The Sad Truth About Alienation - Literature review Example

Yim David Yim Kina Cavicchioli English 1129 July 13th, 2009 The Sad Truth About Alienation What does alienation mean? According to the Britannica Online Encyclopedia the most common forms of alienation are: “the feeling that one’s destiny is not under one’s own control but is determined by external agents, [such as] fate, the lack of commitment to shared social conventions, which leads to distrust [and] the individual is out of touch [with everyone around him/her]”. While it is true that there are many variants of the term alienation, one of the most well known variant of alienation is the isolation of oneself from society. In J.B. Priestleys An Inspector Calls and Mark Haddons The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nigh-Time, both texts reveal alienation within some of the characters; however Priestleys play only reveals the onset of alienation of the characters because of Mr. and Mrs. Birling conforming to the social norm of the era, while Haddons Christopher Boone faces alienation because he sees the world differently than most people. Priestley portrays both Mr. and Mrs. Birling with typical characteristics of the upper class people in the early twentieth-century of English society which leads to the onset of alienation. Mr. and Mrs. Birling actions contradict with the term alienation from the Britannica Online Encyclopedia because they conform to the social norms of that time. Mr. Birling believes that ones destiny is under ones own control. Mr. Birling also believes that “a man has to make his own way---has to look after himself...and so long as he does that he wont come to much harm” (299). This suggests that Mr. Birling is a man who believes that everyone only needs to look after themselves and ignore what is going in society, which was a common belief of the upper class during that time. Mr. Birling fail to realize that he is living in a society where everyone’s actions towards each other can have a negative influence towards other people, so he is unconsciously closing himself from the rest of society. He believes that everyone should look after himself, thus the same can be said for the way Mr. Birling views the lower class people because he does not seem to care at all about the hardships of the laborers due to his belief that everything is in place and nothing needs to be done. Such mentality was common for the upper class people at the time who believed in the status quo. To Mr. Birling the labor strike is nothing more than “silly talk” from the workers: “Last month, just because the miners came out on strike, theres a lot of wild talk about possible labor trouble in the near future. Dont worry” (297).This suggests that he does not care about the hardships faced by the working class people, which was common for people of the upper class during that time. Mr. Birling does not take the laborers seriously at all. People of the upper class were also selfish. Priestley portrays Mr. Birling as being selfish: “We employers [Mr. Birling] at last are coming together to see that our interest---and the interests of Capital---are properly protected” (297). The “interest of capital” is the most important thing to most of the people of the upper class and they do not care about the well-being / interest of other people beyond their own family. Mrs. Birling also portrays characteristics of the upper class as she discriminates against the lower class people: “I dont suppose for a moment that we can understand why the girl committed suicide. Girls of that class--” (316). Mrs. Birling does not sympathize with Evas death because she believes it is impossible to understand “girls of that class”. As a member of the upper class Mrs. Birling believes that she is somehow superior to others, where as the lower class citizens are inferior creatures. This kind of attitude is what leads to an onset of alienation between Mr. and Mrs. Birling from the rest of society. Ironically they do not even know that they are alienating themselves from society due to the fact that they are unconsciously alienating themselves from society/lower class people because of the social norm of the upper class during the early twentieth-century. The social conventions of that time also led to alienation from ones own family members. During the beginning of the play, both Mr. and Mrs. Birling believed that they understand their son, Eric, however after the inspector left the house they finally realize that their family was dysfunctional and that they have been alienated from their son for all these times. “When Eric goes for a whisky his whole manner of handling the decanter and then the drink shows his familiarity with quick heavy drinking. The others watch him narrowly” (333). The fact that the Birlings are outrageously shocked at how Eric is so familiar with handling alcohol reveals that the Birlings have little understanding towards Eric. They never knew that Eric was a heavy drinker as Mr. Birling commented that “[he] understand[s] a lot of things now [he] didnt understand before” (333). The reason why Mr. and Mrs. Birling are so blinded is because they fail to understand the problems that are present to them. In other words, they believe that everything is going well and they do not tackle any problems within the family because they arrogantly believe that everything is fine just the way it is. Also their arrogant behavior derives from their status as upper class citizens of society: “Sheila:...We really must stop these silly pretences. This isnt the time to pretend that Eric isnt used to drink. Hes been steadily drinking for the past two years... Mrs. Birling: It isnt true” (318). This suggests that Mrs. Birling is unwilling to face the truth because she believes her son is perfect, thus she is unable to tacke the problem. This leads to an onset of alienation between the Birling family. Mrs. Birling is surprised about Erics drinking problem as she describes that “It [Erics drinking problem] isnt true. You know him, Gerald---and youre a man---you must know it isnt true” (318). Even an outsider like Gerald could realize that Eric is a heavy drinker: “Im afraid it is yknow. Actually Ive never seen much of him outside this house—but—well, I have gathered that he does drink pretty hard” (318). Ironically, Mrs. Birling had thought that she understands her son a lot, but it turns out to be the opposite. Eric commented that his mother “[does not] understand anything. [She] never did. [She] never even tried” (336). This reveals that Mrs. Birling was arrogantly assuming that she understands a lot of things before. Due to her arrogant nature she believes that everything is in place. She has been unconsciously building a barrier between herself and Eric. Eric also comments on his father, Mr. Birling as: “not the kind of father a chap could go to when hes in trouble” (335). Mr. Birling was also unconsciously building a barrier between himself and Eric. As a result Mr. Birling became unreachable for Eric during the time when Eric needed his help the most. The fact that Eric could not go to his father for help suggests dysfunction within the Birling family, which ultimately leads to the alienation between parents and son. This onset of alienation between Mr / Mrs. Birling and Eric derives from their behavior as upper class citizens of society, which means they were too blinded from their arrogance by believing that everything is fine they way it is. Their attitude causes them to miss the problems arising within their family and it also creates an onset of alienation both in society and in their family. In The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, the author Haddon reveals the theme of alienation through the eyes of the protagonist, Christopher Boone. One of the reasons why Christopher is alienated from society is because he sees the world differently than most people. To Christopher people around him are full of ambiguity because he has a hard time interpreting other people’s facial expressions: “It was very difficult to decide which of the diagrams was most like the face they were making because peoples faces move very quickly” (3). Part of the reason why Christopher has trouble reading other peoples facial expression is because he has Asperger syndrome. However, unlike Mr. and Mrs. Birling, Christopher is conscious about his alienation from society and he tries hard to remedy this by carefully studying other peoples body language by getting Siobhan to draw facial diagrams: “I got Siobhan to draw lots of these faces and then write down next to them exactly what they meant” (3). Christopher always ask Siobhan for help whenever he has trouble coping with society, but Mr. and Mrs Birling does not seek help from anyone because they blindly and unconsciously believe that everything is going well. Christopher understands the problem he has and he puts in a lot of effort to change this: “I used to have lots of Behavioral Problems, but I dont have so many now because Im grown up” (46). This suggests that as he grows older he begins to understand more about his problems. As a consequence he tries hard to fix this. It is also true that his alienation derives from the social norm he is pressured by because of his honesty. He has trouble understanding what other people demand from him and what society expects from him. He says: “People say that you always have to tell the truth. But they do not mean this because you are not allowed to tell people that they are old” (46-47). One may argue that he is alienated from society because he is simply too pure for this world. Society fails to recognize his logical view of the world; nonetheless, Christophers alienation from society can be viewed as positive while the Birling family is associated with a negative aspect of alienation. Works Cited Page Encyclopedia Britannica. 2009. “Alienation.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 15 Jul. 2009. Haddon, M. 2003. The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time. Anchor Canada. Priestley, J.B. 2009. An Inspector Calls. Vancouver: Langara Courseware. Read More