Society claims that in order to be successful, one must be responsible and follow the rules; however, one such as Neal can be successful without responsibility and solely happiness.
Neal is probably the most irresponsible person in the book yet he is happy no matter what situation he is in. Success is measured by happiness.
Madness has the ability to either attract or repulse people and slowly deteriorates those who posses the characteristic.
Neal attracts Jack and a few other followers to an extreme but makes other people look at him with disgust or disapproval. There's no in between. Neal slowly decreases in social acceptability throughout the story.
This book is an example of everything society doesn't want man to do and in the end, defies every moral mankind believes in.
Neal and Jack are both irresponsible, one more than the other, and we are taught to believe that in order to have a good life, we have to stick to hard work. Yet, neither if them do and nothing bad happens to them. The whole time reading this story, I expected some sort of negative outcome but it never came.
Jacks character progressed throughout the story from a rag doll toy that everyone could play with, to a more mature adult once he accumulated more experiences with those around him.
At first, Jack would do anything anyone asked or said and had no opinion or personality. By the end of the book, Jack was voicing his thoughts and bossing Neal around a little bit.
I like your fourth and second thesis a a lot. I think both are extremely applicable to the book, and I think they are easy to find examples from in the book. I like the first thesis as well but I think it might be difficult to write about, and I think you would need to use a lot of outside sources to prove it. The third thesis was okay, but I think your should pick between the two strongest, which in my opinion is the fourth and second thesis.
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