Unit 2 Blog on "Being a Man" By Paul Theroux

What is the authors message in this story?



The author is trying to explain to the reader how society see men. He thinks the way people see men is "emotionally damaging and socially harmful." By calling men stupid he means they are looked upon as slow, stupid, dull. However Society does not see men in this way, men have always had the most power. As the years have passed, women have tryed to fight for better jobs and gain that power, but yet sometimes men still hold the most power.



How does Theroux define manhood?



Theroux defines manhood in a very negative way. His concept of men is to "be stupid, be unfeeling, obedient, soldierly, and stop thinking." Therefore he sees American manhood as pathetic, sorry, disgraceful, and pitiful, but this not necessarily true.

How does he relate real life experiences with his story?

He talks about how sports seem to be a "recipe for creating bad marriages, social misfits, moral degengerates, sadist, latent rapist" however he does not explain how how sports cause those outcomes. He also relates his life experience as being a writer and not feeling accepted as 'manly' by society.

How does sports affect the way people see men?

He feels that men only have interest in sports and such things. He says " I regard high school sports as a drug far worse than marijuana," I think he is trying to say that men should show interest on other things beside sports.

What can be done to change societies expectations for men?

He does not say what could be done he only provides negativity in his story.

I disagree with the author in this reading, not all of society see 'manhood' the way he sees it. I feel that what he says is from his personal perspective. Not all Americans are raised with the same values and not all of society sees men the way he is claiming. Theroux provides a lot of society views of manliness and his personal perspective but he does not say what should be done to fix the problem, or what could be done to change the way he thinks society sees men.