Friendship 1l4350

1/1/2016

Friendship by Clutton Brock An overview of the essay

Presented to Ayesha Niazi

Ali Sherazi UMT C-23

Table of Contents Preface .......................................................................................................................................................... 2 About the Author ......................................................................................................................................... 3 Gist ................................................................................................................................................................ 3 Summary....................................................................................................................................................... 3 Authors point of view .................................................................................................................................. 3 Slant on Essay ............................................................................................................................................... 4 Critical analysis ............................................................................................................................................. 4 Bibliography.................................................................................................................................................. 5

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Preface Clutton Brook wrote this essay friendship in 1900’s. Theme of this essay was friendship. Underneath I have tried to summarize the essay and used my analytical skills to show the authors point of view and my own point of view. I tried my level best to justify the essay in my summary even though I dint agree to most of the points.

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About the Author Clutton-Brock was considered one of the greatest essayist, critic, and journalist as his time. He was born at Weighbridge on 23 March 1868, He got primary education from Summerfield’s, Oxford, and in 1882 gained a scholarship at Eton. From Eton he proceeded to New College, Oxford. While studying there in oxford he developed the love for literature and art. He was married to Evelyn in 1903. He worked as a critic at tribune and also worked as a speaker for times literacy supplement. Even though he was a writer and a critic but internally he can be considered as a religious and spiritual person. We cannot say that his work was perfect but still he can be considered as one of the best essayist of 20th century.

Gist Gist of the essay is friendship and what are the moral values or ethical responsibilities of a friend. Essay is all about the unseen and unwritten rules of friendship according to the author. He gave some suggestions and ed on several comments he also explained his view point towards this that what friendship according to him is.

Summary Author started with explaining that according to him friendship is a gift and it is priceless. It cannot grow on the basis of calculations or barter system. Friendship requires a humble and down to earth attitude. We are no one to judge the worthiness of a friend or of a lover as it is a gift and gift has no materialistic value. Being judgmental of something is part of our social circle and part of our society but friendship is beyond these social barriers. It’s the only thing which makes us realize that these social grounds which requires us to be judgmental of everything are not real. We do not leave our friends on the basis of their reputation, certainly we do not end friendship on the grounds of their social repute. Nobody can be perfect as this is the imperfect world. So we should not expect perfection from our friends as they are also human and can make mistakes. The only thing we friendship needs to survive is we should accept our friends as the way they are. Criticism kills the friendship.

Authors point of view Clutton takes friendship to a new level. He is trying to set the rules of friendship. He is also trying to explain that on what grounds we should make friends and accept friendship. Once we have accepted someone’s love or friendship we should never end it. We should not judge friends on the basis of their repute or social status. Just let it all be the way it is, Clutton suggested not to friendship for granted in fact consider it a gift and a blessing. According to him no body is unworthy for friendship. Everyone is worthy enough to be a friend and we should be judgmental about our friends.

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Slant on Essay I certainly disagree with many points which Clutton tried to make. First of all there is a famous saying “A man is known by company he keeps”. Writer tries to say that we should not judge our friends, we should not expect a lot, a friend does not have to be of a good character. Even a non-virtuous or a bad reputed person can be a friend. In Kerala there is a saying “after having 6 months of friendship, two people start to look alike” ant it’s true. It’s in the human nature, we copy from each other and learn from each other consciously or sub consciously. So if we consider authors point of view whole society can become moral less and non-virtuous. As all the evil people will be friends with pious ones. And as evil attracts more sooner or later whole society will become evil. According to me an evil person or a non-virtuous person has to be left alone. So he feels that he is out of the society and to be a part of it again he has to have ethics. I agree with the concept that we should not be judgmental toward friends and should consider the fact that they are imperfect. Expectations are natural, whenever we love someone we start expecting things from him so author takes a wrong turn here. Every relation in the world works on the basis of barter system. Even God expects you to be thankful towards him. One thing on which I completely agree with the author is that friendship is a gift and we should consider it as a blessing.

Critical analysis Over all it’s a nice essay but it is hard to read. Complicated sentences may seem interesting, but it was a chore to decipher them and according to me there was no purpose. The essay has theme which is friendship." but it has nothing beyond that. It lacks structure all paragraphs make different points about friendship, but it is difficult to tell as If you are making points you should not make the reader guess. Lead them into thinking it, like you have done then state the point if you do it right the reader will feel a sense of agreement. Otherwise either you will lead the reader into confusion or he will feel a sense of disagreement. There are some interesting analogies, such as comparing friendship to sleep. The writer tried to make poetic statement, but do not have the writing skills to do so. Over all I give 3 out of 5 stars. I guess the writer had potential but he lacked writing skills and needed development.

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Bibliography    

J. L. Hammond, introduction to Essays on Life, 1925 (Mrs.) E. A. Clutton-Brock, introduction to The Miracle of Love www.thepeerage.com/e2717 www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/Best/CluttonFriendship

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