WWJDD

 In my fiction workshop class in the beginning of the semester, my professor asked the class, “What motivates us to do what we do? Why do we do the things we do?” Someone said inertia. Their preface was that an object at rest tends to stay at rest while an object in motion tends to stay in motion, and that the same scientific theory can be applied to people. I thought of the days in high school when I aimlessly sat in science class and was more engaged with the tone and animation of the teacher than the material.

This idea of human inertia got me thinking, though; I can’t help but wonder if we do everything we do because we have always done it. What if you don’t really like the things you like because of you own choice, what if it’s only because it’s what was introduced to you first?

I think John Dowell is a prime example of this idea. While he does have good intentions and is very tolerant in the beginning of the novel, he puts a lot of faith in others and accepts that people are as they appear to be. He doesn’t have a real reason for doing so, it’s just in his nature, and I think this is why he was so blind and naive to his wife cheating on him. He’s an object in motion that stayed in motion and didn’t stop to look around until it was right in front of his face. Even then, he developed this biased perspective of people and had little basis for his judgments, much less any emotion attached to his logic or reasoning. This was him becoming an object at rest and staying at rest. My point is that he just does things to do things. He stays in one track or frame of mind because that’s what he’s decided everyone is a part of, and no one can be different or distinguished from one another.