Oridnary People

Nick Phillips

"ORDINARY PEOPLE"

By: Judith Guest

I did my book report on "Ordinary People". It is a novel about the problems that

take place in a pretty normal family after the death of one of it's members. Conrad who

was the main character of the book, witnesses his brother, Buck, drown. A while after his

brother dies, Conrad tires to kill him self by cutting his wrists. The book starts when

Conrad has just come home from a mental hospital and is trying to keep himself together.

From this point of view I could almost feel the struggles that occur after Buck dies and

how his death destroys the family. This book shows the problems that everyone deals

with every day in modern society, but also explains a persons need for affection and their

longing to know they are cared for. Each family member has a different problem from

Buck's death and each has a different outlook and interpretation of the situation, that

could only be viewed through the book's third person angle. Depression is an important

theme in this book. It is present constantly, and may bring the reader into a saddened

state, but this is necessary to truly understand the complexities involved in this family.