The depth of Michael’s character starts with a cocky man engrossed in the mirror, wondering whether or not he should tell his wife, Dora, about staying out all night to play cards with his friends. He knows his wife will be unhappy because he should be home after work to do the paper work and pay the bills like any other responsible family man would. But instead of talking to her about the evening, he decides to slip out the door “pretending that he thought it was later than it really was” (p2). On his way to work he tells himself, “Let the bills wai

A judge sends Michael to three months in a correctional facility. While sitting in his cell, Michael thinks of all the “trivial and infinitely charming little episodes” (p14) of his life. Aiken says, “he assured himself once more that he had really been a good man” (p14). This showing once more that Michael has become foolishly entrapped by his own self-deception. By thinking he is still a “good man” and believing he has done nothing wrong, it is obvious he has yet to learn reality and is oblivious to life itself. He must learn to put others first and not what he wants. He then at the end could only imagine himself moving west and getting rich. While saying, “Good riddance----good riddance! Let them all go to hell” (p13). If he had only learned his lesson from stealing the shell, he just might have been living his dream of luxury but instead he is stuck in this vicious cycle of self-deception and a non-acceptance of reality.

That night at Smith’s room things began to fall apart for Michael. As they were sitting there playing bridge, smoking cigars and drinking gin, someone brought up the subject of impulses, the kind of impulses like kissing a girl. But it was Michael who brought up the “bad” impulses like stealing and slashing fur coats with razor blades. He talks about these things like he really wants to do it, almost like a crazy man. Michael says, “It isn’t that we do it, it’s only that we want to do it. Why, Christ, there’s been times when I thought to hell with everything, I’ll kiss that woman if it’s the last thing I do” (p3). Aiken is just showing the reader the kind of ambition and what almost feels like hate toward society Michael has. As Michael is saying this his friends are becoming a little curious towards him as if they

Some topics in this essay:
Michael Michael, Bryant Smith, Michael Lowes, Life Self-Deception, Marmion Canto, Conrad Aiken, Walter Scott, reader michael, michael lowes, society michael, michael michael, “good man”, drugstore hot, wife dora, michael course, course tries,