Death Penalty and Euthanasia - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 9 Words: 2701 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2019/02/06 Category Medicine Essay Level High school Tags: Euthanasia Essay Did you like this example? The two controversial topics that have grasped people’s attention are euthanasia and death penalization. The subject itself has roots that have been developed from the beginning of humankind. It is interesting to learn about this subject of matter because it may be useful to know in certain situations. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Death Penalty and Euthanasia" essay for you Create order Also, learning if there is a right or wrong in such actions will provide more perspectives on this matter. The decision of whether a person should live or die depends on the state laws. There are both rivals and followers of the subject. However, no matter how different opinions are, the state holds the authority of making this decision. Death penalization and euthanasia are serious matters that have not been taken lightly throughout time. State laws have been created for reasons, whether valid to society or not, it holds power beyond human control. The act of euthanasia was known and conducted by people in the Roman Empire. Since it wasn’t in conflict with moral standards at the time, people were not condemning or judging those who performed it . Whether it is a sentence for a crime or an illness taking over, who has the right to decide if a person’s life should continue or end. Can anyone measure the pain that one goes through while lying in bed unable to move? Only a few states in the USA legalized euthanasia, but many more states have the action of death penalization. Is it truly fair for people who did not commit any crimes to go through pain and suffering, and not be able to leave this world in peace? But people who committed a crime sentenced to death under â€Å"merciful† circumstances. The word â€Å"euthanasia† derived from the Greek words that translate as â€Å"easy death† and means helping terminally ill persons to die in a fairly painless way . As in the case of a death penalization, euthanasia has its supporters and opponents. Whether it is one or the other depends on several facts, such as personal opinion, culture of the person that was brought up, religion that one practices, and circumstances surrounding the decision. Usually, if the decease causes the unbearable physical and mental pain, that person will ask to be killed, but if this factor is eliminated, then there is no reason to die. When a person a sks to kill him or herself, it might be a cry for help in painful circumstances, whether it is mental or physical. Supporters of death penalization have several arguments justifying the state-sanctioned murder of those who take lives away. There is an old law that states, â€Å"tooth for tooth, eye for eye†. Then there is the practical argument stating that the death sentence keeps many criminals from being murdered. In addition, death penalization prevents recurrence in regards to murderers because if they are released from prison, there is a high chance that they will commit crimes again. Prison does not guarantee a mental fix for people who commit crimes such as man slaughter and or murder. The third argument is also pragmatic, and inferior because the state saves money by killing murderers. Instead of keeping them in prison for a lifetime expectancy, societies taxes and certain fees are contributed to subjects of this matter. The rivals state two ethical arguments, which consist of the following. In modern democracy, punishment should not only be punitive but should also try to reeducate a criminal to enable him to live in a society with others. While this argument is unconditional, those who have heard about modern prisons recognize that many inmates are immune to re-education, which is a fact that cannot be explained solely by conditions of custody. The second ethical argument is based on the commandment â€Å"Thou shalt not kill,† which also warns states alongside to murder. The strength of this argument is undermined by the fact that the state may resort to the death penalization to prevent severe crimes, or to prevent rebellion. Opponents of the death penalization also rely on utilitarian disagreements because it is irreversible. If the offender turns out to be innocent, it is no longer possible to abandon the punishment. In addition, objectors harshly criticize the preventive effect of the death penalty. Criminologists have confirmed by statistics that in those US states where the death penalty is allowed, the number of serious crimes has not decreased. Other criminologists, however, argue that such a conclusion, if it has sufficient justification, should apply to all criminal law: offenses are committed every day; nevertheless, if we did not have such prohibiting norms, the number of crimes would be even greater. In their view, capital punishment serves, at least, to limit peoples even thinking of a murder. Hence, from the point of view of consistent atheistic and materialistic consciousness, the death penalty is fundamentally permissible: imprisonment for life, as an alternative, is completely meaningless from this point of view. And in general: If there is no God, then everything is allowed, and the matter is only a reasonable, balanced determination of the degree of social expediency of certain measures. From the viewpoint of a Christian religion, death penalization must be recognized as unconditionally unacceptable, since it signifies violence against a person and the audacity of the final sentence to a person in his metaphysical sense . Additionally, it is necessary to recognize the clear fact that the state has the right to use death penalty, as well as to dispose of the lives of its citizens in other forms (conscription for military service with the subsequent participation in hostilities). At the same time, the state should not be thought of as irresponsible and alien force for citizens, but as the highest expression of the will and life of the people, as a political and legal realization of the country. The acknowledgement of lawful rights of the state to use death penalty means it is acceptable, but does not yet say anything in favor of its necessity . It is possible that the state, having the authority to death penalty, should nevertheless, refrain from using it. This arrange ment should be used at least in peacetime: the death penalization, in accordance with this point of view, is acceptable, but it is better not use it. The opinions in favor of such a refusal are: the unavoidable risk of judicial errors, the need for executioners, the doubtful effectiveness of the death penalty, humanistic considerations. At the same time, the first three arguments that have a rational sense and a clear rationale, as a rule, come to the fore, and humanistic considerations play, at first glance, the role of some emotional reinforcement. In fact, they are the ones that determine the refusal of the â€Å"civilized world† from the death penalty. The risk of judicial errors, indeed, has always been, is and will be, the malice of the executioners work, and, could the death penalty truly ever reduce the crime. However, never in the whole history of mankind, these arguments were considered as a possible reason for refusing the death penalty. If it was canceled at any time, it was only due to the impulse of the moral sentiments of individual rulers. Looking at history, it is necessary to recognize the legislative cons olidation of the death penalty as a rule from which exceptions were extremely rare. Why is the modern civilized world so stubbornly seeking to ban the death penalty? Perhaps crime has decreased, and social standards softened? Nothing of the kind, and rather the opposite. And even if that were so, there would be no need to legally stop the death penalty: after all, in a society of law-abiding people with a high legal conscience, it would be difficult for anyone that the death penalization is provided for by law for those crimes which nobody commits? The real reason for the movement of the modern civilized world to the elimination of the death penalization lies in its pacification and loss of the spiritual dimension, in materialism and the cult of bodily life, which have become both mass and state ideology . On the one hand, indeed, materialism means that â€Å"There is no God and everything is allowed,† that is, since man is nothing more than a material bio-object reflecting on the bone skeleton and covered with natural leather on the outside, through brain impulses to the extent that other material objects of a similar device do not and cannot have any reasonable grounds to protest against the cessation of some specific physiological processes in this biosystem, especially since this does not mean wow destruction nothing is destroyed (the soul is not there, and no world does not die together with man), but just matter passes into other forms of its eternal movement. But on the other hand, since this complex of specific physiological processes in the biomass that makes up the body, life for the materialist is exhausted, the physiological well-being and integrity of the body becomes for him a fundamental value. On the question of life and death, materialism demonstrates a very bad dialectic. It is materialism, which is not even able to raise (not just solve) the question of the meaning of life, materialism, which is not even able to distinguish life from death at the conceptual level (both of which are â€Å"movements of matter†), it is he who clings convulsively to life, and is afraid of panic to think about death, although there is no meaning for him either in life or in death. A humanistic and kind-hearted materialist extends these instincts of his own and beyond his individual physiological process according to the feeling of solidarity he is pleased with someones successful physiology and terrifies someones transition to other forms of the movement of matter. It is not the Christian love for one’s neighbor that repels him from the death penalization, but the irrational fear of approaching the topic of death itself fear threatening the tranquility of his own physiological process. A materialist, becoming humane and sympathetic, becomes completely powerless to decide anything in matters of life and death. And the more he clings to life — reduced to the physiology of his biomass — the more truly he lives his life — taken in the fullness of this word — loses: â€Å"For who wants to save his soul, he will lose it, and who will lose his soul for my sake and the gospel he will save her †(â€Å" The Soul †Christ calls life here). For the religious-philosophical view, the prospect of eternity is open, and only in this perspective can fundamental solutions to human existence be obtained. The problem of the death penalty should also be comprehended, first of all, in these limiting grounds. There is no unity among believers regarding this problem. Commenting on the initiatives of the State Duma to toughen the punishment for pedophiles, â€Å"Pedophiles should be shot†: Russian parliamentarians insist on toughening penalties for committing sexual crimes. Priests expressed different opinions (Muslims were more unanimous in endorsing the death penalty). Punishment for pedophiles should be inevitable: Orthodox priests and muftis commented on the proposal to introduce the death penalization for pedophile rapists. Along with unconditional support for the death penalty right up to the Lynch courts, there are fair indications that the main attention should be paid not to the consequences, but to the causes to propaganda of bribery in the media, and also sounds rather negative attitude moratorium. The priest and academic archpriest Gleb Kaleda, who for several years practiced suicide bombers in Butyrka, believed that people in prison often radically change their views, repenting of atrocities committed. And it turns out that we sentence one person to the death penalty, and we shoot a completely different one. † However, it is this circumstance that, in our opinion, serves as a reason not as the intent of punishment is to punish a person exactly in his spiritual, moral and physical condition, in which he did a crime? Is it not the meaning and the most important task of punishment (not always, however, attainable by the most important task) the repentance of a criminal, his spiritual and moral transformation? What to do if for many people who are hardened in sin, repentance is impossible without facing the inevitable death? The testimony of Archpriest Gleb Kaleda about the prevalence of repentance among suicide bombers, so that â€Å"we sentence one person to death, and we shoot a completely different one,† is, in our opinion, evidence of the achievement of the most important task (super task!) Of criminal punishment. If it were as successful as the death penalty (more precisely, waiting for it), caused spiritual and moral transformation of the criminal other types of punishment, the c rime would be reduced not only by times, but by orders of magnitude. At the same time, of course, we must not forget that even the death penalty does not guarantee a repentance. The only drawback is that people transformed by the expectation of the death penalty do not return to societies. However, this deficiency is more than offset by the acquisition: the saved soul of man. If, indeed, we execute a â€Å"completely different† person, if he repented and changed, becoming another, then eternity departs no longer a criminal, but a righteous person — the first person to enter paradise was the repentant robber. If even the imminent death inevitably could not change the souls of the criminal, then his failure to return to society can hardly upset anyone. It would be absolutely fabulously wonderful if the condemned man, after going through the horror of inevitable death and being reborn in repentance, would have received pardon and would have returned to a different person after all, but this cannot be the rule. In order for the transformative potential of the death penalty to be revealed, the sentence should not be a joke, and death is not just probable, but it is inevitable. And even in this case, having pardoned the suicide bomber, we cannot know for sure who he had pardoned — another person who had changed in repentance, or a person who was simply frightened, capable, taking a breath, to new crimes, or even embittered by the more moral restraints. It must be said about the imminent risk of judicial errors, which is always cited as the most serious argument against the use of the death penalty. Indeed, there is no guarantee against such errors, however, as has already been said, this argument has never, in the whole history of mankind, been considered as the reason for refusing the death penalty. The necessity of not even measuring seven times, but measuring out seventy times seven times, before passing a death sentence on a person, is obvious. But it is also so obvious that physical death is not the absolute evil that humanistic materialism sees in it. If everything ends with physical death, then nothing at all makes sense: neither life nor death, nor truth, nor suffering, nor love, nor punishment. If death is a transition to eternity, if God will keep the world and His love does not leave anyone, even those who have renounced it, then there is no reason to fall into catalepsy from contact with the theme of suffering and deat h of the innocent. At the same time, we are far from the irresponsible position that atheism ascribes to the believing consciousness: they say, we will write everything down to God, and no problems. The theme of innocent suffering and death is a huge, deepest topic of religious thought. The presence in the law of capital punishment in the form of the death penalization is normal for a morally healthy society. The non-use of this measure as superfluous is an indicator of the criminological well-being of society. The refusal to legislate the death penalization, even in relation to crimes that clearly outrage public opinion and conscience, can only be regarded as a shameful weakness of the moral position of the legislator. The general principle of building a healthy sense of justice was perfectly expressed by F.M. Dostoevsky: â€Å"Laws should be, perhaps, more severe, and the public atmosphere should be softer.† So far, in the light of the elimination of the death penalization, everything looks exactly the opposite.

Who are These Guys Working Toward an Empirical Typology...

Introduction Traditionally prostitution was viewed as a consensual act, one person selling sexual favors to a willing buyer. Used in many classes as an example of â€Å"Mala Prohibita† when differentiating between â€Å"Mala Prohibita† and â€Å"Mala in Se† (conduct that is illegal because it is prohibited vs. conduct that is illegal because it is inherently wrong or evil). This is perhaps true about prostitution in its simplest form (an independent adult seller deciding with their own free will to perform sexual acts with another adult individual in exchange for money or other compensation). However this conceptual understanding is far from the reality of many street level prostitutes who work under a pimp. Indeed as discussed below, working under a†¦show more content†¦However, the debt is set up in a way that it is impossible to pay off. 3. Drugs – Addiction leads a victim to exchange sex for drugs. The drug dealer then exploits this addiction to force the victim to continue providing him with money. This differs from the â€Å"Debt† method in that the victim is initially seeking their â€Å"fix† rather than being under the assumption that the drugs are a gift. 4. Gorilla Pimping – The victim is under the pimps control through brute force. The pimp employs threats, beatings, and even kidnappings to gain compliance. This is rarely used as it inspires very little loyalty from the victim. It is more common for a pimp to use a different technique initially and then use â€Å"Gorilla† tactics in order to maintain subservience. 5. Authority Figure – A person with power over the victim forces the victim into prostitution (ex: parent, step-parent, foster parent, older sibling). Once a victim is ensnared, the relationship dynamics become very similar to those seen in intimate partner violence. Physical violence is used both as a disciplinary tactic, but also sometimes randomly as a way to show power and control over the victim. Williamson and Cluse-Tolar (2002)’s article paints a graphic picture of the lengths that a pimp will go to exercise control over their victims. Physical violence, at times extreme violence was just one tool used to control. Other methods were isolation from socialShow MoreRelatedOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 PagesHistory. Revised and Expanded Edition E SSAYS ON _ T WENTIETH- C ENTURY H ISTORY Edited by Michael Adas for the American Historical Association TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS PHILADELPHIA Temple University Press 1601 North Broad Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 www.temple.edu/tempress Copyright  © 2010 by Temple University All rights reserved Published 2010 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Essays on twentieth century history / edited by Michael Peter

Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea Free Essays

WIDE SARGASSO SEA Spoiled Rose A child is a reflection of their parents becoming a product of their environment. Childhood is the most crucial stage in life, for this is when a child is most impressionable. What is experienced, felt, and taught is what shapes a child into who they will become upon entering adulthood. We will write a custom essay sample on Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea or any similar topic only for you Order Now Antoinette (Bertha) Mason from Jean Rhy’s Wide Sargasso Sea, is victim to mental injury, forced to grow up on her own, feeling out of place without the love and care of her mother. The loneliness and hurt she felt at a young age imprisoned her to a life of unhappiness. Eventually madness took over her which mushroomed furthermore in her arranged marriage to Mr. Rochester, who unravels her already precarious mental state. He drives her to the point where Bertha decides to take her life, believing in a deluded state it is her destiny. Her tragic life reveals the importance of growing up in a stable home environment, especially in her day, and location, given her social status and race, growing up stable was not a basket of roses considering her circumstances. Early on, we learn of Antoinette’s family life, with the absence of her father all she has is her mother and younger brother who suffers from a learning disabled state which prevents her from bonding with him. Then there is Christophine who is their servant, a black obeah woman who becomes of great influence to her, as well as Tia her brief and only childhood friend who is of African descent. Her mother is very distant with her, only paying attention to her sick brother. Although she was not physically abused, Antoinette suffered severe emotional abuse due to un-acceptance of others as well as neglect and lack of love from her Mother, which in some cases is more harmful because it goes unnoticed until it becomes too late. According to an article exploring the nature of victim and victimizer emotional abuse is a silent attacker. â€Å"Emotional abuse (psychological abuse, verbal abuse, and mental injury) includes acts or omissions that have caused, or could cause, serious behavioral, cognitive, emotional, or mental disorders†Ã‚  (Banks). At a young age we can see Antoinette is susceptible to these symptoms. For example her mother would shove her away when shed try to get close, â€Å"calmly, coldly, without a word† as Antoinette was â€Å"useless† (Rhys 11). This lack of being loved can affect her judgment of what love truly is, because she never properly received it. According to a file in the National library of Health- NHS Evidence, Children may experience a number of different emotional disorders. Behavioral issues such as avoidance of feared activities as well as clinginess or reluctance to separate from trusted adults may arise (NHS). At a young age we can see Antoinette is susceptible to these symptoms. As she wakes up early one morning she finds her mother’s horse dead â€Å"I ran away and did not speak of it for I thought if I told no one it might not be true. †(Rhys 10) When faced with troubled situations, she runs away and in a cognitive state, she reasons with herself denying a current situation is not real. Burying her reality is a defense mechanism she has built and constantly uses into adulthood in order cope when faced with unsettling realities, distorting her perception, memory and judgment. Antoinette also grows very fond of Christophine, as she is the only one who seems to genuinely care for her, Antoinette grows attached to her, feeling a security when she has christophine around because she is the only one who respects and protects the Cosways. Additionally growing up in Jamaica just after the emancipation act of 1833 during a harsh time combating slavery and rights, Antoinette found it difficult to fit in and find some sense of identity. She was a beautiful young white skinned Creole girl, daughter to ex-slave and plantation owners, surrounded by mainly blacks and few rich whites. Although she came from a wealthy background, as she grew up her mother was not financially doing well and was fairly close to losing their plantation. Evidently her and her family was despised. She was not accepted by the black community surrounding her and underwent racism having to constantly be called a â€Å"white cockroach† (Rhys 13) by the black community. The few whites in the area also frowned upon her and her family for not being of true English descent. So although she lived in a Calibri estate surrounded by beautiful nature and ocean sun filled days, on the inside she felt out of place, fearful and lonely. Her only childhood friend Tia betrayed her leaving her further damaged by stealing her clothes and pennies, while out one day swimming unsupervised. A child needs friends and interaction with others in order to communicate and be socially inclined. Things seem to turn around for Antoinette, when her mother marries Mr. Mason, a wealthy English man, who decides to stay and renovate Coulibri. Unfortunately racial tensions arose among recent freed black slaves, escalading to a protest that ends in catastrophe. Their home gets burned down with torches; her brother injured fatally passes away, leading her mother to fully manifest insanity due to the event. At this point Antoinette’s life drastically changes she is injured and sick for several weeks. She is faced with death once more by the passing of her brother and loses her mother as she becomes mentally unstable and dies; Mr. Mason abandons them leaving Jamaica while traveling. Antoinette is sent to live in a catholic convent ran by nuns. As you can imagine this was very hard for Antoinette, although she was surrounded by others she was left their isolated. In the convent she grows a fascination with death, since it is something she is used to she begins to like the dark ominous part of religion and death. I believe Antoinette suppresses all the calamities she has had to deal with till that point. Life has not been kind to her and despite of it she still manages to keep it together although she becomes a docile human being. When she finally reaches the age of seventeen Mr. Mason visits her more and finally removes her from the convent and introduces her to his English friends. Upon this happening an arranged marriage is what is in store for Antoinette. She is married to Mr. Rochester; their marriage is more like a business pact because they do not marry on the base of love. It is apparent Mr. Rochester marries Antoinette merely for her riches. She is not in love with him but do to her docile way she becomes intoxicated with the idea of Love and having a male companion. At first Mr. Rochester is amorous with Antoinette, upon finding out about her past, which he was not aware of his attitude and view towards Antoinette changes. His indifference towards her, affects her deeply as she becomes distressed. She looks to Christophine for help, who unknowingly makes the situation with herself and husband worse. Gradually Antoinette begins to drink more, making her act out violently. Alcohol distorts the mind and suppressed feelings she has kept hidden arise. The fact that her husband had no real love or apathy for her austerely depressed her and made her sick, she became emotionally unstable. Due to the era they were in, divorce was not easy to achieve. Upon marrying Mr. Rochester She basically became his property along with all of her wealth. She was trapped and depended on her husband. She had no control of her life and she was going the same route her mother went. Mr. Rochester constantly called Antoinette Bertha, which affected her because it was not what she went by, this Bertha finally manifested herself in Antoinette. Mr. Rochester’s disdain and abandonment was the climax to Antoinette’s insanity, as she was isolated and locked in an attic. Throughout her life Antoinette suffered multiple losses, her mental health got worse as she transitioned into an adult. Her mood was low and depressing, she barely ate, and she became delusional by believing in her dreams as a true reality. I think anyone in her position would go insane and prefer to die than live in such a horrible reality. As a child she had not one positive role model to look up to, primarily her mother is at fault with how Antoinette’s life came to be. She could have been a real mother and been loving and supportive towards her daughter who always needed her. Childhood is the most vital part of life; this is when a child needs to be in a positive loving environment. Otherwise a child becomes a dysfunctional part of society as an adult, causing harm to oneself or others. Due to the treatment she received as a child, she had very low self esteem and no self worth; always accepting situations when all along she could have changed her destiny, if only she was not so weak. Ironically she turned out weak just like her mother, unknowingly becoming mentally ill, leading to the loss of her life. The beautiful rose she was turned black as death, never fully blooming. Works cited Banks, Ron. Focus Adolescent Services. â€Å"Bullying What Parents and Teachers Should Know. † EECE Publications, Digest EDO-PS-97-17 www. focusas. com NHS, National Electronic Library for Health. â€Å"Isolation and Mental Health† http://www. library. nhs. uk/mentalhealth/ Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (Penguin Books Ltd: Middlesex, England, 1966). 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Disintegration of Dick Diver in Fitzgeralds Tende Essay Example For Students

Disintegration of Dick Diver in Fitzgeralds Tende Essay r is the Night Essays Tender is the Night EssaysThe Disintegration of Dick Diver in Tender is the Night The exact nature of Dick Diver?s descent throughout the course of Tender is the Night is difficult to discern. It is clear enough that his disintegration is occasioned by Nicole?s burgeoning independence, but why or how her transformation affects him this way is less than obvious. Moreover, it is not at all apparent what is at stake, more abstractly, in this reciprocal exchange of fates. In this paper, I will propose a reading of this change that relates Nicole?s strength to her naturalness, her identification with instinct and natural impulse, and Dick?s strength to his civilization, his identification with the curtailment of natural impulse through psychiatry and prewar American civilization. The relationship between Nicole and Dick is such that what happens to the one must happen to the other. Both Nicole and Dick turn by the novel?s end to impulse and instinct, but while Nicol e does this by gaining an independent self-consciousness, Dick achieves this only through drinking. Throughout the novel Nicole is identified with the childish and animalistic wildness of instinct. This is most obvious in the uninhibited expression of emotion which characterizes her episodes of madness. We see, for instance, her frenzied laughter as she rides the Ferris wheel and causes her car to crash. As the car finally comes to a halt, she, Nicole, was laughing hilariously, unashamed, unafraid, unconcernedS.She laughed as after some mild escape of childhood (192). And as a patient at the clinic, after having her affection for Dick rebuffed, we are told, Nicole?s world had fallen to pieces, but it was only a flimsy and scarcely created world; beneath it her emotions and instincts fought on (143). As the story progresses, though, the expression of these impulses become less openly dangerous and abnormal and more linked to her growing sense of self. One more restrained way in which Nicole is identified with impulse is her use of money. Money in the story is a sort of materialized passion, the tangible expression of an appetite to possess and control. Money becomes more and more plentiful as the story moves on, such that by the beginning of book three, after Dick gives up his stake in the clinic, the mere spending of it, money, the care of goods, was an absorption in itself. The style in which they traveled was fabulous (257). Nicole?s relation to impulse is also demonstrated by her attractions to others, culminating, of course, in her relationship with Tommy Barban. Fitzgerald tells us, for instance, that the people she liked, rebels mostly, disturbed her and were bad for hershe sought in them the vitality that had made them independent or creative or rugged, sought in vainfor their secrets were buried deep in childhood struggles they had forgotten (180). It was this raw vitality which Dick increasingly lackedhe was far from rugged and becomes less and less c reative through the course of the noveland that she saw in herself that became the focus of her external interest. Her search for this energy in others was an expression of her own growing awareness of this energy within herself. I think it is noteworthy, as well, that Fitzgerald links this energy to childhood struggles. If the source of such interior strength is the experience of childhood, then perhaps Nicole?s difficulty in finding this in herself can be explained by the fact that she has not left childhood. For much of the novel, she is still Dick?s surrogate daughter and has yet to extricate herself from that role. One might also use this fact to explain her poor relation with her own children who seem, on the whole, more mature than she. How could she be a mother to children when she is a child herself? Near the end of the novel, this identification of Nicole with instinct becomes more explicit. On page 280, for example, we are told that Nicole had been designed for change, fo r flight, with money as fins and wings (280). Freedom is her nature, but it is a freedom likened to that of animals. There is a wildness inherent in her, a unconstrained passion for movement. Fitzgerald continues in the next line, the new state of things would be no more than if a racing chassis, concealed for years under the body of a family limousine, should be stripped to its original self (280). Again, Nicole is represented by a unruly, passionate, and impulsive object. (I might also note the subversive power of the image in its denial of Nicole?s familial role). The culmination of Nicole?s growing awareness of the wildness of her nature is her relationship with Tommy Barban. The exchange between her and Tommy in their impulsively procured hotel room is very illuminating in this regard. Tommy asks her pointedly, Why didn?t they leave you in a natural state?, following up with, You are the most dramatic person I have ever metSAll this taming of women! (293). Nicole stays silent t hrough most of this, feeling Dick?s ghost prompting at her elbow, but refusing to pay it heed, listens instead to Tommy?s exposition of her nature. In the end she accepts his understanding of her as her own, endorsing his impulsive naturalness with her own and welcoming the anarchy of her lover (298). Dick?s path is decidedly different. Throughout the first half of the book, Dick is presented in a very positive light. He is handsome and charismatic, the center of his social world. We are told that save among a few of the tough-minded and perennially suspicious, he had the power of arousing a fascinating and uncritical love (27). Due to people?s affection for him, he becomes the head of his social group. He is shown very much in control of his environment. We learn later that Dick is a psychiatrist with a brilliant mind who, if he could only organize his thoughts on paper, would lead to great advances in the subject. For all the emotional attachment he engenders in others, he himself except for aspects of his relationship with Rosemary, which we know is new for himis not given to emotional excess. As a friend of his says, You are not a romantic philosopheryou?re a scientist. Memory, force, character (117). Dick?s role as a scientist is not, however, impersonal observation. He is a clinical psychiatrist and works to bring those who are mentally disturbed back to the normal social world. It is in this capacity that he first meets Nicole. She is a patient, and it is his charge to alleviate her hysteria. In this regard, he must curtail the excesses of impulse and emotion that preclude her functioning according to social convention. She is wild, and he must tame her, domesticate her, bring her into the company of civilized men and women. Aside from this professional concern with bringing the mad into civilization, Dick is also very invested in his particular conception of civilization. We read, for instance, of Dick?s early illusions of the essential goodness of peop le; illusions of a nation, the lies of generations of frontier mothers who had to croon falsely, that there were no wolves outside the cabin door (117). Further on, as Dick becomes more reflective, he begins to question dying for one?s beliefs and of the social imperatives to be goodS.brave and wise (133). What prompts this questioning is the war, which shook Dick deeply. We see this most clearly in 1.xiii where he and his entourage visit an old battleground. There, Dick becomes melancholy and his throat strains with sadness (57). He also proclaims dolefully that all of my beautiful lovely safe world blew itself up here with a great gust of high explosive love (57). In this odd statement, Dick takes ownership of this world and feels a great personal loss at what has happened even though he did not directly participate. The importance of the war to Dick is further shown by the scene in which he helps the red-haired Tennessee girl looking for the grave of her brother. In these ways, t hen, Dick is portrayed as the protector of civilization, mourning the disillusioning effects of the war while working to repair civilization by treating the psyche. We are told a little over half way through the novel that Ssomehow Dick and Nicole had become one and equal, not opposite and complementary; she was Dick too in the marrow of his bones (190). Given the novel?s outcome, there is an air of paradox to this statement. Clearly Nicole and Dick end the novel in very different conditions. How can this be if they are one and the same? Doesn?t this indicate an oppositeness or complementariness rather than a unity of identity? I think that this air can be dissipated by understanding the trajectory of Nicole and Dick?s relationship, using the identifications elucidated above, as an increasing move toward natural instinct and impulse, the effect of which is positive for Nicole and detrimental for Dick, as the only way he can handle such feelings is through alcohol. The first decisive move in this direction is Dick?s relationship with Rosemary. We are told again and again that Dick had never done anything like this before, that the emotional whirlwind in which he is caught up is entirely new. This comes out most clearly at the end of 1.xx in which Dick impulsively goes to visit Rosemary at her movie set: He knew that what he was now doing marked a turning point in his lifeit was out of line with everything that preceded it (91). And further on, Dick?s necessity of behaving as he did was a projection of some submerged reality.SDick was paying some tribute to things unforgotten, unshriven, unexpurgated (91). I interpret this submerged reality as the presence of natural impulse and instinct which he has hitherto repressed, the aspect of himself which it is the psychiatrist?s job to subdue in the process of bringing someone into civilization. But, as they are aspects of him as well as of every person, they are unforgotten and unexpurgated. (The inclusion of unshrive n is interesting; as he cannot remove these aspects of himself, neither can he seek pardon for their presence. The feeling that he should need such pardonthe idea that such instincts are wrongstands in stark contrast to Nicole?s unabashed expression of impulse later in the novel). This episode and others like it mark a breakdown in Dick?s civilized worldview. It is this breakdown that allows Nicole to begin finally to express her own nature, first by relapses into her hysteria and then by a more consistent and holistic embrace of instinct and impulse in her relations with Tommy. The final stages of Nicole and Dick?s break brings this out clearly. Near the end of the novel, Nicole comes to the realization that she had somehow given over the thinking to him, Dick,S.She knew that for her the greatest sin now and in the future was to delude herselfS.Either you thinkor else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize, and ste rilize you (290). Nicole, then, awakens to her natural self, recapturing sovereignty over her own person and refusing to allow Dick to fit her into his mold as to what she should be; Dick would no longer be the father with the authority of reason. As Fitzgerald says in narrating the decisive moment of their rupture, She achieved her victory and justified herself to herself without lie or subterfuge, cut the cord forever (302). It is crucial to note that Dick comes to the same point, but as his natural instincts and impulses were for him a submerged reality, he could not accept healthily this change like Nicole, for whom instinct and impulse were always much closer to the surface. The only way for Dick to handle this unearthed reality within was to turn to the bottle. There is, of course, a natural comparison to made between Dick and Tommy here. It is noteworthy that Fitzgerald explicitly tells us that Tommy Barban was a ruler, Tommy was a heroS.As a rule, he drank little; courage wa s his game and his companions were always afraid of him (196). Tommy does not have to drink to deal with his passions; he is a man of passion already and, as such, is more similar to Nicole than Dick. In this way, also, the love between Tommy and Nicole could have the reciprocity which Dick and Nicole?s hierarchical, paternal, doctor/patient relationship could never have. Tommy could love back where for Dick, so easy to be lovedso hard to love (245). At the novel?s end, then, the naturalness of Nicole and Tommy has triumphed over the civilization of Dick. I should say, though, that I do not take this outcome to be an endorsement on the part of Fitzgerald of this impulsive naturalness. Rather, I read the novel as an exploration of disillusionment with the idealism of prewar America. I think Fitzgerald suggests as much when he posits the postwar years as the natural environment in which a story such as Dick?s emerges: His love for Nicole and Rosemary, his friendship with Abe North and Tommy Barban in the broken universe of the war?s endingSthere seemed some necessity of taking all or nothing; it was as if for the remainder of his life he was condemned to carry with him the egos of certain people, early met and early loved, and to be only as complete as they were themselves (245). This plight, this condemnation, was not Dick?s alone; it was that of an American civilization thrust into a new world in which it, like all others, must now deal with the sins of past and present in its struggle for survival. 12 angry men Essay