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Essay about James Dickey

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James Dickey

Ah! The world- view to which an individual adheres is all- important. Who am I? Many people strictly conform to a set pattern of beliefs that limit or curtail their expression or personal growth. Many times their beliefs reflect the ideas of a community, a church, or a family. The individual blends in with the group and becomes a co-dependent function of that group. James Dickey conformed to no one. He stands apart due to his ability to intensely reveal the images burning vividly in his mind.

One image of Dickey that consistently flames brightly is the persona of the "loner". Dickey fulfills this loner image through his complex worldview that allows him to predatorily satisfy his innate needs through various means. His …show more content…

James Dickey struggled with suburban family life because his sets of beliefs contradict and interfere with the way others live. His dishonesty comes not from his misrepresentations or distortions of facts in his life to other people, but in his failed attempt to be true to his worldview. He is a loner not by choice, but by philosophical differences with the majority. These differences result in a mental tug of war that produces chaotic results in his life. Christopher Dickey witnessed the alcoholic, the adulterer, the liar, the artist, the promoter, the creative genius, and the decimated father figure. Christopher Dickey judged his father from his own perspective and at the insistence of his wife. Christopher Dickey may have connected with his father, but the reciprocal connection from his dad was certainly different. James Dickey did not openly display his dark side to his wife and immediate family to secure their loving devotion. They put up with him, because he provided for them financially; he had enormous charisma; and his wife was too weak to do anything. The connections in his family were superficial; he controlled them from a detached standpoint.

James Dickey may have wanted to be a productive human being, but only on his philosophical terms. In Self-Interviews, he states that "I never have been able to disassociate the poem from the poet, and I hope I never will. I really don’t believe in Eliot’s theory of autotelic art, in which the poem has nothing to do

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