34 pages • 1 hour read
David BrooksThe Road to Character
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary: “Self-Examination”
Samuel Johnson overcame great adversity from the moment of his birth; a sickly child, he was infected with lymph-node tuberculosis that left him blind in one eye, deaf in one ear, and severely scarred by botched surgeries performed on his neck. A determined youth, he received a severe Classics-based education in Latin and Greek, and discipline for mild laziness made him more determined to develop self-reliance. His penchant for memorization was formidable, and he read the entirety of his father’s bookshop stock to continue his education. In his college years at Oxford, he proved a brilliant scholar, winning accolades for his Latin and Greek translations and his literary prowess in English. Johnson’s belief in Christian doctrine guided his self-searching, austere methods of developing self-reliance despite his disabilities. At 26, he married a woman 20 years his senior; the match seems to have been a happy one. He spent the remainder of his life dedicated to teaching, journalism, continued voracious reading, and the keeping of meticulous private diaries. He believed that it is a writer’s duty to make the world better, and he accomplished this through a disciplined example and writings that display immensely principled character.
Chapter 9 Analysis
Johnson never permitted the quality of his writing to suffer due to influence from hack-writer colleagues; he never shied from telling even the bluntest truths. The challenges presented by his disabilities made him a deliberate listener, observer, and speaker. If Johnson’s self-scrutiny was intense, then his scrutiny of the world in parallel rivaled or exceeded it. The most frequent topics of his essays and diary entries are boredom, frustration, guilt, shame, and other similar self-castigating emotions. He called himself out on such flaws as being prone to hating other individuals’ success:
The foundation of [Johnson’s brilliance and versatility as a writer] was his tremendous capacity for sympathy. His life story begins with physical suffering. […] He seems never to have shaken that vulnerability, but he succeeded in turning his handicaps and limitations into advantages through sheer hard work. For a man who continually castigated himself for his sloth, his capacity for labor was enormous (238).
Additionally, he possessed an exceptional clarity of mind; for this reason, he was nearly always able to distill his observations to maxim-like wisdom. His self-scrutiny has universal applications.
Johnson’s life is one of the most documented in British literary history to the point that accounts of his life, his strength in adversity and sheer talent, read almost like works of epic fiction. His literary and linguistic influence on the English tradition are nearly as extensive as Shakespeare’s; until the Oxford English Dictionary was published, Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language reigned supreme. He accomplished what few individuals with comparable disabilities from his time were able to achieve. His discipline, determination, and literary and linguistic insight were crucial to overcoming adversities originating in his infancy. Johnson left an immense legacy.
London has served as one of the most evocative literary and historical backdrops for as long as it has existed. Eighteenth-century London was the site of so much intellectual, religious, and social change that for Johnson to be born, raised, and spend his life in the midst of it adds a further dimension of grandeur to his story. While this setting lends an epic sense to his extraordinary life, it also brings the narrative down to earth. The social ills and inequities of the city were as severe in the 18th century as its triumphs. Johnson knew the value of place and time and did not waste it.
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