1. What is the narrator’s purpose in writing these “confessions”? How do you know?
2. For Rousseau, what is the relationship between feeling and thinking?
3. How does Rousseau describe his childhood? What significance can we draw from this description
4. Why do you think Rousseau chooses to include the anecdote about stealing from his employer?
5. Using your own language, how would you describe the narrator, given his self-presentation in The Confessions?
Using your own language, how would you describe the narrator, given his self-presentation in The Confessions?
I would describe Rousseau to be a very egoistic person. He loves to talk about himself and the ways others perceived him. In the text, Rousseau talks about being a very well-behaved child and even says that he eventually became the only child after his brother left. Rousseau also talks a lot about punishment, and the shame it brings. He fears shame which has driven him to keep secrets. His fear of shame encouraged him to blame the theft on Morian. Rousseau’s “Confessions” gives the readers a glimpse of his persistent fear of being judged by others, and this fear has driven him to portray himself in a high stature so that others will not doubt his character.
How does Rousseau describe his childhood? What significance can we draw from this description
Like many people of the era, Rousseau considers his childhood a period of being a small, inexperienced person, but not formally distinct from his years of independence. There are some strains of 18th century cultural practice, where wealthy European children would be invited to read aloud, gamble, and generally learn mature activities from a young age. There is also a strain of genius, in the sense of the enlightened or enraptured mind. Rousseau does not comment on his years before 5, he has “no idea” what he did in those years. Yet it was the practice of reading his mother’s books that she left behind that brought him into being, and with it immediately into a mental maturity and fascination with knowledge that he would come to “live in.” The death of his mother, a trauma that may have wounded his developing mind, was escaped as he came to “live within Rome” as a reader of classical texts.
What is the narrator’s purpose in writing these “confessions”? How do you know?
Rousseau’s intentions in writing the short story “the confessions” is to express his self portrait to an audience. He engages to confront his readers to many encounters and experiences that influenced him to make his decisions from early on in his life. For example, Rousseau had lost his mother during child labor and was abandoned by his father at a very young age. This resulted in Rousseau encountering a relationship with a much older woman due to the loss of his mother. In addition to having a rough childhood, I think the story “the confessions” was established by Rousseau to convey or express the truth in his life. This was a way to finally own up to the decisions he made and express the reasons why he did, what he did. Despite admitting to his past actions, the readers can tell what he feels the most remorse over from his actions. An example in this case was when he gave his five children up for adoption and felt the least concern. Compared to the situation where he stole a worthless ribbon and blamed it on his lover, on which he felt like a terrible person.
Using your own language, how would you describe the narrator, given his self-presentation in The Confessions?
I was not very fond of Rousseau. From the beginning, I picked up on his traits of being self-centered and someone who loves to gloat… but then again, it was his autobiography, so who am I to blame him? Even so, I did not like that he glorified himself to be greater than the rest of the men that he knew. To be one of a kind is one thing, but to believe that he was better just because he had “good” morals is another. If I were to relate him to someone in this generation, I’d call him someone who goes to Church just to say they go to church and make everyone feel self-conscious about what they’re doing with their life.
In my case, it was a little different. At first, in that very first two paragraphs I didn’t perceive his egocentric attitude. I actually believed he wanted to highlight the fact that we are all different and unique, and that he was only telling his own personal story. However, the more I read into it, I started picking up on those traits of being self-centered. I still had my doubts until what happen with the stolen ribbon and the poor way he managed the situation, he even mentions in many parts of his confessions that what he could not deal with was the shame, and that was his biggest issue throughout his life. Not until I read the last part of his autobiography I fully got the sense of his self-absorbed personality.
3. How does Rousseau describe his childhood? What significance can we draw from this description
According to Rousseau, his childhood was filled with strife and many hardships. For example, he grew up without a mother and eventually as a young man, was separated from his father and brother as well. His childhood past is significant to the story because it helps provide partial reasoning as to why Rousseau did some of the things he did later in life. These past anecdotes also give us a further understanding of his character overall and how it evolved throughout his life.
How does Rousseau describe his childhood? What significance can we draw from this description
Rousseau describes his childhood as being troubling. From the moment he is born, his mother passes away due to complications which his father never recovers from. His father and brother are not in the picture for most of his childhood. This negatively affected Rousseau as he would make many poor decisions later on in life. This is in part in due to having no real guidance as a child and not being taught what is right from wrong.
Using your own language, how would you describe the narrator, given his self-presentation in The Confessions?
Rousseau wants the reader to think that he’s a common man and he’s very special at the same time. He paints a flowery picture of a man who is plagued by his conscience for stealing and then framing someone else for the crime, but then states that his good deeds will cover that one time fault. We are supposed to pity his difficult childhood and excuse this one time mistake, while he leaves his 5 kids at an orphanage. To me he comes across as a man who’s justifying his actions, both to the reader and himself.
How does Rousseau describe his childhood? What significance can we draw from this description?
While Rousseau describes the beginning of his childhood with the event of his beloved mothers’ death at his birth, Rousseau continues to describe the rest of his life in an idealist way. Rousseau tells the readers of how he grew up loved by everyone, from the long hours of reading with his father all the way to his bond with his cousin boarding school. Due to reading all of his mothers books, Rousseau further explains that he developed a mature perception of life. We can sense that he tells us that he did not suffer while he was a child, therefore he is sure that he is different from anyone else because he considers himself as a human who is not like other men and committed flaws without grounded reasoning.
How does Rousseau describe his childhood? What significance can we draw from this description?
Rousseau describes his childhood as one that is unique in numerous ways to that of the usual upbringing of other children. He believes that he had obtained more emotional attachments and passion far beyond someone of his years through books of love and romantics he had his father read in his earlier years, a hobby they both shared and held tightly which being left by his mother who passed somehow connected the two to her. He describes his childhood as also being one filled with love and revere by not only his father but everyone who encountered him. He was caressed and nurtured in a way that lead him to be the effeminate,passionate,widely read romantic he currently is. He was in many ways shielded from the simple whims of a child as he was not permitted to play like other children were unattended. He was watched over closely as the frail child he was and was overly wrapped in the bussom of his loved ones. His upbringing as described by Rousseau led him to not only care deeply for the people around him and their happiness but older the way he would seek pleasure and love from his female counterparts.
This childhood upbringing is what made him somewhat lethargic in his pursuits of the pleasures of a woman’s sexual presence and made him more of a fantasy riddled young man. Who got more pleasure out of simply thinking about being with women he would develop relations, without even ever touching them physically. It shaped the way he viewed life itself and in his own words made him prejudice to things he wasn’t accustomed to seeing while he was so tenderly waited upon as a child. And this in itself shapes the authors true personality, this childhood made him into the man he is currently.
Why do you think Rousseau chooses to include the anecdote about stealing from his employer?
I believe Rousseau chose to include the anecdote about stealing from his employer to gain sympathy from his audience. He wants us to think that he’s a good person at heart and that he feels shame, guilt and regret. While he wants us to be empathetic, I think the story works against him.
He stole a ribbon from his employer and did not confess to the crime. He blamed the theft on his friend the chambermaid, it ruined her reputation, and it weighs heavily on his conscience everyday; that is what he would like us to believe. I couldn’t help but feel that Rousseau is self-centered and overdramatic. In the text, he even mentions that it is the only crime he’s ever committed.
While I doubt that to be the truth, Rousseau does expose himself as a thief and a liar. He does not want to be associated with these traits and mentions at the end that he hopes he will never have to talk about the event again. By telling the truth for the first time, he gains closure, but it does not make him any less guilty.
Using your own language, how would you describe the narrator, given his self-presentation in The Confessions?
During the whole reading of confessions by Rousseau, the narrator rousseau himself gave off a feeling of a very honest -confident man, who is not afraid of telling his truth. Throughout the story, Rousseau includes times of his hardship during his early years, his brother disappearing, his mom dying of childbirth, etc. Moreover, he also explains his ventures and mistakes in his adult life in which he includes his relationships, jobs,etc..I view Rousseau as an honest-confident because as he tells his confessions he doesn’t hold back on his secret’s in which he explains in full depth of his nature at that time being completely honest.
How does Rousseau describe his childhood? What significance can we draw from this description
From my perspective, his childhood is not easy at all. During his childhood, his mother died, his brother died and his father was exiled, which is a complete tragedy to normal people. However, in his article, I didn’t see any cpmlaint of that . On the contrary, he put lots of emphasis on how he was loved by his relative and his friendship with his cousin as well. When I read his desciption about the childhood, I realized that he was truly a unique individual, as he said. Instead of complaining all the time, he choose to precious what he had.
What’s more, his mother’s absence during his childhood also explains why he has some emotional connection to a thirty-year-lady.
3. How does Rousseau describe his childhood? What significance can we draw from this description
Rousseau describes his early childhood beginning with the tragedy which was losing his mother at an early age. His mother died with the birth of Rousseau. Later he is separated from his brother and father which eventually leads to the decision of him running away to see the world when he was sixteen years old. Things such as losing a parent or growing up without a parent could impact the life of someone a lot. An event such as not be able to have relationships with either parent or siblings could lead someone to growing up very different and having a very difficult time forming relationships.
Using your own language, how would you describe the narrator, given his self-presentation in The Confessions?
Jean Jacques Rousseau appears to be a sincere and self-assured person through “The Confessions” as he talks in details about his life beginning from when he was born and lost his mother due to childbirth and how his father abandoned him at an early age to the present day as he explains his deeds and ventures in his adult life including job, relationships etc. He wants his readers to think that he is unique and almost one of kind as he is afraid of being judged by people.