Breakthrough Writer

In the Pond Lesson #3: Contrasting the Close-Range and the Long-Range Character (Updated for Spring 2011)

 

Part One. The Close-Range Character (Bin)

 

1.  He obsesses over his myopic view of the world. The character becomes consumed by an obsession and obsession distorts perspective, common sense, and sanity. For example, professors go to grammar conferences and get into fistfights over a semicolon rule controversy. Or sports fans with different caps stab each other at sporting events. What started out as a fun game becomes so personal that people will kill each other.

A rich man obsesses over money and doesn't give his wife access to his secret accounts, a real tragedy, since he is murdered.

2.  He acts on compulsion rather than cool, detached rational powers. When we talk about compulsion, we often have to look at unconscious motivations. In Bin’s case, he has a huge ego and he is a man who strains for significance and high regard. If you're compulsive, you're a slave to unconscious desires; you're not a free human being.

You have the personality profile of an addict. And one thing about addicts, they're all enslaved to demons they can't control. Bin would deny this. He would blame all his problems on other people. 

3.  He is fueled by the need for instant gratification. Bin does not have the adult’s poise or patience or ability to wait and let his enemy make the wrong move. The problem with instant gratification is impatience. Impatience makes you regret your actions. Like the basketball player who returned the hostility to a heckler and called the heckler a very bad name. The player felt instantly vindicated perhaps, letting off steam, but now by all accounts he'll be fined $100K. 

4.  He obsesses over the trees while forgetting to see the forest. When you stare at the trees too long, you forget that a forest fire is approaching or fail to see the general scenery around you. This impedes you from “knowing the situation.” Always know the situation. For example, in college I was very strict about my workout schedule and would go straight to the gym after Abnormal Psychology class. After taking an exam, a beautiful woman asked me to celebrate with her in the ale house, and I told her I had to go the gym. I failed to see the situation.

Number one rule in life: Always know the Situation. 

5.  In his need to fulfill his short-term goals, he sacrifices his more important long-term goals. Bin would rather humiliate his bosses for the short-term, even if it means compromising the living conditions for him and his family over the long-term. In America, spending in for short-term gratification leads to long-term debt. As of 2009, the average American has $15,500 credit card debt. His stupidity refers to the famous aphorism: Bite my nose to spite your face. 

6.  Short-term is related to ego; long-term is related to real self-interests. The ego does not know what it really wants, just as the self-indulgent man is not happy. The ego run amok means recklessness. The ego is a reckless beast. Professional athletes are coddled and worshipped, but their egos lack direction. As a result, over 75% of NFL and NBA players are bankrupt 5 years after retiring.

7.  The Close-Ranger is less likely to succeed because he lacks self-control. For evidence of this, we can look to the Walter Mischel Marshmallow experiment. Children who could suppress their desire for one marshmallow would get two and later in life they became more successful. 

8.  The Close-Ranger is more volatile and is a slave to his emotional tumult whereas the Long-Ranger is more even-keeled. Once the Close-Ranger loses his temper, the damage he does in both words and actions is often irreparable. He tends to burn bridges and can never rebuild those bridges again.

9.  The Close-Ranger always “shoots himself in the foot” and then has to rationalize his actions, blaming others for his own pettiness and volatility, making him defensive and angry toward others.

10.               The Close-Ranger doesn’t take well to criticism from others and reaches the point where “everyone is wrong and I’m right.” Or he says, “I am a genius surrounded by a confederacy of dunces.”

11.               The Close-Ranger tends to be centripetal, meaning he doesn’t mature, becoming a more and more intense version of who he already is, while the Long-Ranger tends toward growth, making him centrifugal.

 

Part Two. The Long-Ranger

1.   The Long-Ranger sacrifices immediate gratification for long-term goals. He goes to college, languishes in poverty while his friends work full-time, knowing that in 5 years his friends will be cleaning his septic tank.

2.   The Long-Ranger is indifferent to public approval, thus does not need to go into debt buying bling, using money that could have gone to his education. Instead, he focuses on his goals based on self-knowledge, not the adulation of others.

3.   The Long-Ranger is not a slave of his own psychology and its concomitant compulsions. Rather, he is a student of psychology and is aware of the pitfalls of getting too absorbed by emotion. His ability to “read others” makes him a formidable adversary and gives him the weapons to tame his own demons. We all have demons from family conflicts, personal failures, regret, broken hearts, etc. The question isn’t whether we have demons or not. The question is do we have the tools to tame those demons. Honest self-introspection, which allows us take an unflinching inventory of our faults and weaknesses, is the beginning of taming our demons.

4.   Long-Rangers can identify the foibles and dangers of Close-Rangers and tend to avoid them. Long-Rangers tend to hang out with other Long-Rangers. Losers like to hang out with their own because misery loves company. Winners are smart enough not get dragged down into the hellhole with losers.

5.    Metacognition is the ability to step back and observe your behavior before you act on it: Writes Jonah Leher in the The New Yorker: “In adults, this skill is often referred to as metacognition, or thinking about thinking, and it’s what allows people to outsmart their shortcomings.”

There have been people who have wronged me and I was tempted to lecture them on their betrayals and shortcomings but I weighed the satisfaction of lecturing them with the consequences of lecturing someone who is a narcissist and is not going to change, no matter how right I am. Lecturing such people will simply add drama to the equation and drama will give me more headaches than I already have to deal with. So my decision was to burn the bridge in polite silence. 

 

6.   Long-Rangers have intelligence plus self-control, the ability to suppress desire. Self-control and the ability to suppress impulses is part of being street smart. Pure intelligence isn’t enough. A lot of intelligent people are lost souls because they’re slaves to their emotions.

 

7.   Long-Rangers don’t wait for the “right feeling” to take the right action. They perform the right action first. The right action is then followed by the right feeling. This in turn creates habits of self-improvement, contrasting with the Close-Ranger’s habits of self-destruction. Interview people and you’ll find people with discipline are happier than those who are shackled to the chains of laziness and random behavior. You need structure in your life to be happy. 

Part Three. Lessons Learned from Walter Mischel Marshmallow Study (use for research paper if you decide on this topic)

Self-Control Is the Key to Success

Marshmallow Test Video

Don't! The Secret of Self-Control

Part Four. Taking Another Look at Option 3: Write a 6-page research paper that contrasts the character who sees the big picture, a Long-Ranger, and one who is focused on the small picture, a Close-Ranger. Use people you know and characters from the novel to explain these two diametrically opposed orientations. 

Suggested structure: In two pages, analyze the areas of your life that you are successful in exercising control to delay gratification and the areas where you're not so successful. Explain your successes and failures. In the third page, analyze the lessons we can learn from theWalter Mischel study. Then in your third page, analyze Bin as a Close-Ranger evidenced by ______________, ______________, ________________, and ___________________. Your Bin analysis will cover 3 pages for a total of 6 pages. Be sure to include a Works Cited page.

Part 5: Write down your 3 long-range qualities and contrast them with your 3 close-range ones. Or if you don't want to analyze yourself, use someone you know. 

 

In the Pond Lesson #2 Updated for Spring 2011

 

Sometimes in life it’s crucial that we swallow our pride, backpedal, and admit we’re wrong because the alternative, continuing done Wrong Road, just creates a greater and greater catastrophic embarrassment.

 

The birthers who claim Obama is not an American citizen are looking more and more like crackpots in the face of definitive evidence that Obama has an authentic birth certificates.

 

Same is true of the conspiracy theorists who believe 9/11 was an inside job done by the Bush Administration.

 

A preacher keeps predicting the end of the world and is always wrong. He, and his followers, should admit they can’t interpret biblical prophecy.

 

A man with an imminent wedding realizes he doesn’t love his fiancé but goes on with the wedding to save face.

 

A college student realizes she hates her major but sticks with it to save face.

 

A kid at school “calls out” another guy for an after school fight even though he knows in his heart he was acting irrational when he lost his temper but goes on with the fight to save face.

 

An employee screams at his boss and rather than apologize to keep his job, he quits to save face.

 

Bin could stop all this nonsense, this escalation of war between him and his employers, but his pride stops him. All Bin has to do is buy his boss a bottle of Vodka. Conflict over. 

 

Why Bin Is Addicted to Rage

One. The purity of emotion intoxicates him like liquor, makes him urinate as if he is experiencing hormonal changes. This could be a byproduct of his simmering frustration, which feeds on itself.

Two. Rage gives Bin a sense of mission, which must placate him living in a small town that revolves around a fertilizer plant.

Three. Rage makes him feel like he has the moral upper-hand over the supercilious bureaucrats who lord over him even though in fact his sense of superiority is a gross illusion.

Four. Bin’s rage makes him lose a sense of proportion so that he does foolish deeds, which get him and his family into trouble.

Five. Bin is an artist but all of his art is subsumed by rage, resulting in the misplacement of his talents.

Six. Rage is part of Bin's bullheaded stubbornness and constitutes his identity. This characteristic is the primary source of the novel's comedy.

Seven. When you rage all the time, it becomes a force of habit; it's all you know. It becomes your orientation to life.

Eight. Rage impedes Bin from listening to himself. He is so full of rage, people cannot take himself seriously. He comes across as a lugubrious clown. If people listened to themselves speak, they would speak less, but of course Bin speaks from the rage simmering in his gut and he has no Third Eye, the ability to stand apart from himself and see what he appears like in the eyes of others. The Third Eye, which is the ability to stand back and observe oneself objectively, is one of the cornerstones of wisdom and self-improvement. Of course, Bin does not have this quality.

 

Part Two: Applying the Lessons or Laws of  Bureaucratic Power to the Novel

One. Never show emotional reciprocity to your “inferiors.” In other words, you can’t let Bin know that he “cut you” psychologically.

Two. Balance the carrot and the stick. Too much or too little of one creates problems. Throw table scraps to the dogs to keep them quiet, but use fear when you have to.

Three. Always win the PR battle with BS that is superior to your opponent’s. See pages 16 and 17.

Four. Know the strengths and limitations of your enemy. Of course, Bin can’t see this. On page 30, we read that his wife must tell him, “A sparrow must not match itself against a raven.”

Five. Learn the Psychology of Mollification Or False Satisfaction. Give the masses a sense of vindication or a sense of reward even though it’s “peanuts.”

Six. Discredit your opponent as a crackpot so that his accusations will have no sticking power. This is easy to do considering how nutty Bin is.

Seven. Show false sympathy, as on page 33, when Liu tells Bin that Bin is not evil, just insane and that “an ant can’t shake a tree.” This is false, condescending pity and sympathy used to discredit Bin. Of course, it only enrages Bin all the more.

Eight. Don’t become overconfident; otherwise, your enemy make be like a toad who grows wings and flies into the sky. See page 45.

Part Three. Qualities of the Anti-Hero

One. He possesses an exaggerated view of himself, which contradicts others' perception of him.

Two. His obnoxious traits test our sympathy and patience.

Three. He embodies the rejection of traditional values and the status quo.

Four. He is often a misfit, a loner, a malcontent.

Five. He is sometimes well intentioned but compelled by irrational, misguided forces.

Six. He has remarkable insight into others but is painfully blind to his own egregious shortcomings. In Bin's case, his insight into others makes him highly judgmental but being judgmental is dangerous. "Whenever you photograph someone's _____, remember that someone is photographing your _______. " In other words, your most strident judgment of others makes you most vulnerable to being judged. 

Seven. He is often the victim of his own solipsism (self-centered egotism).

Eight. His self-serving obsessions often hurt the people he presumably loves.

Nine. He is not constrained by social norms and is apt to issue vituperations (long-winded tirades) in the most awkward settings.

Ten. For the anti-hero, problems are not his problem. It is his OVERREACTION to his problems that are his problem. Yes, he overreacts to everything and as such he digs himself into a hole.

Part Four. Student In-Class Activity to Use in Your Essay Introduction (if you wish)

Write about someone you know who embodies the characteristics of the anti-hero. Share with the class. Then if you like this topic, you would write a transition like this: Similarly, Bin is the consummate anti-hero evidenced by ________________, _______________, ________________, ________________, and _____________________.

 

Sample Thesis Statements for Essay

 

The novel's cruel irony is that while Bin convinces himself in paranoid fashion that people are out to get him he is in fact his own worst enemy made evident by ______________________, __________________, __________________, and __________________________.

 

Bin's addiction to self-righteous indignation and fury blinds him in catastrophic ways, not the least of which is _______________, ________________, _________________, and ________________________.

In the Pond Lesson #1: Bin's Fallacies and Asperger Syndrome (Updated for Spring 2011)

Quiz

For this quiz you must imagine you are Bin's wife and writing him a letter of divorce. In 600 words, you, Bin's wife, must write an argument, using evidence from the novel, why you are divorcing him.

Your quiz must have an argumentative thesis and will be judged on its persuasiveness and its concrete support from the novel In the Pond. 

The 12 Fallacies That Wreak Havoc on Bin and His Family

Fallacy One: If only we had so and so, page 1: If only we lived in a better place. Meilan the wife longs for better living conditions but the real problem is her nutty husband Shao Bin. Her husband's problem is that he craves attention and the esteem of others rather than he cares for the needs his family.

Meilan needs a sane husband more than she does a bigger apartment. 

 

Fallacy Two. The myth of presumed justice: “I have more seniority over the others.” Only a nincompoop would subscribe to such an asanine belief. Justice is not the fuel of the world. Nepotism and corruption are and anyone with a modicum of streets smarts would know this. Expecting fairness and just rewards for something like seniority is a sign of stupidity.

According to The Social Animal by David Brooks, most people have an inflated self-esteem that doesn't correspond accurately to their low competence and talent. A smaller percentage of the human race have self-doubt and this smaller group is more talented and more competent. This isn't right that the majority are deluded. But it's the way it is. Accept it. 

 

Fallacy Three. The myth of presumed merits (the “stubborn ass,” as Bin’s wife calls him, is street smart and wants her husband to bribe his superiors, but Bin believes in propaganda slogans. Bin would rather get into an ego war with his superiors than play the game and get a bigger apartment for his family.

Fallacy 4: The danger of pomposity (belief in one’s superiority over others) results in blindness to how others perceive you, a condition of narcissism that afflicts Bin. Our main character is described as arrogant, as a man who believes he’s smarter than others when in reality he has no emotional intelligence or savvy.

Fallacy 5: Anal retentive affect evidenced by his meticulous hand-writing shows that he may have a variation of Asperger Syndrome. (research paper topic option): Bin’s Asperger Syndrome evidenced by his failure to pick up social cues, his lack of empathy, fastidious characteristics, and his need for strict routines.

Fallacy 6: Retaliation against Superiors, called “barking up the wrong three,” on page 4. Only dumb people think that “exposing” their leaders’ corruption will make the leaders repent. In truth, you will enrage your superior who will be less likely to cater to your wants.

Fallacy 7: Obstinate: Bin is too stubborn to see that he is at fault for not bending to his wife’s advice about giving a bribe to his superiors. Bin has a pit-bull personality. Once he bites his teeth into something, he cannot let go, even if he's biting his own tail. When we are caught in the pot of boiling water, we cannot step back and see the bigger picture; we cannot develop strategies that will empower us.

Fallacy 8: “Bite my nose to spite your face.” Bin is so consumed with rage, we see on page 7, that he is compelled to “teach is superiors a lesson,” even though such a “lesson” will no doubt backfire and shoot his own foot off (to mix metaphors).

Fallacy 9: Book smarts too often precludes street smarts. Bin obsesses over learned passages from classic books but can’t see the larger ramifications of his actions.  Knoweldge without common sense is worthless.

Fallacy 10: Sophomoric rage: juvenile and unsophisticated mockery and caricature of his bosses is confused with “punishing evil” and a noble act of heroism. There is a huge disparity between Bin’s self-image and the juvenile person he really is. Bin, my friends, is just a child or what we call a “man-child.”

Fallacy 11: Bin confuses blind fury and self-aggrandizement with heroism. He is no hero. He is, as I stated earlier, a child posing as one by indulging in self-righteous fury. 

Fallacy 12: Bin, AKA the Hater, feeds off hate. He loves to hate. Hate is his hobby. He is only happy when he is hating. What would he be without hate? He's invested so much in hating, he needs to be an embattled victim in order to vindicate all of the negative emotional investment he has put into hating his perceived enemies. 

Part Two. Distinguishing Characteristics of Asperger Syndrome As They Apply to Bin

One. Repetitive, ritualized patterns of behavior. Everything must be the same way. For example, the meal has to be just so.

Two. No social reciprocity. They often don’t make effort to return social interaction or friendship.

Three. They often show a lack of empathy.

Four. They often don’t pick up on social cues.

Five. They’re usually not good listeners.

Six. They lecture down to people rather than converse with them.

Seven. They’re more book smart than street smart.

Eight. They become preoccupied or obsessed with only one or few interests.

Nine. They become self-absorbed in their interests, losing awareness of their surroundings.

Ten. They are often perceived as “geeks” or “nerds.”

 

Part Three. Essay Options (some of these topics overlap)

 

Option One. 

In 2 pages, profile someone you know who has Asperger Syndrome. Then in 4 pages, analyze Bin as someone who suffers the same condition evidenced by _________________, _________________, ____________________, and ________________________. 

 

Profile Example (must include physical description): Roland Beavers

 

 

 

I just assume call Roland C. Beavers something else like Pest or Nuisance because all he does all day is impose himself on the rest of us at poolside and bloviate about how he was recently discharged from the army for unappreciated heroism or how he soon after hurt himself at his new job at Burger King, saving the life of his lady supervisor, or how he's reading another fascinating book on World War II or something just as trite. When I say he's bugging us, I am referring to us hard-working tenants who bust our butts during the week to pay for the outrageously high rent at The Springs luxury apartments, unlike Roland who is faking some disability, one of those mysterious back injuries that he claims he got working in the oil fields. I suppose his charade is working well enough, since his employer has been sending him some handsome checks over the last year or so.  

 Roland's got himself a free ticket to paradise, while the rest of us bust major buttocks for the privilege of living here. Busting buttocks all week entitles us to a little peace and quiet by poolside, I'd say. Only Roland's been what you might call a thorn in the side. Hogging the adult pool from the rest of us, always getting his favorite location and guarding it throughout the day with a frightening degree of tenacity. We're talking from seven in the morning till seven at night, seven days a week, no exaggeration. You see,  Roland has some pathological need to be at the pool which is more powerful than religion itself.  Just watching him at poolside, playing the role of lifeguard, warning little kiddies not to run on the pavement and ordering people to be quiet while he reads his war books, I have come to the conclusion that he is experiencing delusions of grandeur. Roland C. Beavers  fancies himself the official water god of The Springs apartment complex.

The problem is that our wannabe water god here, Roland C. Beavers, hardly looks like any kind of god. He's a clumsy, chinless, pasty-skinned mass of uncarved lard with thick, hirsute patches of pale golden hair all over his legs and back. On top of it, he wears these foolish red terry cloth bikini briefs, only they're real saggy in the ass. Hell, he might just as well be wearing diapers. Looks like he's got a load in his pants. The least he could do is cover up them hips. He's got a bunch of squiggly stretch marks all over them,  which he claims, a story he tells over and over, resulted from his world-championship diving tournament off the cliffs of Acapulco. You don't get stretch marks from diving into water. Either you get pregnant or you they just come naturally. But for Roland C. Beavers everything is subject to fantasy and endless embellishment. His mission, it seems, is to torment the rest of us till we can't stand hanging out at poolside any longer. And by God, if we don't do something soon, he's gonna succeed.

Another nincompoop with a genius for tormenting normal people is Bin from the novel In the Pond. Like Roland Beavers, Bin seems to suffer from Asperger syndrome evidenced by ____________, ______________, ________________,________________, and ____________________. 

Option 2: 

Write a 6-page research paper about the anti-hero and show its application to Bin. 

Option 3: Write a 6-page research paper that contrasts the character who sees the big picture and one who is focused on the small picture. Use people you know and characters from the novel to explain these two diametrically opposed orientations. 

Option Four: Write a 6-page research paper about the "Lessons of Power" we can learn from the novel.  

 

Option Five: Write a psychological profile of Bin, explaining how his desires for higher self-regard, power, and happiness are sabotaged by his own irrational faculties. Successful essays will use your personal observations that compare to Bin's self-destructiveness. 

Paragraph 1: Introduction

Paragraph 2: Thesis with 4 mapping components

Paragraphs 3-6: Elaborate and illustrate your mapping components

Paragraph 7: Conclusion, a restatement of your thesis

 

Essay Assignment and Outline for In the Pond by Ha Jin

In a 5-page essay, write a psychological profile of Bin, explaining how his desires for higher self-regard, power, and happiness are sabotaged by his own irrational faculties. Successful essays will use your personal observations that compare to Bin's self-destructiveness. 

Paragraph 1: Introduction

Paragraph 2: Thesis with 4 or 5 mapping components

Paragraphs 3-9: Elaborate and illustrate your mapping components

Paragraph 10: Conclusion, a restatement of your thesis

Last page: Works Cited page with no fewer than 2 sources

In the Pond Lesson #4: Leverage and Exercising the Power Principles from Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power

In the Pond Lesson #4: Exercising the Power Principles from Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power to the Novel In the Pond (We’re not going to cover all 48 Laws, just the ones that are applicable to Bin and his superiors)

 

McMahon's View of Power: Power Is Based on Leverage

What is leverage?

Leverage as a verb means two things:

In the financial world, to leverage means to use any technique to multiply gains and minimize losses.

In a more general sense, to leverage means to use various methods to gain advantage, influence, or power.

Leverage as a noun means acquired power.

How We Get Leverage

1. having knowledge of our opponent that he doesn't want us to have.

2. having something your opponent wants and is willing to pay for its acquisition.

3. having better options than those your opponent is offering you.

4. having a powerful friend or alliance who will stand up for you, even retaliate against your opponent, should the opponent not meet your demands.

5. having moral highground over your opponent.

6. your opponent is smart enough to see that you are smarter than he is.

7. your opponent is smart enough to see that he is weaker than you are.

8. having an opponent who's smart enough to understand that while he needs nothing from you now, he may need something from you later.

9. knowing what your leverage is in relation to your opponents; in other words, you do not overplay or underplay your leverage.

10. knowing when it's beneficial to keep secret or make public your leverage.

11. knowing when to shut off the leverage part of your brain. If you're always seeking out leverage, no on will like you because they'll always have to be on the defensive. Don't mix work and friendship when it comes to leverage.

 

Review Different Essay Approaches

One Asperger Syndrome

While intellectually and artistically gifted, Bin is a victim of his own Asperger Syndrome evidenced by ___________, ___________, ____________, and ________________.

 

Two. Long-Ranger and Close-Ranger

The Longer-Ranger is characterized by ________, ________, ________, and _________ while the Close-Ranger, like Bin, is characterized by ____________, ___________, ___________, and _______________. 

 

Three. The Laws of Power

Bin's behavior in the novel is a playbook on how NOT to exercise the 48 Laws of Power. Bin's most egregious violations include _________, __________, ___________, ______________, and _________________. 

 

Four. Anti-Hero

 

Bin is the consummate anti-hero evidenced by __________, _________, _________, and _______________.

 

Five. Student Essay Idea in Support of Bin

While McMahon has lambasted Bin as a "nincompoop," our critical emphasis should be addressed to the dehumanizing elements in Bin's world that make Bin, however misguided, a sympathetic figure. Our sympathy for Bin should be rooted in ____________, __________, _____________, and _______________. 

 

Six. Another Student Essay That Counters the Above One

The student who says we should sympathize with Bin is misguided for several reasons, not the least of which is ___________, ___________, _____________, and ________________. 

Law 1: Never Outshine the Master: “Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please and impress them [and spite them as in Bin’s case], do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite—inspire fear and insecurity. Make your master appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power.”

 

Lesson from the Novel:

Of course, Bin is stupid in trying to impress his superiors with his artistry while attacking them. The more he tries to “flap his wings” in front of his superior, the more he incurs their wrath and compromises his family’s prospects for a better life.

 

The Larger Lesson

All of us are stupid if we assume our bosses will be razzle-dazzled by our superior displays of intelligence and talent. Our job is not to look good, but TO MAKE OUR BOSS LOOK GOOD. We achieve this with our own self-interest in mind. Of course, if we have no temperament for this kind of butt-kissing, we may want to go into business ourselves.

 

Law 2: Never Put Too Much Trust in Friends, Learn How to Use Enemies: “Be wary of friends—they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove. In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to make them.”

Lesson from the Novel

On page 169 it is evident that Yang, the boss, knows that Bin is the “enemy,” but that Bin’s talents can be harnessed by giving him a false promotion. Bin does Yang more good as an enemy than Yang’s alleged friends and allies, people who want Yang’s superior position.

Larger Lesson

Friends often know you better than your enemies and as your friends they are in a better position to exploit your weaknesses. Also, they have a better grasp of your happiness and are more apt to be jealous or envious of your wellbeing and inevitably your friends can become “haters.” Because your friends know your business more than other people, they are in a better position to ruin you, take advantage of you, or short-circuit your best-laid plans.

 

Law 3: Conceal Your Intentions: “Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelop them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late.”

Lesson in the Novel:

Yang doesn’t let Bin know that the “promotion” is merely a dog biscuit or table scrap designed to distract Bin from his original purpose: to get a bigger apartment for him and his family. Bin’s wife chastises him for losing his focus and getting punked on page 174.

Larger Lesson:

People who keep their poker cards close to their chest usually succeed more than those who are quick to boast of their achievements. The bigger your mouth, the more ammunition you give to your friends and enemies alike. People who know what they can do tend to keep their mouths shut. In contrast, the wannabes tend to do a lot of talking and in doing so they fail to conceal their intentions.

Law 4: Always Say Less Than Necessary:  “When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike. Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less. The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.”

Lesson from the Novel

Bin’s whole existence is sabotaged by his propensity for being a loose cannon, a compulsive talker and as a result he has a reputation for being a fool, he unnecessarily makes enemies, and he imposes suffering on his wife and family. Sadly, friends and enemies alike perceive Bin to be a crackpot, a lunatic, a dude who’s one burrito short of a combo plate, one toy short of a Happy Meal, etc. 

Larger Lesson

Thos who are compelled to say more than necessary often do so from a source of insecurity, the need for public adulation, the constant appetite for their ego to be massaged, coddled, and polished in order for them to feel soothed. Sadly, the more these needy souls talk, the more obnoxious and boring they become to others.

Law 5: So Much Depends on Your Reputation—Guard It With Your Life: “Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once it slips, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable. Always be alert to potential attacks and thwart them before they happen. Meanwhile, learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations. Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them.”

Lesson from the Novel

Much of Bin’s efforts are focused on denigrating his superiors who are very keen, obsessed even, with preserving their reputation as they know their careers in politics rest on their high esteem. Bin’s problem, however, is that because he has a bad reputation, that of a crackpot, his fusillades against his bosses have less power than they might. The message may be accurate but the messenger is tainted. Both the message and the messenger must be of equal esteem.

Larger Lesson

Even the innocent suffer when their reputations are sullied because your reputation is like a fine piece of china. Once the plate breaks and fractures into several shards and pieces, it is impossible to put back to its original pristine condition. This is why politicians are held under a higher standard than most. They must not only avoid corruption. They must avoid even the APPEARANCE OF CORRUPTION. Often we say, “Avoid the appearance of impropriety.”

Law 6: Court Attention at All Cost: Everything is judged by its appearance; what is unseen counts for nothing. Never let yourself get lost in the crowd, then, or buried in oblivion. Stand out. Be conspicuous, at all cost. Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, more mysterious than the bland and timid masses.

Lesson from the Novel

Whatever Bin’s faults, we cannot accuse him of being bland, of being one of the “timid masses.” Bin does indeed court attention. The problem in his case is that he courts the wrong attention. He is conspicuous in the wrong way because he is a loose cannon. Having a bad reputation, he cannot sell himself, and therefore he cannot sell his ideas, he cannot be persuasive, and he cannot achieve his desired ends.

Larger Lesson

No matter how talented you are, you have to be able to market yourself. If you cannot sell your talents by showing that you transcend the “bland and timid masses,” you are less likely to achieve success. Talent is like a well-conditioned body. Marketing is the clothing. You can’t have one or the other. You have to have both, the chiseled body and the exquisite clothing. If you’re lacking in personality but have lots of talent, you should marry someone with a vivacious, extroverted personality so that he or she can complement and showcase your talents. For example, my babies’ pediatrician is quiet and soft-spoken, but his wife, who works in the office, is very gregarious and serves the perfect complement to her husband’s career.

Law 8: Make Other People Come to You—Use Bait If Necessary: “When you force the other person to act, you are the one in control. It is always better to make your opponent come to you, abandoning his own plans in the process. Lure him with fabulous gains—then attack. You hold the cards.”

Lesson from the Novel

On page 169, Yang “promotes” Bin and says to Bin’s immediate bosses, “This is the only way to appease him now. Besides, I want to keep him and use him as our man, to keep him in our pond. But I’ll have to punish you two in appearance. You’ll be criticized in the internal bulletin. Don’t be upset. Next year, I promise, you each will get a raise.”

Larger Lesson

False appeasement with your enemies quiets them down and puts them into a slumber. A woman breaks up with her boyfriend who used to go out with her friend. She tells her friend that she broke up with the young man out of respect to her friend, but in reality she was going to break up with the man, who proved to be a jerk anyway. So in this way, she breaks up the jerk and earns the respect from her friend with false appeasement.

Law 10: Infection: Avoid the Unhappy and Unlucky: You can die from someone else’s misery—emotional states are as infectious as diseases. You may feel you are helping the drowning man but you are only precipitating your own disaster. The unfortunate sometimes draw misfortune on themselves; they will also draw it on you. Associate with the happy and fortunate instead.

Lesson from the Novel

Sadly, Bin’s wife Meilan has married the wrong man, a nincompoop hell-bent on pursuing his own stubborn aims, even when those goals thwart the best interests of his family. Bin’s rage is an “infection” that harbors bad luck. Perhaps Meilan pitied Bin before she married him and thought she could help him, but now we see that she is helpless in the presence of Bin’s obsessions and rage-fueled compulsions, which sabotage the family’s plans.

Larger Lesson

The common wisdom tells us to be compassionate toward the unfortunate, but there is a character type who is habitually “unfortunate” because of his character defects: excessive self-pity, stupid spending habits, temper tantrums, etc., and these defects pull him down into the cesspool and if we, under a sense of obligation, befriend these unfortunate souls, we get pulled down into the cesspool of misery with them.

 

Law 12: Use Selective Honesty and Generosity to Disarm Your Victim: “One sincere and honest move will cover over dozens of dishonest ones. Open-hearted gestures of honesty and generosity bring down the guard of even the most suspicious people. Once your selective honesty opens a hole in their armor, you can deceive and manipulate them at will. A timely gift—a Trojan horse—will serve the same purpose.”

Lesson from the Novel

Once again we can look at Yang’s selective generosity with both Bin and his subordinates both of whom he manipulates masterfully.

Larger Lesson

If you are a boss, it is in your interest to appease your subordinates with selective generosity. You must build their morale so that they WANT do work hard for you. If you emphasize that you are the boss and have power over them, they will hate you and their hatred will compromise the quality of work they do for you.

Law 13: When Asking for Help, Appeal to People’s Self-Interest, Never to Their Mercy Or Gratitude

Lesson from the Novel

Of course, Yang does not ask Bin for a favor. Rather, he presents Bin’s job change as something in Bin’s self-interest and in the process he enjoys new control of the little rage monster.

Larger Lesson

You can always encourage others to help you when you frame it so that it seems like they are helping themselves as well. Persuasion always works better than coercion in the long-run. For examples, the worst schools in America use force of law to keep students in order. The best ones dangle the carrot of getting into elite colleges.

Law 32: Play to People’s Fantasies: “The truth is often avoided because it is ugly and unpleasant. Never appeal to truth and reality unless you are prepared for the anger that comes from disenchantment. Life is so harsh and distressing that people who can manufacture romance or conjure up fantasy are like the oases in the desert.: Everyone flocks to them. There is great power in tapping into fantasies of the masses.”

Lesson from the Novel

Yang knows he has nothing to offer Bin. Bin is fated to languish in squalor, writhing “in the pond,” a tiny city that the government disdains and as such will never spend much resources on. However, Yang sells Bin the fantasy of high esteem by offering him a new position as he says to the little man: “To your glorious future.” See page 171. The fantasy of a glorious future assuages Bin’s anger and makes him Yang’s pawn.

Larger Lesson

No one wants to know the truth of life. We want a fantasy. That’s why many people distract themselves watching entertainment gossip, text-messaging each other about mindless nonsense, etc. A boss or superior knows the psychology of his subordinates and feeds them what they want, that life is “glorious,” only if they will cooperate with the boss’ plans. 

Part Two. Review of the Anti-Hero

 

One. He possesses an exaggerated view of himself, which contradicts others' perception of him.

Two. His obnoxious traits test our sympathy and patience.

Three. He embodies the rejection of traditional values and the status quo.

Four. He is often a misfit, a loner, a malcontent.

Five. He is sometimes well intentioned but compelled by irrational, misguided forces.

Six. He has remarkable insight into others but is painfully blind to his own egregious shortcomings.

Seven. He is often the victim of his own solipsism (self-centered egotism).

Eight. His self-serving obsessions often hurt the people he presumably loves.

Nine. He is not constrained by social norms and is apt to issue vituperations (long-winded tirades) in the most awkward settings.

Ten. For the anti-hero, problems are not his problem. It is his OVERREACTION to his problems that are his problem. Yes, he overreacts to everything and as such he digs himself into a hole.

In the Pond Lesson #3: Contrasting the Close-Range and the Long-Range Character

 

Part One. The Close-Range Character (Bin)

 

1.  He obsesses over his myopic view of the world. The character becomes consumed by an obsession and obsession distorts perspective, common sense, and sanity. For example, professors go to grammar conferences and get into fistfights over a semicolon rule controversy. Or sports fans with different caps stab each other at sporting events. What started out as a fun game becomes so personal that people will kill each other.

2.  He acts on compulsion rather than cool, detached rational powers. When we talk about compulsion, we often have to look at unconscious motivations. In Bin’s case, he has a huge ego and he is a man who strains for significance and high regard.

3.  He is fueled by the need for instant gratification. Bin does not have the adult’s poise or patience or ability to wait and let his enemy make the wrong move.

4.  He obsesses over the trees while forgetting to see the forest. When you stare at the trees too long, you forget that a forest fire is approaching or fail to see the general scenery around you. This impedes you from “knowing the situation.” Always know the situation. For example, in college I was very strict about my workout schedule and would go straight to the gym after Abnormal Psychology class. After taking an exam, a beautiful woman asked me to celebrate with her in the ale house, and I told her I had to go the gym. I failed to see the situation.

5.  In his need to fulfill his short-term goals, he sacrifices his more important long-term goals. Bin would rather humiliate his bosses for the short-term, even if it means compromising the living conditions for him and his family over the long-term. In America, spending in for short-term gratification leads to long-term debt. As of 2009, the average American has $15,500 credit card debt.

6.  Short-term is related to ego; long-term is related to real self-interests. The ego does not know what it really wants, just as the self-indulgent man is not happy. The ego run amok means recklessness. The ego is a reckless beast. Professional athletes are coddled and worshipped, but their egos lack direction. As a result, over 75% of NFL and NBA players are bankrupt 5 years after retiring.

7.  The Close-Ranger is less likely to succeed because he lacks self-control. For evidence of this, we can look to the Walter Mischel Marshmallow experiment. Children who could suppress their desire for one marshmallow would get two and later in life they became more successful. 

8.  The Close-Ranger is more volatile and is a slave to his emotional tumult whereas the Long-Ranger is more even-keeled. Once the Close-Ranger loses his temper, the damage he does in both words and actions is often irreparable. He tends to burn bridges and can never rebuild those bridges again.

9.  The Close-Ranger always “shoots himself in the foot” and then has to rationalize his actions, blaming others for his own pettiness and volatility, making him defensive and angry toward others.

10.               The Close-Ranger doesn’t take well to criticism from others and reaches the point where “everyone is wrong and I’m right.” Or he says, “I am a genius surrounded by a confederacy of dunces.”

11.               The Close-Ranger tends to be centripetal, meaning he doesn’t mature, becoming a more and more intense version of who he already is, while the Long-Ranger tends toward growth, making him centrifugal.

 

Part Two. The Long-Ranger

1.   The Long-Ranger sacrifices immediate gratification for long-term goals. He goes to college, languishes in poverty while his friends work full-time, knowing that in 5 years his friends will be cleaning his septic tank.

2.   The Long-Ranger is indifferent to public approval, thus does not need to go into debt buying bling, using money that could have gone to his education. Instead, he focuses on his goals based on self-knowledge, not the adulation of others.

3.   The Long-Ranger is not a slave of his own psychology and its concomitant compulsions. Rather, he is a student of psychology and is aware of the pitfalls of getting too absorbed by emotion. His ability to “read others” makes him a formidable adversary and gives him the weapons to tame his own demons. We all have demons from family conflicts, personal failures, regret, broken hearts, etc. The question isn’t whether we have demons or not. The question is do we have the tools to tame those demons. Honest self-introspection, which allows us take an unflinching inventory of our faults and weaknesses, is the beginning of taming our demons.

4.   Long-Rangers can identify the foibles and dangers of Close-Rangers and tend to avoid them. Long-Rangers tend to hang out with other Long-Rangers. Losers like to hang out with their own because misery loves company. Winners are smart enough not get dragged down into the hellhole with losers.

5.    Metacognition is the ability to step back and observe your behavior before you act on it: Writes Jonah Leher in the The New Yorker: “In adults, this skill is often referred to as metacognition, or thinking about thinking, and it’s what allows people to outsmart their shortcomings.”

 

6.   Long-Rangers have intelligence plus self-control, the ability to suppress desire. Self-control and the ability to suppress impulses is part of being street smart. Pure intelligence isn’t enough. A lot of intelligent people are lost souls because they’re slaves to their emotions.

 

7.   Long-Rangers don’t wait for the “right feeling” to take the right action. They perform the right action first. The right action is then followed by the right feeling. This in turn creates habits of self-improvement, contrasting with the Close-Ranger’s habits of self-destruction. Interview people and you’ll find people with discipline are happier than those who are shackled to the chains of laziness and random behavior. You need structure in your life to be happy. 

Part Three. Lessons Learned from Walter Mischel Marshmallow Study (use for research paper if you decide on this topic)

Self-Control Is the Key to Success

Marshmallow Test Video

Don't! The Secret of Self-Control

Part Four. Taking Another Look at Option 3: Write a 6-page research paper that contrasts the character who sees the big picture, a Long-Ranger, and one who is focused on the small picture, a Close-Ranger. Use people you know and characters from the novel to explain these two diametrically opposed orientations. 

Suggested structure: In two pages, analyze the areas of your life that you are successful in exercising control to delay gratification and the areas where you're not so successful. Explain your successes and failures. In the third page, analyze the lessons we can learn from the Walter Mischel study. Then in your third page, analyze Bin as a Close-Ranger evidenced by ______________, ______________, ________________, and ___________________. Your Bin analysis will cover 3 pages for a total of 6 pages. Be sure to include a Works Cited page.

Part 5: Write down your 3 long-range qualities and contrast them with your 3 close-range ones. Or if you don't want to analyze yourself, use someone you know. 

In the Pond Lesson #2: The Addiction of Self-Righteous Rage

Part One. Why Bin Is Addicted to Rage

One. The purity of emotion intoxicates him like liquor, makes him urinate as if he is experiencing hormonal changes. This could be a byproduct of his simmering frustration, which feeds on itself.

Two. Rage gives Bin a sense of mission, which must placate him living in a small town that revolves around a fertilizer plant.

Three. Rage makes him feel like he has the moral upper-hand over the supercilious bureaucrats who lord over him even though in fact his sense of superiority is a gross illusion.

Four. Bin’s rage makes him lose a sense of proportion so that he does foolish deeds, which get him and his family into trouble.

Five. Bin is an artist but all of his art is subsumed by rage, resulting in the misplacement of his talents.

Six. Rage is part of Bin's bullheaded stubbornness and constitutes his identity. This characteristic is the primary source of the novel's comedy.

Seven. When you rage all the time, it becomes a force of habit; it's all you know. It becomes your orientation to life.

Eight. Rage impedes Bin from listening to himself. He is so full of rage, people cannot take himself seriously. He comes across as a lugubrious clown. If people listened to themselves speak, they would speak less, but of course Bin speaks from the rage simmering in his gut and he has no Third Eye, the ability to stand apart from himself and see what he appears like in the eyes of others. The Third Eye, which is the ability to stand back and observe oneself objectively, is one of the cornerstones of wisdom and self-improvement. Of course, Bin does not have this quality.

Part Two: Applying the Lessons or Laws of  Bureaucratic Power to the Novel

One. Never show emotional reciprocity to your “inferiors.” In other words, you can’t let Bin know that he “cut you” psychologically.

Two. Balance the carrot and the stick. Too much or too little of one creates problems. Throw table scraps to the dogs to keep them quiet, but use fear when you have to.

Three. Always win the PR battle with BS that is superior to your opponent’s. See pages 16 and 17.

Four. Know the strengths and limitations of your enemy. Of course, Bin can’t see this. On page 30, we read that his wife must tell him, “A sparrow must not match itself against a raven.”

Five. Learn the Psychology of Mollification Or False Satisfaction. Give the masses a sense of vindication or a sense of reward even though it’s “peanuts.”

Six. Discredit your opponent as a crackpot so that his accusations will have no sticking power. This is easy to do considering how nutty Bin is.

Seven. Show false sympathy, as on page 33, when Liu tells Bin that Bin is not evil, just insane and that “an ant can’t shake a tree.” This is false, condescending pity and sympathy used to discredit Bin. Of course, it only enrages Bin all the more.

Eight. Don’t become overconfident; otherwise, your enemy make be like a toad who grows wings and flies into the sky. See page 45.

Part Three. Qualities of the Anti-Hero

One. He possesses an exaggerated view of himself, which contradicts others' perception of him.

Two. His obnoxious traits test our sympathy and patience.

Three. He embodies the rejection of traditional values and the status quo.

Four. He is often a misfit, a loner, a malcontent.

Five. He is sometimes well intentioned but compelled by irrational, misguided forces.

Six. He has remarkable insight into others but is painfully blind to his own egregious shortcomings.

Seven. He is often the victim of his own solipsism (self-centered egotism).

Eight. His self-serving obsessions often hurt the people he presumably loves.

Nine. He is not constrained by social norms and is apt to issue vituperations (long-winded tirades) in the most awkward settings.

Ten. For the anti-hero, problems are not his problem. It is his OVERREACTION to his problems that are his problem. Yes, he overreacts to everything and as such he digs himself into a hole.

Part Four. Student In-Class Activity to Use in Your Essay Introduction (if you wish) Write about someone you know who embodies the characteristics of the anti-hero. Share with the class. Then if you like this topic, you would write a transition like this: Similarly, Bin is the consummate anti-hero evidenced by ________________, _______________, ________________, ________________, and _____________________.

In the Pond Lesson #1: Bin's Fallacies and Asperger Syndrome

 

Part One. The 12 Fallacies That Wreak Havoc on Bin and His Family

Fallacy One: If only we had so and so, page 1: If only we lived in a better place. Meilan the wife longs for better living conditions but the real problem is her nutty husband Shao Bin. Her husband's problem is that he craves attention and the esteem of others rather than he cares for the needs his family.

 

Fallacy Two. The myth of presumed justice: “I have more seniority over the others.” Only a nincompoop would subscribe to such an asanine belief. Justice is not the fuel of the world. Nepotism and corruption are and anyone with a modicum of streets smarts would know this. Expecting fairness and just rewards for something like seniority is a sign of stupidity.

 

Fallacy Three. The myth of presumed merits (the “stubborn ass,” as Bin’s wife calls him, is street smart and wants her husband to bribe his superiors, but Bin believes in propaganda slogans. Bin would rather get into an ego war with his superiors than play the game and get a bigger apartment for his family.

Fallacy 4: The danger of pomposity (belief in one’s superiority over others) results in blindness to how others perceive you, a condition of narcissism that afflicts Bin. Our main character is described as arrogant, as a man who believes he’s smarter than others when in reality he has no emotional intelligence or savvy.

Fallacy 5: Anal retentive affect evidenced by his meticulous hand-writing shows that he may have a variation of Asperger Syndrome. (research paper topic option): Bin’s Asperger Syndrome evidenced by his failure to pick up social cues, his lack of empathy, fastidious characteristics, and his need for strict routines.

Fallacy 6: Retaliation against Superiors, called “barking up the wrong three,” on page 4. Only dumb people think that “exposing” their leaders’ corruption will make the leaders repent. In truth, you will enrage your superior who will be less likely to cater to your wants.

Fallacy 7: Obstinate: Bin is too stubborn to see that he is at fault for not bending to his wife’s advice about giving a bribe to his superiors. Bin has a pit-bull personality. Once he bites his teeth into something, he cannot let go, even if he's biting his own tail. When we are caught in the pot of boiling water, we cannot step back and see the bigger picture; we cannot develop strategies that will empower us.

Fallacy 8: “Bite my nose to spite your face.” Bin is so consumed with rage, we see on page 7, that he is compelled to “teach is superiors a lesson,” even though such a “lesson” will no doubt backfire and shoot his own foot off (to mix metaphors).

Fallacy 9: Book smarts too often precludes street smarts. Bin obsesses over learned passages from classic books but can’t see the larger ramifications of his actions.  Knoweldge without common sense is worthless.

Fallacy 10: Sophomoric rage: juvenile and unsophisticated mockery and caricature of his bosses is confused with “punishing evil” and a noble act of heroism. There is a huge disparity between Bin’s self-image and the juvenile person he really is. Bin, my friends, is just a child or what we call a “man-child.”

Fallacy 11: Bin confuses blind fury and self-aggrandizement with heroism. He is no hero. He is, as I stated earlier, a child posing as one by indulging in self-righteous fury. 

Fallacy 12: Bin, AKA the Hater, feeds off hate. He loves to hate. Hate is his hobby. He is only happy when he is hating. What would he be without hate? He's invested so much in hating, he needs to be an embattled victim in order to vindicate all of the negative emotional investment he has put into hating his perceived enemies.

Part Two. Distinguishing Characteristics of Asperger Syndrome As They Apply to Bin

One. Repetitive, ritualized patterns of behavior. Everything must be the same way. For example, the meal has to be just so.

Two. No social reciprocity. They often don’t make effort to return social interaction or friendship.

Three. They often show a lack of empathy.

Four. They often don’t pick up on social cues.

Five. They’re usually not good listeners.

Six. They lecture down to people rather than converse with them.

Seven. They’re more book smart than street smart.

Eight. They become preoccupied or obsessed with only one or few interests.

Nine. They become self-absorbed in their interests, losing awareness of their surroundings.

Ten. They are often perceived as “geeks” or “nerds.”

 

Part Three. Essay Options (some of these topics overlap)

Option One. 

In 2 pages, profile someone you know who has Asperger Syndrome. Then in 4 pages, analyze Bin as someone who suffers the same condition evidenced by _________________, _________________, ____________________, and ________________________. 

Profile Example (must include physical description): Roland Beavers

I just assume call Roland C. Beavers something else like Pest or Nuisance because all he does all day is impose himself on the rest of us at poolside and bloviate about how he was recently discharged from the army for unappreciated heroism or how he soon after hurt himself at his new job at Burger King, saving the life of his lady supervisor, or how he's reading another fascinating book on World War II or something just as trite. When I say he's bugging us, I am referring to us hard-working tenants who bust our butts during the week to pay for the outrageously high rent at The Springs luxury apartments, unlike Roland who is faking some disability, one of those mysterious back injuries that he claims he got working in the oil fields. I suppose his charade is working well enough, since his employer has been sending him some handsome checks over the last year or so.  

 Roland's got himself a free ticket to paradise, while the rest of us bust major buttocks for the privilege of living here. Busting buttocks all week entitles us to a little peace and quiet by poolside, I'd say. Only Roland's been what you might call a thorn in the side. Hogging the adult pool from the rest of us, always getting his favorite location and guarding it throughout the day with a frightening degree of tenacity. We're talking from seven in the morning till seven at night, seven days a week, no exaggeration. You see,  Roland has some pathological need to be at the pool which is more powerful than religion itself.  Just watching him at poolside, playing the role of lifeguard, warning little kiddies not to run on the pavement and ordering people to be quiet while he reads his war books, I have come to the conclusion that he is experiencing delusions of grandeur. Roland C. Beavers  fancies himself the official water god of The Springs apartment complex.

The problem is that our wannabe water god here, Roland C. Beavers, hardly looks like any kind of god. He's a clumsy, chinless, pasty-skinned mass of uncarved lard with thick, hirsute patches of pale golden hair all over his legs and back. On top of it, he wears these foolish red terry cloth bikini briefs, only they're real saggy in the ass. Hell, he might just as well be wearing diapers. Looks like he's got a load in his pants. The least he could do is cover up them hips. He's got a bunch of squiggly stretch marks all over them,  which he claims, a story he tells over and over, resulted from his world-championship diving tournament off the cliffs of Acapulco. You don't get stretch marks from diving into water. Either you get pregnant or you they just come naturally. But for Roland C. Beavers everything is subject to fantasy and endless embellishment. His mission, it seems, is to torment the rest of us till we can't stand hanging out at poolside any longer. And by God, if we don't do something soon, he's gonna succeed.

Another nincompoop with a genius for tormenting normal people is Bin from the novel In the Pond. Like Roland Beavers, Bin seems to suffer from Asperger syndrome evidenced by ____________, ______________, ________________,________________, and ____________________. 

Option 2: 

Write a 6-page research paper about the anti-hero and show its application to Bin. 

Option 3: Write a 6-page research paper that contrasts the character who sees the big picture and one who is focused on the small picture. Use people you know and characters from the novel to explain these two diametrically opposed orientations. 

Option Four: Write a 6-page research paper about the "Lessons of Power" we can learn from the novel.