Summary Of Carl Jung's Winesburg Ohio

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Period E ( Rabin) 5-30-2010 Fish Bowls and Oceans The process of growth and maturation, is, as it must be, a procedure filled with pain and difficulty, where the grotesque being that dominated the youth, is overcome and replaced by the complete being who will govern the life of the adult. Winesburg Ohio examines all the components and characters who contributed to the maturation of George Willard, and each person's, or rather each grotesque's, donation of either knowledge or experience proved vital to George's existence, because without the contributions George would be forever stuck in the purgatory of Winesburg Ohio, unable to break free into the world and would soon himself become a grotesque. Carl Jung, one of the foremost examiners…show more content…
Every person no matter how bland or how empty is a multi faceted human being and therefore focus on a singular topic, leads to the ignorance of all the other aspects in a person life. Take for example the story of Prince Hamlet, Hamlet a man destined for greatness, smart courageous and in a position of power, who decides to throw all his prospects and goals to the wind in exchange for the opportunity to revenge his father, murdered in cold blood. Such a single minded focus begins to quickly harm Hamlet mentally as it should, clouding Hamlets ability to do what is best for himself, and to think clearly, because then Hamlet could have realized the impossibility in murdering someone without being a murderer. A man should live before all for himself, "To thine own self be true And it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." The world of Hamlet becomes a death ridden tragedy because no one lived for themselves, each character had an agenda a singular focus, that narrowed their view and opened them to an untimely death. Because the death of King Hamlet consumed everyone so thoroughly they did not bother to draw on other experiences in their life as they made decisions, instead acting rashly and the chaos of motives and actions can only rightly end in death. And though for the most part, the people of Winesburg…show more content…
After all Winesburg Ohio is simply a Microcosm of all the grotesques the world has to offer, ranging from the ugly and failing to that of the beautiful but still equally as unfulfilling to the soul because of their singularity. Winesburg is much like a fishbowl, covered and then thrown into the middle of the ocean, because it inhabitants are not completely isolated from the outside world, they may see it and judge it as they please, but their actions are wholly isolated to only effect the immediate town around them. After all Winesburg is a pre industrial revolution town, almost completely self sufficient from the rest of the world, where laborers and the men who hired then can do more than order and toil, As evidenced by the writer who talks not only to the workmen of the task at hand but also, "of other things" (3)because they both can afford to take life at a more relaxed place without the weight of the entire world egging them on. And just like a fishbowl, inhabitants may leave and may come in, to either find their place in the world well prepared by what they learned in Winesburg, or be sent to the fishbowl, destined to be on display as a grotesque, a lesson for those passing through. And then if only to explore deeper, each person within himself is an microcosm of everything around him, an miniature example of success or
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