Perception Vs Reality: Exploring Subjectivity in All Over

Introduction

Reality is subjective depending on who you ask, you get a different answer from each person. Quite a while back the distinction among perception and reality was defined as the act of understanding rather than the act of being real or genuine. Reality can be hard to understand, what might seem beautiful to you might be ugly for me, with reality everything is based on who is describing it. You can see yourself as something while someone sees you totally different because we all have different tastes on things, especially on appearance. Many would say that when reality knocks it could be harsh and confusing, and this is totally true because some people live in a trap their whole lives where they don’t know what’s real and what isn’t. Consistently life brings so many unexpected moments or memories of which we long for yet never truly occur, this is where we draw the line for perception vs reality of a perfect-to-be situation.

Shaping Reality Through Perception

In most of the cases people’s reality is shaped by what others tell them, for example “you’re beautiful” but then somebody else comes and tells you otherwise and that’s when the bubble of reality pops and you start seeing what has been a lie for many years. Self esteem plays a big role in someone’s perception or definition of reality because someone with low self esteem might be dark and obscure. Asking ourselves who we are have indefinite explanations because we have many different versions of ourselves, we can be a person with certain individuals and a totally different person with others. It all depends on the trust you have with the person you’re with, if for example it’s your best friend or cousin then you’re going to be real and honest because they knew you for a long time and you’re not forcing yourself into looking something that you’re not. You might wake up in the morning and feel horrible and disgusting and this is normal because you’re at your worst times with your hair looking crazy and a puffy face, but you might also wake up and see yourself as flawless with beautiful and soft skin. And let’s be honest we all wish to wake up looking flawless but not all of us have the privilege to do so. Just because your perception of what reality is, is different than mine doesn’t mean I’m wrong or that you are. The best example to consider is from “All Over” by Guy de Maupassant in which the main character Lormerin goes through problems with reality and his perception.

As human beings, we are very emotional and constantly seeking love and validation, and this is one of the main reasons why we suffer. We are always looking for the perfect love and for someone to tell us beautiful things to elevate our self-esteem and feel good about ourselves. Many of us would ask ourselves am I real? Or do others consider me as a real person? We always try to go way beyond expectations for the people that we care the most about, and it seems like these people are the ones to hurt us the worst. And why is this? Because we take whatever those people say deep down to our hearts, since we love them and never expected for them to do anything that would cause any harm or for us to suffer.

Conclusion

The purpose of this paper is to explain reality in the character of Lormerin. Lormerin is a bachelor and has always been a narcissist. The short story begins with Lormerin looking at his large mirror that occupied a big part of his dressing-room, he was there on a regular day looking at how handsome he was looking. While looking at the mirror Lormerin murmured, “Lormerin is still alive!’’. This shows a lot about his persona because everyday when he wakes up he glances at the mirror to admire his youthfulness. After admiring himself in the mirror he goes into the drawing-room where a pile of letters await for him to look at and read. One letter in particular caught his eye, he started thinking who could it be from? He does know this writing but doesn’t seem to identify it that quickly. Lormerin proceeds to smell the letter noticing that this smell is familiar to him, but that this must be from a long time ago.  

References

1. Maupassant, Guy de. 'All Over.' Short Stories. Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org/files/3090/3090-h/3090-h.htm#link2H_4_0001.
2. Brigham, John C. 'Perception and Reality: A Historical and Critical Study.' Harvard Theological Review, vol. 57, no. 2, 1964, pp. 105-123. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1508699.
3. Jopling, David A. 'Self-Esteem and Its Relationship to Perception of Reality.' Journal of Individual Psychology, vol. 48, no. 3, 1992, pp. 275-282. ProQuest, search.proquest.com/docview/1301875669.
4. Gouws, Amanda M. 'The Influence of Self-Perception on Reality Construction in Intimate Relationships.' Journal of Psychology in Africa, vol. 25, no. 4, 2015, pp. 309-312. Taylor & Francis Online, doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2015.1082007.