Finding Ones Self in Jane Smiley’s Moo :: Jane Smiley Moo Essays

Finding Ones Self in Jane Smileys Moo Finding ones self is non without turmoil. This does not pertain to only the young. It takes some people well into old age before they reach the level of knowing who they are. An essential element of this maturation is turbulence. biyearly turbulence gives an individual the opportunity to rise above previous deficiencies of personality and provides levels of self-awareness. There are many ways that people face maturation, and many more(prenominal) ways in which they do or dont face their demons.Lets look at some of the characters in Jane Smileys novel, Moo. At Moo University there are plenty of examples of turmoil and growth process. One of the ways that a person matures is through learning to accept themselves for who they are. Cecelia Sanchez is the adjunct professor of foreign languages. An immigrant from Mexico, Cecelia is the first in her family to make something of herself, at least in her familys eyes. She has done all the right things yet she feels dislocated from herself. On arriving at Moo University she experiences a feeling of displacement, as if she doesnt belong. In her first weeks there she would have picked a different source of dislocation. (Smiley, 16). Cecelias brio turns upside down as she attaches herself to the chaotic world of Chairman X. She attempts to locate herself through him. She shops for transformative items (Smiley, 261) in an attempt to remake herself into something that Chairman X will want. It isnt until Cecelia returns home to Los Angeles for the holidays that she feels a fourth presence enter the room. It was her own sadness. (Smiley, 266).Cecelia tells Tim, I come from a family who could have LIVED somewhere, but instead just ended up. (Smiley, 378). Cecelia has distinguishable that she does not want to end up somewhere. Her turmoil has led her to realize that she has a choice to end up in a place of her choosing, not someone elses.Other people find through turmoil that it is time to release the myths with which they have surrounded themselves. Chairman X and his lifelong companion, Beth, have make a life for themselves that does not fit into the myth they created many years before. They had never married because they originally believed that they must not in order to vitiate the capitalist tradition of marriage as a property relationship and the consequent intrusion of the corporation into private life.