The narrator views selfhood in Ordinary People as better if it’s like everyone else. Selfhood is defined by dictionary.com as the quality that constitutes one's individuality or the state of having an individual identity. Frequently, the narrator refers to Conrad as not “like his old self,”; indicating that his old actions are auspicious to his new ones. For example, “‘He looked so...tired out. Run down. I would think, for the kind of money you paid they would have at least seen to it that he ate properly, and get enough sleep. And he was so quiet. JUST not like his old self at all’”(Guest 12). Conrad lacks the traits of his friends, therefore being an individual which is frowned upon by their society and the narrator’s view. Similar to outside
