Individualism in Gimpel the Fool and a Good Man Is Hard to Find

The Myth of the Sincere or Authentic Individual In Charles Taylors theoretical schoolbook, The Ethics of Authenticity, Taylor writes to pass judgment the concepts of individualism. He believes that we stomach, and should, become conscious about what makes us who we ar to in effect and sincerely choose which values or qualities to support.Using two piffling stories, A intelligent Man is Hard to dislodge by Flannery OConnor and Gimpel the Fool by Isaac Bashevis Singer, alongside Taylors text and the application of his concepts, 1 can examine if the central char twisters function as true individuals who act for themselves, or act to fulfill a historically desirable nook in human nature. Flannery OConnors 1953 defraud drool A Good Man is Hard to Find, illustrates the story of a husband and wife, along with the grannie and two children, who embark on a family road explode from Tennessee to Florida.Plot and character both unravel with the path of the familys travel, bring out the archetypal characteristics of a traditional American family annoying quirks and behaviors, back vest arguments between siblings and the senior, nitpicky, and congruous grandm other. Follo wing the greater part of the journey from Tennessee to Florida, the story ends with a final encounter with an escaped convicted murderer, The Misfit.The most prominent and possibly easily scrutinized character from A Good Man is Hard to Find is the grannie. Being the central protagonist in OConnors short story, she unfolds to be manipulative and self-involved, until now a prim and proper elderly womanhood. Throughout the text, the grandmother is continuously caught up in comparing her slender southern past to her disappointments of the hand. She is entangled in her roots, appearing as a harmless chatterbox, aloof and amusing within her aver progression.It is easy to exculpate her for so much, including her innate racism pointing at a cute small pickaninny from the car window as well as entertain the children with a tale of a nigger boy (187) who scoffs a watermelon and her overly sound opinions that she states matter-of-factly. Upon departure for Florida, she dresses herself in her Sundays outstrip dress, hat, and white cotton gloves all for the trip, so in case of an accident, any cardinal sightedness her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady (186). She is filled with the prejudices and traditions of her class and time.The grandmother, even when faced with the foreshadowed confrontation with The Misfit, continues to present her historical and deeply rooted lady-like facade. Her talk with the Misfit begins as a manipulative attempt to save her admit feel, employing her refined techniques to persuade her killer. (Certainly, in her world, no decent man would shoot a lady (OConnor 194). ) Her desperate attempts continue, onerous further to charm The Misfit. I know youre a veracious man. You dont look a bit like you look at common blood . I know you must come from nice concourse (OConnor 192). The grandmother seems confident enough that her southern allure will win over the man as she has with all others there is no forbearance to the death she will soon face. Following the execution of the substantial family, it is observable to both the reader and the grandmother herself that death is imminent. Upon this realization, the woman experiences a apocalypse and attains the first unselfish sensibility displayed in the story. She finally ignores her idea of proper southern values in the face of death and reaches out to The Misfit.In an act of true sincerity, she simultaneously denounced her high object lesson standing and announced acceptance of his character. In this state of disclosure she murmured Why youre one of my babies. Youre one of my proclaim children The woman reached out and touched him on the shoulder. The Misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three multiplication through with (predicate) the chest (OConnor 195). The Misfit ends the powerful story by commenting on the grandmothers un trustworthy character She would have been a good womanif it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her look (OConnor 195)The judging of individuality of Flannery OConnors character according to Charles Taylors text closures with a misleading outcome. In The Ethics of Authenticity, Taylor states, we live in a world where people have a right to choose for themselves their own pattern of lifeto determine the shape of their lives in a whole host of ways that their ancestors couldnt control (Taylor 2). The character of the grandmother is essential along a permanent historical linear path of inherited beliefs and ideals she was never provided an opportunity to be self-aware and take shape of her own life.In Taylors terms, the woman has always been locked into her great grasp of Being, adhering to her innate(p) role of a southern bourgeois woman that gives sense and significance to life (Taylor 3). Never questioning her natural values and qualities, the grandmother conformed to the ideals of, exactly non limited to, race, class, religion, and society, that are inherit to her aristocracy. Up until this point, it is possible to phrase that the grandmother is an unauthentic individual. When faced with the grave situation involving death and her ultimate existence, the grandmother abruptly diverges from the consistent track of her character development.This divergence from the characteristic character in the face of death allowed the grandmother to have an authentic experience in her last seconds with her killer. The grandmothers head absolved for an instant. She saw the mans face twisted close to her own Why youre one of my babies. Youre one of my own children she admitted (OConnor 195). This turn of true acceptance, sensitivity, and acknowledgement to others of different honorable horizons reveals a brief wink of authentic individu alism in the grandmother.In comparison to her overall persona for the entire plot, a glimpse of wholehearted moral relativism, or, according to Taylor, a mutual respect to morals and values apart from your own, can be read in the last few lines of the grandmothers existence. In the fleeting moments of her life, she shed her natural identity, claiming true freedom from her inherited moral horizon. It is possible to presuppose that in the last seconds of her life there was a transformative sense of character, the grandmother passed with the qualities of a true individual.Similar to OConnors character, the character of Gimpel from Isaac Bashevis Singers 1953 short story Gimpel the Fool can be equally examined for traits and characteristics of an authentic individual. The ironic story tells the life delineate of Gimpel narrator, Yiddish baker, an inhabitant of Eastern Europe, and the one who gets the last laugh (although that comes later). Gimpel, seemingly naif and gullible, is the subject of many tricks and insults from his village for taking everything at face value, only when was he really a fool, or an authentic individual? I am Gimpel the fool. is how he opens his story (Singer 300). He gives his own reason when he says, What did my foolishness consist of? I was easy to take in (Singer 301). His light-headed wife is disloyal to their marriage throughout his lifetime, resulting in illegitimate children that Gimpel precious to believe he fathered his neighbors take unfair advantage of him, subjecting him to endless pranks and fallacies for atrocious entertainment and even the village rabbi conspires against Gimpel, placing him at the receiving end of everyones jokes.Gimpel is ultimately surrounded by lies and cynicism to his approach to life. The foolish qualities that are expressed through Gimpel on the exterior are not all that meets the eye. Aware of his purlieu and how his neighbors treat him, Gimpel chooses to keep an open mind, to see the good in the world, and not waste his time with the bad spirits of those who make fun with him. Although perpetually deceived by his contemporaries, Gimpel is always willing to give the benefit of the doubt. If he ever dared to say, Ah, youre kidding there was trouble. People got angry (301). He says, to tell the fair play, I knew very well that nothing of the sort had happened, still all the same, as folks were talkingMaybe something had happened. What did I stand to lose by looking? (301). His open approach and acceptance of a possible truth to endless false claims and jokes show Gimpel to be not gullible and simple, but holds a prominent moral relativism he is accepting and sincere to others qualities and values, however deceitful they may be.Ironically, it is the whole village that victimizes Gimpel that are the fools, and Gimpel who is the only non-fool. Gimpel didnt believe more than half the things the people told him, to that extent he still went along with the deceits. Gimpe l exemplifies a character that lacks an understanding of supererogatory anger, hatred, and bad tempers, and acts with a perceptive sense that belief is not a matter of proof but of will. From this perspective, Gimpel doesnt appear to be so simple and foolish, on the contrary, instead man that fears missing an opportunity of accept something that may be true. Those who abuse Gimpel are the true fools them self, lacking the potentiality to believe with Gimpel that everything is possible. This does not make him a fool because he believed the people, he knew for himself that none of the things said were anywhere near the truth. He believed because he valued to believe. In conjunction with Charles Taylor, Gimpel maintains a heightened sense of awareness of his past to propound his present.The constant ridicule has shaped his view on life and scorn the negative actions directed towards him, Gimpel is accepting to believe what others share with him. Its possible to say that he is sti ll involved in a great chain of Being, but in context to the setting of the story these philosophies cannot fully apply. As a devout Jewish man, Gimpel lives his life with authentic and sincere individualism, slice respecting the historic beliefs his society is based on that have not yet been shattered.In conclusion, the assessment of individuals with Charles Taylors text, whether fictional or physical, can result in a broad variety of assumptions based on the moral and historical background of a character. As seen with Flannery OConnors character, the grandmother did not appear to be an authentic individual until the final moments of her life however, the character of Gimpel maintained a strong individualist approach to his life throughout the majority of the text. The characters, as Taylor wrote, are called upon to be true to themselves and to essay their own self-fulfillment.What this consists of, each must, in the last instance, determine for him- or herself (14). Without the causalitys literary devices and plot structure to develop character, or a persons absolute sense of being, the underlying individual cannot be accessed to live entirely for his or herself. Works Cited OConnor, Flannery. A Good Man is Hard to Find. literary works Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. Robert DiYanni. Compact Edition. New York Mc- Graw-Hill, 2000. 185-95. Print. Singer, Isaac Bashevis. Gimpel the Fool. Literature Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama.Ed. Robert DiYanni. Compact Edition. New York McGraw-Hill, 2000. 300-09. Print. Taylor, Charles. Inescapable Horizons. The Ethics of Authenticity. Cambridge, good deal Harvard University Press, 2002. 31-41. Print. , The uncommunicative Debate. The Ethics of Authenticity. Cambridge, Mass Harvard University Press, 2002. 13-23. , The Sources of Authenticity. The Ethics of Authenticity. Cambridge, Mass Harvard University Press, 2002. 25-9. . Three Malaises. The Ethics of Authenticity. 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