Example research essay topic: Brothers And Sisters Individual Freedom - 1,562 words

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The word freedom has its own definitions for different individuals. To some, freedom refers to the freedom of speech, freedom of thoughts and expressions and over all the realization of personal freedom or individuality. On the other hand for many others, freedom refers to none of these and only to the freedom of soul- that is freedom of spirituality. Marilynne Robinson in her novel Gilead has keenly observed and depicted these variations of freedom in human life and made two of the characters of the novel behave in a way that the thematic concept of freedom becomes very vivid and important element to the readers and also to the novel. These characters are the narrators brother Edward and Jack Boughton. The quest for freedom by these characters progress in the novel in a way that eventually Gilead becomes a novel of the free souls who did not care about what society and their families had to say to them and rather listened to their heart looking for freedom of mind and the freedom of their souls.

As described in the novel Gilead, Edward, the narrators elder brother who was ten years older than him studied in Germany and became a remarkable person of knowledge and personality in the narrators eyes Edward studies at Gttingen. He was a remarkable man. (28). He spent the early years of his life in Europe and returned with the European touch of lifestyle carrying atheism with him. This is surprising and strange to see that Edward grew up in a very religious environment where his father and his ancestors were engaged in preaching and believing God but how Edward separated himself of that long cherished family belief and faith on God.

Moreover, he published a monograph of some kind on Feuerbach (28) who was a famous atheist (27) and Edward also claimed to be an atheist at any rate (29). However, the conflict begins between Edward and his father when Edwards father expected his son to become a preacher like him and Edward refusing that wish of his father the belief was general that he would be a great preacher (29) and it was more shocking for his father and for others when the congregation took up collection to put him in college and then to send him in Germany. And he came back as an atheist. (29). Edwards becoming a non-believer in God was shocking because he proved himself as being very nice and intelligent child in his childhood and thus the expectations were much higher from him that what he tried to give being an atheist. Now if we think of the reasons that why Edward, being a preachers son, refused to be a preacher than we would see him saying when I was a child, I thought as a child.

Now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things. (30). This implies that when Edward was a child, most of his thoughts were occupied with what his parents had given and wanted him to think and as he grew up seeing his father being a religious preacher, his thoughts were clearly influenced by religion and his father. As a child we do not get to think beyond what we see in our family and in our closest surrounding and the same happened with Edward. On the other hand when Edward moves out of his religious family boundary and experiences the real world outside, his experiences of the world conflict with his thoughts that was imposed by his surrounding and religion on his mind ever since he was a child. This is probably when Edward looked for freedom of mind, that is freedom of what has been imposed on his mind all these days and also the freedom of being an individual to choose what is good and what is bad for him. He definitely did not want to go with what others believed and wanted him to believe the same rather he wanted to believe something that he feels like believing of his own.

So, the search for freedom in Edward is quite similar to the search of Jacks freedom and different from the search of the narrators grandfathers freedom because the freedom that Jack and Edward searched for was more personal and the freedom the narrators grandfather searched for was more spiritual in type and of faith in God. However, this new realization of individual freedom and experience did change the belief system of Edward but it did not change the morality in him as a human being and we see that when the narrator says He did send back contributions to the church to repay them for helping him... He was a good man. (29). Again, if we look at Jack Boughton, we may come to see that Jack and the other free soul of the novel, Edward, shares similar qualities of freedom in terms of their individual freedom. Jack has always been an individual of his own decisions- that is the king of his own world. Like Edward, he was hardly bothered about what others thought about all his actions and wrong doings.

He was a free but a sad soul from his very childhood That boy was always alone, (206) and loneliness and others not being able to understand him gradually isolated him very much. As he grew up, his search for his own breathing space increased leading him doing things that society might not approve he was allowed to go right on disgracing family. (209). Moreover, it was the love of his family and his father that made him more rebellious and free in nature the Boughton's really loved him. All of them did. His brothers and sisters would stand for him no matter what. (209) and his father would abandon all those handsome children of his, mild and confident as they are, and follow after that one son whom he has never known, whom he has favored as one does a wound, (271).

In Gilead the narrator also describes Jack being ambiguous and mysterious to understand when he smiles at him at some point of their conversations and just like Jacks father, the narrator feels that though he has baptized Jack and had known him for a long time- he still does not know jack clearly. So when jack comes back finally at the age of forty-three, it was thought by everyone that he might have changed and has come back for stable life, which he never had. They thought that Jack might have given up his rebellious and damn care attitude but they were wrong. Over the years, Jack had become more rebellious and freedom loving when we see him taking the decision to go back to his wife and son leaving his father and his brothers and sisters behind.

Nothing could stop him or drag him away from what he believed to be good for him. His freedom was where his own world was. That is why we also see him leaving his home town forever and realizing the fact that nobody would ever understand him as they never did and he would have to live in his home town like a prisoner of others expectations- expectations of his fathers and his sisters where there would be no value of his own wishes. Moreover, it would be wrong to think that Jack only looked freedom and individuality of his own rather he tried to establish an independent and free way of looking and rejecting race differences that existed at that time in America. For him, it was unacceptable that he, being a white man, can not marry a black woman and even if they are married, she can not come and stay with him in society. This was certainly against the free and independent way of thinking that Jack practiced.

So, he did not only want to set himself free rather he also wanted to break the traditional ideas of racism against black people from his and others life and wanted to set racism free. However, when he came to understand that this is not possible, he decides to reject and leave his own place which was not only a rejection of his home town but this was rejecting a society which talks about the greatness of a religion and Christianity but gets divided when it comes to color differences. This was more like a free bird that only flies to a place where it feels free and safe for flying and not a place where others might cage it. Individual freedom and peace of mind is something that continues with the flow like a water stream. It varies from individual to individual and it cannot be obstructed or influenced by any external element or expectations of others. That is no imposition.

The similar treatment we have seen in Jack and Edwards life. The moment their family and parents wanted to impose their own ideas and expectations on them, they ended up moving out of their family ties and separating themselves in their own free space where they were the kings of their wishes. Thus, they did not allow Gilead to be only a preachers journal to his son but made it a tragic story of search of freedom and individual independence. Works Cited Robinson, Marilynne. Gilead. 2004. London: Virago Press, 2005

Research essay sample on Brothers And Sisters Individual Freedom