Idealism In W. D. Valgardson's The Novice

In the novelette, “Anthem”, by Ayn Rand, a young boy grows up in a communist society. He is told daily how to act and think collectively. If these restrictions are not obeyed, he is punished by authorities and put into jail. As the young boy, Equality 7-2521, grows up, he discovers the Uncharted Forest, a place of freedom. Although entering is not permitted, he journey’s the forest and comes across a book in an abandoned house. From the book, he reads the words “I am. I think. I will.” These significant words allow him to realize things he has never realized before, and change his whole perception on life.

"But my hope is to write a book that will be useful . . . and so I thought it sensible to go straight to a discussion of how things are in real life and not waste time with a discussion of an imaginary world; for the gap between how people actually behave and how they ought to behave is so great that anyone who ignores everyday reality in order to live up to an ideal will soon discover he has been taught how to destroy himself, not preserve himself."

Prompt: Write an essay that defends or challenges or qualifies Gladwell’s assertion that “if you work hard enough and assert yourself, and you use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires” (Gladwell 151).

“The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane is a short story included in The Norton Introduction to Literature. In it, we embark on the journey of four men, whose ship has sunk and are now adrift. The characters fight for survival throughout the whole tale, trying to withstand nature. As the story passes, they realize that nature is indifferent and uncaring. Moreover, they begin to question the existence of God. Ultimately, three of the men survive and one of them dies. Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat” shows the struggle of men attempting to understand nature and desiring to survive against this invincible and indifferent force. I will analyze literary elements of character, plot, and symbol, using Literary Naturalism to demonstrate this constant conflict between man and nature that plays out in “The Open Boat.”

Ayn Rand, in her 1938 novella “Anthem”, depicts a young man living in a future in which people have lost all knowledge of individualism. Rand creates an underlying warning throughout to those who believe that collectivist societies can ever be successful. She believes that losing sight of individuality will lead to the destruction of all progress. Through a tone of collectivism without individualism, Rand attempts to place emphasis on her beliefs.

In most of Flannery O’Connor’s short stories a number of characters have a hard time seeing an ultimate reality in their life. They tend to have a distorted grasp on reality but not all in the same way. In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the Misfit and the Grandmother are prime examples. The actions and the way of life of the Misfit and Grandmother are mostly due to the fact that they are living in an false reality where they are in their own little world, where in the Misfit’s world everything goes with no worry of repercussion in the Grandmother’s case she can do no wrong because she has a false perception of what is right.

Idealism and truth are both significant elements of a person’s life, although idealism can often make it difficult to see what is actually true. In The Novice, the protagonist gets caught up in idealism by glamorizing his boat the Sally Anne, which skews his perception of the truth. Readers of W.D. Valgardson’s The Novice should understand that individuals often idealize their material possessions, and that such behavior is often caused by isolation, which is likely to result in consequences such as the inability to face the truth.

In “The Open Boat”, four sailors survive their ship being wrecked and must continually fight to find land and to stay

The men came to the conclusion that “fate” must be the reason that they are experiencing this deathly situation. It is the understanding of this fact that brings the men to the edge of their misery. At this point the men feel like their lives are coming to an end, so much so that they even ask the captain if they have a chance at survival, to which the captain replies "If this wind holds and the boat don't swamp, we can't do much else." This quote shows the uselessness that the men feel, but it also makes apparent there is still a possibility of hope.

Outside forces do not have any long-lasting influence on how someone perceives themself. This is a notion that some individuals may choose to believe. However, through the events of one story, we come to realize that the prior statement is false. The nameless protagonist of Boys and Girls (1964) showed that as people, we can be created as somebody other than ourselves at our core because we fall back on the opinions of people whose views we regard too highly. Canadian author Alice Munro’s short story displays how an individual’s identity and realization of self is molded by the prominent role adversity plays throughout the course of their life because the contrasting values and ideologies of those around them conflict with their own moral compass.

The Open Boat, written by Stephen Crane is discusses the journey of four survivors that were involved in a ship wreck. The oiler, the cook, the captain, and the correspondent are the survivors that make onto a dingey and struggle to survive the roaring waves of the ocean. They happen to come across land after being stranded in the ocean for two days and start to feel a sense of hope that they would be rescued anytime soon. They began feeling down as they realize nobody was going to rescue them and make an attempt to reach shore. The story discusses an external conflict of man vs nature to help state clearly the central idea. The central idea of the story conveys man’s success against nature when ones’ abilities are combined together to increase the chances of survival. The use of 3rd person limited omniscience and character analysis helps to explain how the journey of the men’s survival to get out of the ocean and reach shore is able to succeed while Stephen Crane uses symbolism to demonstrate the unity created amongst the survivors.

They are so consumed with their struggle against the waves they do not even have the time to notice something as simple as the color of the sky. From the very beginning the reader is filled with the suspense that each individual character feels. Despite the crews struggle with Mother Nature, they are continually struck by the fierce waves. With each passing wave the reader is lead to believe that this one will surely be the one that capsizes the little dingy. “As the salty wall of water approached, it shut all else from the view of the men in the boat, and was not difficult to imagine that this particular wave was the final outburst of the ocean (256).” Crane creates suspense between the reader and the characters that allow both to feel the relentlessness of nature’s indifference of their struggled attempts to survive. It seems that no matter how hard the crew works to keep the dingy from capsizing “… the waves continued their old impetuous swooping at the dingy, and the little craft, no longer underway struggled woundily over them (259).” The narrator describes the waves as acting carefree and rather impulsive as if they had no obligation to the men for their survival. Nature does not care that this crew of men were working to survive, but nor does it mean to cause the men any harm. The waves are merely there, doing as nature intends the waves

  The books Brave New World by Aldus Huxley and Anthem by Ayn Rand are both valuable twentieth-century contributions to literature. Both books explore the presence of natural law in man and propose a warning for what could happen when man's sense of right and wrong is taken from him. In this essay, I hope to show how these seemingly unrelated novels both expound upon a single, very profound, idea.

In the book, Robert Walton’s pride and confidence is seen in how he views himself, the expectations he has of his journey, and the sacrifices he is willing to make. Walton believes he is superior to all on his ship and claims he will not find a friend onboard. He calls his crew “uneducated”

Erikson’s stage that I am choosing to explore is the sixth stage, known as intimacy vs isolation. This is the stage when young people learn to make personal commitment to another spouse, parent, or partner. Throughout this stage, one also tends to seek love. One starts to wonder whether he or she will be loved or will he or she be alone. Ideally, this relates to my own personal life because recently, I tried to pursue a relationship with someone who did not have interest me. These feelings developed based off my interpretation of love. When I venture out to find love, I look for someone who offers me happiness. As a result of my own beliefs, I thought this person liked me back. Little did I know, I was totally wrong. This accusation resulted in me creating