Archer J. Broken Routine Analysis

Archer J.
Broken Routine analysis

In everyday life we do some things mindlessly, especially when we rely on old routines and mental habits to
give us information about the world. ’Septimus operated his daily life by means of a set of invariant sub-routines,
like a primitive microprocessor, while he supposed himself to be a great follower of tradition and discipline.’ When
we find ourselves in highly scripted situations, we feel confident. When we encounter unusual or novel situations
for which we have no script, we feel uncomfort-able and unsure of ourselves. That in the best manner describes
Septimes’s behavior. ‘Septimus not only liked his life-style, but was distressed if for any reason his routine met with
the slightest interference.’
Septimus had well-established, ingrained scripts for every day of his life. ‘Had, for some unexplicable
reason, the K.G.B. wanted to assassinate Septimus, all they would have had to do was put him under surveillance
for seven days and they would have known his every movement throughout the working year.’ This routine was
adhered to year in year out with breaks only for holidays, for which Septimus naturally also had a routine.
‘Christmases were spent with Norma’s parents in Watford; in the summer the family took a package holiday for two
weeks in the Olympic Hotel, Corfu.’
One day Septimus did not manage to get away from the office until a few minutes after six. And everything
went wrong. At the station he queued for his paper and cigarettes and the loudspeaker announced with perfunctory
apology that three trains had already been taken off that evening because of a go slow. Then he boarded not the 4,
but the 6 carrier filled with unknown people. He had to face mindful processing. First, he was owestricken by a
young man in black with black nails and “Heil Gitler on his jacket”. Septimus has a very negative opinion about the
youth, judging by his provocative appearance. Ad S has a personal prototype: a young man, black nails, leather
jacket with the statement “Heil Gitler” should be an uncontrollable, agressive man with no sense of tact. And this
prejudice was Samuel’s mistake. When this man took one of Septimus’s cigarettes, he only stated “Discretion was
the better part of Valour”. In a second, Septimus’s paper was torn in half and the cigarettes were grabbed by the
youth. Septimus continued to ignore the situation, being incapable of reading the paper, trembling as he was with
the outrages perpetrated by his neighbour. His thoughts were now turning to revenge and gradually a plan began to
form in his mind. There was a cigarette puffing competition and in some minutes the carriage was filled with a
smoke. In the end, Septimus made an elegant gesture of blowing the smoke out it into the face of the enemy and
placing the little squares of paper in a neat pile on the youth’s lap.
The final of the story is a sheer comedy: “As he picked up his briefcase it knocked the armrest in front of
him and the lid sprang open. There was a neatly folded copy of the Evening Standard and an unopened packet of
ten Benson & Hedges cigarettes.’
To sum it up, mindless processing made Samuel extremely vulnerable to any new situations. Samuel needs
to act mindfully in order to overcome automatic assumptions and biases. Moreover, Samuel is to revise prototypes
and to keep an open mind in order to prevent prejudice.
Simms P. Four Short Crushes
In the story the narrator encounters women who do not fit neatly into a category, and he feels off balance.
His person prototype is an idealized representation of an ideal woman. The narrator uses only simple,
undifferentiated constructs based mainly on physical characteristics and he lacks cognitive complexity. The narrator
has certain scripts for romantic dates. And if smth doesn’t fit into his expectations, he feels off balance. In the first
story the girl ,lighting the place up like the noonday sun at midnight, had to notice her “soul mate”; in the second
one - the narrator wanted to start a conversation with a romantic girl on a rainy evening on the bicycle who turned
out to be a guy; in the third one - a romantic girl ,like silent confection, sitting next to him turned to be his
girlfriend’s rommate was involved in some messy business; in the last story the girl, which made the narrator wish
that the world itself would stop spinning, was making an order too long so that the narrator started to hate her. The
narrator’s main mistake is the obsession with appearance, physical characteristics and the lack of cognitive
complexity as he was looking for an ideal woman that would never exist.
Sedaris D. The way we are

In the story “The way we are” the narrator has a certain script for the morning. “The tap usually dries up at the exact
moment he rolls out of bed, which is usually between ten and ten-thirty. For him this is early, but for Hugh it’s
something closer to mid-day. Then the narrator solves the coffee problem. But one morning lack of caffeine
prevents the story-teller from mindless processing. Hugh doesn’t fit into the person prototype of a man. The
narrator was surprised that Hugh brought field flowers and put them in vase; then he caught him down on the
riverbank, beating our dirty clothes against a rock. These statements are examples of gender stereotypes. He does
these things that are somehow beyond faggy and seem better suited to some hardscrabble pioneer wife. It’s obvious,
that the narrator considers Hugh's behavior freaky.

Archer J. Broken Routine Analysis

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Archer J. Broken Routine Analysis

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Archer J. Broken Routine Analysis

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Archer J.

Broken Routine analysis

Sedaris D. The way we are

You might also like