Spirituality Guide

It is not unusual to come across stories that feature the lives of eccentric people. The following stories show the different levels of eccentricity and their relevance to the theme and plot. Strange, even to the point of being offensive, behaviors show extreme sides of human nature.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek
Peyton Farquhar is a Southern planter who was imprisoned by the Union Army because he attempted to destroy the railroad bridge at Owl Creek. The punishment of the crime is hanging. Farquhar is considered strange because he seems too nationalistic or too loyal for his own good. His loyalty to the South which led him to attempt to destroy the bridge had resulted to his death. Some people see Farquhar as sympathetic and brave while a number thinks he acts without thinking, foolhardy and too fixated on attaining honor which, in the end, cost him his dear life.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Huckleberry Finn is the main character of the story. He runs away and passes the Mississippi River on a raft together with a slave named Jim. Huck is strange due to the fact that despite finding a treasure and having money, he prefers to live a simple life which prompts him to run away. This of course led to a series of adventures and/or misadventures for Huck.
Huck is strange in the sense that he loves to wander and lead a free life instead of living in the comforts and safety of a home complete with foster parents looking after him. His adventurous spirit does not allow him to settle in one place for a long time.

Bartleby the Scrivener
Bartleby is considered by the narrator, a lawyer, as the strangest man he has ever known.
He works as a scrivener or legal copyist. Bartleby is extremely passive, quiet, never gets mad. His most annoying trait though is obstinacy. He sees life as an aimless exercise and he could not feel enthusiastic for it. His favorite phrase “I would prefer not to” is his way of disconnecting himself from the world, which of course, is not possible for “no man is an island unto himselfâ€?. His refusal extends not only to tasks in particular but to life in general. In the end, Bartleby decides that “he prefers not to eatâ€? which eventually kills him.
The Great Gatsby
Jay Gatsby, formerly James Gats, is quite a strange man although he embodies a number of ideals such as hard work, his ability to turn his dreams to reality, great love, great drive and ambition, kindness and loyalty. These very traits propelled Gatsby to greatness hence the moniker, The Great Gatsby. On the other end, we see Gatsby embodying contrasting traits that negate his ideals and ironically also exemplify the era of American Dream. These traits which lead to his demise are: pursuit of worldly pleasures, cynicism, greed for money, unbridled passion and moral degradation.

The Minster’s black veil
Reverend Hooper wears a black veil on his face wherever he goes. This makes him look like an eccentric, to the point of being considered an outcast. But he points out that each of us is wearing a veil although not seen. We cover our sins before man but we know that God is aware of every fault we commit.
The Reverend Hooper’s decision to wear a veil for the rest of his life invites a number of speculations on the reason why he want this kind of eccentric lifestyle. One of the reasons cited was that the Minister wore the black veil to hide his own shame and guilt brought about by an affair in the past.
By choosing to wear the black veil, the Reverend’s life becomes characterized by scandal and ostracism. When he was dying, it was then that people around him finally realized and appreciate his efforts in wearing the veil. The black veil symbolizes hypocrisy in the midst of life of sin.

Conclusion

The eccentric characters in the stories provide the main plot. As their lives unfold, so do the stories.

Being eccentric has its meaning. People choose to be eccentric for some reasons. And for that, we should respect them even if they appear weird to us or not. Eccentricity is only one way of showing our uniqueness although some carry it to extreme levels such as the examples cited above.