David foster
Wallace suffered throughout his life primarily mentally, he was quite depressed
however unlike most he was educated enough to experience the full Enlighted
view of the travesty and hardship of this world. The sheer brutal and intense
again bestowed upon use by our failures and decisions as a human race, but with
this educated mind he not only experienced it but he was able to look past it,
to the true source of contention. He believed that the issue doesn’t lie within
or surroundings but within us as individuals, the perspective is our issue, and
as he states with this education he is able to actively changed his view on
life. Altering his attitude by giving more leeway for forgiveness and understanding,
allowing the possibility for less selfishness and being more embracing to those
who were originally the bane to one’s existence. This mindset and perspective adjustment
is very symbiotic and deductively relevant to many of Alice Munro’s short
stories.
In nearly
all of Alice Munro’s short stories there is a quality of development or mental
grow in the main protagonists often by the end of the story displaying their
change in their characteristics. In Alice Munro’s short story Family Furnishing,
the main protagonist carries and initial upbeat and positive attitude towards
her nuclear family, and as it slowly degradants so does her appreciation and
care for her family to the point of her “Abandonment” of her mother. She then
leaves to college where she cuts off most ties with relatives besides her
father and even loathes meeting with one of her most beloved family members.
She became more infatuated with writing and her appreciation from her peers.
“The cries of the crowd
came to me like big heartbeats, full of sorrows.” – Alice Munro, Family furnishing, pg. 117
Alice Munro display how the protagonist was empowered by her
education offered the choice of perspective and direction in the world, giving
her the possibility of choice. Munro often gives the development of her
protagonists through education primarily formal such as Royal Beating and Boys and
Girls the adjustment of self can either be one of more embracing and
sympathetic of former ideologies or struggles of the female gender or one
opposing to the past pushing it away and even going as far to abandon their
family.
David foster Wallace and Alice Munro both appear to agree on
the power of education and its influence on one’s everyday life and how with it
the perspective and attitude of the individual is drastically adjusted. We
should look to both of their works as not the bible and definitely not as trash
or boring stories, we should look upon them for the insight being offered to us
by people of higher education who have experienced the trial and tribulations
of adulthood. One tradition I do agree on is to respect one’s elders and learn
from them, whether it be from their mistakes or their wise decisions.
What do you think, is Empathy and emotional knowledge a
whole loud of ****? Or do you think it serves a purpose?
Do you think that only through education one can actively pull
back he clouded veil which is our outlook on life?
Answer these questions below \/
