Book Club ISU Essay To respect one’s reputation or to be full of pride and ego is what differentiates between a righteous and respectable person and an arrogant one. The books, “Alias Grace”, “Call of the Wild”, “Wuthering Heights” and “Mayor of Casterbridge” all demonstrate that by protecting ones pride only leads to more destruction of it. “Alias Grace” written by Margaret Atwood, shows this with the possession of Grace’s body and with the accusations made towards Grace. “Call of Wild” by Jack Landon also demonstrates this theme with the killing of Curly, and the transformation of Buck. Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights” illustrates this with the interference of class difference in love and the pride of two people coming in the way of their union. Finally, in “Mayor of Casterbridge” by Thomas Hardy, the main character’s stubbornness and pride of protecting his name leads to damaging his personal relationships, work and eventually his life.
The first book, “Alias Grace” was shared by group member, Angel. She felt this book was “Interesting, with a hidden arrogance and pride laced within the characters." In the book it shows how after the truth of Mary possessing Grace’s body is disclosed, Mary wishes that Grace is kept oblivious to the truth so her image does not get lowered in the eyes of Grace. This shows Mary’s character valuing what her friend thinks of her rather than respecting her enough to tell the truth. This also shows how Mary would not object having her friend being accused of a murder she never committed instead of her own character getting tainted. Another example would be while Grace and Mary were working at the Parkinson’s house, in order to save Mary’s reputation; Grace kept the secret that Mary was pregnant from Mrs. Parkinson. The consequences were Mary’s death and Grace getting kicked out of the house for hiding such an important truth. Lastly, at the defense stand, although James and Grace worked together, when the time came to defend her, he put the full blame on her, rather than accepting he had assisted. Although it was Mary who had initiated the planning, James was still her partner in crime. These examples evidently show how protecting your reputation can lead to the destruction of oneself or the people around you. In this book, Grace was often the one who dealt with the consequences of other’s pride and desire of ensuring their reputation remains untainted. The group member found this book to be interesting with an unpredictable twist in the end. The need to have a good reputation is not only found in humans but, this blemish can also be found in dogs.
The second book, “Call of the Wild” read by Sahil depicts this theme from the initial scene with Buck’s new friend, Curly getting brutally murdered. Curly unknowingly hurts the ego and pride of the Alpha dog, Spitz provoking him to act out to protect his wounded pride and live up to his status. In addition, throughout the book, Buck is required to build a name and reputation for him amidst all the other wild dogs. Formerly a domesticated dog, Buck initially struggles in finding his roots and his ability to mix in with the rest of the naturally wild dogs. By becoming primitive, Buck strongly desires to not only survive in the wild but, to become the leader of the pack. This causes the arousal of conflicts between Spitz and Buck which were preventable if the dogs did not have much importance for their pride. Due to his need to protect his own competency, Buck is fueled with his primitive instincts enabling him to rightfully become the new Alpha leader of the pack. Regarding this book, Sahil comments, “This book was pretty interesting and the characters were surprisingly intriguing and relatable.” He enjoyed the book and had a fairly positive opinion about it. Even though this book had dogs as the main characters, it still mirrored the same theme as the other books did.
Megan, the reader of the third book, “Wuthering Heights” found the plot to be confusing at times and hard to follow yet still captivating. She stated, “The characters in this book are all entwined with one another with pride and arrogance as their priorities.” The book starts off with the characters having conflicts involving reputation and discriminations due to their family name. Two true lovers, Catherine and Heathcliff, are unable to have a relationship because of their class differences. Due to Catherine refusing to be romantically involved with a lower class, such as Heathcliff, she marries into a rich family. Although she loves Heathcliff dearly, once she started understanding the social advancements of being married into an upper class, she marries Edgar. Furious and hurt by this, Heathcliff decides to seek revenge, which he is able to do only once he has acquired a name. His revenge portrays once again, his desire to protect his honour and pride that Catherine had hurt by marrying another man. Till the very end, Heathcliff continues fighting for his reputation by forcing his son, Linton and Catherine’s daughter, young Catherine to fall in love and get married so that he is able to inherit the entire property and wealth of both families. Similarly to the anger within Heathcliff for seeking revenge, Henchard holds the same fire in order to protect his wounded ego.
Lastly, the book, “Mayor of Casterbridge” starts off with the main character, Henchard selling his wife and daughter to a sailor while intoxicated. After recovering from the previous night, his first instinct was wondering whether his name or identity was revealed to the general public who were present. This reveals his priorities are more on his reputation being protected, rather than his wife and daughter being sold. As the story progresses, Henchard’s continuous jealousy of Farfrae’s exponential success and positive reputation causes him to incur multiple losses and a decline in his own reputation. When Farfrae’s plans of the festival are carried out far more successfully than Henchard’s, his resentment towards Farfrae is instigated. This bitterness gets further ignited when Farfrae and he share different opinions on the treatment of Henchard’s employee, Jopp. Throughout the development of the book, Henchard persistently works towards sabotaging Farfrae’s plans and outdoing him in every aspect. However, on each occasion he fails to stand up to his desires and he gets defeated in the process. On one particular occasion, Henchard’s employee, Jopp is sent to return the love letters between him and Lucetta back to her. Previously snubbed by Lucetta, Jopp exposes the letters to the public, causing a skimmity ride to take place. This damages Lucetta’s reputation and dignity. Without having an option to reverse or to better the situations, Lucetta dies. I found this book to have an interesting plot and characters; I would say “This book had a protagonist full of pride and impulsiveness causing many problems.”
The book club meetings continued smoothly as all group members positively contributed to the discussions and cooperated with the questions and organizing the notes. The group always stayed focused and on task during the book club meetings. They listened attentively and spoke with confidence and clarity. While one group member was talking, the rest were concentrating, taking notes along with asking analytical and appropriate questions about confusing plots or character developments. The members also offered additional answers and resourceful information on their books outside of class.
In conclusion, the authors of the four books, “Alias Grace”, “Call of the Wild”, “Wuthering Heights” and “Mayor of Casterbridge” all actively portrayed fighting for ones’ pride only results in their destruction. Although each book dealt with different character personalities, they all had similar conflicts revolving around their fights for their pride and reputation. While discussing, the group dynamics were positive, cooperative and incredibly helpful.