Perhaps my problems with The Education of Henry Adams lie in my obsession with characters. Going into screenwriting, I already see everything as a film- not to be confused with seeing the world tritely, but really more that I see events with clear cut beginnings, middles and ends. Similarly, I need everyone I encounter to embrace their own character. Specifically with Henry Adams, this does not seem like to much for me, as a reader, to ask. In my experience, I’ve taken to understanding “education” in the broad sense (what the world teaches you) as strong character development. The world tells you who you are- it may generally takes a lifetime to learn, but that is what memoirs and autobiographies are for. They are very elaborate character developments.
That said, who is Henry Adams? I’m sure he was a very nice man, and clearly of unusual intelligence and perspective. But what made him tick? In one chapter, Henry is a careless adventurer, in the next he is an intense poet. Move on and Henry will become a serious politician, and even further, an always-experimenting scientist. All these opportunities that we as readers understand to yield great life lessons. But where are they, Hank? What on earth did you learn?!?
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I understand Ariel's frustration regarding not being able to pinpoint exactly what Henry Adams learned. However, I think that part of the brilliance of the book is derived precisely from this quality. Life isn't an easy experience that gives you all the answers in a pretty box with a ribbon. I think one of the main points of Henry's education is that it is a continual process. Something that happens to you today may not be fully appreciated until much later in life when coupled with the knowledge from other experiences. People develop in their own way, and what one gathers from this novel simply contributes to his own education
ReplyDeleteI was able to relate to many of his life lessons such as disappointment, grief, betrayal, and pride, all of which amount to a healthy education. Although these are very generic themes, what person has not felt those emotions? Each person learns about these feelings in different ways, whether it be when your admired friend disowns you (as Sumner did to the Adams family) or when your sister dies unexpectedly (as Henry's sister died from tetanus). I think one of the reasons Henry Adams wrote this work was to try to relate to others. He spent a lot of his life trying to fit in, and maybe he thought by putting his life into words, we as students, could learn through his education.
I quite agree with Ariel. To me, it is very frustrating that he intended to write this story as an autobiography when it had so few characteristics of an autobiography in it. It seems absurd that he doesn't tell us how significant the narrated events were to him or why they were meaningless. To me, it ended up being more a man writing about these major events in his life that influenced him but, then, he doesn't leave room for them to influence us and I just really think that is a major flaw. Also, I find it to be frustrating that he ultimately ends up writing about theories, etc. That just isn't autobiography worthy to me, really... UNLESS HE EXPLAINS IN WHAT WAY HE WAS INFLUENCED BY THEM OR WHAT EFFECT THEY HAD ON HIS LIFE!!! grr.
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