John Lydon with Keith and Kent Zimmerman, Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, - Essay Example

The Only thing permanent: Change Introduction According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, change is something that means to make something different—to alter, transform, or give off a different direction in the situation (“change” def.1). Centered around the book Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs by John Lydon, Keith Zimmerman, and Kent Zimmerman, change is one of the topics one can easily spot as a theme. As the plot develops, we get to see the protagonist, John Lydon go through different changes in his experiences of life.

As he narrates, he shows readers the changes around him. Through his narration, one can be lead to think that change is not the end of a phase but a transcendent—an evolution to a person’s present state. No one goes through it alone; each individual goes through it.Change in Impression In reading the part of the book where he first met Nora, John mentions the initial impression he had towards her:.The first time we met Nora, we hated each other on first sight. I loved her image because she wears forties clothing.

Nora doesn’t follow fashion. She has her own thing. She was warned…(198)What happened between him and Nora is one example of change. It proved that first impressions towards another person tend to last but in the end it does not stay that way for long. In this instance, it was not only John who experiences the change but also Nora. Impressions we have for people are not a permanent thing. In their acquaintance, time passed and they got to know each other better—and eventually, fell in love.

Change in Environment John was exposed to a lot of places as he was growing up. When he was younger, he was torn between Ireland, where his parents were born, and the city he grew up in, London. During the six-eight week vacation in his parent’s place of origin, he would find it boring during the stay there:…Ireland is not my kind of place to be. It’s all right when you want to get drunk. You wake up, and there’s nothing to do. That’s not very purposeful. I could never be willful on a farm.(8)He knew that he could not live a life in the country due to the change he experienced early in his life; living in London.

That specific change early in his life has made him into a man who was sure of what he wanted. Conclusion Change is not limited to the environment or impression alone. Change comes in different forms. Change may come naturally or unnaturally; forced or not forced. Nonetheless, human beings behave like water—they can be as hot as steam in a minute then cold as ice in the next. The possibilities are near limitless as to how flexible a human being can become, but unlike water, humans have a mind that can think and decide if he would adapt to the change or not.

A decision needs to be made whether to turn into steam or ice. That task falls onto the individual himself.Works Cited"change." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster Online, n.d. Web. 18June 2010. .Lydon, Joan, Keith Zimmerman, and Kent Zimmerman. Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs. USA: St. Martin’s Press, 1994. Print.