In the movie Ordinary People, an Academy Award winning film, the focus is on the Jarrett family. The family is completely broken and they do not even realize it. There is a lot of avoidance when it comes to important topics that need to be discussed. The members of the Jarrett family always practice silence or even violence; practically subconsciously. Conflict management could have been used to establish a human connection and help each other heal. Conrad Jarrett always puts on an act to pretend like he is okay and feeling well, and even when he lashes out in violence, he lacks the expression of why he feels the way that he does. The main conflict management strategy that could have helped him is establishing mutual purpose. This holds to
…show more content…
He masks his true emotions to everyone, including his psychiatrist. In the beginning of the film he is having flashbacks of the traumatic events that led to his brother 's death. He is having a breakdown and showing symptoms similar to those of PTSD. He sweats, cries, and guilts himself. However, when his father comes in, he pretends that he is just awake reading. Even when Calvin asks why he is up at such a late hour and if he is okay, Conrad just nods and pretends that he is fine. He is embarrassed because it seems like everyone in his family is doing well and has gotten over his brother Buck 's death. He does not want to be another problem for his family so he pretends to be just as fine as they are. When he finds his mother Beth in Buck 's room, he cannot bring himself to question her or bring up Buck 's death. Both of them just ignore the elephant in the room and discuss other matters. It takes him a while to truly open up and confront his feelings about himself and his family, even with his psychiatrist. He needs to establish mutual purpose because even when he expresses his anger in violence, he fails to communicate the reasons why he has certain feelings. When talking to his mother, he needs to establish that they are both dealing with the grief of losing Buck and that it is okay to be dependent on one another for comfort. This could have made Beth come to terms with the fact that she truly does need her family to face this issue together if they really want to
He masks his true emotions to everyone, including his psychiatrist. In the beginning of the film he is having flashbacks of the traumatic events that led to his brother 's death. He is having a breakdown and showing symptoms similar to those of PTSD. He sweats, cries, and guilts himself. However, when his father comes in, he pretends that he is just awake reading. Even when Calvin asks why he is up at such a late hour and if he is okay, Conrad just nods and pretends that he is fine. He is embarrassed because it seems like everyone in his family is doing well and has gotten over his brother Buck 's death. He does not want to be another problem for his family so he pretends to be just as fine as they are. When he finds his mother Beth in Buck 's room, he cannot bring himself to question her or bring up Buck 's death. Both of them just ignore the elephant in the room and discuss other matters. It takes him a while to truly open up and confront his feelings about himself and his family, even with his psychiatrist. He needs to establish mutual purpose because even when he expresses his anger in violence, he fails to communicate the reasons why he has certain feelings. When talking to his mother, he needs to establish that they are both dealing with the grief of losing Buck and that it is okay to be dependent on one another for comfort. This could have made Beth come to terms with the fact that she truly does need her family to face this issue together if they really want to