FREE ESSAY ON GROWING UP: ALL LOCKED UP

GROWING UP: ALL LOCKED UP

Growing Up: All Locked Up
A person's ability to develop is due to two factors, maturation and learning. Although
maturation, or the biological development of genes, is important, it is the learning -
the process through which we develop through our experiences, which make us who we are
(Shaffer, 8). In pre-modern times, a child was not treated like they are today. The child
was dressed like and worked along side adults, in hope that they would become them, yet
more modern times the child's need to play and be treated differently than adults has
become recognized. Along with these notions of pre-modern children and their
developmental skills came the ideas of original sin and innate purity. These
philosophical ideas about children were the views that children were either born good or
bad and that these were the basis for what would come of their life.
In the play, Life is a Dream, by Calderon, Segismundo is a character that has been
deprived through his life of the developmental skills that are needed to become a mature,
normal adult male. He is locked away in a tower, because of his own fathers fear. He
learns nothing about how society is and how a person's actions are developed through
interacting with others. He says, All I know is pain and I don't understand why I must
live like this, what crime did I commit? The worst thing I do is to exist. (Calderon, 7)
From this quote the reader sees the dysfunction that has been learned by Segismundo. He
has done nothing wrong, and yet he feels that just being born is a crime. These kinds of
feelings and thoughts can only become dominant if a person is trapped in a life that they
do not know, and are taught nothing about. 
Since Segismundo is locked away, and has not had the ability to develop socially it is
shocking for him when waking one day outside of the prison he once lived in to find an
extremely different life in a beautiful palace that is now his knew home. Not only is he
overwhelmed with its splendor, but also before he gets a chance to engulf his new
findings, he is found comparing his old life to the new. This is not healthy because he
has not learned that when knew opportunities come along, old ones should not be compared
to, but should be kept in mind only to help excel in the new place. He has to learn how
to develop his temperament, characteristic modes of responding emotionally and
behaviorally to environmental events (Shaffer, 398). This temperament would have normally
come at an early age if he had been exposed to certain environmental stimuli, but he has
yet to do so.
Since the story is based so heavily on the behaviors of Segismundo, it is important to
consider his development along with the society. Like previously discussed, his
temperament might very well have been placed under control if he had experienced a
different childhood. In any sociological aspects of life, there must be a consideration
for any relationships that may have been developed. Segismundo has developed a distinct
relationship with Clotaldo, the man who imprisoned him in the beginning. After he learns
of what life he was born into, Segismundo develops a hostile aggression, an act of
aggression stemming from feelings of anger and aimed at inflicting pain (Aronson, Wilson,
Akert, 457). Hostile aggression is seen in the relationship that Segismundo has developed
in his new life, due to the fact that Clotaldo is the one who must explain to him that he
is the son of a king. This new life is so extremely different, and when Segismundo is not
told how to behave he becomes outraged with anger, and begins killing and other violent
acts, Thank you God it could be done. He fell from the balcony into the sea (Calderon,
41). Since Segismundo has now become this horrific person, he must be returned to the
tower.
Although Segismundo does not know it at the time, he has become a victim of his fathers
idea of how he is going to act, or his self-fulfilling prophecy-the case whereby people
have and expectation about what another person is like, which influences how they act
toward that person, which causes that person to behave consistently with people's
original expectations (Aronson, et. al, 76). Since his behavior is so aggressive, and
vulgar, Segismundo has filled the role that his father assumed he would, ...I read
Segismundo would be the most brutal man, the cruelest prince, the most vicious monarch
(Calderon, 21). Basilio, the king, feels that if he reads this about his son, it will
come true, so the fear develops and later on is fulfilled by the acts of Segismundo.
(HERE NEEDS TO BE ANOTHER PARAGRAPH ABOUT HIS ACTIONS. TALK ABOUT THE ATTEMPTED RAPE OF
RASARO, AND HOW THAT ACTION AFFECTS HIS LATER RELATIONSHIP WITH WOMEN* ANOTHER ACTION DUE
TO THE PRECURSOR OF NO MOTHER IN HIS LIFE)
For any person to succumb to change, there must be action from an experience, or maybe a
word that has become engrained. In Segismundo's case, he changes because of both. He
first is persuaded by an army, to fight against his father, and also by words from
Clotaldo, ...But if he makes use of the power of reason a good-hearted man can overcome
the stars (Calderon, 36). These words are a large facilitator in what causes Segismundo
to realize that to make life more understandable. Although he is told of the palace life
being a dream, he comes to step cautiously into his next life, but realizes that he can
be a good king, and that even if he would like to be aggressive, it is not right.
Segismundo's character can be compared to the story of Oedipus Rex. He also was born into
a life that was feared of him, and has to set way on a journey through a dream-like life
to find out who he really is. The journey includes the always-painful experience of
looking at oneself through an analytical world. Segismundo follows the path of Oedipus,
in his own way, solving the enigmas of his unique life, which is his own ability of
facing his human destiny. Oedipus only realized what he was when he recognized that which
made him vulnerable and destructive was the reason he must redesign his life. He became
friends with truth, his own particular truth just like Segismundo did. One of the main
lessons of this myth is that self-acceptance is fundamental (Freud, 1920, pp. 53). Just
like in Life is a Dream, Segismundo has to realize that he is what he is, and although it
may be because of his father, he must overcome the past and set forth to do well in the
rest of his life. 
Shaffer, David R. Developmental Psychology: Childhood & Adolescence. 
Feud, S (1920), Beyond the pleasure principle, S. E., 18.