Since the dawn of civilization, human beings have congregated to form various bands, clans, tribes, and nations. Over the millennia, these primitive communities have eventually evolved into what we now call “society”–a group of people who share similar values, laws, and traditions living in organized communities for mutual benefits. In the 21st century, society protects our lives, liberties, and property from foreign encroachment; it provides us with education and reliable healthcare; and most importantly of all, it provides a sense of belonging for its members. But while providing such real and laudable benefits to our wellbeing, society also marginalizes, isolates, and imprisons those individuals who do not share its values. Society may nourish
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Archer’s tepid, passionless marriage to May sent shivers down my spine as I realized how terrible and how real such a fate could be. Archer’s intellect, ambition, and awareness of society’s faults contrast sharply and tragically with May’s mediocrity, blissful ignorance, and incapacity for higher thinking. An individual like Archer–a rare critic of society who strives to transcend its mundane limitations–is doomed to loneliness, surrounded by mindless drones like May who conform to society without question. In the end, Archer’s attempt to break free of society is defeated by “habit, and honour, and all the old decencies that he and his people had always believed in” (198). Archer cannot bring himself to cast away these things that connect him to society; he cannot bring himself to become an outsider. While reading this book, I empathized with Newland’s simultaneous and conflicting desires to both break free from society and remain a part of it; I felt disheartened and discouraged by his failure as well as more depressed about my own life. No one wants to be an outsider, and so we quietly accept society’s depravity, corruption, and mediocrity in order to remain a part of
Archer’s tepid, passionless marriage to May sent shivers down my spine as I realized how terrible and how real such a fate could be. Archer’s intellect, ambition, and awareness of society’s faults contrast sharply and tragically with May’s mediocrity, blissful ignorance, and incapacity for higher thinking. An individual like Archer–a rare critic of society who strives to transcend its mundane limitations–is doomed to loneliness, surrounded by mindless drones like May who conform to society without question. In the end, Archer’s attempt to break free of society is defeated by “habit, and honour, and all the old decencies that he and his people had always believed in” (198). Archer cannot bring himself to cast away these things that connect him to society; he cannot bring himself to become an outsider. While reading this book, I empathized with Newland’s simultaneous and conflicting desires to both break free from society and remain a part of it; I felt disheartened and discouraged by his failure as well as more depressed about my own life. No one wants to be an outsider, and so we quietly accept society’s depravity, corruption, and mediocrity in order to remain a part of