Autonomy And Responsibility In Novel On Yellow Paper By Pompey

Superior Essays
While Pompey’s work lacks some of the variety a self-actualized person might require, she does challenge herself to work efficiently and construct her narrative when she free time. In addition, Sir Phoebus has awarded Pompey tremendous responsibility because of her expertise capabilities. She achieves this despite the limitations of the era and her understanding that she may not have the perfect job, but she does have the ability to find it satisfying.
In showing her autonomy, Pompey reveals she is not driven by society’s rules. For instance, she openly criticizes the Catholic Church of England’s disdain for Queen Elizabeth and later professes she is not Catholic. She later explains that she was trying “to get into the inside-of this Christian religion, that, if you can, you can into the inside-of like you cannot get into the inside-of the pagan religion. Because that has passed away, and any conscious-seeking after it must be a revival, no, not a revival, because there is life in that word, but a feeling that is false in this seeking after the passed away pagan religion, that is false, that cannot come to good. […] But all the time at this time I was feeling cold, very cold and outside-of, and not at all ever warm and inside-of”
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She is able to aspire to her full potential partly because of class but mostly because of her attitude. Pompey’s life is not perfect: she feels the pressure to marry; she has few choices for employment even though avenues are opening; she feels anguish when Freddy abandons her. Still, she manages to experience the pain while distancing herself as reflected in her use of third person before she can break down the way Sasha does. Pompey has the control to limit this mild psychic break to the emotions related to Freddy while Sasha immerses herself in her mental and psychic

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