Essay Options for Samuel Wilson Fussell’s Muscle
Essay Options for Samuel Wilson Fussell’s Muscle and Gogol's "The Overcoat"
One. Develop a thesis that analyzes the manner in which Fussell’s memoir and Akaky from "The Overcoat" illustrate the Myth of Icarus.
Two. Develop a thesis that analyzes the manner in which Fussell’s memoir and Akaky from "The Overcoat" illustrate the fable from Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning “Death in Tehran”:
A rich and mighty Persian once walked in his garden with one of his servants. The servant cried that he had just encountered Death, who had threatened him. He begged his master to give him his fastest horse so that he could make haste and flee to Teheran, which he could reach that same evening. The master consented and the servant galloped off on the horse. On returning to his house the master himself met Death, and questioned him, “Why did you terrify and threaten my servant?” “I did not threaten him; I only showed surprise in still finding him here when I planned to meet him tonight in Teheran,” said Death.
Three. Develop a thesis that compares maladaptation in Fussell’s memoir and "The Overcoat."
Four. Research Erik Erikson’s notion of intimacy vs. isolation and develop a thesis that applies this conflict to Fussell’s memoir and "The Overcoat."
Five. Develop a cause and effect thesis that compares the causes of grotesque transformation in Fussell's memoir and "The Overcoat."
Six. A wise man once said, having a chimera will kill you, but not having a chimera will also kill you. Apply this saying to Samuel Wilson Fussell and Akaky from "The Overcoat." Both have a chimera, his obsession, the overcoat, which both transforms them for the better and for the worse. We all have our own personal chimera. Using both the memoir and the short story, write an extended definition of a chimera.
Study Questions
One. Eventually, every bodybuilder hits a wall. Why?
In spite of Fussell's amazing gains and his complete commitment to getting as big as possible as quickly as possible (motivated by Fear the Tyrant), he hits a wall or plateaus, the state of no longer making gains.
Whether a person gets a thrill from speeding a car, drinking alcohol, or pumping up at the gym, the body and mind acclimate and adapt so that greater stimulation is required until there's a point where a person flat lines, reaches a point where the buzz or the progress is impossible.
In the realm of pleasure, we call this the hedonic treadmill.
In the realm of bodybuilding, a builder is at a fork in the road: Stay natural or take steroids.
Two. As Fussell commits to his bodybuilding, what happens to his desires for intimacy and friendship?
There can be neither since relationships are an enemy to bodybuilding progress. Everything in life must be sacrificed for getting a Monster Body.
A psychologist might argue that Fussell, fearing intimacy, is unconsciously throwing himself into the vortex of his bodybuilding obsession to avoid his intimacy fears.
He would rather micromanage a small world where he feels control than expand into the real world, which is messy and makes us feel vulnerable.
Three. What lie fuels Fussell's desire to take steroids?
He doesn't in his mind look like a real bodybuilder, so by getting bigger he will have the self-identify he needs. He will feel whole.
When we take up misguided measures to feel whole, we are engaging in what is called impoverishment through substitution. We cannot have love, connection, a sense of completeness, and a Higher Purpose, but we can look like Mr. Universe. That is our compensation. In truth, these misguided measures empty and eviscerate us all the more.
Four. Fussell says he should learn about his new bodybuilding associates in California to better know himself. What does he learn about Nimrod?
Nimrod has no moral compass. He paints over the numerals 280 on a bed sheet in his room. He wears hair extensions made of dyed nylon. He must treat his acne with hydrogen peroxide. He wears blue contact lenses over his brown eyes. He is a sort of Frankenstein with no morals. His body is a commodity in the service of ambition and the American Dream, but a dream with no moral foundation.
Nomrod doesn't want to be just a guy. He wants to be so special he shocks the world and at the same time he has contempt for the world. This is classic narcissism. As we read,
"More than anything else in the world, whatever it takes, I don't want want to be like you. I don't want to look like you, I don't want to talk like you, I don't want to be you."
Fussell, like Nimrod, hates being human.
The foibles of humanity afflict Fussell with so much shame he wishes he could be other than human. As we read, "As long as I covered myself with the equivalent of scaffolding and labeled myself a 'work of progress,' I could escape the doubt and uncertainty that plagued my past and spend every second of my present concentrating on a pristine future. I hated the flawed, weak, vulnerable nature of being human as much as I hated the Adam's apple which bobbed beneath my chin. The attempt at physical perfection grew from seeds of self-disgust."
And yet Nimrod and Bamm Bamm's rooms attest to the price one pays for trying to be other than human. Their rooms are littered with Huggies (for bleeding buttocks), baby food, and cartons of steroids.
Five. Describe Fussell's deconversion in The Aftermath chapter.
Realizing he's a "chop chop special with different cart parts on his uneven body, he knows he would have to go through the same rigors for another 4 years, and he's burned out.
He becomes a ghost at the gym the next day. He is depressed and disoriented.
He considers the health problems and short lifespans of bodybuilders.
He wants to eat for pleasure, not eat like a machine.
He no longer desires "histrionics and grandstanding."
After gaining 80 pounds, "I wanted out."
He wanted to avoid the "thousand yard stare" he's seen in other builders.
He realizes getting bigger is not the answer to his problems.
He realizes he was "trying to eradicate his sins" and purify himself or hide his "stain" behind muscular armor, but it was all in vain.
He realizes his lifting was "life-denying rather than life-affirming."
He writes, "I was as twisted, warped, and stilted as a bonsai tree. Another of life's miniatures."
He recognized the "disease" in other builders but not himself.
He retreated into bodybuilding to protect himself from the risk and vulnerability of connection and intimacy.
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