new to the school this year and didn’t know what happened to Conrad the year before. But she eventually finds out. One night after the therapy session Conrad released his thoughts about the accident, he was with Jeannine and her brother, Mike. They end up going to her room towards the end of the night. Later on, Jeannine tells Conrad about why she moved here. After she told him about the boy, she asked him about his suicide attempt;
“She turns his arm up. The fingertips of her other hand brush lightly against the scar on his wrist.
‘Did it hurt?’
‘No,’ he says. ‘I don’t think so. I don’t remember.’
‘Would you rather not talk about it?’
‘I don’t know. I’ve never talked about it. To doctors, but not to anyone else.’” (Guest 231).
He then is able to open himself up to her and talk about things that he does not speak to anyone else about. He talks about why he did it and that he doesn’t feel the same way he did when he decided to kill himself. This communication allows him to get back into the “ordinary” life he once had. Throughout the novel, Calvin and Beth have obvious communication problems, especially regarding the overwhelming issues in their family. Calvin tries to help Conrad adjust after being hospitalized, however, Beth wants to move past and forget it ever happened. She believes that Calvin should stop apologizing to Conrad. Having lost the ability to communicate with each other because of the completely different opinions they have over what they should do, their relationship came to a halt. Beth abruptly leaves Calvin and Conrad. Calvin eventually informs Conrad about this and ultimately brings father and son back together. This relationship was one of the main ways Guest wrote this novel. “Working through the mind of Conrad, I had the feeling that the story written solely from his point of view would soon become whiny and self-serving. He needed someone to help him, someone who could bring a degree of maturity and insight to the problems. I chose his father...”(Guest). Guest needed another viewpoint to add to Conrad’s and eventually it led to Calvin having a life of his own that was separate from that of his son’s. Guest does this in a phenomenal way by adding the theme of communication to Calvin’s marriage.
Another major theme in this novel is healing. Guest shows healing of her characters in different ways. At first Conrad did not know what his purpose was in life when he came home from the hospital. He had not sense of direction coming from a place where there was an everyday routine planned out for him. He didn’t have to think. Once he came home, he tried going back to his old routine of going to school, swimming, old friends; but he was unable to. Then Conrad starts seeing Dr. Berger twice a week. This conflicts with his swimming but eventually Conrad decides to quit swimming. Dr. Berger helps guide Conrad to talk about what has happened. He eventually starts to focus on school and his work. The conflicts with his mother continue to grow but not resolved. He patches up the relationship with his father and in the end; Conrad learns that he cannot replace his dead brother. He can only be himself and is prepared for whatever might come. Along with this, Calvin and Beth’s relationship is trying to go throw a healing process of its own but their conflicted opinions get the better of it all and the healing inevitably fails. Beth leaves to go to Europe but a divorce is never talked about. Throughout the book, Conrad talks about his good friend, Lazenby. Lazenby was really close with Conrad before Conrad went to the hospital. But once he came back to school, he wasn’t the same; Con had quit swimming and didn’t want to talk or associate with anyone. After one of the swim meets, Conrad started a fight with one of his other friends, Stillman. When Conrad went back to his car, Lazenby joined him and they talked for a short time. Conrad suggests that they should talk and they do. “’Laze,’ he says, ‘we’re still friends.’ ‘Are we?’ Lazenby’s voice is flat, strained. ‘Look, I don’t know why you want to be alone in this, but I wouldn’t shit you, man, I miss him, too.’” (Guest 168) They ended saying their goodbyes but still feels like they aren’t as close. But by the end of the book, Conrad realizes that he needs his friends to be with him. So he goes over to Lazenby’s house and they end up resolving their friendship like nothing happened.
These themes are supported by how Guest writes this book. She has someone lose pretty much everything and forces them to climb back up to their former selves and shows that people can be themselves again. With life problems, we are ordinary people.
The 70’s were an extremely interesting time period. Filled with crisis, new technology, and great entertainment. The timely events of the 60’s, including war and the changing society, seemed certain to continue in the 70’s. Many of the 60’s ideas gained wider acceptance in this new decade. A presidential impeachment and the ending of a war impacted American life and culture. Advances in civil rights, women’s movements, space exploration, and the growing disappointment in the government were major trends throughout the decade. By the end of the decade, people changed from the beginning of the decade.
Before June 17, 1972, all everyone knew about the word “Watergate” was nothing more than an office and a nice apartment complex in Washington, D.C. As a result of a burglary, it came to be known as where the greatest political scandal occurred. It would greatly impact the life of President Richard Nixon. One night, a security guard at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., discovered a piece of tape on the lock of the door that led to the Democratic National Committee. This foiled break-in attempt at the Watergate scandal was part of a larger campaign by Nixon supporters to tarnish the reputation of Democratic candidates and the Democratic Party. Democratic candidates were harassed, subject to negative campaign ads, and on two separate occasions the National Democratic Headquarters were broken into. As soon as the attempted break-in at Watergate Hotel scandal became known, president Richard Nixon ordered the entire affair covered up. It became clear that the Nixon presidency had been involved in serious manipulation and abuses of power for years. Millions of dollars coming from Nixon supporters were used to pay for the cover-up in an attempt to hide the truth from Congress and the American people. The investigation into Watergate scandal revealed that Nixon knew about the break-in from the beginning and that he was involved in the cover-up as it progressed. In the early stages of the Watergate scandal almost all of the media reported the break-in as a minor story with little national significance. This was until two young reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward who were working for the Washington Post began to dig deeper into the mystery. Woodward and Bernstein uncovered one of the significant stories of the twentieth century. They became the catalyst in forcing the first presidential resignation in American history. As the Watergate scandal investigation began, testimony revealed that there was a taping system that was installed to record conversations in the Oval Office, Camp David, the Cabinet rooms, and Nixon's hideaway office. Nixon argued that the tapes contained only private conversations between the president and his advisors. The Supreme Court did not agree. The court ordered the president to release the tapes. The Nixon tapes were released in the 1970s and contained 18 minutes of silence that have never been explained. All Nixon wanted was to gain an advantage and win the election but because of the Watergate Scandal, he didn’t get to. “…Nixon had sought to build a legacy for himself based on historic achievements in foreign policy. Over the years he built up an idealized image of himself as a Great Man of History…His deed, he imagined, would shape the destiny of nations, bring about peace, and redound to his glory. It was not to be.”(Logevall 45). In mid-1974, the House of Representatives approved the articles of impeachment against President Nixon.
The Vietnam War was a very costly war. It not only affected those in battle, but it left behind long-term problems for the United States. The Vietnam War affected the United States more negatively than it did positively. Due to the major need for supplies, weapons, and equipment for the war, factories that were usually used for the making of consumer goods and services were converted to make all these necessities. Even though it helped people in need for jobs during the war, it was useless at the end. There was no more need for the supplies and weapons for the war. The factories that were left empty after the conversion did nothing but decline the shopping rates of consumer goods, thus hurting the United States economy. The Vietnam War was very expensive for the United States. Much of the United States’ money went to aiding the war. Because of this, the American dollar became weak, and during this time, inflation increased. The massive spending and climbing interest rates did nothing but hurt the United States economy. Another effect in the 70’s was the energy shortage that impacted the United States economy. There were several events that brought about the energy crisis and one of them was the dramatic rise in energy consumption. The United States, in proportion to its population, was consuming a huge percentage of the world’s energy. At the same time, oil production declined leading to the country to depend on foreign oil. In 1973, the United States was placed under an OPEC embargo, which was created in the 1960 to unify and protect the interests of oil-producing countries. One of the most immediate effects of the embargo was a dramatically increasing energy price as a result to the limited supply and high demand.
The protesting of war and civil rights in the 70’s were becoming a big deal but the women were quickly getting tired of the discrimination that was brought upon them in these protest groups. Even when Congress passed several civil rights laws in the 60’s to end job discrimination based on gender, race, religion, and nationality: employers still ignored it. “Few women were able to find jobs other than as teachers, nurses, maids, and secretaries. Those who did earned only fifty-nine cents for every dollar similarly qualified men made at the same jobs.” (Richards 60,61). Employers didn’t want women to take the jobs that white men, who seemed better fit to do the work, could do. They felt that women were inferior to them and discriminated them because of that. Society still undervalued women. So the women decided to fight back. A dramatic transition from the late 1960’s to early 1970’s had occurred and one of them was women’s liberation. “[Late 1960’s] The Women’s Movement has virtually no impact on youth values and attitudes. [Late 1970’s] Wide and deep penetration of Women’s Liberation precepts is underway.”(Segall 120) Women wanted change and the youth were willing to help and change. There were several occurrences in the 1970’s that supported this. The National Organization for Women (NOW) celebrated its fiftieth anniversary of woman suffrage in 1970. Their way of celebrating was a Women’s Strike for Equality. Fifty thousand women (Richards 62) marched in New York City and another 100,000 held rallies in 42 other states. On college campuses, there were “Take Back the Night Vigils”(Richards 62) that protested sexual violence against women. In 1970, Kent State University went from being an unknown college campus to a university at which four students were shot and killed while protesting the United States’ invasion of Cambodia. This was caused by the Ohio National Guardsmen suddenly firing their rifles and pistols in “self defense” because other students were provoked by the speeches of the people expressing their own opinions about the invasion so they started throwing objects at them. College campuses around the United States have students who do express their idea either for or against the government or of other concerns they might have about their world.