Prompt: Personal convictions and shared beliefs, the private and the public life, somethings seem at odds in the modern world. How did you find your chosen works touched on this conflict, and with what effect?
In Oedipus, the general belief is in the gods, and their prophets/oracles. The prophets and oracles are accepted to portray the true word of the gods, and all people considered them to be accurate. This conflicts to the beliefs of Jocasta and Oedipus when discussing the words of the prophet Tiresias. Oedipus does not believe that they are accurate, and so he makes a judgement based on them. Jocasta does the same, and tells Oedipus to disregared what Tiresais said, because she believes it cannot be true. This leads to more problems, because Oedipus accuses Creon of creating rumors and they fight, destroying their relationship and making problems for Thebes' government. But more than that, it causes Oedipus to not accept what the prophet is saying has truth, when his words are shown to be truthful, it only causes Oedipus more pain and sorrow. If he had heeded the words of Tiresais when he had the chance, a lot of the personal trauma could have been avoided has well has public pride. This is similar to Meursault in The Stranger, because of the values Meursault has in contrast to the values of the society. In the society, it is important to pay respect to mothers, to value human life, and to be emotionaly attached to their lives. However, Meursault does things that show the opposite, when to Meursault, they are fine. In the end of the book, it causes Meursault to be convicted for murder, and for him to lose the respect of those around him. Both books show that when personal opinions go against the accepted beliefs of society, it causes internal has well has external conflitct.
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