The Road to Character (Speaker and Audience)

The man behind The Road to Character, David Brooks had an interesting history.  His  early life consisted of time spent in his hometown, Toronto, Canada. He would spend his elementary years there, and would eventually move to Philadelphia to start and finish school at Radnor High School. In regards to his college education, Brooks earned a Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Chicago, which eventually led to his journey to writing the overall ideals of his philosophy. Today, he has over fifteen published written works to his name, and has been the writer of several television shows, and even discussed other means of conversation on TED Talk. Before his successes in writing, Brooks acquired many jobs in journalism, and was featured as the head writer in many of them as well. As evidenced by these early products of writing, he had a natural talent in writing, which showed ambition, in both conservative and informative journalism as well. All of these occupations served to create Brooks with the canvas to stimulate a reaction based on his own opinions. For these gradual talents allowed him to generate a novel with such strong opinions to draw the reader into a text such as this.

Although students our age may not have been the “intended audience”, David Brooks’ novel titled The Road to Character still suggests for a variation of individuals to explore his thoughts. Despite Brooks’ arguments of his position between both Adam I and Adam II, he concludes that although most try to become one who is of a calm and self aware being,or Adam I, many pose to be so. Through many passages of the novel, Brooks recommends the reader to be of a humble mindset as well as being limited to one’s vain self. Many times he stresses how much society is an Adam I, describing them as self driven and motivated for progress for themselves, while at the same time describing real-life depictions of stories to support his rationale. Overall, he offers the reader several opportunities to unlock their Adam II side, causing enlightenment from one's being. Brooks made it his goal to communicate the reader with such, ultimately proving the point in which although it would not be likely to have an elementary student read this, it would be possible for highschool students and up to become more familiar with this type of analysis.

Veronika Ferrell