An individuals background determines their future success in life movie reviews example

Introduction

The short novel ‘ The Necklace’ by Guy De Maupassant revolves around a couple Mme. Louisel. The narration begins with a reflection of Mme. Loisel and her perceptions about her own life. She seems desperate and hopeless as she thinks that she was born in underprivileged circumstances and that she has no chance to succeed in life. She looks at her backgrounds as the hindering block to success in life. She thinks that because of her poor background she cannot make to get a rich man to marry her, she reflects that she has no expectations, no dowry and no people to love he r or understand her. All this is made worse by the mere fact that she sees her even undermines her current job at the ministry of education where she works as her clerk. That is her life. The Loisel’s are invited by the minister for education to pass an evening at the ministry of education palace. When Mme. Loisel receives the invitation from her husband, she seems unhappy with the invitation. Upon inquiring her husband realizes that the wife does not have clothes and jewels he would wear for such a big occasion. The husband offers to buy her a dress that he demands should be worthy the four hundred francs he offers to give her that he had preserved to buy a gun. They could not afford to buy the ornaments and the couple decides that it would be wise to borrow from Mme. Forrester who willingly accepts to give Mme. Loisel her diamond necklace. At the party, Mme. Loisel turns out to be the prettiest. Ell inquired about her and many wanted to dance with her. After the party as they couple is heading going home, Mme. Loisel discovers she has lost the necklace. They search for it but to no avail. They decide to buy another to replace the lost necklace. They buy an original diamond necklace only to realize that Mrs.> Forrester’s necklace was not an original but an imitation.
This narration reveals several stereotypes that human exhibit. This paper will focus on three stereotypes that showcase in the narration. This leads to the thesis statement that: “ Most pre-perceptions by individuals are based on stereotypes and are neither true nor substantial.

The perception that people from raised in privileged backgrounds will always succeed in life and those from poor backgrounds will never make it much in life is clearly depicted in this novel. The perception that background is like a ceiling that holds people back from succeeding or thrusts them to great success is common in the society. Mme. Loisel is a clear example of such people. She believes that it is her poor background that hinders her from being married to a rich man; it is the same that holds her against living a decent life or getting a decent job. When she receives the envelope carrying the invitation, she tells her husband to give it to another couple whose wife has better clothes because her clothes cannot be worn at such an event as in the palace. She despises everything about herself and her husband. When she gets the dress, she still thinks that it would not make sense to go to the party without jewels which they cannot afford. When she attends the party, she turns out to be the prettiest lady around, an outcome against her own perception.

Women are more of objects to please men and less of individuals with class in the society:

Reflecting on the party events, the novel says that Mme. Loisel was the prettiest lady in the party and most men inquired about her. They did not inquire about her ability to deliver at work but there enquiries were more about her beauty. The novel says that the attachés from the ministry wante3d to dance with her. This depicts how the world in general focuses on women as objects to attain happiness and pleasure. The minister also inquires about Mme. Loisel. Having worked at the ministry for some time, we do not get to hear of the minister getting concerned about her especially that she works as a clerk but her beauty causes the minister to take not e of her. Most male attendants at the party probably thought that Mme. Loisel was well dressed to attract men to her rather than just presenting herself decently. This is quite the opposite of what later happened. Mme. Loisel leaves the party unnoticed and heads home, without even a thought of the prestigious men who had been admiring her al through.

The most precious property we see is not worth the value we place on it:

It is quite normal that people consider the most precious and eye catching materials as being expensive. In most cases it is not really the truth. The quality of such materials is quite lower than what we presume it to be. In the narration, the Loisel couple, purchase an original diamond necklace to replace the lost necklace they had borrowed from Mme. Forrester. They did not inquire about its real value from the owner because they considered its quality to be as much as its attractiveness. Similarly, the men at the party do admire Mme. Loisel because she is well dressed and she looks pretty. The idea could have been that her dressing was expensive and her jewels were of high quality. They did not know that the dress was not that costly as they presumed. In fact it had been borrowed from a friend.
Conclusively, ‘ the Necklace’ is a short narration that depicts many aspects of the society we live in. the perceptions we have about ourselves, other people and everything else around us. We fail mostly to understand that the situations have deeper meanings beyond what we think. The novel therefore gives as an insight of learning to see the situation in a deeper sense than it appears. In general, the narration provides a great deal of support to the theme: “ Most pre-perceptions by individuals are based on stereotypes and are neither true nor substantial.

References

Dalrymple, T. (2013, August 19). November 25, 2013 | National Review Online. Retrieved  2013, from https://www. nationalreview. com/nrd/articles/354938/types-stereotypes‎
Maupassant, G., & Dinesen, I. (1999). The necklace. London: Pushkin.