What are the themes in Ordinary People?

In my mind, the driving messages or themes of Guest's work
relate to psychological approaches to pain, suffering, and guilt.  These themes seem to
be concurrent with the time period, where there was a great deal of emphasis on what
constitutes healing and how psychology plays a role in how individuals understand
reality and consciousness.  In a time period where social change, such as the feminist
movement, took hold of the social fabric of America, Guest's work internalizes the
notion of change to make it much more subjective, based on one's own psychology.  This
dimension is what makes the work so introspective.  The Jarrett's own psychological
profile is something that is seen within the family, but is also something that readers
are able to apply to themselves and how they approach issues of death, surviving, and
forgiveness.  These types of explorations are psychological in nature, and represent the
base messages of the work.