ordinary people

Ordinary People Essay “Good literature substitutes for an experience which we, ourselves, have not yet experienced.” Even though you don’t experience things in real life you can still learn from the things you read. I agree with this quote because people don’t have to go through life experiences in order to understand what they read. When you read a book you can learn from it without going through the exact situation as the characters go through. In the book Ordinary People written by Judith Guest you can learn from the characters life experiences without actually going through what they did. Learning life experiences from Ordinary People wasn’t hard. This is a family that has to deal with a loss of a loved one which isn’t easy. As you read the book you are able to connect with what the characters are going through without actually going through what they are. For example, Conrad feels like his mother blames him for his brother, Buck’s death. Beth still makes Conrad his favorite breakfast and still buys him new shirts, yet she is a lot more distant with him. Beth makes anything that happens with Conrad to seem like she is the victim. She blames him and says, “Why do you do this to me?” as if he does it just to hurt her. In many times parents will try to put the blame on the child just to make it seem as if they are the victim. In reading this you can kind of connect and feel for Conrad because he isn’t trying to intentionally hurt his mother but she just keeps blaming him. Another example is when Conrad is talking to Burger, telling him that he wants to be in control. Being more in control is not an easy thing for anyone and Burger says he is not a fan of being in control. You can see how much Conrad is struggling with being in control and wanting it. He is having a hard time accepting that the death of his brother was not his fault. As you read the book you can tell how much Conrad struggles even though, personally, you may not