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

The Door by E.B. White(1) As humans depend for meaning and purpose in their lives, the constant changes of everyday life that they combat can be overwhelming and frustrating. E. B. White gives us an example of this in his story The Door. The theme of this story is that too much awareness and analytic thinking of lifes frustrations can drive human kind psychotic and render them powerless. (2) The protagonist of this story is sucked in by his need to generalize the frustrations of life. He is al focuss seeking relief from his awareness of these frustrations just when he thinks he has picked the correct path 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 strength to gain relief from his dissatisfaction. The insanity of never creation satisfied with his bent in life, is prevalent in the protagonists resolved refusal to give up his seek for fulfillment (jump ing at the door), much like the junkies persistent refusal to give up that last fix. Finally, as his very life spins erupt of control, he finally succumbs to his frustrations the only way he can by means of a lobotomy, he becomes willing 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 screen background of rats. In an attempt to control their actions, the Professor foremost rewards the rats with food. Ho... ...m. Whites fragmented show here punctuates the protagonists mix-up and establishes a crazed or disturbed tone. The contradictions and retractions in sentences such as ...and the thing that you touched was arctic , only it wasnt quite rubber and you didnt quite touch it but almost also suggest confusion and inner conflict, in addition to reinforcing the protagonists obsession with analyzing. (8) From the start of the very first paragraph, by using words such as duroid, duro, and flexsand, White forces the contributor 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 give away with the protagonists frustration, powerlessness, need to analyze. The reader then becomes enmeshed in the protagonists journey on the road to insanity.