In the novel, Ordinary People, written by Judith Guest, Calvin Jarrett is better off as an individual. During the novel, Cal makes very drastic changes, in his own time. One of them is in chapter 17, when he and Conrad are cleaning out the garage and he asks him about Dr. Berger. Another time is in chapter 23, when he is sitting in his car having a reflexive period. The last one is in chapter 29, when he is sitting at home thinking about how things have changed.
             In chapter 17, Cal makes his first apparent change. He questions Conrad about Dr. Berger, and what they talk about during their sessions. He asks Conrad, "What would you think if I were to go and talk with him?" At this time in the book, Cal has sort of admitted that there are problems he needs to work out, but he still needed some kind of approval. When Conrad says, " See him if you want to, I don't care, It's okay with me." Most parents, would be like okay I will thanks, but Cal questions himself, "But do I want to? Why do I want to? What's happening?" He still does not subconsciously also out in public want to admit he has problems or that he needs to talk to someone. Even though, he has asked Conrad about going to talk to Berger. At first, Conrad was trying to stop him from seeing Berger, because he though he wanted to talk about him, but when Cal said, no just to talk to him to figure things out. Conrad says you don't need to see him Dad you're fine. That makes Cal believe he really is fine and that he is just being dumb. He has sort of admitted to himself that there are problems, but he hasn't yet admitted to Conrad or Beth that he has problems he needs to work out for himself. At this time he still does not understand what is going on in his head. When he gets to Berger's office, to talk with him he doesn't talk about himself he talks about Conrad, and how he knew t
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