Reflections on "Nice Work" by David Lodge and personalities

Difference. Every day we see, talk, touch and judge people different from ourselves. All this without even knowing the person. And more often then seldom we discover that our prejudices are without foundation. This is why my favourite part of the book "Nice Work" by David Lodge is number 2, where the two head characters meet each other, with all their preconceived opinions, and we readers know that they are unfounded. Because we learned their history in the first part.

From a very early age we learn that we should not judge a book by its cover. And when we are kids there is no possible way we can, until someone teaches us to. So when we start school we divide every kid into groups e.g. bullies and bullied, soccer players and dancers, boys and girls etc. And this dividing continues throughout our life, it just changes forms. And now to the big question: Why do we do this? Even if we shouldn’t? For numerous reasons. One is to protect our selves, we judge first so that the one we are judging won’t be the top dog and get an advantage. We think defensively until we know the persons history. Imagine if we could encourage a more open mind and cooperate? But the way society looks today, it is not possible because some use this so called naivety to gain something for themselves. So we need to protect ourselves from those who want to use us. However, I believe that we also judge others to avoid judging ourselves. Sometimes perhaps we should ask what our judgement of other tells us about our own mind.

So my point is not to stop judging and admonish naivety, but be aware you do and reflect on your opinion, so you are able to amend it after you have learned a person’s history. And do not only judge in a negative matter, maybe you discover that you can make a positive judgment. But do by all means stop having prejudices!