Q. “An individual’s self-esteem is linked to their sense of belonging.”
Discuss this view with detailed reference to your prescribed text and at least ONE other related text of your choosing.
In 1953 play by Arthur Miller, The Crucible, short story of 1973 by Ursula Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, and Lee Joon-ik’s 2005 film, The King and the Clown, through the exploration of identity, guilt and power, and integrity, these works have demonstrated an individual’s self-esteem and its link to belonging.
In Miller’s play, self-esteem is linked to individuals’ senses of belonging in the form of power and integrity, where the tyrannical authority of the leaders of the Salem witch trials period use belonging as a force to control the community, while various individuals who will not bend to such authority establish a sense of integrity in their resistance. Such examples of figures portraying a forceful authority include Danforth, who states that the “Devil” is a “weapon” used to “whip men into surrender” into a “church-state”. This statement, as well as the following, stated in act three, are representations of this authority’s need for power: he asks if there “lurks” in the “mind” or “soul” of the individual a “desire to undermine [the] church”. The stark imagery in the first statement conveys the individual’s need for power and control of the community in a violent form, hence exemplifying his desperation and therefore lack of control and acceptance among the community (as shown in the second reference). In utilising a powerful, yet flawed, figure such as Danforth, Miller has hence presented the notion of self-esteem, or lack thereof, and its links to belonging. Unlike Danforth, however, Proctor is representative of empowerment and high self-esteem, when adamant that he not be part of the chaos caused by authority in his proclamation of “God is dead!” in act three, and in the final act: “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies!” This form of deliberate isolation by the individual establishes a sense of integrity, as Proctor, in his rejection of authority, has agreed to his own execution and thus demonstrated that his name is greater than his life. It is therefore through representations of authority, and those in defiance of it, that Miller has conveyed belonging and its links with self-esteem.
In The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, guilt and identity are factors that, unlike Miller, Le Guin presents in regards to self-esteem and its connection to belonging. The utopia in which the Omelasians live are present, but at a price: the “happiness” of all their people, the “abundance of their crops” and the bright hues of their skies “depend wholly on the child’s abominable misery”. That said, the Omelasians live in an idyll at the expense of one who must live in misery – a scapegoat. The imagery, and its juxtaposition, of the paradisal Omelas, and chaotic “residence” of the scapegoat, exemplifies the guilt of the people living within the city (however, do nothing for the child), and the isolation of the child. The latter can especially be of note when the child begs that the community save it (its gender is never disclosed), saying, “I will be good!” The isolation of the child, and the inclusion of this single form of dialogue, have demonstrated the degree to which the child has been isolated and degraded to a state of begging. Le Guin has also incorporated identity as a factor affecting an individual’s self-esteem, where the exhibition of the child, and statements, “They weren’t different from us,” and “They knew compassion,” representative of the propaganda expressed by the authority, who force a helpless guilt on the Omelasians, as they live within the utopia’s confines. For those who reject such notions of child-abuse, there are individuals that depart from the city of their own volition, “past the gates” and “across the farmlands of Omelas”. While seemingly in defiance of Omelas’ social codes, it can be considered a passive resistance when these individuals “walk into darkness” and away from Omelas – they reject the system, and yet do nothing to prevent it from continuing. It is therefore through the dialogue, imagery, metaphor and paradox* that Le Guin has demonstrated guilt and identity, and their association with belonging and self-esteem.
Lee Joon-ik presents similar ideas of identity and integrity in his film, and their relation to belonging and self-esteem, particularly in the form of protagonist, Gong-gil. The individual is shown to find acceptance among Joseon era’s authority, King Yeon-san-gun, however, in the process isolates himself from his band of friends and minstrels. This acceptance and isolation can be seen when Gong-gil’s friends are shot asking of the minstrel’s whereabouts, before the camera pans across the men to a close-up shot of Jang-saeng, Gong-gil’s closest friend. After view of his frustrated expression, the camera pans again into blackness and then on Gong-gil, a full short, as he is dressed by the King’s servants. Gong-gil’s complete separation from his community is especially emphatic when Jang-saeng states the similarities between the relationship of the king and minstrel, and that of a prostitute, then his departure, as short using a dolly camera, which cuts Gong-gil from the frame. The juxtaposition of scenes in the former reference and the visual separation of the latter exemplify the need for questioning of identity of an individual, as well as self-esteem of both the individual and community, and their relation to belonging. The reconciliation of the men, however, by the film’s end (as shown through the full shot as the minstrels meet across a tightrope presented to them in the film’s penultimate scene) are representative of the sense of integrity that Gong-gil, like Proctor, has – which are especially of similarity when the two men, again like Proctor, accept their deaths for the defiance of the king. Lee has therefore, through use of camera angles and dialogue, presented belonging and its ties to self-esteem through integrity and identity.
It has therefore been demonstrated in the texts by Miller, Le Guin and Lee that through identity, guilt, power and integrity, that self-esteem is linked to belonging.