In the novel, The Moviegoer, by Walker Percy, the narrator, Jack Bolling, believes that everyone has a role to play and that their happiness is predicated upon how well they play their given role. He also believes that people get trapped in “everyday ness” and become “dead.” Jack Bolling’s decision to marry Kate Cutrer is partly based on these beliefs of his, but it is also based upon the discovery that Sharon is engaged herself. Kate Cutrer has some mental problems of her own, and, being Jack Bolling’s cousin, he learns about them and observes them. As he goes throughout his days, Jack Bolling tries to avoid the typical roles of people; the “everyday ness.” When he thinks about falling into a pattern, it makes him physically sick.
He is afraid to be normal, to be just another person in the world. It seems as if he wants to “insert himself into the world”, but he is afraid to because he also wants to play the roles that people want him to play, such as his aunt. His aunt thinks that she knows him pretty well, but discovers in the end that she didn’t know him at all because he was always trying to be what she wanted him to be. Kate Cutrer, on the other hand, wants to be someone who just blends in with all around her and doesn’t have to worry about making herself known or standing out. But with her problems, she can’t seem to do that. One reason for Jack Bolling and Kate Cutrer getting married could be that the other is what they secretly desire to be themselves.
The Essay on The Role People Play
The qualities of people are distinguished mostly by the impact others have upon them when they are children. These role models shape everyones life into the person we are to become, whether positively or negatively. In Mark Twains novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck Finns role models all impact Hucks life and the way he lives throughout the novel. Miss Watson, Widow Douglas, and Jim ...
When Kate Cutrer and Jack Bolling decide to get married, they are on the train on their way to Chicago. Kate Cutrer makes a big deal about Jack Bolling having to tell her all that she has to do for the rest of their lives if they do get married. This is due to her mental state, not being entirely stable, and not wanting to stand out at all. With Jack Bolling to tell her all that she needs to do, Kate Cutrer can pass herself off as being just another person in the crowd. If she does exactly as Jack Bolling tells her, she will look and act just like everyone else, but if she acts of her own accord, she will become frightened and stand out to everyone around.
Jack Bolling appears to become somewhat disturbed whenever someone acts in a manner that he does not anticipate, or does not feel is appropriate for the role that they are, or are supposed to be playing. The importance of roles in Jack Bolling’s mind seems to be how he defines and understands the people around him. If they act out of character, it throws off life for him, or at least that is how he appears to react. Jack Bolling himself does not act in one specific role, either. He appears to have one role for every occasion, place and group of people. Around his aunt, he acts like the southern gentleman, just as she wants him to.
Around Kate Cutrer, he is somewhat sympathetic, but does not appear to feel sorry for her, or pity her. This is just how Kate Cutrer wants him to act around her as well. This could contribute to the marriage of Jack Bolling and Kate Cutrer as well. Around Sam Yerger, Jack Bolling also seems to have yet another role that he plays. He appears to be sympathetic towards the problems happening, but he also seems to understand Sam Yerger as well, whether Sam Yerger knows it or not.
Jack Bolling even has a role that he plays around strangers. This role is the one of the person who knows what is going on, with people and situations, but he does not let on to people that he knows unless he wants them to know. Even Sharon Kincaid has her own roles that she plays. In the office with Jack Bolling, she plays the role of the competent, yet almost seductive secretary; she can do what she needs to, and attracts his attention knowingly while she does her job. When Jack Bolling asks her to go to the beach with him, she still plays the role of the secretary until she gets back into his car after he takes her to her apartment so that she can change to go swimming.
The Essay on Gender Roles 11
Many female writers write about womens struggle for equality and how they are looked upon as inferior. Kate Chopin exhibits her views about women in her stories. The relationship between men and women in Kate Chopins stories imply the attitudes that men and women portray. In many of Chopins works, the idea that womens actions are driven by the men in the story reveals that men are oppressive and ...
When she changes roles, she becomes the cute southern girl out on a date, becoming almost snuggle, and more talkative. Roles that people play in this novel are important because they are what appear to hold life together for the people. The roles can also be painful, as in the case of Jack Bolling with his aunt. When she finds out that he is not, in fact, the man that she had always thought, the man that she had wanted him to be, she is upset with him, and hurt that he would pretend to be that man for her.
She wants him to be that man, but she understands now that he can never be because she knows he is not. He will not pretend any more because he knows that she will see right through it now that she knows. Perhaps Sharon Kincaid gets engaged while Jack Bolling is off on business because she could see through the facade that the role that he was playing would not suit her if they were to become involved. Or perhaps he frightened her with how fast he went, or what he wanted to do with her. It could also have been that she was not prepared to deal with his family when he took her to the house and they were there. She may have realized that she was not prepared for that kind of a life.
The roles played in this novel determine the way that a person thinks and acts. The roles between Jack Bolling, Kate Cutrer and Sharon Kincaid determined Jack Bolling’s decision to marry Kate Cutrer in the end because Sharon Kincaid’s role determined that she married another man instead of Jack Bolling. The decision may have caused pain for Jack Bolling, but it probably made his life better in the long run.
