Whos_Reality

‘We create reality though our experiences and our imagination’ I met a young man whilst working in a mental hospital, his name was Scott and he had ended up in the institution due to a life of alcohol and abuse. When Scott was just 9 years old his parents separated, driving his father, David to become a heavy drinker. In his teen years, Scott would sit at home each night praying that his father wouldn’t drink, so he would not have to endure the endless verbal abuse that he had received the previous night. Scott was a very fragile teenager; he was already accustomed to bullying at high school by his peers, when they caught onto the fact that he was a homosexual. This bullying was then continued the moment his father stepped though the front door of their 3 room apartment, he couldn’t escape it. Being surrounded by this severe abuse and alcohol started Scott’s addiction. It all began in 1998 when Scott began to drink alone and heavily in bars, he would hop from bar to bar in a bid to consume more alcohol and be left alone. Scott would smile as he recalled the nights spent wandering the streets drunk, those were his ‘happy times’. ‘I used to get lost in my own perfect and carefree world when I was drinking it was my escape, I believed a functional family that loved me and everything was how I dreamed’ When we are first born we are a fresh canvas, plain, untouched and innocent, just waiting to be painted on by those we meet and the events we encounter throughout our life. No outside influences have yet coloured the person we will eventually become. We are painted by a number of different people and various experiences in our lives, which will all play a part in the outcome of our canvas. The first people to paint on our canvas is our parents, they start our lives for us, laying the foundations for others to build upon. It is clear that Scott’s father was no model parent, being subject to both substance and verbal abuse lead him into a life of addiction himself. The addiction sparked his mental breakdown, sending him into his own fantasy world that he never wanted to leave, to escape the true facts of his life. As humans we are not only shaped by those people in our lives but things we are subject too, events we have witnessed and bad memories that haunt us. Dealing with these past occurrences in our lives can lead us to do unsightly things, to create what isn’t real in an attempt to free ourselves from the world we are in. We all have the capacity to deal with our past experiences, but individuals like Eric Cooke in the novel ‘Shark Net’ prefer to escape their past by generating their own imaginative world. Cooke creates an alter-ego for himself; he believes he has a reputation in Perth for being ‘Joe Cool’. Through his eyes he is the ultimate catch for the women and the envy of the blokes, when in hindsight those around him are judging him and putting him down. Eric was brought up by parents that did not love or cherish him. Born with a harelip, he was always picked on and physically abused by his alcoholic father for being different. Having the upbringing that he did had made Eric develop an attitude just like his fathers, as he knew no different; he was a very aggravated individual. His past being so traumatic and rough Eric easily lost grip on what was real around him. Cooke lived a double life, he would be at home with his loving wife and children in the daytime and during the night he would venture off in an attempt to pick up girls and get drunk. While he was out at bars, he would fall into his own world where he portrayed himself as the hero, but it was never able to last long, Cooke was constantly rejected by women, being called ‘bird mouth’. Cooke ‘s main priority was to keep his reputation as the cool guy, so he would jump of the pier in front of crowds of people, in seek of praise and attention. This inventive persona leads Cooke to commit crimes around his neighbourhood and to murder 8 innocent people. Cooke like Scott was haunted by his terrible childhood, the bad experiences caused by abuse and alcohol made them vulnerable to society and its influences. They each couldnt deal with the harsh reality of their past and constructed what they saw as their ideal truth. Stephen R. Covey once said, ‘Live out your imagination, not your history’. In A Street Car named Desire Blanche conceals herself behind the image of a Southern Belle hiding her dirty past and portraying to others that she is a well mannered, respected young woman with high standards. This false persona that Blanche creates for herself is just part of the fantasy world she lives in that slowly spirals her into ruin. Blanche hides herself in the dark, she lives in the shadows, this represents her thrive to evade reality as she said ‘I don’t want realism I want magic’. She never lets anyone see her in the light; she is ashamed of her past and her fading beauty. Blanche got married in her teen years, and was distraught when her husband Allan committed suicide after she discovered his homosexuality. This moment in her past is what began the breakdown of Blanche’s mental state this is shown when she hears the Polka music tune in her head. The music signifies the memories of her husband, and hearing it makes her lose grip on reality. Blanche uses manipulation and lies along with fantasy in hope to escape and forget her dishonest and dirty past of sleeping around, but it sends her insane as well as her invention of Shep Huntleigh, a rich fellow she believes is going to come and rescue her. But having to living with her sister Stella and her husband Stanley just puts more pressure on Blanche to escape reality. She is put in a place where her truth is different to those around her and in the end it brings her to pieces; her fantasy world is torn down by Stanley with his vicious and dominant personality. Blanche’s mistakes and events of her past continue to crush her from the inside-out, resulting in her creating illusions with the help of alcohol to cope with reality.