being a gentleman by paul theroux and the

Being a Person

The Dark Side of Masculinity

Many would argue that in modern society, girls are expected to fit narrow and unreasonable functions in contemporary society. However , In Paul Theroux’s “Being a Man”, Theroux writes regarding the rigid expectations positioned on men by society to conform to a narrow, adamant definition of “manliness” that stifles men’s true selves and instead forces all of them into becoming restricted simply by society’s meaning of masculinity that forces these people them to belittle their own cleverness or overstate their identified masculinity through physical outlets out of fear of showing up too poor or “soft”. Theroux states that also in the post-feminism period in which he writes his dissertation, men, especially younger boys and young adults, are forced into this strict and thin definition of what being a person is supposed to be. Theroux paperwork that the feminist movement has essentially allowed him to publish this part, as feminism has allowed women to target equality and point out most of society’s failures in understanding what it means to become women, Theroux now in the same way has been capable of take a stand and write about all of society’s restrictive definitions of masculinity, which this individual accomplishes in his essay through his utilization of asyndetons, diction, and anaphora.

Theroux writes which the average “manly” attitude to high school sports activities that most boys express is a recipe pertaining to “creating bad marriages, meaning degenerates, sadists, latent rapists and just basic louts” (177). Theroux’s make use of asyndeton through omitting the utilization of “and” among these samples of undesirable personality traits allows the reader to understand that every one of these features are associated, and are most instilled in boys jointly as they older into guys as a result of the “manly” attitude that they will be forced to take up at an early age and subsequently integrate into themselves as a part of who they are. This model shows that simply by forcing guys and males to strive for certain goals, such as aspiring to be in ultimate physical shape or turning out to be star athletes, society pushes them to unintentionally become a few of the worst types of what guys can be, rather than being well-rounded, gentlemanly individuals, as a result of the extreme emphasis on physical performance added to them.

Theroux further emphasizes his point that society’s meaning of “manliness” is definitely contrary to what it means to be a very good person today when he states that the “quest for manliness” is “essentially right-wing, puritanical, cowardly, neurotic, and fueled largely with a fear of women” (177). Theroux’s use of diction here is attractive understanding exactly how detrimental the conventional definition of masculinity is to guys. “Puritanical” frequently refers to becoming very strict in one’s moral or perhaps religious morals, while “neurotic” usually refers to mental lack of stability. By using these types of specific terms, Theroux demonstrates society’s meaning of “manliness” is quite narrow and outdated in its “Puritanical” morals, as well as becoming “neurotic” in it’s unrealistic expectations of the roles men are expected to fill inside society.

Theroux continually argue that staying manly is usually an terrible, narrow, and outdated idea that forces men to be less than their full potential since humans if he says It is the sinister silliness of males fashion, and a clubby attitude inside the arts. It is the subversion of good students. It’s the so-called Outfit Code from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Boston, and it is the institutionalized cheating in college sports. It is the the majority of primitive low self-esteem (179). Through repeating “It is” through this anaphora, Theroux argues that by pushing men to conform to societys definition of masculinity, they are compelled into acting unintelligent and cheating their particular way through life in fear of staying seen as very soft or weakened. By pushing men to adjust to this filter definition of masculinity instead of pursuing more perceptive outlets of expression, they are really prevented from fulfilling their full potential as human beings intellectually because they are pushed from scholarly or perhaps humanistic interests like artwork and education and instead are pushed in to caring even more about their physical performance and appearance and trying all their hardest to adjust to into societys definition of masculinity.

Therouxs critical tone of societys unreasonable, outdated and narrow definition of masculinity, achieved through his use of asyndeton, diction, and anaphora emphasizes that he desires society for this and work to change individuals perceptions of masculinity in order that men may be free to go after interests that might allow them to fulfill their potential to explore forms of expression that allow them to be a little more well-rounded individuals, instead of obsessing over that they are identified by contemporary society based on their very own interests.