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Judith Guest's "Ordinary People": Summary

Judith Guest's "Ordinary People": Summary


Ordinary People by Judith Guest is the story of a dysfunctional family
who relate to one another through a series of extensive defense mechanisms, i.e.
an unconscious process whereby reality is distorted to reduce or prevent
anxiety. The book opens with seventeen year old Conrad, son of upper middle-
class Beth and Calvin Jarrett, home after eight months in a psychiatric
hospital, there because he had attempted suicide by slashing his wrists. His
mother is a meticulously orderly person who, Jared, through projection, feels
despises him. She does all the right things; attending to Jared's physical
needs, keeping a spotless home, plays golf and bridge with other women in her
social circle, but, in her own words "is an emotional cripple". Jared's
father, raised in an orphanage, seems anxious to please everyone, a commonplace
reaction of individuals who, as children, experienced parental indifference or
inconsistency. Though a successful tax attorney, he is jumpy around Conrad,
and, according to his wife, drinks too many martinis.
Conrad seems consumed with despair. A return to normalcy, school and
home-life, appear to be more than Conrad can handle. Chalk-faced, hair-hacked
Conrad seems bent on perpetuating the family myth that all is well in the world.
His family, after all, "are people of good taste. They do not discuss a
problem in the face of the problem. And, besides, there is no problem." Yet,
there is not one problem in this family but two - Conrad's suicide and the
death by drowning of Conrad's older brother, Buck.
Conrad eventually contacts a psychiatrist, Dr. Berger, because he feels
the "air is full of flying glass" and wants to feel in control. Their initial
sessions together frustrate the psychiatrist because of Conrad's inability to
express his feelings. Berger cajoles him into expressing his emotions by
saying, "That's what happens when you bury this junk, kiddo. It keeps
resurfacing....