Abstract
Central to Ordinary People are the social aspects of narrative, a theme that is relevant but subordinate to the individual in our first two movies. The three members of the Jarrett family are struggling to create narratives for themselves and their family that will enable them to survive, if not thrive, in the wake of the family’s recent traumatic events. Friction in the household is interpreted as stemming from the different directions their respective stories take. The trope of narrative construction works as a useful perspective for interpreting Ordinary People. It makes sense of Conrad’s plight and what he must do to rehabilitate himself; he cannot heal until he fashions a new and viable account for, and about, himself. For the narrative to affirm rather than deny life, Conrad will have to reconceptualize his past.
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Notes
Anthony Rudd, Self, Value, and Narrative: A Kierkegaardian Approach (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), p. 223.
Sara Ruddick, “Maternal Thinking,” in Mothering, ed. Joyce Trebilcot (Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Allanfield, 1984), pp. 213–230
Janet Bicknell, “Self-Knowledge and the Limitations of Narrative,” Philosophy and Literature, Vol. 28, no. 2, October, 2004, pp. 406–416
Catriona Mackenzie, “Imagining Oneself Otherwise,” in Relational Autonomy, eds. Catriona Mackenzie and Natalie Stoljar (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 124–150
Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self (Cambridge MA.: Harvard University, 1989), p. 74.
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© 2014 Joseph Kupfer
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Kupfer, J. (2014). Narrative Conflict and Relationship in Ordinary People. In: Meta-Narrative in the Movies: Tell Me a Story. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137410887_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137410887_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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