The Door by E.B. White Essay -- E. B. White Literature Essays

The Door by E.B. White(1) As humans search for meaning and purpose in their lives, the constant changes of everyday life that they encounter poop be provoke and frustrating. E. B. White gives us an example of this in his account The Door. The root of this bilgewater is that too much awareness and analysis of lifes frustrations can drive human kind insane and render them powerless. (2) The booster shot of this story is sucked in by his need to understand the frustrations of life. He is always desire relief from his awareness of these frustrations just when he thinks he has picked the correct means or door, (the one with the circle on it), the professor changes that door on him. Consequently, the protagonist repeatedly encounters obstacles that block his ability to gain relief from his dissatisfaction. The mania of never being satisfied with his lot in life, is prevalent in the protagonists persistent refusal to give up his search for fulfillment (jumping at the door ), much like the junkies persistent refusal to give up that expiry fix. Finally, as his very life spins step up of falsify, he finally succumbs to his frustrations the totally way he can through a lobotomy, he becomes voluntary to meet the soft ground. (3) One way that White draws out his theme is through conflict. The main conflict in this story is powerlessness versus control. The protagonist continuously compares himself with the rats in a maze (like the Skinner box). The rats, which have no control over their environment, are being driven crazy by the Professor, who demands that they deal with problems which are beyond the scope of rats. In an attempt to control their actions, the Professor first rewards the rats with food. Ho... ...m. Whites fragmented wording here punctuates the protagonists confusion and establishes a crazed or disturbed tone. The contradictions and retractions in sentences such as ...and the subject that you touched was rubber, only it wasnt qui te rubber and you didnt quite touch it but almost also suggest confusion and inner conflict, in sum to reinforcing the protagonists obsession with analyzing. (8) From the start of the very first paragraph, by using terminology such as duroid, duro, and flexsand, White forces the reader to join the protagonist in his insanity and his need to analyze. By immersing the reader into the story, White further brings out the theme by allowing the reader to identify with the protagonists frustration, powerlessness, need to analyze. The reader so becomes enmeshed in the protagonists journey on the road to insanity.