Rinan T Dayonayos AB English TTh (7-8:30am) Understanding Fiction (Eng. 42).
The Precariousness of Human Condition as Reflected in Five Selected Short Stories
Precarious is one of the words that describe the behaviors of humans on their interaction within themselves and towards the society. Another describe for the word “precarious" are uncertain, dangerously, unsteady and insecure. People have different characteristics and attitudes. People are natural to them to have feelings and emotions. But before they have it, where it came from, is there a process due to the final actions. Biologically and chemically, emotions and feelings are works of an individual own brain chemical process. It is used the five senses to determine the people why their act before brain process come out (Biology Book, 2002). The five senses which described are sense of sight, hear, touch, taste and smell. Moreover, According to Arendt (1958) on her work entitled The Human Condition stated that “Human condition is indeed the portrait of a precarious world of instability and of uncertain future. People don't know when or where an emotion comes out and it cannot predict when behaviors feel it. Because it depends to the environment and people why do humans act differently? Maybe because they discriminate in the society or because of his/her childhood feel unimportant. Not only in real people have characteristics or behaviors but also in fictional characters of the stories and novels in literature. In literature, if the characters feel angry also in reality man are also feel angry. Literature plays different roles in our lives. In selecting five short stories to give discussions and life these are The Cask of Amontillado, The God Stealer, A Country Doctor, The Legend of Sleepy Hallow and How to Tell a True War Story.
One clear evident of precariousness of a character or for a human is that there are insecurities and selfish with them internally and externally. In the story of Cask of Amontillado written by Edgar Allan Poe there are two men who had problem with itself in their personalities. The narrator, Montresor, opens the story by stating that he has been irreparably insulted by his acquaintance named Fortunato that he want to seeks for revenge.
So based on line it is clearly stated he wants revenge to fortunato so it means Montressor had embedded precariousness. Human also sometimes seek for revenge when it comes they are angry and they hurt. So it is natural to human to have that kind of personalities. During the carnival season, Montresor, wearing a mask of black silk, approaches Fortunato. He tells Fortunato that he has acquired something that could pass for Amontillado, a light Spanish sherry. Fortunato (Italian for “fortunate”) wears the multicolored costume of the jester, including a cone cap with bells. Montresor tells Fortunato that if he is too busy, he will ask a man named Luchesi to taste it. Fortunato apparently considers Luchesi a competitor and claims that this man could not tell Amontillado from other types of sherry. Fortunato is anxious to taste the wine and to determine for Montresor whether or not it is truly Amontillado. Fortunato insists that they go to Montresor’s vaults. So based also in the line it is stated that Fortunate is selfish and a competitive. So it means Fortunato embedded the precariousness. Also human has attitude being selfish and sometimes being competitive themselves. Whether they believe or not human has attitude being selfish. Montresor has strategically planned for this meeting by sending his servants away to the carnival. The two men descend into the damp vaults, which are covered with nitre, or saltpeter, a whitish mineral. Apparently aggravated by the nitre, Fortunato begins to cough. The narrator keeps offering to bring Fortunato back home, but Fortunato refuses. Instead, he accepts wine as the antidote to his cough. The men continue to explore the deep vaults, which are full of the dead bodies of the Montresor family. Later in their journey, Fortunato makes a hand movement that is a secret sign of the Masons, an exclusive fraternal organization. Montresor does not recognize this hand signal, though he claims that he is a Mason. When Fortunato asks for proof, Montresor shows him his trowel, the implication being that Montresor is an actual stonemason. Fortunato says that he must be jesting, and the two men continue onward. The men walk into a crypt, where human bones decorate three of the four walls. The bones from the fourth wall have
been thrown down on the ground. On the exposed wall is a small recess, where Montresor tells Fortunato that the Amontillado is being stored. Fortunato, now heavily intoxicated, goes to the back of the recess. Montresor then suddenly chains the slow-footed Fortunato to a stone. Taunting Fortunato with an offer to leave, Montresor begins to wall up the entrance to this small crypt, thereby trapping Fortunato inside. Fortunato screams confusedly as Montresor builds the first layer of the wall. The alcohol soon wears off and Fortunato moans, terrified and helpless. As the layers continue to rise, though, Fortunato falls silent. Just as Montresor is about to finish, Fortunato laughs as if Montresor is playing a joke on him, but Montresor is not joking. At last, after a final plea, “For the love of God, Montresor!” Fortunato stops answering Montresor, who then twice calls out his enemy’s name. After no response, Montresor claims that his heart feels sick because of the dampness of the catacombs. He fits the last stone into place and plasters the wall closed, his actions accompanied only by the jingling of Fortunato’s bells. He finally repositions the bones on the fourth wall. For fifty years, he writes, no one has disturbed them. He concludes with a Latin phrase meaning “May he rest in peace." So in the story Cask of Amontillado, the two characters both had embedded the precariousness. People live in this world to make anything that they want. Because through the incident that Montressor seek for a revenge to Fortunato because he did not like the attitude of it, in short, being selfish. Because when it comes if you are not control yourself and the emotions comes out you can expressed or you can make a good or bad things. But in reality it is also happened neither in the stories nor the novels. We know in the bible stated in some part of it “Vengeance is mine" so whether if you felt bad to that person you don't need to make things. Because only God has power to do revenge and he is the only one who judge us in inside and outside.
If a man seeks for revenge because of his insecurities and the other man died because
through of his being selfishness in the story, the other story next entitled The God Stealer written by F. Sionil Jose. The story is about of a friendship. An American and a Filipino go to the Cordilleras to look at the rice terraces which were built by the Filipino's ancestors. There they find the meaning of their friendship, how it defines the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. The story begins with two men named Philip Latak (an Ifugao from the Mountain Province now working in Manila) and Sam Cristie, an American on the bus to Baguio.Philip (Ip-pig) now lives in Manila against the wishes of his immediate family, particularly his grandfather who intended to bequeth to Philip his share of the famous rice terraces. They are on their way to Baguio for one purpose: Sam wants to buy a genuine Ifugao god as souvenir and Philip was to help him find an authentic one through his local connections.
Philip is a Christian who no longer has any respect or affection for the Ifugao customs and religion.He considers himself a city boy and has no inclination to return to mountain life. Despite this attitude, his grandfather is pleased to see him and decides to throw a big party in his honor. On the day of the party, Sam and Philip discover that no Ifugao is willing to sell his god. And as a last resort, Philip offers to steal the god of his grandfather because he feels it would be his way of showing his gratitude to Sam for giving him a rise at work. The consequences of this act are severe.The next day, his grandfather died because he discovered that his god was stolen. He also informs Sam that Philip will no longer be going back to Manila. Curious, Sam looks for Philip and find him working in his grandfather's house. Philip poignantly explains his reasons for choosing to stay in the mountains: "I could forgive myself for having stolen it. But the old man- he had always been wise, Sam. He knew that it was I who did it from the very start. He wanted so much to believe that it wasn't I. But he couldn't pretend - and neither can I. I killed him, Sam. I killed him because I wanted to be free from these. These cursed terraces. Because I wanted to be
grateful. I killed him who loved me most.." a faltering and stifled sob.In the dark hut, Sam noticed that Philip is now attired in G-string, the traditional costume of the Ifugao. Furthermore, Philip is busy carving another idol, a new god to replace the old one which Sam will take to America as a souvenir. In the story The God Stealer, Philip Latak had embedded the precariousness. Because he changes a lot after he worked in Manila. Philip chose first what his friend wants than to his grandfather. Filipino people are too hospitable and generous when it comes often to the foreigners. But at last his grandfather was died because the God was stealing. It is significant to his grandfather to preserve their culture and suddenly it was lost and stolen. Philip's repudiation of his Ifugao heritage may be extrapolated to mean that Filipino's rejection of his own roots and its replacement with colonial values. It is significant that Philip steals the God for Sam out of gratitude. It is the Filipino gave up his most precious symbol of his past traditions to the Americans as an expression of gratitude. And by giving this symbol away, the Filipino murders his own roots. The Filipino is a confused, emotionally disturbed and helpless, plagued by the fact that he repudiated his past, or that he could not do anything to help the suffering. Symbolic of the foreigner's exploitation and imperialistic ambitions on the Filipino.
If the culture is often not precious because of his friend will. The next story is entitled A Country Doctor written by Franz Kafka. The story was written in the first person, thereby imparting an exciting degree of immediacy to the story. The story begins in the past, switches to the present in the rape scene, reverts to the past, and finally shifts back to the present at the end, thus elevating the final catastrophe to the level of timelessness. At an even faster pace, images that share no logical connection with each other rush toward the story's last sentence. "A false alarm on the night bell once answered, it cannot be made good, not ever." Here is a good starting point for examining the story. From the story's last sentence; it becomes evident that the whole story is the inevitable consequence of a single
mistake. In human we truly respect our profession and we need to help the people. As a doctor we need to save our patient to need to still alive. Because when it comes that you are a doctor, people called you a savior in the land. In portraying this nightmare, Kafka has succeeded in portraying the situation of the man who wants to help but cannot. Kafka may well have seen himself and the whole profession of writers in the position of the country doctor: a man fighting against ignorance, selfishness and superstition, he remains exposed to "the frost of this most unhappy of ages." This is a diagnosis not only of a specific situation but also of the condition of our whole age. This is why the patient's question is not if the doctor will heal him or cure him, but if he will save him. "That's how the people act in my district; they always expect the impossible from the doctor," he says, explaining why he or, on another plane, the writer — cannot be of any real help to the patient. He finds himself confronted with people whose consciousness is still attached to the realm of magic. They reveal this by stripping the doctor of his clothes and laying him in the bed alongside the patient. "The utterly simple" tune following this ritual reflects their primitivism, which would not hesitate to use the doctor as a scapegoat and kill him if his art should not work. Although "In the Penal Colony," written two years earlier, is a better expression of Kafka's horror of World War I, there is much concern here for innocent scapegoats. The anxiety prevailing throughout this story also reflects Kafka's problems resulting from his second engagement to Felice Bauer and his deteriorating health. Shortly after his condition was diagnosed as tuberculosis, he wrote to Max Brod that he had predicted this disease himself and that his anticipation occurred in the wound of the sick boy in "A Country Doctor." There are many more autobiographical elements, none of them "proving" anything in the strict sense of the word, but all of them shedding some additional light on the gloomy world of Kafka. The story is dedicated to his father, who ignored it completely. The misunderstanding between the physician and the patient is a reflection of the equally barren
relationship between the old Kafka and the young Kafka. Knowing to what extremes Kafka tends to carry the art of name-giving, it is easy to see that the servant girl's name, Rose, is by no means accidental: "rosered" is the color of the meticulously described wound, and the color rose, as well as the flower, is an age-old symbol of love in its manifold facets. There is no need to insist on one specific meaning of the word, if only because Kafka himself does not. The meaning is clear, considering that December 1917, the year after he wrote "A Country Doctor," brought Kafka's final separation from Felice, his "rose" in both senses of the word. The groom represents Kafka's sometimes almost obsessive fear of a sexually superior rival. On this subject, he wrote that Felice did not stay alone and that someone else got close to her who did not have the problems which he, Kafka, had to face. In the story, the groom certainly gets to Rose easily, and if she says "no," she nevertheless runs into the house fully aware of her fate. "If they misuse me for sacred reasons, I let that happen too," the doctor says. Yet his sacrifice would be senseless because it is beyond a physician's power to help an age spiritually out of kilter. It is out of kilter because, as everywhere in Kafka's work, people have lost their faith and have taken to living "outside the law," listening to the false prophets of unbridled technological progress and conformism. The boy does not trust the doctor, and his family displays the subservient and naive behavior of the average patient. As the doctor puts it: "They have discarded their old beliefs; the minister sits at home, unraveling his vestments, one by one; but the doctor is supposed to be omnipotent." This is why the song of "Oh be joyful, all you patients — the doctor's laid in bed beside you!" is the "new but faulty song": the empirical and the transcendental realms are no longer one; the only way they meet is in the form of a clash leading to a "false alarm." Only if we understand Kafka's notion of disease as resulting from seclusion can we begin to understand the country doctor. He is the subject and the object of his long quest or, expressed differently, the psychoanalyst of his own inner landscape (on another level, our
whole secularized age) and the patient. And Kafka, though interested in Freud's teachings, regarded at least the therapeutical part of psychoanalysis as a hopeless error. According to Kafka, anxiety and concomitant alienation are the direct consequence of man's spiritual withering, and all psychoanalysis can possibly do is discover the myriad pieces of one's shattered universe. Without his doing anything special, the doctor draws exactly the help he needs when he kicks the door of the pigsty. Like his whole trip, the sudden appearance of horses, groom, and gig bears the mark of the miraculous and the supernatural. Ever since Plato's (Phaidros) famous parable of the chariot being pulled by one white horse and one black horse, symbolizing the bright and the dark aspects of irrationality (rationality is in charge and tries to steer a middle course), horses have symbolized instincts and drives. The fact that they have come out of a pigsty here underscores their animalistic nature. Twice the doctor complains that his own horse died, and both times his remarks are accompanied by winter scenes, suggesting the barrenness of the (spiritual) wasteland around him. Right away, the horses respond to the fiery "gee up" of the groom, who has already demonstrated his kinship with their world by calling them "brother" and "sister." The doctor also yells "gee up" at the end but, time being the correlative of experience, they will only crawl "slowly, like old men"; escaping from the patient and erring through the snowy wastes, the doctor has no experience by which to divide up time and, consequently, loses his orientation. The horses take over completely, at any rate, covering the distance to the patient's farm in an incredibly short period of time which, symbolically enough, is exactly the time it takes the groom to subdue Rose. Greatly adding to the story's dramatic impact, the doctor's night journey and Rose's rape are merged here on a logically inexplicable level. "You never know what you're going to find in your house," Rose says, "and we both laughed." This line may be a clue. It is important that it is she who says this statement; she is better attuned to the realm of irrational forces than he, who spends most of his trip regretting that he has never noticed her, much less enjoyed her physically and spiritually.
Now he realizes his negligence, but now it is too late because she has already been sacrificed to the groom. Her comment and their laughter at the sudden appearance of the horses reveal that these sensual and spiritual elements are present, but that they need to be brought out. On a literal level, this happens as they come out of the pigsty. The closing picture of the fur coat trailing in the snow behind the doctor mirrors the helplessness of one who has been "betrayed." Traveling through endless wastes on his straying gig, the doctor is doomed to see the symbol of warmth and security without being able to reach it. Naked and cold and gone astray, the country doctor is the pitiful picture of disoriented mankind drifting over the treacherous landscape of its sick collective consciousness. And there is no end in sight because "he was used to that." The question of the doctor's guilt provokes thoughts of uncertainty and ambiguity. As everywhere else in Kafka's work, the hero does not commit a crime or even a grave error. We are apt to get closer to the situation when we realize that he maneuvers himself, or permits himself to be maneuvered, into a state of mind which forces him to refrain from concrete decisions and commitments. In this sense, he becomes guilty of the classic existential sin, failing or refusing to become involved. By not taking his profession seriously and therefore lacking in responsibility, he forfeits his only chance of taking the decisive step from mere vegetating to conscious living. True, as a medical man he cannot be expected to save a patient whose sickness is, above all, of a spiritual nature. Yet he is guilty because he lacks the will to try his level best; he is afraid to act like a "world reformer" and pats himself on the shoulder for doing so much work for so little pay. Nor does he bother to view the wound as the result of the complex but undeniable interrelationship between physical and psychological factors of which Kafka himself was very much aware. Symptomatic of our age, the country doctor is the one-dimensional man who has lost a sense of participation, not only in the sphere of the sensual, but also in that of the spiritual. Like the doctor himself, his "pack of patients" has stepped outside the law" and into chaos. From there, they cannot help, the point being that they have lost the
capability of doing that long ago. Whoever breaks out of Kafka's "human circle" alienates himself to the point of death. Kafka is most clear in this story: the impossibility of curing our age is his subject. The doctor embedded the precariousness because he chose his profession than to his fiancée. Human being sometimes chooses first their profession to gain more income. But through our profession also lead us to circumstances. Sometimes we need to think of it what is the best to do and try to make it. Because the doctor chose the patient that he knew that it will going to be died but he try to act that the patient will still alive. But the consequence of that is maybe his fiancée was raped into the lust person. It was not stated in the last part what happened to the doctor’s fiancée, but if you think that his fiancée with someone lust person it could be have something bad happened.
The next story is entitled The Legend of Sleepy Hollow it was represents Irving’s second comic masterpiece, a ghostly tale about things that go bump in the night. The specter in question here is the mysterious Headless Horseman, said to be a Hessian trooper who lost his head in a nearby battle. Each night he roams the countryside in search of it. The unlikely hero in this tale is Ichabod Crane, an itinerant schoolmaster, whose name suits him perfectly: “He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together.” Ichabod Crane is a newcomer to the Hudson Valley. Ichabod’s quarters are whatever rooms the neighboring Dutch farmers who board him for a week at a time are willing to provide. Ichabod thus makes the rounds of the neighborhood, and his small salary, combined with his constantly changing address, allows him to store all of his personal possessions in a cotton handkerchief. Because he comes from Connecticut, a state whose major product is country schoolmasters, Ichabod feels both superior to the old Dutch stock of the valley and frustrated by his perpetual state of poverty. He compensates for the former by regularly
caning the more obstinate of his little charges and for the latter by doing light work on the neighboring farms. He further supplements his income by serving as the local singing master, instructing the farm children in the singing of psalms. Never missing a chance to curry favor with the local mothers, Ichabod always pets the youngest children “like the lion bold” holding the lamb. In short, his single goal is self-advancement, and though he has merely “tarried” in Sleepy Hollow, he clearly will remain if his prospects improve. One of Ichabod’s music students is Katrina Van Tassel, the eighteen-year-old daughter of a prosperous Dutch farmer. She is “plump as a partridge; ripe and melting and rosy-cheeked as one of her father’s peaches.” She also, as her father’s only daughter, has “vast expectations.” Though she is also something of a coquette, the prospect of her inheritance makes her seem to Ichabod a desirable bride, and he determines to win her. Ichabod’s mouth waters when he contemplates the fruits of old Baltus Van Tassel’s land. He dreams of the fat meadowlands, the rich wheatfields, and the rye, buckwheat, fruit, and Indian corn that will be his if he can win Katrina’s hand. Once married to Katrina, he could invest in large tracts of land. He can even imagine Katrina with a whole family of children, setting out with him for promising new territories in Kentucky or Tennessee. It is, however, the sumptuous comfort of the Van Tassel home that makes him realize that he must have Katrina. Winning Katrina, however, presents a problem in the person of her rugged, rough-edged Dutch boyfriend, Abraham Brunt, nicknamed “Brom Bones” because of his Herculean size and strength. Brom, who has long considered Katrina his, immediately recognizes Ichabod as his rival, and with his gang of roughriders plays a series of practical jokes on the Yankee schoolmaster. However, his pranks—stopping up the singing-school chimney, upsetting the schoolhouse, even training his dog to whine whenever Ichabod sings—do little to thwart the progress that Ichabod believes he is making in his campaign to win Katrina’s hand. Indeed, Ichabod is encouraged when he receives an invitation to a “quilting frolic” at the Van Tassel home.
Ichabod spends extra time dressing and even borrows a horse so that he can arrive in style. The horse, somewhat inappropriately named Gunpowder, is as gaunt and shabby as Ichabod, but this does not prevent him from thinking that Katrina will be impressed. Ichabod continues to imagine the Van Tassel wealth that he will have if he can make Katrina his, and he quickly becomes the center of attention when Katrina dances with him. Brom, meanwhile, looks on with helpless jealousy. Brom enjoys himself only when telling of his close encounter with the headless horseman. Ichabod counters with extracts from Cotton Mather and stories of his own close calls with Connecticut and local ghosts. The midnight quiet of the countryside, the gathering clouds, and the ghost stories that Ichabod has heard do not improve Ichabod’s mood. Indeed, he becomes increasingly uneasy as he approaches the tree from which Major Andre had been hanged. Ichabod knows that he will be safe if only he can cross the church bridge, but just then the goblin rider appears on his black horse, closing in fast behind him. Instead of disappearing in a burst of fire and brimstone as he has always been said to do, the rider throws his head at Ichabod. It strikes Ichabod’s own cranium, and the rider passes on like a whirlwind. Though Ichabod’s borrowed horse reappears the next morning, Ichabod does not. The executor of his estate, Hans Van Ripper, burns Ichabod’s copy of Cotton Mather and the scrawled fragments of a few love poems to Katrina. Ichabod himself becomes part of Sleepy Hollow’s folklore. Some say that he was snatched by the Galloping Hessian, but others say that Ichabod is still alive, that he was afraid to return from fear of the goblin and Hans Van Ripper (from whom he had borrowed the horse) and was mortified by Katrina’s refusal. Brom Bones appears soon after such discussions, always wearing a knowing smile whenever the goblin’s pumpkin head is mentioned. Near Tarrytown on the Hudson River is a little valley populated by Dutch folk that seems to be the quietest place in the world. A drowsy influence hangs over the place and people so that the region is known as Sleepy Hollow, and the lads who live there are called Sleepy Hollow boys. Some say that the valley is bewitched.
A schoolteacher named Ichabod Crane arrives in the valley, looking like a scarecrow because of his long, skinny frame and his snipelike nose. As is customary, Crane circulates among the homes in Sleepy Hollow, boarding with the parents of each of his pupils for one week at a time. Fortunately for him, the valley’s larders are full and the tables groan with food, for the schoolmaster has a wonderful appetite. He is always welcome in the country homes because in small ways he has contrived to make himself useful to the farmers. He takes care to appear to be patient with the children, and he loves to spend the long winter nights with the families of his pupils, exchanging tales of ghosts and haunted places, while ruddy apples roast on the hearths. The main figure said to haunt Sleepy Hollow is a man on horseback without a head. The villagers speculate that the specter is the apparition of a Hessian horseman who lost his head to a cannonball; whatever it may be, the figure is often seen in the countryside during the gloomy winter nights. The specter is known to all as the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow. Abraham Van Brunt “Brom” for short is Katrina’s favorite squire. Known for his tall and powerful frame, the locals have taken to calling him Brom Bones. A lively lad with a fine sense of humor and a tremendous amount of energy, Brom scares away Katrina’s other suitors. Brom Bones is a formidable rival for the gaunt and shaggy Ichabod. Brom would like to carry their battle over Katrina into the open, but the schoolteacher knows better than to tangle with him physically. Brom can do little more than play practical jokes on the lanky Ichabod. The party is merry and exciting, punctuated by grand feasts and lively dances. Ichabod is enraptured by the cakes, pies, meats, and tea. He joins in the dancing, feeling himself to be at his best when he dances with Katrina. Later, he listens to the men exchange Sleepy Hollow ghost stories on the porch. As the evening wanes and the others leave, he tarries in an attempt to pay court to Katrina. Before long, however, he leaves the Van Tassels crestfallen at his lack of success and starts home on the gaunt Gunpowder. As he rides
along in the darkness, all the evening’s stories of ghosts return to haunt Ichabod, and he becomes even more dismal. In the darkness, he thinks he sees dim shapes and hears soft moans. When Ichabod finally approaches the bridge over Wiley’s Swamp, his horse Gunpowder balks and will not respond to Ichabod’s urgent commands; then, across the marsh, through the dark evening, Ichabod sees something huge and misshapen. He calls out to the figure, which refuses to answer him. Ichabod’s hair stands straight on end, and he keeps to the road, thinking it must be too late to turn back. The strange figure keeps pace with him, whether he goes fast or slow, and before long Ichabod believes the dark shape to be a headless horseman holding his head on the pommel of his saddle. Ichabod soon loses his nerve and whips Gunpowder to a gallop; as they rush down the dark road, his saddle loosens and he nearly loses his grip, but he hugs the horse around the neck. He is so scared that he cannot even muster the courage to sing a psalm. When Ichabod reaches the church bridge, where by tradition the headless specter should disappear in a flash of fire and brimstone, he hears the horseman close upon him. As he turns to look, the spirit seems to throw his head at the schoolmaster. Ichabod tries to dodge, but the head bursts against his skull and tumbles him from his mount. In the morning, a shattered pumpkin is found near the bridge. Gunpowder is found grazing at the farmer’s gate nearby. Ichabod, however, is never seen in Sleepy Hollow again, although later reports are heard that he has relocated. In the valley, they say that Brom Bones, long after marrying Katrina, laughs heartily whenever the story is told of the Headless Horseman. In the story of The Legend of Sleep Hallow, the one had precariousness is Ichabod Crane because through his actions and ignorant. We know that we are new in village we heard some rumors about anything. So through our curiosity we need to know also what it is all about. So despite the fact that he is new in the village he really wants to interested to know about the Legend of sleepy hollow if it’s true or not.
The last short story is entitled How to Tell a True War Story written by O’Brien prefaces this story by saying that it is true. A week after his friend is killed, Rat Kiley writes a letter to the friend’s sister, explaining what a hero her brother was and how much he loved him. Two months pass, and the sister never writes back. Kiley, frustrated, spits and calls the sister a “dumb cooze.” O’Brien insists that a true war story is not moral and tells us not to believe a story that seems moral. He uses Kiley’s actions as an example of the amorality of war stories. O’Brien reveals that Kiley’s friend’s name was Curt Lemon and that he died while playfully tossing a smoke grenade with Rat Kiley, in the shade of some trees. Lemon stepped into the sunlight and onto a rigged mortar round. O’Brien says sometimes a true war story cannot be believed because some of the most unbearable parts are true, while some of the normal parts are not. Sometimes, he says, a true war story is impossible to tell. He describes a story that Mitchell Sanders tells. Sanders recounts the experience of a troop that goes into the mountains on a listening post operation. He says that after a few days, the men hear strange echoes and music—chimes and xylophones—and become frightened. One night, the men hear voices and noises that sound like a cocktail party. After a while they hear singing and chanting, as well as talking monkeys and trees. They order air strikes and they burn and shoot down everything they can find. Still, in the morning, they hear the noises. So they pack up their gear and head down the mountain, where their colonel asks them what they heard. They have no answer. The day after he tells this story, Mitchell approaches O’Brien and confesses that some parts were invented. O’Brien asks him what the moral of the story is and, listening to the quiet, Sanders says the quiet is the moral. O’Brien says the moral of a true war story, like the thread that makes a cloth, cannot be separated from the story itself. A true war story cannot be made general or abstract, he says. The significance of the story is whether or not you believe it in your stomach. Heeding his own advice, he relays the story of Curt Lemon’s death in a few, brief vignettes. He explains that the platoon crossed a muddy river
and on the third day Lemon was killed and Kiley lost his best friend. Later that day, higher in the mountains, Kiley shot a Viet Cong water buffalo repeatedly—though the animal was destroyed and bleeding, it remained alive. Finally Kiowa and Sanders picked up the buffalo and dumped it in the village well. O’Brien expounds on his problem by making a generalization. He says that though war is hell, it is also many other contradictory things. He explains the mysterious feeling of being alive that follows a firefight. He agrees with Sanders’s story of the men who hear things in the jungle—war is ambiguous, he says. For this reason, in a true war story, nothing is absolutely true. O’Brien remembers how Lemon died. Lemon was smiling and talking to Kiley one second and was blown into a tree the next. Jensen and O’Brien were ordered to climb the tree to retrieve Lemon’s body, and Jensen sang “Lemon Tree” as they threw down the body parts. A true war story can be identified by the questions one asks afterward, O’Brien says. He says that in the story of a man who jumps on a grenade to save his three friends, the truth of the man’s purpose makes a difference. He says that sometimes the truest war stories never happened and tells a story of the same four men—one jump on a grenade to take the blast, and all four die anyway. Before they die, though, one of the dead turns to the man who jumped on the grenade and asks him why he jumped. The already-dead jumper says, “Story of my life, man.” Thinking of Curt Lemon, O’Brien concludes he must have thought the sunlight was killing him. O’Brien wishes he could get the story right—the way the sunlight seemed to gather Lemon and carry him up in the air—so that we could believe what Lemon must have seen as his final truth. O’Brien says that when he tells this story, a woman invariably approaches him and tells him that she liked it but it made her sad, and that O’Brien should find new stories to tell. O’Brien wishes he could tell the woman that the story he told wasn’t a war story but a love story. He concludes that all he can do is continue telling it, making up more things in order give greater truth to the story.
Most of the short stories are fiction. They are the reflections of the reality, they are the realizations of the real world in to an imaginative setting ang people. Even though short stories are product of creative imaginations they are very good way for a person to reflect into. Each short story of different countries reflects the traditions, the culture, the characters of its citizens. For they made on the reflection, perspectives and experience of these people, and country. A Haunted House, Dead Star, How My Brother Leon Brought Home A Wife, Popular Mechanics and Servant Girl are some of the best short stories and for in fact three of these five short stories are written of some Filipino authors.
In the story How to Tell a True War Story O’Brien had embedded the precariousness because he always think about the past what happened when he was a soldier in the Vietnam War. Even in reality people often think about something that are memorable or sometimes the tragedy they experienced. Because life is too easy to forget those happy things but we cannot forget those bad things. Just like people who are dead, people are praising and talking about his/her good things because they are afraid to say his/her bad things. Also if we encounter people sometimes we are truly to become a gossip and we are talking about his/her bad things that he made. So even though it is hard to forget those things we need to think of it as a replication of our life. We need to get move on in order to face a new life and new opportunities to come. Indeed, literature is significant to us. Literature views significant human experiences that could be used in discussion about certain topics. Just like real people, fictional characters also go through difficult situations, decisions and changes that would shape their attitude and personality in the end. We could not blame those persons why they are changed, why he did it and why they are act like that. Just like in the story The Cask of Amontillado, Montressor planned to seek revenge to Fortunato because of his insecurities and also Fortunato killed because of his selfishness. In the God Stealer, Philip would give us a lesson that we should respect and value one’s own inheritance who gave to us the importance and desire to live in. At last Philip was changed, he decided to stay in Ifugao and he carved another God to replace it. In The Country Doctor, the doctor regret at last because he chose first his profession than to his fiancée even though his patient is going to be die. But he let his patient to die in relax not in worried. Also in the Legend of Sleepy Hallow, Ichabod Crane become an obsessive and ignorant to know if it is real the Sleepy
Hallow. He searched on it and at last he finally saw the sleepy hallow. Lastly, the How to Tell a True War Story is all about O’Brien reminiscing the past and he cannot move on what happened and finally he wrote it what happened in the war and it’s slowly released out his sadness. “When social vulnerability is challenged, the frailty of human affairs is exposed” Arendt (1958). Moreover humans would never contented they want to have but in reality we cannot predict what well be our future. It is normal to be precarious but not be too serious and put it limitation.
References: A Country Doctor Arendt,(1958). Human Conditioon Book. http://learn.lexiconic.net/humancondition. How to Tell a True War Story The Cask of Amontillado The God Stealer The Legend of Sleepy Hallow
The short story How My Brother Brought Home A Wife is written by a Filipino author named Manuel Arguilla, this is consider as part of American Colonial Literature. The family of Leon/Noel is still not warm to Maria for they think that how can a city girl love a man who come from a province. How a girl who lives in abundance can love the life of a man who is not wealthy. Maria is afraid of the idea that she might not be accepted by the family of Noel/Leon. Maria is afraid that the father of her husband may not accept her as her daughter-in-law for she might not be able to cope the life in the province. When they arrive to the place of Noel/Leon they took another way home to test Maria if she can endure sacrifices and be worthy as a wife of Noel/Leon. As she survive and overcome certain challenges to her, the father and the family of her husband become warmer and livelier to her. The story shows how far can love move a person. How can love make the person sacrifice certain part of her/his life and face a certain difficulties to prove her/his love and be worthy of it, and love knows no social statuses. Maria the city girl who fell in love and married a country man, at first she is not fully accepted by the family of the man she loves and her love is being question by the family of her husband. Maria stands those people who love deeply and can sacrifice and prove everything for the name of love. These kind of people are the most courageous kind of man. Courageous because even people doubt her and her love for the other person she still stand firm and prove that she is worthy of certain love. People when they fall in love, and they begin to be part on that persons' life he/she become afraid and inferior about the idea if the family of the person he/she love will accept, like and welcome her/him to the family. Those people who truly love somebody should never fell any inferiorities if the family of the man or the woman she/he loves will accept her/him for as long as the person involve on the commitment is true and sincere on their love to each other. Noel/Leon is the man who married Maria. He is a country man who falls in love to a city girl. His family test her wife if she truly worthy of the love and to be wife of Noel/Leon. Noel/Leon is a typical country man. Where he belongs to a family who thought that their son can marry a country girl also. Typical Filipino families always get involve their selves to the commitment where their son or daughter committed into, they want to know the partner of their children of whom they will spend their lives into and if that person is truly deserving for their children. This is normal to Filipino families, for this is part of Filipinos tradition and culture because of the strong family ties. The main conflict of the love of these two people is the opinion of the society. Society dictates that a city girl cannot love and sacrifice a part of her life to a country man. Society always dictate that a poor is for a poor only, a wealthy person is for a wealthy person and a country man is for a country woman and a city girl is for a city boy only. People should not let society dictate her/him on what is her/his decisions in life, especially on who to love and spend the rest of her/his life. The short story wanted its readers to be strong and be courageous to fight their love, for true love worthy to fight for.
In a relationship it comes along the responsibility of two people, the responsibility to be faithful, loyal, understand, respect and keep the fire always burning. These responsibilities that mentioned are very important for the relationship to continue, move forward and meaningful. The two people inside that commitment should never keep any secret to his/her partner. Keeping secret to the other person on the relationship can damage trust and when the trust has damage, the relationship itself will follow. On the story, Esperanza and Alfredo are engage, they are in a relationship for four years. At first they are warm for the feeling is still fresh and new and this two people are still getting to know each other deeply. As their wedding day is fast approaching, Alfredo become cold to Esperanza, for he meet Julia Salas. Their first meeting been followed by several meetings without the knowledge of Esperanza. Alfredo become comfortable and warm to Julia and he keep all his endeavors to Esperanza. These time, Esperanza already feel the changes towards Alfredo and some gossip about Julia and Alfredo arrive to her, despite of those gossips he stays positive towards Alfredo and to their relationship. Later on Julia Salas know that Alfredo is already engage to Esperanza. Julia Salas live her life faraway from Alfredo. The wedding of Esperanza and Alfredo take place smoothly. Years pass Alfredo has assign to work to different city where is the neighborhood of the city that Julia lives. He show Julia and until this time Julia is still single and Alfredo himself realizes that he no longer adore Julia Salas. Many relationship are like on the story. Who undergone same temptations and struggles but the difference is that on the story they succeed on overcoming certain temptations in their relationship. There are many Alfredo and Esperanza on the society today but there are only few Julia Salas nowadays. As Alfredo meet Julia Salas he become comfortable and warm to her and keep all his endeavors to her fiancé Esperanza. On this case Alfredo become unfair to Esperanza, for Esperanza has the right to know where Alfredos’ whereabouts are. Many relationship failed because of keeping secrets from their partner for it creates distance of the two people. Many men are like Alfredo this days, who attach their selves to other women even though they are in a relationship or they are married. For the reason that men tale it as a recreation
Second, they see their selves to that person more than to their partner. Third, men just like new acquaintances and last men are just like that. The theory of structuralism will help to analyze the character of Alfredo Salazar more. Lack of effort plus lack of discovering new things together will result to lack of interest to each other. This formula will explain on why Alfredo Salazar fall out of interest to Esperanza. Men and boys, when they are in a relationship for a while they tend to loss and make no efforts for their partners, believing that it is no longer needed for those long term relationship. Lack of discovering and trying new things can lead to loss of interest towards the partner. Trying new things can make relationship grow and some men forget this. They just keep on doing the same thing and activity to their girlfriend for years, and find themselves get bored to their partners without realizing it is just product of their actions. Esperanza symbolizes those women who feel that there are changes on their relationship but still they chooses to stay positive. This kind of attitude is good for it shows security in the relationship and to their partner but as what people say “to much trust without hesitations is no good.” Those Esperanza on the relationship are those people who do not believe easily to rumors or to his/her instinct that there are changes on his/her partner for he/she hold to the idea that they are in a commitment and his/her partner will not do anything that can hurt her/him. Most of Esperanza in the society are women. When women feel the changes on their relationship they deny it to their selves and stays positive, society call it martyr. On the case of Esperanza she never been martyr, for she confronted Alfredo about the issue and open the idea of cutting their relationship and postponement of their marriage. Some women lack this courage on saving their selves in so much pain and shame. For they are afraid of facing the fact that the will be hurt by the people they love and left alone. On the case of Esperanza on staying positive despite of all negativities is somehow good but it is somehow not logical, without considering if their partner feel and do the same way to them. Julia Salas become so comfortable with Alfredo Salazar. She does not have any idea that Alfredo is already engage to Esperanza. Nowadays, third party and mistresses are very mainstream. There are people who is more like in the same situation with Julia Salas. Julia Salas and Alfredo Salazar are not in a commitment but people surrounds them may think that it is still not right for there is someone that will be hurt. The character of Julia Salas stands for those people who easily attach themselves to someone who they do not fully know. This characteristic can lead to a lot of problems. This character can damage and ruin relationship, for they attach their selves to someone without knowing that person is already committed to somebody else. This kind of character can destroy families. In case that they attach their selves to a married man. The good thing about Julia upon knowing that Alfredo is already engage she keep her limitations and distance herself to Alfredo to not to hurt the other people involve. Most women who are tag as “mistresses” do not do the same thing like Julia. Even they already know that the man is in a relationship and or married they still continue their forbidden relationship.
The short story servant girl is written by a Filipina, Estrella Alfon. This story reflects and represented some attitudes of Filipinos. The story revolves on the life of the servant girl named Rosa, who is physically and verbally abuse by her Mistress, but somehow sometimes her Mistress feel pity towards her. Rosa had an admirer named Sancho. Sancho is rude to Rosa and he keep on hurting her. One day Rosa get into an accident, this incident made way for her to meet this cochero who would later made Rosa consider him as her hope. This cochero help Rosa, after then Rosa call him as angel, that will uplift and will free her from her miserable life. Not later enough, Rosa realizes that it is just her illusion and expectation on believing that it is the cochero Pedro will help her on her life. So Rosa accepted her fate and continue on serving her Mistress. The characters on the story are Rosa, Mistress, Sancho and Pedro. These characters represented different characteristics of every Filipino. On the story Rosa is the servant girl who is physically and verbally maltreated by her Mistress, but still she render good services to her. This character of her represented those battered wives on the society, there are number of them who keep on beating by their husbands but still they stay for some different reasons. First, wives cannot afford to leave their children or she cannot take it seeing her children growing up without a father or she cannot bare her children to grow as a product of a broken family. Second, wives do not have any sources of income to support her own needs and the necessities of her own children. Since most of the battered wives are plain housewives they do not have any job or any known activities to earn a living so they chooses to stay and endure the pain as a battered wives. Lastly, battered wives chooses to stay with their husbands because, his husband is powerful, her husband give them death threats or she chooses to stay because she has no other place to go. Rosa is also describe on the story as fond on imagining things, inventing things on her head that would comfort her even if those things will never happen on the real setting. On this generation there are many Rosa and this is the group represented by the youths. Many of those young people commit their selves in a relationship and expecting a fairytale like love story where there is always happy and happy endings and to the extent of expecting their partners to be perfect but they forgot they are committed to mortal one and on this case they end up hurting their own selves. This year, quotations like “there is no forever” hopeless romantic” and “friend zone” are very rampant. These are common terms use by the young generations for it reflects their own experiences. Young people uses the term “there is no forever” for those failed relationship that only lasted for a couple of months and or weeks. Sometimes this group of youth who believes that there is no forever curse those happy couples who successfully battled those problems on their relationship by telling to them “there is no forever”
The term “hopeless romantic” is being use by those people to describe their own love life where it is unsuccessful and colorless. People who consider themselves as a “hopeless romantic” has a different circumstances to base on. First, they engage into a relationship believing that they had already found the one but they still end up seeing their selves crying over and over again for the same person and reason. Lastly, every time they are on a commitment they are always being hurt. The last is “friend zone” this term is more likely invented just around 2015. This term is use to describe those situation where the other person confess his/her feelings to other one but they do not have mutual feelings, for that person that being confess to consider him/her as her/his friend, and or no matter how great the love the other person has for the other one they always end up as a friend. Too much expectations and imaginations of picture perfect things and ideal situations that are too far to happen, are all the main reason why people always end up hurting their on selves. It is the lesson that the character of Rosa trying to convey to readers. Pedro on the story is the cochero who help Rosa and he is being tag by Rosa as “angel.” He is consider by Rosa as her hope that could help her free from her pitiful life situation. By the description given, Pedro on the society stands for those politicians during elections and after they are being elected. On this country where politicians before elections will promise everything to voters, that if they are being elected on the position they can uplift them from their pitiful situations, they can give free access to education and on the health, they can open many opportunities and job that can boost the economy of the country, that they can end the corruption, that they can make everything better and voters being fooled by these sweet words of these traditional politicians. When they are elected they forget about their promises and those people who bring them to the position. They just give hope but they never do moves to support the hope they give. Instead of helping the people to uplift their lives what they do is to bring them back to their original situation of being poor worst being poorer.
Every people meet Pedro in their lives. Where they consider that person as their hope, but then circumstances come along and then people will realize that person which they consider as their angel on their lives will just put them down. Pedros’ character will leave the lesson that people should not trust, expect and hope too much to others’ because they are might totally different from what people think they are and who actually they are. Sancho is the admirer of Rosa and he is rude to her. During elementary and high school where the line “the more you hate, the more you love,” is very mainstream to hear. It seems that it is very true on the story. There are many kind of people like Sancho. People who are like this are those who think they can show their affection towards a specific person in a way of making them feel irritated, unwanted and being hurt always and believing that through this manner they can get that persons’ attention and affection too. The disadvantage on this attitude that they will never have the courage to tell and confess their feelings and everything will be too late. This is the character that Sancho wanted to remind to readers. The Mistress, she is the one who abuses Rosa but sometimes she is a kind to her. There are people who are tough to others but in every tough people there are soft spot on them that are hidden very well. Many people represented by this character. On the television news there are people being killed by their own girlfriend/boyfriend because of too much love. In this case the real meaning of love is being stained by obsession. The attitude that being shown by the Mistress is dangerous, for sometimes people like this forget that small piece of goodness is still in their hearts because of their strong character of being violent and cruel.
The short story A Haunted House by Virginia Woolf, talks about the important treasure, love. The title of the short story sounds scary but it does not reflect the content of the story, for it is not scary at all. The main characters of the story are two ghost couple. This two ghost couple has been looking for the treasure on their house, for they think that these literally breathing couple that occupying on their house now will find the treasure. Time passes by this ghost couple are still looking for the treasure on the house. All the time that they been looking for the treasure, they reminisce their good and happy moments in every corner of the house when they are still alive. The ghost couple realizes that the treasure that they been looking for is their love for each other that been restore on every part of the house. Love is the only thing that people should never give up for no matter what the reason is. Even though love can be shown and express through material things, but it is still important to show love to others through actions and sincerity. The characters on the story are ghost couple and they are looking for the treasure, love. Love make life colorful and when people fall in love they give everything to the person they love. It is more like what happen to the ghost couple on the story, that when they are still alive they love each other deeply. When death take their earthly body, their souls are still there for each other and give life to the line “till’ death do us part.” Time had pass they had forgotten that it is love that bring them together even after death. They had forgotten that it is love, their greatest treasure. People nowadays are too blinded to see what are those things that really matter, greediness do that to people. On the story greed has been mention, for it blinded those ghost couple of seeing and realizing their greatest treasure. Greed destroy people, and worst greed destroy humanity. This kind of people who think more of themselves less than the situation of others will in the end left nothing to them. For they invest and divest things not love, relationship and commitment that will surely lasts until the end of age. Eventually people who are like this will realize what really matters in life, but the scary thing about this it might be too late.
People will never become contented until greed is in their hearts. People like this are those people who think that it is the material things that will complete them and can make them happy. Greed people are those self-centered individuals who assume that it is the earthly things is all their greatest treasure. Terrorism happens unexpectedly. This ISIS group who believes that they own the world and will conquer every single country and take innocent lives randomly, is the best definition of greed. This group kill many innocent people in exchange of their ill beliefs, minds and interests. In this manner greed destroy humanity. Majority of the government officials are greed. They are on the position to serve people and give them the best kind of services they deserve , because of greediness instead of giving them the best services what they give is less than the people deserve. Corruption, killings and different vices trigger by greed. They corrupt peoples’ money for they want more, they want to live in a very luxurious life through peoples’ money. They are involve in killings for those people who show interest to the position where they are in. without reflecting that money is not the greatest treasure in life for the value of money fade and people cannot bring money into their grave.
The story Popular Mechanics of Raymond Carver talks about separation, conflict and aggressiveness. Separation because, on the beginning of the story it started on narrating that the boy is packing his suitcase and the girl is so happy knowing that the boy is leaving. This scenario is indicating separation of two people who are legally or emotionally committed. Conflict is the root of the separation, but it is not stated on the story. By the use of the theory phenomenology the conflict may become known. It is very obvious that it is easy for that two people on the story to separate their lives. The reader may conclude that these two people obviously committed to each other but not legally committed, in other words they just living together but not married. The reader may also conclude that the other root of the separation, is that the both of them might be financially not stable and emotionally not yet capable. Maybe the girl got pregnant at her very young age, and along the way they realizes that they are not yet ready of wife and husband responsibilities. Their aggressiveness warmer the fight. As being observe on the characters of the story no name being mention but they are being specify as girl and boy. These girl and boy are both aggressive because of their pride. They are both prideful, that no one wanted to give up the baby. Instead on taking on consideration the sake of the baby, what they do is to fight more and worst involve physical fights to win the baby. Aggressiveness and prideful attitudes can be positive and negative but to weigh it in, negative side always had the greater effect. In the society today where a lot of teenagers become pregnant, early parenthood, addicted to drugs and involve to different crimes. This is because of aggressiveness. This aggressiveness trigger specially those innocent minds and souls. Teenage years is the age where aggressive is the highest emotion. Aggressive on making decisions and taking actions without being rational and logical, without putting into consideration the effect of it in the future, are really the thing of the youth. Pride can use as a motivation of someone to become successful nevertheless, it can also be someones’ downfall. “Express but never impress,” this statement is very famous but it seems
that everyone is not reflecting on it. Pride can make someones’ mind crazy and it can stain someones’ heart. Aggressive and pride can be a motivation of somebody to soar high and become successful but if these are being use to destroy others then it cannot bring goodness to oneself. For in the first place it cannot destroy others but it can destroy you yourself alone.
A Haunted House, Dead Star, How My Brother Leon Brought Home A Wife, Popular Mechanics and Servant Girl are the best short stories of people to reflect on. Each characters of the short stories represented different kind of people on the society. These short stories are use for the people to reflect on. A Haunted House teaches readers to not to be fool by the wonders that the world has to offer, that people should never forget that it is love that really matters after all and it is love the peoples' greatest treasure. Dead Star wanted its readers to be aware of their responsibilities and limitations when they are in a relationship for the relationship to be secure, preserve and move forward. How My Brother Leon Brought Home A Wife is the story or love and sacrifice. That love is worthy of sacrifice, and love without sacrifice is not worth it. This short story wanted its readers to be courageous enough to stand for their love and not to be affected by societies opinion. Popular Mechanics is the short story for the young people to be responsible for their actions and decisions in their life. To make good decisions in the present for it will always affect the future. Servant Girl is the short story of standing for yourself and be independent. This short story teaches readers to not depend the wellness of their life to others for in the end only their self will stand for them until the last.
Introduction Precarious, dangerously unstable, unsteady, uncertain or insecure, these words clearlydescribe the behaviors of humans on their interaction within themselves and towards the society. The entire story has its own instability of human condition, and it has different scenario. It is so natural and inherent for humans to act different, i.e., not being consistent in his or her action in dealing with different situations in life. One of the factors of human that supports his or her precariousness is the emotion. Biologically, emotions are woks of an individual’s own brain chemical processes .The entire story was focusing only what the human condition is of selected five stories and talks about how they may get the better of it all. Most of the story tells about how it’s degree of realistic and the best experience of the narrator at the same time was there. The narrator’s point of view helps the reader to understand some of thought throughout the story.
A Haunted House
The haunted house story talks about the human condition of permanence of love, how to endure love and then the difficulties of marriage or how to be with in a relationship. The story haunted house by Virginia Woolf is a short story full of symbolism, imagery, and irony of life especially in the world of love. The condition of the human through this story is that they are finding for something that they cannot find it. The story of helps the reader to get a more in-depth perception of how the ghosts and the living people feel and helps the reader understand some of the thoughts of the story goes on. The living man and woman have no knowledge about what were the treasure talks about if it was money or such as gold or anything that is more valuable things that people are wanted to have. The things that were suddenly hide on their property. When they were alive, the ghosts are already had occupied the whole house more than a century before the present residents. The couples are striving for searching for something that’s why they were in the house, they were looking for a buried treasure that they cannot found wherever the corner of the house they may go into. The story reveals the rediscovery of the places in and around the house where the ghosts spent little moments expressing their love for each other they go into the garden and other side of the house that they may feel the love when they are still alive. And then when the times when the female ghost says, “Here, sleeping; in the garden reading; laughing, rolling apples in the loft. Here we left our treasure.” After that couples who are living the house discover that they were a ghost who is living with them also, they realize that the ghost couple stays at the house for looking something and that something was their love to each other. The couples although are ghost they are not scaring because they are quiet and they not scared people around though people are scared. As the ghosts search for their treasure, they roam the house, opening the closing doors and drawing curtains back. Although they try not to disturb the living couple, the latter can hear them now and then. The couples did not stop searching for what they are looking for in the house until them searches for something that cannot value for anything a treasure that nothing can pay when you have it. The treasure they are looking for is that is “the light in the heart” that is very safe and it is all for them both. The “the light in the heart” which means the love that is cannot payed for anything, that was the couples are looking for inside and outside the house and mots specially in the garden were maybe they are having memories the make their that they find for a couple of days.
In the story "Popular Mechanics” the human condition of this story is that it tells of how the family ethics of society are dying as the years go by, the development of downfall of the family life or the relationship of a family. The flow of the story goes like these, as the husband packing his things before of his leaving, and then the couple argues who will get the baby and get into a pull of fighting with the baby but no one let go of the baby by their bare hands and then suddenly the baby was slipping out of his hand. And then here it comes the biggest challenges happens. The baby was died because it was pulling back and forth very hard causing of the harshness of the parents while having a fight. The condition of the two couples of being selfish and never get mind about the baby situation. They are so selfish for resenting their own will and decisions without the concern of the baby while they are quarrelling to each other. Parents should be observant in every decision they may made. In this story the most striking part is that how the family will develop after the downfall of family heartbreak. In this story teaches values about the failure of losing a family that leads to influential upbringing that the child or children will receive by this story tells how the popular mechanics explain very will what are those family ethics of society would be dying as years and time passing.
The type of Carver writing was called a dark writer because most of his stories focusing on the aspects of human nature that most of the main character or the protagonist have something to do in the end just to protect their dignity. This story was start with a man and a woman are fighting over their baby with their hand and keep on pulling the baby and they forget that it is the baby they are puling to each other that cause the hurt of the baby. They hurt each other, and they end up hurting the baby because of their hard action. Even though the only thing they have in common and whom they both love but maybe the precariousness condition that the couple was that they may lost their love to each other. In the story of Popular Mechanics there are things that make the story unique from the other story because of the couples struggling, that can give more values to the family what should they may do or the couples should be observant in times of quarrelling. The couples are so fraught to shout face to face every day maybe who are actually fighting to each other. As The story the story continues when there’s a baby who actually part of the conflict in the story who were force to pull by the man and a woman who suddenly become so aggressive the woman and man are pulling each other. The couples doesn’t have given such attention to the baby because of their eagerness, they are so keen to get the baby though the baby was actually hurt by what they do. The woman is actually shouting to the man that was already frustrated by the action of the woman. As they go fighting them are both denying that they totally hurt the baby because of their action of struggling? We know that there is no good in fighting you may hurt other people but you cannot get what are want, you cannot benefit something if you are just getting it with an hard action some like fighting. Like the couples who are fighting just to get the baby’s guidance see what the result of their fighting the baby got hurt that cause of the baby’s death.
In this story the human condition is limitedly emotional and then also feeling useless and struggling against fortune, this being the burden of wisdom which the ages had bequeathed to him"; the story establishes Little Chandler’s physical, emotional, and social immaturity. Both of the character in the story thinks and speaks in clichés. The Little Chandler’s has an appearance of being little and a child with his own fantasies that much too seriously and shows no capacity for original thought or expression, and views the social and artistic life. I can say the story’s human condition maybe was a doubtful too because he was doubting if he will be a successful someday if he had to go away when he had could do nothing in Duplin. In the story it is clearer to read that Chandler is emotionally limited. For the first time in his life he felt himself superior to the people he passed. For the first time his soul revolted against the dull inelegance of Capel Street Chandler’s thoughts and Gallaher’s conversation betray conventional attitudes in derivative, cliche-ridden language that belies their individual pretensions. And also the human condition in the story revealing of being unhappy at Corless's where he'll meet Gallaher and then the moods a little better by now. Chandler’s helpless draw any coherent or expressible conclusion from his actual experience. Chandler feels so ashamed that he starts to cry like a baby. Little chandler, fantasizes about succeeding himself, as a writer of poetry. At the restaurant, Gallaher tells Little Chandler about his adventures abroad; was a type of precariousness little chandler was visiting his friend and then they are talking for something hid firend’s achievement in life, and then little chandler was amazed and then he was adore to do the same of his friend. Little Chandler was felt insult by the success of his friend Gallaher and he was considered as downfall or an offense to Little Chandler because which he was not actually good. Little chandler felt jealous because of the success of his friend and reassured himself for the wrong decisions that he made for the rest of his life. Little Chandler regretted all his decision including his marriage its because for him it was his lost. But because of his own decisions that take him where he was for him that he was mad e for the wrong time and not acceptable for him. That is why, on the end of the story he felt guilty about the thoughts that passed on his mind he just wasted all his plans. This story was very a good example of a human who is really regretted for the things they done to their life. That person who always regrets on their decisions in life is never good sign for the good future. Just like what chandler did he felt something regrets in his life but then he realized that things are happened in the past will be part of your life and grown up and it will not change and it will be part of your rest life. To be felt not regretted to the things that we didn’t expect to be happen we just need to accept the fact that it was happened for the good not for the bad. On that case, life may live simple and great and nothing regret will follow to you. The decision that you had done has nothing to do with the people that surround you made it for yourself not for the others. You are the best author and the director of your own life you own it and don’t let anyone direct it. So for that you have the power to run it. And then the advices that other people gave were only part of your option and it is your choice to accept or neglect it after you heard it don’t take them easily, because in the end it’s your own decision.
The story servant girl is a story of a maiden named Rosa who was experiencing too much suffering abused from her mistress and also experienced good and bad things in life. Especially in Love Rosa experienced too. Rosa fell in love to the first man she’s meet at the hallway. She fell love not just infatuation but rather love for her it was called love. She was a suffered to much miserable in the hand of her mistress but she can’t hide the fact that it was full of excitement she feel from the misery of her life until her Angel came. Although she was suffered for too much but she enjoys her life, most especially when her angel came named Pedro the cochero. The life of a servant girl is somewhat miserable but full of exciting as the story go by. The way Rosa an ordinary laundry woman being maltreated by her mistress that's wishing that she could have a better life is very common societal issue. It’s very hard to be a worker or to be a servant just to provide our deeds in our daily life, the story of Rosa taught as some values and respects to our fellowmen lower or may upper class. This story teaches much literally trough to life it portraying human condition of a true servant or workers that a distinctive wicked mistress must doing to their servant or worker. Rosa the girl works for her own deeds and was influence of bad humor but generous at times worked as a servant for her life. Maybe she was a martyr by all the bad things did of her mistress to her. She was maltreated all by herself in every mistress when she gets into. She usually takes a work to be servant for just about a month but in her situation now is that she stayed for a year and until many years comes, while she can’t just stayed in just one place. Every time she transfer place to place just to work hard but this time she stayed and its takes a year now and then until now she work over so far. Servant girl Rosa was very kind, had a lot patient and so much understanding girl. In spite of the defeats and angriness of her mistress to her, she stayed with her and continues to do her job. Until the day, she met her angel named Pedro a cochero she met who helped her ease her swollen foot and the first beats she felt foe her entire life. The day she met that she called it angel she assumed and start dreaming that boy she regularly dream on Pedro the boy cochero. She says it was her angel because only of the difference characteristics that she may observe to Sancho who is absence of kind-hearted and being gentlemen to her.
The god stealer is a story of a friendship by an American and a Filipino who is going to the Cordilleras to look at the rice terraces which were built by the Filipino's ancestors. Their friendship was found so much significance for them they can define their relationship as the colonizer and the colonized one. The condition of the two characters has a different type, for Philip who is a Christian and who was no longer has any respect or affection for the Ifugao customs and religion. Philip was considering himself as a city boy and he was not have a time in returning to the mountain whatever it takes of his life he will does not have a plan of returning to mountain. His attitude of being a rude for his own native land, his grandfather decides to throw a big party in his honor despite of his bad attitude just his grandfather wants him to see. And then in the party Philip have meet Sam and he discovered something about the Ifugao, that no one is willing to sell his god. Philip does not obey and Philip offers to steal the god of his grandfather because he feels it would be his way of showing his gratitude to Sam for giving him a rise at work. He doesn’t mind about what consequences will be after what he did, the consequences of his act are severing. Until his grandfather’s death, because his grandfather discovered that his god was stolen by someone. That cause of his emotionally reason why he is choosing to stay in the mountains because of the death of his grandfather that he was the behind reason at all, that he talks for Sam.
The God-Stealer was a good and very interesting because of the friendship shown in the story. The story showed how Filipinos are very hospitable to other people. The story never failed to explain how the character portraying the true human condition in the reality, of being friendly and hospitable to other people even to their enemy. The god stealer humans conditions is that showing how peoples are very friendly and sharing to other people who want to know more about the culture, tradition and belief that they wanted to learn and understand. The story makes a realization of how the person’s wealth and being a superb individual to the humanity whatever may be the native tradition that set apart. It also gives the values of patriotism in which, as a Christian or as a native one, we may have a different point in terms of religion, nevertheless we also try to understand and respect of one owns culture and beliefs. The story also shows cruelness of the people in terms of food such like that poverty that country mostly facing every day. The starvation of foods that was presented in the story exactly about the Banaue rice terraces in Ifugao as what they perceived it for the happiness of the people lived there. Most of the people learn
Continuation….. how to plant and perceived it was much is wealthier than the people who are living in the urban areas. Young people lived there was workaholic and very oriented for doing that makes them richer and more obliged to do very good thing that can make them also more money . The human condition in the story was said that they are more giving more importance in living their place that living in other places that you cannot feel the feel free or freedom. The god stealer said that never give such rejection to your traditions and never forget to give importance to your culture it’s because rejecting your roots of life is like rejecting your future life. Just like what Philips did. His rejection of his Ifugao heritage may be concluded to mean that Filipino's rejection of his own roots and its replacement with colonial values. It has also ignorance of understanding religion or the transmission of one’s own religion to the other. But whatever it takes of you have an attitude to make right things in life then, no can change it and no one can break the boundary you made for your life. Don’t let other people ruined your beliefs and tradition, if you do you are just making yourself kneeled to the ground without an acceptable reason. Besides, the story gives an irrelevant action of a man by stealing things without any given permission by really wanting something in order to be contented but doing those things cannot make you happy for the rest of your life..
Conclusions I conclude that most of the story has a different type of human conditions that teach us more values and importance about life. Just like the story Haunted House that they are looking for something that was more valuable and that was Love; they give importance what they have shared when they are still alive. I like also the story of A Little Cloud that teach how to mad a decisions in life .That the decision that you had done has nothing to do with the people that surround you made it for yourself not for the others . You own your life and direct it in a right way. As reflected in the five story that how precariousness human condition portraying and clearly describe the behaviors of humans on their interaction within themselves and towards the society.
Fall of the House of Usher The fall of the House of Usher is a gothic short story about an unnamed narrator visiting his boyhood friend named Roderick Usher on his ancestral house. When he arrived, he already felt that there was something bizarre on the house. The house was dull and in full gloom. When he arrived, he was welcomed by a weak Roderick looking much different the way he looked the last time they saw each other. He says that he was suffering from an illness and that any time soon he would perish. Roderick was also worried of the incoming death of his twin sister Madeline having an incurable disease. Madeline died one night and they buried her in the family vault underground right at under the narrator's bedroom. After the death of Madeline, Roderick has changed. He no longer plays instrument that he used to and no longer paint. One stormy night, Roderick gets inside of the narrators bedroom and said some strange things. In order to calm Roderick, the narrator read him a story. In some strange reason, whatever sounds that described at the novel he seem to hear it for real; The breaking of hermits door, the death-cry of the dragon and the ringing sound of the shield. Roderick then confessed that he also heard some strange noise many days ago and said that it was Madeline's noise moving from her coffin struggling to escape from the vault. He said they had buried her alive and she’s coming to scream at him for burying her alive. Roderick then said that Madeline was already outside the bedroom door and as if by cue, the door did flew open and there stood a horrible Madeline, pale and trembling with a blood on her white dress. She then fell heavily on the floor with her brother and Roderick also died at that moment. Son coeur est un luth suspendu; Sitot qu'on le touche il resonne. – De Beranger Translation: "His/her heart is a poised lute; as soon as it is touched, it resounds". These lines are a quote from Le Refus, a song by French songwriter Pierre-Jean de Béranger, a (roughly speaking) contemporary of of the author. Beranger’s lyrics actually read
"Mon cœur" (my heart), but Poe changed them to read "Son cœur" (his/her heart). The main thing to ask is who composed this epigraph? Commonly, an epigraph is the writer's chance to give an indication to his examine in the matter of how to translate the work. However, I found in this content the genuine and the subjective are frequently linked. If so, we then need to ask to whom the verses refer. "Son" is the mean article in French, and it could signify "his" or "her" depending upon the subject. For this case, this subject is sexual orientation vague. Is the storyteller alluding to Roderick? Then, to Madeline? In the event that you trust the argument that the twins share some kind of relationship, or that they are two parts of the same individual, then the sex ambiguity is proper, as the epigraph can allude to both Madeline and Roderick together. Another fascinating, if marginally harder to swallow understanding is that Usher composed the epigraph in light of the fact that Usher composed the story. What are we given all through the whole story with the exception of many examples of Roderick's spooky aesthetic manifestations? Together, he and the storyteller listen to music, read books, and pore over work of art. In like manner, we see one of Usher's tunes, and one of his artistic creations; however we don't see a bit of his written work. Unless, that is, "The House of Usher" is that exceptionally subjective work we're absent. These lines portray a heart so alone that it is balanced and prepared for touch, thus delicate that it will resonate the minute it is. Review the story's subject of detachment and additionally Roderick's "intensity of the faculties" and have a go at running with that. Upon reading the text, certain sounds evoke intense anxiety attacks and feelings of rage and fear. I was drawn to the narration and the creepy mental haunting that the story showcased, and mainly I felt as though I could relate with Usher’s reaction to his surroundings. Closely, I was drawn to the narrator’s reflection that Usher wrote to him concerning a “mental disorder which oppressed him”. I felt a flood of relief and awareness flow over me especially after reading the word “oppressed”; finally, I felt, I have encountered an accountof an individual being likewise oppressed by a mental burden. Furthermore, I was drawn to Usher’s line: I must perish in this deplorable folly. I dread the events of the future, not in themselves, but in their results. I shudder at the thought of any, even the most trivial, incident, which may operate upon this intolerable agitation of the soul. I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect—in terror. In this unnerved, in this pitiable, condition I feel that the period will
sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm, FEAR. The passage immediately roused feelings of exhaustion in me. The fixation on fear, especially of “events of the future” was all too familiar to me. As a person, I feared waking up in the morning to be confronted with anxiety-inducing sounds; I feared the classroom with such dread that it seemed to freeze like lead in my diaphragm and prompted bodily shakes and sweats. Most of all, I feared my future as an individual and my growing dislike of public places, of people, of everyday sounds, and of the disorder that had manifested itself in. Like Usher, I felt I “must perish” one day in a state of anxiety that had, unfortunately, been all too familiar to me already. Also, upon reading the story, I feel Usher’s condition as realistically as I feel my own and I recognize my own fears in both the narrator and Roderick. The painting of the crypt especially rouses psychological response due to the feeling of entrapment it represents. The narrator describes the painting as presented in the line: …the interior of an immensely long and rectangular vault or tunnel, with low walls, smooth, white, and without interruption or device. Certain accessory points of the design served well to convey the idea that this excavation lay at an exceeding depth below the surface of the earth. The description of the painting evokes perhaps the deepest fear of my subconscious: the knowledge that I am forever trapped with my disorder that has rooted itself deep beneath the surface of my mind. Continuing to read the story, I am moved by another passage in which the narrator describes Usher’s reaction to his own mental illness: “I beheld him gazing upon vacancy for long hours, in an attitude of the profoundest attention, as if listening to some imaginary sound” which is Usher is reacting to an “imaginary sound” in a way that I currently react to sounds. Immediately after reading this passage, my vision is clouded with memories of my own feeling of exhaustion; of times when I cannot find the strength to will away the anxiety and I find myself staring at dead objects. The most intense perceptions brought forth from my subconscious come in the final scenes of the text. I am reminded of my own anguish in Usher’s upset proclamation: “Not hear it?—yes, I hear it, and have heard it. Long—long—long—many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard it—yet—I dared not—I dared not speak!”. Reading his distressed confession immediately brings my own feelings of panic to the surface. When Roderick flees the scene as the house is collapsing and Usher lies dead I cannot help but feel stabbing envy of the narrator’s ability to escape the house and escape the mind of Roderick. Not only do I feel envious of Roderick for escaping, but I, regretfully, at times, desire to feel Usher’s final liberation from his mind, one he only finds in death. However, this story reveal my expectations of relief, my fantasy of finally finding liberation from my phobia, my defenses that hide my horrible struggle with everyday anxiety, and the transformation of identity that I use to fill the “gaps” in the text. The text does, in fact, replicate psychoanalysis because in reading it I pull my fears to the surface from the furthest corner of my subconscious. I realize my anxieties, my fears, and my longings through the words of the text.
“The Cask of Amontillado” is arguably one of Edgar Allen Poe’s greatest works when it comes to a psychological thriller. Throughout the entirety of the story we see what is happeningthrough the eyes of the wicked killer, Montresor, as he lures his clueless victim, Fortunato, towhat would become his grave. Never is it explicitly stated why Montresor killed Fortunato, onlyhow, but if one can analyze the story closely a conclusion can be reached. The first personnarration of the story makes it even easier to see into the mind of Montresor and put the pieces ofthe puzzle together. With psychological analysis of “The Cask of Amontillado” and close examination of the setting and symbols within the story, Montresor’s motive for killing Fortunato can be uncovered.
“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.
These were the words spoken by the aged Montresor ashes lay on his deathbed, recounting the story of the day he killed Fortunato in the catacombs of his ancestors fifty years earlier. His telling is not a confession, but more of a simple recounting. Montresor feels little to no remorse for his crime “for he enjoys himself too much in the telling.” Montresor further dehumanizes himself when he says
“My heart grew sick; it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so”
...after hearing his chained victim sadly rattling the bells on his jester hat. Because of the seeming lack of feeling, and motive for killing Fortunato other than the briefly mentioned “insult”, most assume Montresor is insane; a killer without reason. This is not entirely true, however, as Montresor may be a madman, but he is not unmotivated. To begin to understand the murder, one must first understand the importance of the setting of “The Cask of Amontillado”. Though the story truly takes place on Montresor’s deathbed some fifty years later, the recounting takes place in eighteenth century Europe during Carnival. This time period and particular event are extremely important to the symbolism of the story. One of the first symbols, which is possible to overlook entirely, is the dress of the two characters. Montresor is dressed in a long, black roquelaire, the same coat worn by executioners of the time, and Fortunato in the attire of a jester; a fool. Though one may see this as an insignificant coincidence, as the story continues it is revealed that the end could have been predicted from the start. This still reveals no reason for the murder, though. The existence of functioning catacombs is also dependent upon the time period, and they themselves symbolize death. The fact that Fortunato was in no way suspicious of why he was being led into a mass grave shows truly how foolish he is. Another important symbol in the story is the trowel that Montresor is carrying. This is revealed to the reader when Fortunato makes a secret gesture of the Masons,
“He laughed and threw the bottle upwards with a gesticulation I did not understand.”
…Fortunato questions Montresor, asking whether or not he is a Mason, to which he replies, after some confusion, “Yes, yes” (Poe 168) lying to further gain Fortunato’s trust. When asked for a signMontresor produces a trowel from under his executioners’ coat,
“It is this” he says.
…Fortunato then sees the very instrument of his demise and brushes it off as a joke. The trowelmay have meant nothing to Fortunato but to Montresor it is his revenge and he risks unveiling his plan to further hint at Fortunato of what is to come The family crest of the Montresors is also highly significant. The crest is “A huge human foot d’or , in a field of azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel.” The motto that accompanies this crest is, “nemo me impune lacessit.”
…which means “no one provokes me with impunity”. This explains why Montresor is so Benton exacting his revenge on Fortunato; it’s in his blood. Fortunato, embodying the fool he is dressed as, replies to hearing this by saying “Good!” (Poe 167) The revelation of Montresor’s coat of arms truly was “a warning that Fortunato had ignored, costing him his life. Even the names of the characters in Poe’s work are symbolic. Fortunato means fortunate; somebody who is graced by chance without their own doing. Montresor translates to “my treasure” which is a metaphor for Montresor’s noble ancestry. This forgetfulness of the once noble Montresor family may have motivated Montresor to kill Fortunato out of jealousy; Montresor even says “You are happy, as once I was.” With this information it is easy to see that the status of the Montresors is waning, while new rich like Fortunato spring up left and right, nobles of the robe rather than the sword. The past nobility of the Montresors can also be seen bythe size of their catacombs, which amazes even Fortunato. The murder of Fortunato may have been a symbolic outlet of Montresor’s despair that he is less noble than his soon to be victim, who he sees as a grotesque excuse for a nobleman. The reason for the murder remains a grey area, but the manner in which it happened isobvious and ingenious at the same time. Montresor reveals in the beginning of the story that he fooled Fortunato into following him into the catacombs;
“…neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato a cause to doubt my good will. I continued, as my wont, to smile in his face, and hedid not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his Immolation.”
…to get Fortunato to come with him, Montresor exploited one of Fortunato’s weaknesses: his ego. Fortunato believed he was a connoisseur of wines, which he himself disproves when he says “Luch resi cannot tell amontillado from Sherry.” in response to Montresor saying he was going to ask Luchresi to test the amontillado. While sounding correct, Poe purposefully capitalized the “S” in sherry to highlight that Fortunato uses it as a proper name rather than a generic term for several varieties of wine. Once Montresor had baited Fortunato into entering the catacombs, he gave him more wine to impair his judgment further, and also to boost his ego; his pride is his impetus.The insult of which Montresor speaks when wanting to exact his revenge is not a singleact, but a continued action. The insult Montresor is referring to is simply Fortunato’s existence. Montresor is from a long line of powerful family members and is proud of his lineage, although his family’s nobility has certainly waned in recent times. This is made clear when Fortunato, who Montresor believes lesser than he, doesn’t remember the family crest or motto of the Montresor’s. Fortunato is noble because of his money, not because of his heritage like Montresor, and this creates a rift between the two. As powerful families like the Montresor faded from everyday life, new, wealthy individuals came forth to fill their place; Montresor sawthese people as imposters, threats to his way of life. He justifies the murder of Fortunato because of this belief. Everything about Fortunato not only offended Montresor, but threatened his way of life. Montresor was ashamed to be less renowned than Fortunato, and in turn he killed him in a desperate attempt to feel the power he feared he was losing. Driven mad by weakness, Montresor did everything he could to make himself superior to his victim: puns, trickery, manipulation, even chaining him to a wall and building an enclosure of brick and mortar around him. Just as Montresor hid his fears in a corridor deep in his mind; he hide the manifestation of them in the catacombs, deep in the earth.
A Haunted House A man and a woman who occupy a house hear a male and female ghosts wandering about the dwelling as they talk about finding a treasure. The living man and woman have no knowledge of a treasure, such as gold or money, hidden on their property. When they were alive, the ghosts had occupied the house more than a century before the current residents. The woman died first, and the man left the house and traveled. “He…went North, went East, saw the stars turned in the Southern sky; sought the house, found it dropped beneath the Downs,” the narration says. The Downs are a range of Chalk Mountains along the southeastern coast of England. After the man died, he rejoined the woman ghost at the house they once occupied, the same house where the living man and woman now dwell. As the ghosts search for their treasure, they roam the house, opening the closing doors and drawing curtains back. Although they try not to disturb the living couple, the latter can hear them now and then. And what is the treasure the ghosts seek? The narration reveals that it is the rediscovery of the places in and around the house where the ghosts spent little moments expressing their love for each other. The female ghost says, “Here, sleeping; in the garden reading; laughing, rolling apples in the loft. Here we left our treasure.” After an encounter with the ghost couple in their bedroom, the living couple then realizes what the ghosts are seeking. The short story A Haunted House by Virginia Woolf, talks about the important treasure, love. The title of the short story sounds scary but it does not reflect the content of the story, for it is not scary at all. The main characters of the story are two ghost couple. This two ghost couple has been looking for the treasure on their house, for they think that these literally breathing couple that occupying on their house now will find the treasure. Time passes by this ghost couples are still looking for the treasure on the house. All the time that they been looking for the treasure, they reminisce their good and happy moments in every corner of the house when they are still alive. The ghost couple realizes that the treasure that they been looking for is their love for each other that been restore on every part of the house. Love is the only thing that people should never give up for no matter what the reason is. Even though love can be shown and express through material things, but it is still important to show love to others through actions and sincerity. The characters on the story are ghost couple and they are looking for the treasure, love. Love makes life colorful and when people fall in love they give everything to the person
they love. It is more like what happen to the ghost couple on the story, that when they are still alive they love each other deeply. When death takes their earthly body, their souls are still there for each other and give life to the line “till’ death do us part.” Time had pass they had forgotten that it is love that bring them together even after death. They had forgotten that it is love, their greatest treasure. People nowadays are too blinded to see what those things that really matter are, greediness do that to people. On the story greed has been mention, for it blinded those ghost couple of seeing and realizing their greatest treasure. Greed destroys people, and worst greed destroys humanity. This kind of people who think more of themselves less than the situation of others will in the end left nothing to them. For they invest and divest things not love, relationship and commitment that will surely last until the end of age. Eventually people who are like this will realize what really matters in life, but the scary thing about this it might be too late. People will never become contented until greed is in their hearts. People like this are those people who think that it is the material things that will complete them and can make them happy. Greed people are those self-centered individuals who assume that it is the earthly things is all their greatest treasure. Terrorism happens unexpectedly. This ISIS group who believes that they own the world and will conquer every single country and take innocent lives randomly, is the best definition of greed. These groups kill many innocent people in exchange of their ill beliefs, minds and interests. In this manner greed destroy humanity. Majority of the government officials are greed. They are on the position to serve people and give them the best kind of services they deserve, because of greediness instead of giving them the best services what they give is less than the people deserve. However, corruptions, killings and different vices trigger by greed. They corrupt peoples’ money for they want more; they want to live in a very luxurious life through peoples’ money. They are involve in killings for those people who show interest to the position where they are in without reflecting that money is not the greatest treasure in life for the value of money fade and people cannot bring money into their grave.
Dead Stars The story starts with a conversation of two people particularly talking about Alfredo Salazar and Esperanza's relationship. The two people are Carmen, his sister and Don't Julian, his father.
Alfredo Salazar is engaged to Esperanza, there relationship started in a very good way, like, Alfredo is so avid in showing his love to Esperanza but a few years later the relationship of the two became cold, Alfredo's feelings towards Esperanza slowly vanished merely because of Julia Salas. Julia Salas is the sister-in-law of Judge del Valle. Alfredo met Julia when one evening Don Julian and him went neighboring at judge's house and he probably got the chance to chat along with Julia at the vine-covered porch. The two then started to chat more often every Sunday after mass because Don Julian and judge del Valle always play a chess and Alfredo always come along with his father, and since he's not interested in watching the chess match he always find himself accompanied by Julia. The long time they chatted, Alfredo never mentioned to Julia that he is going to be married anytime soon. As each day he spent time along with Julia he never realized that his heart's feeling slowly changing, he started to keep all the things he's doing from Esperanza. One day, before the Holy week at Tanda, Alfredo knew that Julia will head back on her hometown already because her parents sent her a letter saying that she will spent the Holy week their made Alfredo felt sad. When the holy week came, Alfredo and Julia met at the end row of a Chinese store, this was the time where Julia congratulated Alfredo as he was going to be married on the month of May, Julia finally knew. Alfredo invited her and she said she will come and after that confrontation they parted ways. Alfredo visited Esperanza and hears her talking with someone about man's immorality. He condemned such things to her, Esperanza was nagging telling and worrying about what the people in their place will think because of what he did, because of this Esperanza then dared him to leave. However the wedding was still preceded. A few years later, Alfredo was in a town near the place of Esperanza for some particular case. His desire in wanting to see Esperanza made him decline the dinner offered to him and found himself heading the way to Julia's hometown and there she found the lady. Julia is still unmarried, as he's sitting next to her, Alfredo felt something missing. He felt the absence of such sparks every time she speaks and every time he looks at Julia's face and eyes. This made Alfredo conclude that everything has gone and passed away like their life as a youth and it all seems like dead stars all around them. An analysis of the short story "Dead Stars," a story of "what if" as a married man again meets the woman he fell in love with many years earlier while engaged to his wife. The story is basically a compilation of the complicated circumstances that every man has to go through in life. Alfredo was once in love with Esperanza, no doubt, but there comes a time when love fades, and the only thing holding you together is the vow you gave your fiancée, that which you cannot take back. Why can't you take it back? It’s because you are afraid of what will be the reaction of the people around you, especially during the time of the story.
What's visibly wrong about this is that most often than not, men refuse to listen to their own yearnings and simply submit to further dehumanization. Love here, though perhaps genuine to a point, for Alfredo, is seemingly weak and purposive. Weak, because it is eventually overcome by propriety, and purposive because it was merely a tool to justify his desire to go against society; that for once he will not be a puppet, but the master of his own fate. In the story, Alfredo falls drastically in love with Julia even as he is engaged to Esperanza, but in the end forgoes the idea. He kept on holding on to that glimmer of "what could have been" throughout the years of his marriage to Esperanza, but upon meeting Julia again, he realizes that what he thought was there, had now gone for more than one reason. First, it is possible to say that after what society has done to him (dehumanized him), he found at peace in his place, and sought no more that illusive dream of yesterday. He understood, after meeting her again, that it was nostalgia that was taking hold of his heart, and not the "love" that he once felt for her. It is said in the story that he is not unhappy with his marriage, but a part of him always slips away from the world in order to dream of another life that could have blossomed, had he chose Julia over Esperanza. On the other hand, it is possible that there was no real love to speak of, but a desire for something else. He desired youth. Although relatively young, he desired the qualities that the youthful possessed: vigor, passion, vitality. These are a few things that he lacked as a person and to find these in Julia gave him a sense of completeness. It was a welcomed changed in his life, and he wanted to hold on to it for as long as he could, since even if he couldn't be like Julia, he is comforted by the thought that he was able to meet someone who is different from everybody else, and that she could have been his wife. He is noted to be of a cool and calm demeanor, which is why it seems out of character if he suddenly bursts with energy.
However, Dead stars symbolize things that are present but are left unspoken of. The love between Alfredo and Julia seemed real, but look closer and one can state that it was hardly mutual, and that it was impossible to last. Esperanza's devotion to Alfredo also resembles love, but since she believes in the "regenerative virtue of institution" more than true love, it is safe to say that she is in the relationship, because of moral obligation. So what one thought as real (or present) is now nothing but an illusion.
Country Doctor On a cool winter night, a country doctor gets ready to leave from his home to tend to the needs of a wiped out patient ten miles away. Shockingly, he needs a horse for his carriage, yet his own particular horse has died one night before. As the specialist kicks open the way to his pigsty, a groom shows up and provided him with horses and secures them to the carriage. The groom forcefully kisses the doctor's house maid, keeping in mind the doctor wishes to chide him. He feels that he can't as he is in the man's obligation. As he withdraws in the carriage, the servant escapes inside the doctor's home, with the man in close interest with Rosa, the housemaid. The doctor wants to help her, however he is feeble as the horse go promptly to their expected destination. Once at his quiet's home, the doctor endeavors to treat his patient, an out of commission young man who doesn't seem to have any kind of illness. All things considered, the patient beseeches that the doctor let him die. The doctor then, notice that the patient has an appalling, grisly contamination on his side, which is assailed by multi-legged worms. The kid then asks to be spared. As his kin sees the doctor doing something to help him, the horses from outside have stuck their heads into the windows of the room. The family sings an odd, semi religious verse as the doctor works. They then continue to strip him stripped and lay him in bed with his patient under the evident impression this will cure him. The doctor guarantees his patient that his injury is not deadly, and immediately leaves the room, snatching his garments and instruments as he goes. He did not bother try getting dressed, and expeditiously tosses his materials into the carriage, yet the horses are exhausted and just walk through the snow. The doctors then loses hope at his prospects of returning home at the rate the horses are presently moving, and he thinks quickly about his servant's approaching assault, that his practice will be lost, and the way that his fur garment now dangles out of range at the furthest end of his carriage while he is still stripped in the harsh elements. He feels betrayed that none of his patients will help him. Kafka’s “A Country Doctor” is a grim tale of an elderly rural surgeon who, facing his own mortality, has a vivid nightmare filled with hopelessness and fear. It has a depressing theme of youth and vitality versus age and depletion. The doctor faces numerous challenges in this short story. First, he must travel ten miles in a blinding snowstorm in the dark of night to the home of an ill patient. Worse still, his horse has just died, and he must find another horse to take him to
his destination. After the doctor discovers a groom and horses in an abandoned pigsty, he must deal with the certainty that, if he leaves the groom behind, his servant, Rosa, will be raped. Both of these predicaments anger him, as he is powerless on his own to fix them. Next, as the physician learns shortly after arriving at his destination, the boy whom he has been called there to treat, although not mortally wounded, tells him that he wants to die. Finally, he must struggle to return to his home after treating the patient, despite his nakedness and the fact that the horses are moving in dreamlike slow motion through the freezing night. As the story progresses and these two new challenges emerge, the narrator becomes calm and cool-headed, recognizing the pointlessness of his despair. Kafka’s story is nightmarish in its futility, as is the problem with most nightmares. Not simply is the doctor persecuted, but he can’t do anything about the arbitrary forces which he encounters. The sudden appearance of a groom and his other-worldly horses, the groom’s attack upon Rosa, the worms - with limbs ‘crawling out of the wound of the patient, and the doctor’s being stripped of his clothing by local families and town elders and then sung a haunting chorus by school children appearing, it seems, out of thin air, are all examples of the physician’s horrific dream. The predominant theme in the story is death. The physician is nearing the end of a life that has been fruitlessly spent trying to help the sick and dying. The story ends with the doctor, naked and cold, going slowly with the horses through the snowy desert like old men. The doctor now faces the death that so many of his patients have faced. Yet, unlike his patients, there is no one to help him; he is instead betrayed and abandoned by them. He has used his last breath to help a young man who, unlike himself, is not dying, yet chooses death over life. The narrator realizes he has made a huge blunder by helping others he has been left in solitude to face his own death, and has himself abandoned and betrayed the woman he left at home. The tale conveys the physician’s feelings of loneliness and lack of control, not only in his role as physician but also as a man. He has been unable to prevent the groom from attacking Rosa, who sought safety by running into the doctor’s home, locking the doors and turning off the lights. The narrator believes he cannot protect those close to him, even those in his own home because he must spend his time helping strangers seeking his medical assistance, people he has also often been unable to truly help. Although he is frustrated by his own shortcomings, it has been suggested that the physician blames others, not himself, for his failures: the boy does not want to live, the doctor has no horses, and even the groom, initially a saviour, has failed him. Interlinked with the themes of the doctor’s fear of impending death and his powerlessness is his
disappointment in his frequent failure to cure his patients, coupled with the patients’ unrealistic expectations of him. The ill boy’s family assumes the doctor will make him well, and the mother looks at the doctor disappointingly for not doing more. The narrator feels he is expected to perform feats beyond his capabilities, proven when he does not notice the patient’s gaping wound in his first examination. The story also addresses man’s inability to be an objective and realistic observer of his own fate. The doctor is treating a young man with a loving family and, although he has an injury (possibly self-inflicted) it is apparently not life-threatening. The patient insists that he wants to die, although, as the physician tells him, the boy’s condition is far less serious than that of others he has seen. As he tells the young man, the doctor has witnessed all degrees of sickness and death. In his experience, his patients’ offer their side and hardly hear the axe in the forest, refusing to either recognize the futility of their plight, or to appreciate what they do have, to say nothing of the fact that is coming closer to them. All the doctor can do, metaphorically and literally, is written prescriptions; he cannot change peoples’ beliefs concerning their plights. However, there are also strong sexual overtones in this story. Indeed, the tale is Freudian in its sexual imagery (including the muscular, powerful horses and Rosa and the boys’ rose-shaped wound), and has been described as a story written as though in response to Freud. After examining the patient, the doctor is stripped naked by the townspeople, and dragged into bed next to the ill young man, who himself is shirtless. Even when the physician makes his hasty departure, he travels naked through the night. Earlier in the story, the groom savagely bites Rosa on her face, and the obvious implication is that she will be raped. His rose has been tarnished, leaving the physician feeling powerless and utterly alone as he is carried toward his death by a pair of ghostly horses.
Name: Jehanne Joyce U. Calabio Section: ASEnglish3
The Precariousness of the Human condition as Reflected in 5 Stories: The "human condition" is an important part of our understanding of literature. Literary critics often label a piece of writing as literature. Essentially, the discussion of the human condition is any thematic concern about human nature, human society or how we live our lives. In other words, it's about the fundamental issues of human existence. This 5 stories shows some issues connected to "human nature, human society or how we live our lives. "The Cask of Amontillado" "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge....At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitely settled....I must not only punish, but punish with impunity."Now Montresor began to develop the perfect plan of retribution”. "The Cask of Amontillado" is a powerful tale of revenge of Motresor’s precariousness toward his enemy. The story was a case of premeditated murder from the perspective of Montresor who vows revenge against Fortunato in an effort to support his time-honored family motto: "Nemo me impune lacessit" or "No one assails me with impunity." (No one can attack me without being punished.) In the story, it gives the readers some ideas in making a perfect crime which was a big mistake of making this theme. As a human, naturally we have pride where you respect yourself and deserve to be respect by other people or you may feel that you are more important or better than others. Montresor showed as a high pride person which is not a good emblem as the main character of the story. But his opponent named Fortunato do something offensive act that lead into his death. Montresor's point of view intensifies the effect of moral shock to Fortunato. Edgar Allan Poe does not intend for the reader to sympathize with Montresor because he has been insulted by Fortunato, but rather to judge him that he have a sinister mind. Montresor has his plan carefully worked out and committed a perfect crime but even if Motresor was affront by Fortunato, killing him is not the right vengeance. Throughout most of his evil deed against Fortunado, Montresor does not demonstrate any sense of guilt or regret. In fact, he seems to be rather enjoying himself and his diabolical plan. That’s the portrayal of his human nature that he is evil. In life, sometimes we get away with something that other people think is wrong but we don’t think it’s wrong and other times, we know what we did is wrong, and we wish somebody would find out so we can somehow try to make things right. That’s the trick of the story where you are to judge about Montresor’s crime that Fortunato’s did really deserve his death. But Montresor tries to convince the reader that his intentions are honorable in an effort to uphold his family motto. It is in a thought that Fortunato insulted Montresor to make him feel that he is better, powerful and perfect, but it only the result of insecurity and high self-esteem.
The setting of the story was horrible and scary. People may get an idea of making a cleaver move of being untrue. It showed that you can’t trust anybody especially to those nice to you. It has a negative outcome to the mind of the reader. It lessens your confident to make friends because you may think that you would be like Fortunato. It’s also a lesson about when you insult a person you might hurt him/her and become a source of sadness, shame or even anger like Motresor. But as a human we have this awareness our actions as being either morally right or wrong. So this is another area where we can totally identify with Montresor that he is confessing his sins or bragging about his crimes. Therefore, the best indication of guilt is at the end when he brag, Montresor writes, "My heart grew sick". The thought of Fortunado dying in there, for a moment, makes him sick. However, he blames it on "the dampness of the catacombs" and hurries away. The fact that he is confessing his story at a later date might also indicate that he has felt guilty for it, because he want to be free of the burden of our secrets.
The God Stealer The story God Stealer is a novel concentrates on the debilitating effect of the colonial rule in the Filipino identity formation and the Filipino's rejection of his own roots. The story begins with two officemates Philip Latak a Filipino and Sam Cristie, an American both of them was helping each other. Philip (Ip-pig) now lives in Manila against the wishes of his family, he aspire on a career and forget his root. Phillips symbolized as the Filipino who choose to love other culture instead of his own culture. He was a egocentric man who only shows concern for himself and not his countrymen. Yet, he stole the God of his own grandfather and gave it to his friend Sam Cristie . He feels it would be his way of showing his gratitude to Sam for giving him a rise at work. He was self-absorbed that only cared about his own interest. His Ifugao’s spirit to their customs, belief and arts was no longer in his heart. He was poison with his ambitions and interest in life. He was being influence by Sam Cristie. They are on their way to Baguio for one purpose: Sam wants to buy a genuine Ifugao god as souvenir and Philip was to help him find an authentic one through his local connections. He wanted to produce impression and that’s the precariousness of his nature towards Sam Cristie. Due to his actions, the consequences are severe.
Philip is a Christian who no longer has any respect or affection for the Ifugao customs and religion. That’s why it takes a facile move to him to steal the God of his Grandfather. He doesn’t even feel that something he has done is morally wrong. He considers himself a city boy and has no inclination to return to mountain life. Despite this attitude, his grandfather is pleased to see him and decides to throw a big party in his honor. He doesn’t have any conscience of making his plan despite of the warm welcome of his countrymen. On the day of the party, Sam and Philip discover that no Ifugao is willing to sell his god beacause the ifugao’s respect their God and that’s a big discouragement for both Phillip and Sam. And as a last resort, Philip offers to steal the god of his grandfather. Philllip was unaware about how his grandfather value the God the he had stolen. He only thinks about himself. The next day, due to a contemptible action, his grandfather died because he discovered that his God was stolen. He was poignantly informs Sam that will no longer be going back to Manila. He can’t forgive himself about what happened for his grandfather. He blamed himself that he killed his grandfather just because he wanted to be grateful. And because of Sam’s curiosity, he looks for Philip and found him working in his grandfather's house. Philip endures the conscience inside of him and chooses to stay in the mountains. As a result, Sam Cristie noticed that Philip is now attired in G-string, the traditional costume of the Ifugao. His eyes were opened about giving a value to their culture when he witness that even his grandfather would die for his God. Furthermore, Philip is busy carving another idol, a new god to replace the old one which Sam will take to America as a souvenir.
Servant Girl “True respect means taking other people's beliefs seriously and assuming they are adult and intelligent enough to be able to cope with it if you tell them, clearly and civility, why you think they are totally, utterly and disastrously wrong.”-Julian Baggini Servant Girl talks about Rosa, an abused maid who longs for freedom, happiness and love. Human nature does naturally bad and also naturally good, it’s depending upon the status of a person to put some level of treatment to someone. The precariousness of her weakness and being martyr to her mistress lead her to be maltreated and was hoping that one day she would be able to be freed from all the abuse she was experiencing. She was being mock with other girls and her mistress and accuses her that she was flirting Sancho. Just because she was a servant most of the people doesn’t have any respect about her. Though it all happened, she still values her work and her mistress even though she was always getting scolded. Thus she gave her mistress a good service in return for all the cruelness she has shown to her. Then one day, while she was out, carrying a basin on her head with her mistress' clothes, she accidentally slipped and fell causing for her ankle to swell. A man in his tartanilla stopped and helped her with her basin. That man inspired Rosa to have some strength in getting out the abuses of her mistres and intended him to called Angel but the real name is Pedro. After the incident, the urge of emotion made Rosa felt happy and somewhat in love with the cochero. The normal feeling about being in love made Rosa daydreaming. This is the stage of developing the diversion of his action. She can’t concentrate to her work and she wanting him to see her and wanting him to hear her voice. Despite of her mistress abuses, she fantasized his Angel inspiration and a reason to felt happy. She pitied those who would mock her for she believed that she had an 'Angel' that took care of her when she was in distress.
This story is about dreaming brought by infatuation about Rosa and cochero who was recklessly riding his tarantilla. In their second met, she realized how much she was just imagining 'their love' and that all of it was not real and she found out that her savior does not exist. And that 'Angel', now his real name 'Pedro' did not think of anything when he helped Rosa when she was injured. She discover that she imagining and inventing thoughts that would comfort her everyday life as servant. Rosa had a good heart despite of her low status in life. She deserve to be respect unlike her mistress who was a drunkard. After this incident, she realized that she was just fooling herself making believe of things that won’t really happen. It is widely shown the truth of reality of blind infatuation that really seems had bad result such as assuming things that were not really meant for. In the end Rosa accept her fortune as a miserable servant and went back to her mistress house and continued on with her job. This story explains a lot such as kindness and hospitality to stranger that was showed off by Pedro who offers help to Rosa when she in trouble. The precariousness of assumption made her felt bad and desperate about thing that doesn’t exist.
How my brother Leon brought home a Wife “In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true either is true or becomes true.”-John Lilly In the story, Leon arrived with his wife named Maria. They took a surprising route home for leon’s family, but it was meant as a test for Maria to see if she could endure the sacrifices she made and meet her new family. In the case of Maria, she was aware of the people might judge her so she must be careful. The precariousness of the characters in the story about themselves is to be true to people. Baldo is the narrator of the story, the younger brother of Leon. Baldo is a quiet person. It is very detectable of observing his brother Leon and Maria. He was liked Maria as a wife of his brother and he help Maria towards confronting his father. But Maria loses confidence to talk to Leon’s father because she think that he might not like her and afraid that she will fail through the trials in order to be happy with Leon at his home. When his father asks him “Was she afraid of Labang?” Baldo lied and says “No, Father, she was not afraid.” Even though Maria afraid. It means that Baldo like Maria as a wife of Leon but inside, he also admires the beauty of Maria. The people lives in the province predicted that Maria might surrender about the situation in the province because she was a city girl and not used to live in bushy land but the fact that the province is different from the city, she can be somewhat daunting, she still manages to overcome and under come any trials. Maria admits to having some fear, but also shows clearly it did not stop her. This is why the theme is related to how one may have to give up some things in order to find happiness in life or at least the best happiness that can be found in that particular life. The precariousnesss of human’s mind in judging the person directly by just looking at his/her physical appearance. Leon has a strong personality because he did not afraid to present Maria to his father as her wife. He was very proud of Maria as her wife. Maria truly love Leon because she fight for what she believe was right, it doesn’t matter if the world told her that it’s wrong. The father of Baldo has a deep personality. He was a responsible father because he use his righteous way as a head of the family. It only means that the father or the man is the authority. He doesn’t want Leon to go to the wrong way. So, he makes some trials to Maria trying to test her characteristic, her attitude, her looks, how she talks and the way she handle the situation. The good thing about it was Maria’s true personality bring up the Leon’s families trust. She was just being true despite of her affright situation. But the Maria learned that though there are sacrifices it is worth it in the end. The entire story serves as a test for the wife. Each test was to show whether the woman could indeed live with strangers all for love and one may have to surrender a small part of one's life in order to be happy
The Dead Star “Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” Henry Louis Mencken, American Journalist The story shows two points on the precariousness of the human condition in nature- being faithful and content. It deals with human weakness. Especially when one person falls in love and that’s involved decision making. The story revolves around Alfredo Salazar and his women: Esperanza, his fiancée of four years, and a young girl from out of town named Julia Salas. The character experience emotional attachment and struggles about every decision making. Alfredo Salazar was a man who was engaged to Esperansa, a homely woman, literal minded and intensely acquisitive. She is one of those fortunate women who have the gift of uniformly beauty. Despite of Ezperansa’s beauty, the urge of temptation was within the side of Alfredo. Alfredo met Julia whom he really admired the most. Alfredo Salazar, was torn between making two important decisions, to marry or not to marry. Everyone takes it for granted that Alfredo will eventually marry Esperanza and because of the support of their parents. Alfredo and Ezperansa get married. But although he is ashamed to admit it, the intensity of his passion for Esperanza has faded and he is attracted to Julia whom he meets at a dinner party. Alfredo can’t control his strong affection to Julia. He was attracted and perfectly cheated Esperanza. But he is aware that all his loved ones including Julia would disapprove of his failure to honor his understand with Esperanza. So he and Esperanza get married and have a family. Alfredo was trapped in a situation where he has to defend himself and in the process, what was manifested in his greed. Eight years later, he goes on a business trip to the town where Julia was still in unmarried lives. He goes to visit Julia, whom he has never forgotten. But he was surprised to find that he no longer feels attracted to her. He compares the memory of his love for her to dead stars, whose glow is still visible from earth for years after they are gone. In the story, dead stars symbolize a dream for something that is nonsexist. The guy loved the girl. She was his dream, his star. But like a dead star which is so far away, and whose shine could only be seen and cannot be reach.
To sum up all the nature conditions showed in the story, we as human are imperfectly incomplete ant yet we seem to fight to our own destiny. There some things that really made you feel angry, shame and regret. There are also some things that must be accepted if it’s is really not meant for you. In life you naturally you can get hurt especially if you assumed on something. That’s the realization in life. Therefore, you must live your life with all your true self with prayer and good deeds because God will grant you in the end. Moreover, there are also thing that you have to be content because too much lead to something bad and if you are trustworthy and true to others, good thing will come for you.
To define precariousness it is necessary to say it is a quality, a way of being, an adjective issued from a time where travelling, reproduction, image and communication are accessible to everyone; a time of celebrated individuality and infinite choices. However, it is additionally a time of sickness, emergencies and frustrate of advanced guarantees. All that is postmodernity, where, with all the fraud inferred, everything is conceivable however not all that matters is legitimate. Reality of the world and the things is unobtainable1 now, and the representation of the Real2 inconceivable on the grounds that it is exactly the Real what we need to deny to be social subjects. Works of art in the Reality circle acknowledges the agreement between the Imaginary and Symbolic. Unsafe workmanship is more towards the outskirt, managing a counter agreement between the Real and Reality. Just like in Ryunosuke Akutagawa's Rashomon, the laborer of the samurai changes into a substitute individual far from being an imperative and stately man. As he, an unassuming employee, starting late give up, is considering whether to starve or to end up a punk to make due in the vain times. To be sure, even thusly of considering the laborer of the samurai, one would see a little flimsiness of him. Nevertheless, when he encountered the old woman, who was taking hair from the dead bodies to make wigs, he was disgusted, and picks then that he would rather take the method for genuineness paying little mind to the way that it suggested starvation. Besides, woman whose body the old woman was starting now offering in order to plunder moreover hoodwinked people on her life snake meat and stating it was fish. In this circumstance the man exhibited insecurities and in addition the old woman. One could construe that there are true blue reasons why human acts conflictingly or problematically, in this story, because of financial issues and for survival. In spite of the way that the situation is altogether unmistakable, the subsequent climb of shrewdness to empower survival in this unforgiving world develops. That is the reason one couldn't blame the action for the worker of the samurai, arranged with poise, mindful and moral behavior could truly present a ghastly exhibit like that.
Same with the Haunted House short story discusses the human state of perpetual quality of affection, how to continue love and afterward the troubles of marriage or how to be with in a relationship. The story frequented house by Virginia Woolf is a short story loaded with imagery, symbolism, and incongruity of life particularly in the realm of adoration.
The state of the human through this story is that they are finding for something that they can't discover it. The narrative of helps the pursuer to get a more inside and out view of how the apparitions and the living individuals feel and offers the pursuer some assistance with understanding a portion of the musings of the story goes on. The living man and lady have no information about what were the fortune discusses in the event that it was cash or, for example, gold or anything that is more significant things that individuals are needed to have. The things that were all of a sudden stow away on their property. When they were alive, the apparitions are as of now had possessed the entire house over a century prior to the present occupants.
The couples are making progress toward hunting down something that is the reason they were in the house, they were searching for a covered fortune that they can't discovered wherever the side of the house they might go into. The story uncovers the rediscovery of the spots in and around the house where the phantoms spent little minutes communicating their adoration for one another they go into the patio nursery and opposite side of the house that they might feel the affection when they are still alive. And afterward when the times when the female apparition says, "Here, dozing; in the greenery enclosure perusing; snickering, moving apples in the space. Here we exited our fortune." After that couples who are experiencing the house find that they were an apparition who is living with them additionally, they understand that the phantom couple stays at the house for looking something and that something was their affection to one another. The couples despite the fact that are apparition they are not startling on the grounds that they are tranquil and they not terrified individuals around however individuals are frightened. As the apparitions hunt down their fortune, they wander the house, opening the end entryways and moving window ornaments back. In spite of the fact that they do whatever it takes not to exasperate the living couple, the last can hear them every so often.
Same with the Haunted House short story discusses the human state of perpetual quality of affection, how to continue love and afterward the troubles of marriage or how to be with in a relationship. The story frequented house by Virginia Woolf is a short story loaded with imagery, symbolism, and incongruity of life particularly in the realm of adoration.
The state of the human through this story is that they are finding for something that they can't discover it. The narrative of helps the pursuer to get a more inside and out view of how the apparitions and the living individuals feel and offers the pursuer some assistance with understanding a portion of the musings of the story goes on. The living man and lady have no information about what were the fortune discusses in the event that it was cash or, for example, gold or anything that is more significant things that individuals are needed to have. The things that were all of a sudden stow away on their property. When they were alive, the apparitions are as of now had possessed the entire house over a century prior to the present occupants.
The couples are making progress toward hunting down something that is the reason they were in the house, they were searching for a covered fortune that they can't discovered wherever the side of the house they might go into. The story uncovers the rediscovery of the spots in and around the house where the phantoms spent little minutes communicating their adoration for one another they go into the patio nursery and opposite side of the house that they might feel the affection when they are still alive. And afterward when the times when the female apparition says, "Here, dozing; in the greenery enclosure perusing; snickering, moving apples in the space. Here we exited our fortune." After that couples who are experiencing the house find that they were an apparition who is living with them additionally, they understand that the phantom couple stays at the house for looking something and that something was their affection to one another. The couples despite the fact that are apparition they are not startling on the grounds that they are tranquil and they not terrified individuals around however individuals are frightened. As the apparitions hunt down their fortune, they wander the house, opening the end entryways and moving window ornaments back. In spite of the fact that they do whatever it takes not to exasperate the living couple, the last can hear them every so often.
The couples did not quit hunting down what they are searching for in the house until them looks for something that can't esteem for anything a fortune that nothing can pay when you have it. The fortune they are searching for is that is "the light in the heart" that is exceptionally protected and it is just for them both. "The light in the heart" which implies the adoration that is can't paid for anything, that was the couples are searching for inside and outside the house and quips exceptionally in the patio nursery were perhaps they are having recollections the make their that they find for several days.
In a clean, well – lighted place by Ernest Hemingway, Hemingway does not squander words on changing scenes or denoting the progression of time, surrendering it over to us to monitor what's occurring and the story's pacing. For instance, just a brief discussion between the servers happens between the time when the more youthful server serves the old man a cognac and the time when the old man requests another. Hemingway is not recommending that the old man has slugged back the cognac rapidly. Truth be told, the old man stays in the bistro for quite a while. Time has slipped by here, however Hemingway surrenders it over to us to take after the pace of the story. The pace of "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" might appear to be quick, yet the activity of the story really extends for any longer than it seems to. The sitting, drinking, and considering that occur are lazy activities. We might read the story rapidly, yet the scenes themselves are not quick.Just as Hemingway doesn't squander words by attempting to back off his scenes, he likewise shuns including pointless moves. For instance, when the more seasoned server leaves the bistro and thinks about nothingness, he completes his farce of petition to God and, with no move that recommends that he was strolling, we all of a sudden discover him remaining at a bar. Hemingway lets the server's considerations serve as the move. When he keeps in touch with, "He grinned and remained before a bar," we're intended to comprehend that the server had been strolling and moving as he was contemplating internally. What's more, when the server arranges a beverage at the bar, the barkeep offers him another only two sentences later. This is what happens when people are so busy working that when they have everything, they would just say that they have nothing.
Told in the first individual by an Italian privileged person, "The Cask of Amontillado" connects with the peruser by making him or her a partner to Montresor's ghastly story of requital. The casualty is Fortunato, who, the storyteller claims, gave him a thousand wounds that he persevered quietly, however when Fortunato challenged affront him, he pledged retribution. It must be an immaculate reprisal, one in which Fortunato will know completely what is going on to him and in which Montresor will be perpetually undetected. To achieve it, Montresor holds up until jubilee season, a period of "incomparable frenzy," when Fortunato, officially half-plastered and costumed as a jokester, is especially powerless. Montresor then illuminates him that he has obtained a channel of Amontillado wine yet is not certain he has gotten the real thing. He if, he says, have counseled Fortunato, who prides himself on being a specialist on wine, including that in light of the fact that Fortunato is locked in, he will go rather to Luchesi. Knowing his casualty's vanity, Montresor goads him by saying that a few morons contend that Luchesi's taste is as fine as Fortunato's. The last is snared, and Montresor conducts him to his vacant palazzo and drives him down into the family tombs, at the same time utilizing him with beverage. Through underground passageways with heaps of skeletons exchanging with wine containers, Montresor drives Fortunato, whose jokester's chimes jingle peculiarly in the mournful environment. In the most profound grave there is a little break, and there Montresor binds Fortunato to a couple of iron staples and after that starts to lay a mass of stone and mortar, with which he covers his foe alive. While he does as such, he savors the mental torment of his casualty, whom he then takes off alone oblivious, sitting tight in dread for his passing. Montressor is driven by vengeance to Fortunato which makes as a link to precarious things and actions.
In my last short story, A Country Doctor. In spite of his inability to recuperate, the specialist recounts his story in a strikingly graceful and persuading way. So persuading is it, actually, that the peruser is likely at first to be completely taken in by the specialist's record. The specialist starts honestly enough by saying, "I was in a predicament," specifically, that he did not have a steed to take him to the far off patient. An adjustment in the specialist's story first gets to be detectable when he breaks into the current state right when he recounts the lucky man's assault on Rosa. He keeps on utilizing the chronicled present until he says that the patient acknowledged his anecdote about the birthplace of the injury and fell quiet. This adjustment in strained sets off the story's long center segment, in which the specialist's self indulging dissensions, ditherings, and questions about his calling prevail.
The peruser must remember that the specialist relates the subtle elements of his last sickbed visit in a condition of absolute hopelessness, as he is driven in an apparently perpetual winter night by a couple of stallions over which he has truly no control. The franticness of his circumstance, in any case, does not turn out to be clear until the last section of his story. At first the specialist's disengaged portrayal draws the peruser's sensitivities and obstructs any distrustful reaction to what is being told. As the record develops, there are more signs that the specialist's cognizance is blurred by his own reasons for alarm and tensions—his sudden sympathy toward Rosa, his distrustfulness about the inexplicable help of the stallions, who appear at the transfer of higher strengths, his need to legitimize to himself his inability to act. Accordingly, the most awesome components of the story—the steeds' rate amid the introductory adventure, the horrible magnificence of the kid's injury, and the uncovering of the specialist—mirror the illusion of the specialist's bended cognizance instead of an incredible reality that may have faced him. The imaginative expertise with which the specialist turns his inability to adapt to the substances of his work into a splendidly enchanting account recommends that his genuine calling is as a storyteller and not as a healer. This man shows that pity and discourage to the people of the town because of what he promised to them that he cannot fulfill.
In conclusion, the Rashumon talks to us by saying that no one will live forever and that you must take care of yourself because no one will take care of it, other than you. In the Haunted House, they teach us that material things are just petty things compared to the memories and the times shared together with loved ones over the course of your life. In the Cask of Amontillado, Montressor teach us that vengeance is not good and will only worsten the situation you are currently having. In a Clean, Well-lighted place. All you have, the riches is without comparison to your family and loved ones. And lastly, a Country Doctor. We always commit to something yet we always forget them. This story tells us that action really speaks louder than words.
INTRODUCTION Humans are fun of making wrong decisions and behavior that often lead them to struggle. They often made things complicated through this. They even suffer and regret those mistaken actions. Other things were taken for granted, until the time came that they will realized how important those things are. These five (5) selected stories that the researcher selected show the precariousness of human condition. These stories are, A Little Cloud written by James Joyce, Cask of Amontillado written by edgar Allan Poe, A Clean and Well Lighted Place written by Ernest Hemingway, Dead Stars written by Paz Marquez, and Popular Mechanics written by Raymond Carver.
A Little Cloud. There are things in life that one regret to happen and wished to undo such things. There are times that one needs to be alone and embrace all the unlucky things that ever thrown to you. There are moments when people want to be just what they are but the sad truth is they are still a prisoner of their past. Dreams are the second thing that is free in this world. People dream because people want to escape from the reality. They dream of what they want to be. There are incidents in the life of a person that may happen unexpectedly and these incidents may change the path that a person takes. In the story A Little Cloud, the main character has this inner struggle to pursue his dream. He was not able to reach his dreams because he was being married on a young age. Until he met his old friend, unlike him his friend became successful and happy with his own life. Although Little Chandler (main character) was felt happy and contented with his life, Ignatius Gallaher (his friend) made him realized that he could be happier and more contented with his life if he ever pursue his dreams. In real life, there are decisions that a person regrets and wishes to change it, the wrong decision which leads us to struggle. But no matter how often they try to undo those things, they just cant. In this case, human precariousness is highly observed. Humans tend to ignore the problems that are ahead to them. In this story it just shows that, humans do not think of the possible effects of the sudden decisions that they made. The marriage of Little Chandler illustrates the failure of attaining his dreams. While Little Chandler portrays those people that give ups easily to their dreams. Ignatius Gallaher stands for those people who are viewed as the less fortunate person. Since he was not so intelligent compared to Little Chandler but as they both grew old it is Ignatius Gallaher who became successful. In life it is not always that the odds are in favor. The success of Ignatius Gallaher was not planned only that he was persevered by his dreams. On the other hand, the failure of the life of Little Chandler was upon his own decisions. After a long year, Little Chandler then realized how far he was far yesterday. He never thought
of the success of Ignatius Gallaher for he believes that he is more intelligent than Ignatius. Chandler’s failure is thrown into sharp contrast to Gallaher’s success. The triumph of his friend was a reminder to him that how trapped he is in his own life. The carelessness of the humans is the main reason of its downfall. Base from the story Little Chandler has given more opportunities but unluckily got no one to hold. He is smart but he did not use his intelligence to make wise decisions. He was driven away from what he wants to be. On the other hand, Ignatius Gallaher is just a simple lad who wishes to be successful. He is not smart but he was able to make wise decisions that walked him into what he is now. He maybe does not have the brain but he has the will. He remained faithful on his dreams. This is just one of the many stories that humans should be reflected on. It tells a lot of human conditions that can be observed on this very moment. This story had just taught us that being a wise man is not measured on the intelligence he bare but on the decisions he made.
Cask of Amontillado. Some people are not concern on whatever they said on someone without even knowing that they had already insulted their peers. There are moments when people are thoughtless of the things they said which often leads to trouble against other people. People are fun of making judgments and jokes to someone and unintentionally hurt somebody’s feeling and some may lead into misunderstanding or even death. There are many cases that this incident happened. It starts with a slow flow of conversation and ends up with bumpy bloody conversation. Sometimes people are not aware of what they have uttered. Some people give reactions that are not really necessary to hear. This became a habit to everyone among these days. It is so easy for the other people to give judgments and a reaction to a certain event and worst is they cannot even give sympathy to someone who’s in the position. In this story, Montresor felt insulted by his friend Fortunato without the knowledge of his friend. Upon this incident he made revenge that causes the death of Montresor. The story features revenge and secret murder as a way to avoid using legal channels for retribution. Montresor uses his subjective experience of Fortunato’s insult to name himself judge, jury, and executioner in this tale. “The Cask of Amontillado” takes subjective interpretation—the fact that different people interpret the same things differently—to its horrific endpoint. Despite Montresor's sardonic jabs, Fortunato does not realize the extent of his danger until he has been chained to the granite, and even then he remains too drunk to completely comprehend what has taken place for some time. After repeatedly insulting Luchesi for his lack of intellect, Fortunato shows himself to be even more the dupable fool. Montresor made a crime on murdering his friend along this; he was also at ease and in peace knowing that he had taken revenge over Fortunato. In his mind, the more important is on making revenge after what Fortunato did to him. A person is define base on character. The way a person treats other people shows respect and honor. A man is considered to be a great man if he alone can give respect to his fellowmen. In the case of Fortunato and Montresor, Fortunato did not show respect on Montressor. He felt the he is superior over Montresor. That is the reason why it is so aesy for him to insult
Montressor. And Montresor could no longer hold the anger that is cause of the insult of Fortunato, Montresor then planned to murder Fortunato. On the other hand, Montresor did not felt any guilt upon murdering his friend. In the part of Montresor it may not be a sin but on the eyes of the law. He must be imprisoned and must go on to due process. In the end, committing a sin is against the social norms and biblical norms. It is not right to insult or give nasty comments on other people but it is not also right to plant revenge against other people. Let karma work for you.
A Clean, Well-lighted place. Once a person gets old no matter how big or small a family that is been created at the end of the day a person will always end up alone. The author of this story wants to imply that, in a world characterized by nothingness, what possible action could take place? That no character has a name and that there is no characterization emphasize the sterility of this world. This story has shown no focus but on its meaning. The old man who drinks brandy at the clean, well-lighted cafe is literally deaf. He cannot hear them anymore. He is alone, he is isolated, sitting in the shadow left by nature in the modern, artificial world. Additionally, all of the light remaining is artificial light in this clean, "well-lighted" cafe. Visiting a café is a way of unwinding himself from being alone. On the other hand, there are two waiters in the café. The older waiter felt sympathy on the old man for he also felt the same. While the young waiter felt angry and disturbed by the presence of the old man. The old man and the older waiter shared same feeling, the feeling of being alone. What is important in the story is not only the condition of nothingness in the world but the way that the old man and the old waiter feel and respond to this nothingness. . The old man has his dignity. And when the young waiter says that old men are nasty, the old waiter does not deny the general truth of this statement, but he does come to the defense of the old man by pointing out that this particular old man is clean and that he likes to drink brandy in a clean, well-lighted place. And the old man does leave with dignity. This is not much this aged scrap of human dignity in the face of the human condition of nothingness, but sometimes it is all that we have. At this point, we can clearly see differences between the old waiter and the young waiter especially in their antithetical attitudes toward the old man. The young waiter refuses to serve the old man another drink because he wants to get home to his wife, and, in contrast, the old waiter is resentful of the young waiter's behavior. The old waiter knows what it is like to have to go home in the dark; he himself will not go home to sleep until daybreak when he will not have to fall asleep in the nothingness of darkness
In order to hold nothingness, darkness, nada at bay, we must have light, cleanliness, order, and dignity. If everything else has failed, man must have something to remedy or else the only option is suicide and that is the ultimate end of everything.
Popular Mechanics. Marriage is a union of two people who is willing to accept each other’s flaws and loving every tiny pieces of their being. The relationship in marriage breaks down if the couple does not truly love each other. Though one never knows if the couple was married, the social environment in the relationship between the two individuals was argumentative which ends in the collapse of the relationship. What is observed in the society now is the growing percentage of teenage pregnancy and unwanted pregnancy. The couple in this story has a failed marriage or relationship. The boy packed his things and ready to go when he remembered his child. He wanted to get the child but the girl would not let him too. Although it was not mentioned in the story on what to the child, it can easily be conclude that no matter what happened to a couple having a child or children it is always them (children) who are mainly affected with this matter. Teenagers who are now living together with their partner are the best example for this. Obviously the characters in the story are not ready on marriage life or on the idea of having a family. They are just driven by their love to each other on the first couple of months and then realized that they are not really meant for each other. Upon making decision like this a couple needs to understand the pros and cons of living together because in this state there is no turning back. There are couples who are just thinking of the life with their partners without even thinking the life ahead of living with a partner. These couples are blinded, blinded by the present happiness that they feel. In living together with partner it is not always happy it is a bumpy endless ride. What happened in the story is sad. The couple only thinks of the downfall of their relationship and not on what is the best for their child. The couple became selfish for this reason. As to the society today, this incident is always present. Couples who are suffering on the downfall of their relationship forget what is beyond and what is ahead of them. In this modern society, it became so easy to just dump a person out of their lives and live as if nothing happens. Other couples who suffered broken relationship with a child on their responsibilities would choose to leave their child on their relatives and worst deleting the presence of a child in their lives.
Couples who are married or not are really tested on problems to test their love and on how strong their relationship. But in the case of involving a child in the scene is different. Having a child is a great responsibility. For others it may sound easy but for those dedicated parents it will never be easy. A parents need to be selfless and a parents must think of the best that they can give on the child. They must forget for themselves for the sake of their children. And most importantly is, a parents would not do anything that could harm their children.
Dead Stars. Every relationship is a great responsibility to your partner. Loyalty is number on in the list, your commitment to your partner and honesty. These are just some of the product of a lasting relationship. In the story, the long term couple Alfredo and Esperanza is engaged after four years of being together. Just like any other couple Alfredo and Esperanza were both inlove and in the intimate feeling on the first month but as the wedding approaches, Alfredo’s treatment to Esperanza became cold. Until Alfredo met Julia Salas, he became comfortable hanging out with her and gossips are now spreading about them and the time came that Julia found out that Alfredo was already engaged and she decided to live away from Alfredo. Years pass Alfredo was assigned to work to different city where Julia also lived. He saw Julia and she is still single then again Alfredo realized that he is no longer in love with her. The challenge that the couple had faced in the story can also be in real life situation. Relationship always goes on problem temptations are also present in every relationship and it is up to the couple if how they will handle the situation. The sudden arrival of Julia in the love story of Alfredo and Esperanza was just a challenged to the engaged couple, although Alfredo almost develop feeling to Julia. In this case, the girl (Esperanza) must do her job. In relationship, it is not always that a man must fight. A girl must also fight for what she thinks she owns. In the side of Alfredo, every boy must learn how to control temptation. Alfredo almost bites the trap. A man must know the worthy of his girl. The good in the side of Alfredo was he still chooses Esperanza. He did ran away to find Julia instead he marry Esperanza. After years, Julia and Alfredo meet and then again Alfredo realized that he is no longer in love with Julia. It implies that Alfredo was never in love with Julia. The feeling that he felt before was just product of attraction. He was attracted to Julia but he was never in love with Julia. In real life, mean and women became attracted to other men or women even if they are in a relationship. But never will be in love with that someone. It is possible that anyone can feel attraction to other sex even if they are currently in relationship.
In the side of Julia, the best thing that she did is staying away from Alfredo after knowing that he is already engaged. Not like other women do who are termed “mistress” they keep on pushing themselves to the man even though they already knew the truth. A true couple knows how understand each other’s side. If one commits mistake just like being attracted to someone. The only solution to that is to talk. Just like in the story, Esperanza stays positive and believed that Alfredo would never leave her and that is actually what happened.
CONCLUSION No one in this world is perfect. Everyone commits mistake. But as a person living in this world the only responsibility is to know what right from wrong. When one committed mistake it is not right to judge that person. Everyone deserves second chance no matter how big the mistake one has committed. The precariousness of humans is inevitable. The only thing is how to make those wrong decisions right and just. There is no person in this earth who do not committed mistake. One must put in the mind that in every wrong decision that he or she made there is always a way of correcting those mistakes no matter how long it will take.
References AP Literature Blog. August 2014. Popular Mechanics. Retrieved from https://emilyclineenglish.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/popular-mechanics-by-raymond-carver/ Enotes. NA. A Clean, Well-lighted Place. Retrieved from http://www.enotes.com/topics/clean-well-lighted-place/in-depth Enotes. NA. The Cask of Amontillado. Retrieved from http://www.enotes.com/topics/cask-amontillado/in-depth Sparknotes. NA. A Little Cloud. Retrieved from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dubliners/section8.rhtml The Bibliophilic Night Owl.NA. Dead Stars. Retrieved from http://bibliophilicnightowl.blogspot.com/2011/01/summary-dead-stars-by-paz-marquez.html
The Precariousness of Human Condition as Reflected in Five Selected Short Stories
Submitted to Rene Marquez Bonifacio
Submitted by Rey Jan D. Rentutar
The Human Precariousness Everybody has their own place on the planet, everybody assumes incredible parts in life, parts to make your own bliss and parts to make satisfaction towards other individuals around you. Now and then we are considering things that we consider as negative and that brings us terrible occasions that gives us issues and inconveniences. Everything in life is a decision, all that we confront in life is a choice, and it is yet a nature to a human instinct to pick a wrong choice and lament. By one means or another, we have this thing called predetermination, yet fate is shaped by your own hands and made by your own brain. They say to take after your heart at whatever point you go with a specific end goal to succeed, however this is not genuine, in light of the fact that your heart alone can never choose for your own great and the beat it makes is not exact to your future. The human shakiness is the thing that to be handled in this piece, as indicated by the lexicon the importance of dubiousness is a circumstance which someone in particular don't feel protected, solid, or enduring, contingent upon the will or delight of another, reliant on indeterminate reason, subject to risk circumstances, obscure conditions, or questionable improvements, described by an absence of security or strength that debilitates with threat. A few occasions in our lives sents us to feel these feelings, we once in a while feel undesirable, uncomfortable, and is by all accounts so quite squandered. Here are some of short stories that will give more accentuation towards the thought of human dubiousness. Pay near how these stories finished the thought of the word trickiness. The Cask of Amontillado is such an astounding story, the storyteller starts by letting us know that Fortunato has harmed him. Much more dreadful, Fortunato has offended him. The storyteller must get revenge. He meets Fortunato, who is all spruced up in jokester garments for a jubilee festivity − and is now extremely inebriated. The storyteller says he's found a barrel of an uncommon liquor called Amontillado. Fortunato communicates willing enthusiasm for checking the wine's validness. Indeed, even in individual life, it is yet a characteristic to a man to exact retribution after an extremely pernicious occasion happened. Fortunato has obviously offended the individual who talks in the story who was later established out as Montresor. So he and the storyteller go to the underground burial ground, or "tomb," of the Montresor gang. Obviously, that is the place the storyteller keeps his wine. The storyteller drives Fortunato more profound and more profound into the mausoleum, getting him drunker and drunker along the way. Fortunato continues hacking, and the storyteller always recommends that Fortunato is too debilitated to be in any way down among the moist sepulchers, and ought to do a reversal. Fortunato just continues discussing the Amontillado. Montresor gradually eats thr time upon the circumstance gets more profound. He took the chance to set aside the time in giving himself a delight to make after Fortunato had offended him.
In the end, Fortunato strolls into a man-sized gap that is a piece of the mass of a truly frightful sepulcher. The storyteller affixes Fortunato to the divider, then starts to close Fortunato in the gap by filling in the opening with blocks. When he has one block left, he mentally torments Fortunato until he asks for benevolence – and we at last take in the storyteller's name: Fortunato calls him "Montresor." Fortunato in the story was completely the person who needed assistance, the time he has was taken by Montresor in taking vengeance. In a few occurrences, Montressor wouldn't have room schedule-wise to do this to Fortunato if the time hadn't arrived. Montresor saw the occasion as the ideal time to do his vengeance to Fortunato. After Fortunato shouts out Montresor's name, he doesn't have any more lines. In any case, just before Montresor places in the last block, Fortunato rings his chimes. At that point Montresor completes the employment and abandons him there to bite the dust. At the very end, Montresor lets us know that the entire undertaking happened fifty years prior, and no one has figured out. This was totally a complete mystery, that after the minute that Montresor killed Fortunato, nobody had established out what had happened until he stands up what truly happened that night, and it was unquestionably shrouded in light of the fact that Montresor just stood up following fifty years from the time it happened. This story The Cask of Amontillado is such an astounding story, that it lets us know the common scene behind each person, the real nature of individual behind each character. It additionally shows us the lesson on impacts of retribution that it gives nothing beside an aggregate power outage of a human's life. Both of the significant character assumed unique parts to speak to distinctive qualities of an individual. The story absolutely offers perspective to human instability for it has this side of somebody is being sub-par, somebody has been brought down to raise somebody and that unquestionably suits to the word dubiousness. This next story in titled "Dead Stars" by Alfredo Salazar was pledged to Esperanza, his better half for a long time. The begin of their relationship was generally "warm", with Alfredo charming Esperanza like a man in desperate lovesickness. Be that as it may, as the years passed by, the warm adoration's flame gradually gleamed. Also, it was a direct result of Julia Salas. She was enchanting and joyful. He shared snippets of light yet now and then profound discussions with her when the legal advisor Alfredo went by Julia's brother by marriage, who was a judge. He generally ran there with his dad and since it was his dad who expected to converse with the judge, he was constantly left to Julia's organization. He never advised her he was locked in. At first he didn't see that an adjustment in his heart was taking structure. Be that as it may, then he began keeping subtle elements of his exercises to his life partner and after that the blameworthy feeling inched in. when he figured out that Julia was going to go to her inaccessible main residence, he felt blue and panicked. There are things in life that we surely don't have the choice yet to give the way. On account of Alfredo, he truly have needed Julia, however he didn't have the decision yet to save the path to his affection in light of the fact that Julia was at that point been taken by somebody and in ways he would prefer not to demolish somebody's relationship.
He met her in chapel after the Holy Thursday parade, despite the fact that he realized that Esperanza was at that point sitting tight for him. He drew closer her and she talked with him with an expression that let him know she at long last knew. She praised him and said she will be at his wedding. At that point they separated. This is truly so frightful to somebody's sentiments, particularly the minute when you see your adoration one being taken by another person. The thing there was physical fascination, the minute that they saw one another was no more the same the minute they saw one another some time recently. On the off chance that it was genuine romance, then it wouldn't be that lamentable to each of them. Desire was the thing that overwhelmed between them, this has driven them to lose their emotions to one another. When he went to Esperanza in her home, he caught her conversing with another lady about disloyalty and indecency, to which he contemplated for the denounced. The announcement brought about an extreme anger to Esperanza and she let him know that she knew. She challenged Alfredo to surrender her, alongside profound quality and reason and her nobility as a lady and also her picture before the general public just for the purpose of his "being reasonable to himself". In the end the wedding occurred. Also, following quite a long while, Alfredo was sent to an inaccessible town because of a lawful task. It irritated him so much on the grounds that it was close to Julia's main residence. In any case, regardless he ended up advancing toward her home in spite of himself. What's more, he discovered her there, pretty much as how and where he anticipated that her would be. She never wedded. Furthermore, he considered how life would be on the off chance that he wound up with her. However, everything was past the point of no return and he could never bring things back. He likewise saw that Julia lost something, yet the way that he didn't know what that is youth, affection, and radiance? What's more, when he took a gander at her he questioned on the off chance that she ever nurtured him, in the event that he has mixed up the past light in her eyes as indications of a conceivable sentiment. In any case, now they're all gone. Thus it was in fact all done. This story is truly that delicate and that it touches everybody's side and everybody could relate. The human instinct is absolutely unexplainable, there are things that we dream to have however when we are enticed, our brain gets puzzled and it drives us to make and be in the wrong way and choice.
An anonymous storyteller touches base at the House of Usher, an exceptionally unpleasant chateau claimed by his childhood companion Roderick Usher. Roderick has been wiped out of late, harrowed by a malady of the brain, and kept in touch with his companion, our storyteller, requesting help. The storyteller invests some energy respecting the marvelously spooky Usher building. At the same time, he clarifies that Roderick and his sister are the remainder of the Usher bloodline, and that the family is well known for its commitment to expressions of the human experience. Inevitably, the storyteller makes a beeline for see his company. Roderick for sure has all the earmarks of being a wiped out man. He experiences an "intensity of the faculties," or touchiness to light, stable, taste, and material sensations; he feels that he will kick the bucket of the apprehension he feels. He properties a portion of his ailment to the way that his sister, Madeline, experiences catalepsy (an affliction including seizures) and will soon bite the dust, and piece of it to the conviction that his frightening house is aware (ready to see things) and has an extraordinary control over him. He hasn't left the chateau in years. The storyteller tries to offer him some assistance with getting his psyche off this poring so as to pass and unhappiness over the writing, music, and craftsmanship that Roderick so adores. It doesn't appear to offer assistance. As Roderick anticipated, Madeline soon kicks the bucket. In any event we suspect as much. All we know is that Roderick tells the storyteller she's dead, and that she has all the earmarks of being dead when he takes a gander at her. Obviously, in view of her catalepsy, she may very well appear as though she's dead, post-seizure. Remember that. At Roderick's solicitation, the storyteller helps him to bury her body in one of the vaults underneath the chateau. While they do as such, the storyteller finds that both of them were twins and that they shared some kind of extraordinary, most likely extrasensory, bond. Around a week later, on a dim and stormy night, the storyteller and Usher get themselves not able to rest. They choose to pass away the reading so as to terrify night a book. As the storyteller peruses the content so anyone might hear, every one of the sounds from the anecdotal story can be heard reverberating from underneath the house. It doesn't take long for Usher to blow a gasket; he hops up and announces that they covered Madeline alive and that now she is returning. Beyond any doubt enough, the entryways blow open and there stands a trembling, bleeding Madeline. She tosses herself at Usher, who tumbles to the floor and, after "vicious" misery, passes on alongside his sister. The storyteller escapes; outside he watches the House of Usher break in two and sink into the dull, moist pool that lies before it.
From an unstable characters in legend of the tired empty, there is additionally this account of Edgar Allan Poe Fall of the House of Usher, story fundamentally incorporates a woman who kicks the can, is secured, and gets to be alive at the end of the day. Nevertheless, did she ever kick the basin? Near the horrendous finale of the story, Usher yells: "We have put her living in the tomb!" Premature interment was something of an obsession for Poe, who included it in countless stories. In "The Fall of the House of Usher," in any case, it is not clear to what degree the magnificent can be said to speak to the strangeness of the events in the story. Madeline may truly have kicked the pail and risen like a vampire, much as Usher seems to have vampiric qualities, rising "from a lounge chair on which he had been lying at full length" when the Narrator first sees him, keeping up a key separation from all light and most sustenance, and winding through his grave such as house. In any case, a more sensible type of events recommends that she may have been stirred up for dead and luckily made sense of how to escape her tomb. Regardless, the line amidst life and passing is a fine one in Poe's fiction and Usher's examination of the "awareness of each and every vegetable thing" fits relevant with Poe's own specific diversions.
Without a doubt, writing dependably gives a perspective of critical human encounters that could be utilized as a part of investigation and discourse about specific themes. Much the same as genuine individuals, anecdotal characters likewise experience troublesome circumstances, choices and changes that would shape their disposition and identity at last. One couldn't accuse the progressions they had in their lives in light of the fact that these are a piece of the intricate inclinations of human condition. The instability in human condition has wound up being accessible in changing foundations even when in doubt or in fiction. As Arendt (1958) said," when social weakness is tried, the delicacy of human issues is revealed". Finally, in this life, individuals would never be fulfilled and beyond any doubt in life as an aftereffect of the oddity without limits. Therefore it is run of the mill to be shaky yet not to be too much bona fide and clear in that way.
The god stealer, F. Sionil Jose is an account of a companionship. An American and a Filipino go to the Cordilleras to take a gander at the rice patios which were fabricated by the Filipino's progenitors. There they locate the significance of their companionship, how it characterizes the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. The story starts with two officemates Philip Latak an Ifugao from the Mountain Province now working in Manila, and Sam Cristie, an American on the transport to Baguio.Philip Ip-pig now lives in Manila against the wishes of his prompt family, especially his granddad who planned to bequeth to Philip his offer of the acclaimed rice porches. They are en route to Baguio for one reason: Sam needs to purchase a honest to goodness Ifugao god as gift and Philip was to offer him some assistance with finding a bona fide one through his neighborhood associations. Because of the enthusiasm of Sam Cristie to gathering gift, Philip stole the god statuette and offer it to Cristie. This plainly expresses the human instinct to inspire is truly there and it might come to serve other individuals yet when the method for accomplishing it is negative, then there's no such way like tolerating and enduring these fixing. It might be alright to search for things to awe other individuals and search for ways where you could fulfill other individuals however we ought to dependably manage at the top of the priority list that the things are dependably with its outcomes, it might be negative it might be sure.
Philip is a Christian who no more has any admiration or fondness for the Ifugao traditions and religion. He sees himself as a city kid and has no slant to come back to mountain life. In spite of this state of mind, his granddad is satisfied to see him and chooses to set up a major gathering in his honor. Upon the arrival of the gathering, Sam and Philip find that no Ifugao is willing to offer his god. FurFrom an unstable characters in legend of the tired empty, there is additionally this account of Edgar Allan Poe Fall of the House of Usher, story fundamentally incorporates a woman who kicks the can, is secured, and gets to be alive at the end of the day. Nevertheless, did she ever kick the basin? Near the horrendous finale of the story, Usher yells: "We have put her living in the tomb!" Premature interment was something of an obsession for Poe, who included it in countless stories. In "The Fall of the House of Usher," in any case, it is not clear to what degree the magnificent can be said to speak to the strangeness of the events in the story. Madeline may truly have kicked the pail and risen like a vampire, much as Usher seems to have vampiric qualities, rising "from a lounge chair on which he had been lying at full length" when the Narrator first sees him, keeping up a key separation from all light and most sustenance, and winding through his grave such as house. In any case, a more sensible type of events recommends that she may have been stirred up for dead and luckily made sense of how to escape her tomb. Regardless, the line amidst life and passing is a fine one in Poe's fiction and Usher's examination of the "awareness of each and every vegetable thing" fits relevant with Poe's own specific diversions.
Without a doubt, writing dependably gives a perspective of critical human encounters that could be utilized as a part of investigation and discourse about specific themes. Much the same as genuine individuals, anecdotal characters likewise experience troublesome circumstances, choices and changes that would shape their disposition and identity at last. One couldn't accuse the progressions they had in their lives in light of the fact that these are a piece of the intricate inclinations of human condition. The instability in human condition has wound up being accessible in changing foundations even when in doubt or in fiction. As Arendt (1958) said," when social weakness is tried, the delicacy of human issues is revealed". Finally, in this life, individuals would never be fulfilled and beyond any doubt in life as an aftereffect of the oddity without limits. Therefore it is run of the mill to be shaky yet not to be too much bona fide and clear in that way.
The god stealer, F. Sionil Jose is an account of a companionship. An American and a Filipino go to the Cordilleras to take a gander at the rice patios which were fabricated by the Filipino's progenitors. There they locate the significance of their companionship, how it characterizes the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. The story starts with two officemates Philip Latak an Ifugao from the Mountain Province now working in Manila, and Sam Cristie, an American on the transport to Baguio.Philip Ip-pig now lives in Manila against the wishes of his prompt family, especially his granddad who planned to bequeth to Philip his offer of the acclaimed rice porches. They are en route to Baguio for one reason: Sam needs to purchase a honest to goodness Ifugao god as gift and Philip was to offer him some assistance with finding a bona fide one through his neighborhood associations. Because of the enthusiasm of Sam Cristie to gathering gift, Philip stole the god statuette and offer it to Cristie. This plainly expresses the human instinct to inspire is truly there and it might come to serve other individuals yet when the method for accomplishing it is negative, then there's no such way like tolerating and enduring these fixing. It might be alright to search for things to awe other individuals and search for ways where you could fulfill other individuals however we ought to dependably manage at the top of the priority list that the things are dependably with its outcomes, it might be negative it might be sure.
Therefor, if all else fails, Philip offers to take the divine force of his granddad on the grounds that he feels it would be his method for demonstrating his appreciation to Sam for giving him an ascent at work. The outcomes of this demonstration are extreme. The following day, his granddad kicked the bucket on the grounds that he found that his god was stolen. He likewise advises Sam that Philip will never again be backtracking to Manila. Inquisitive, Sam searches for Philip and discovered him working in his granddad's home. Philip powerfully clarifies his explanations behind staying in the mountains, "I could excuse myself for having stolen it. However, the old man-he had dependably been savvy, Sam. He realized that it was I who did it from the very begin. He needed such a great amount to trust that it wasn't I. Be that as it may, he couldn't imagine - and neither would I be able to. I murdered him, Sam. I slaughtered him on the grounds that I needed to be free from these. These reviled porches. Since I needed to be thankful. I murdered him who adored me most." a wavering and smothered cry. Oblivious hovel, Sam saw that Philip is presently attired in G-string, the conventional ensemble of the Ifugao. Moreover, Philip is caught up with cutting another symbol, another god to supplant the old one which Sam will take to America as a gift.
The lesson here are these things as indicated by how they made it and made their own story. Philip's renouncement of his Ifugao legacy might be extrapolated to imply that Filipino's dismissal of his own roots and its supplanting with pilgrim values. It is noteworthy that Philip takes the God for Sam out of appreciation. It is the Filipino surrendered his most valuable image of his past conventions to the Americans as an outflow of appreciation. Furthermore, by giving this image away, the Filipino kills his own particular roots. The Filipino is a befuddled, sincerely exasperates and defenseless, tormented by the way that he revoked his past, or that he couldn't do anything to help the affliction. Typical of the nonnative's abuse and imperialistic aspirations on the Filipino.
This is an account of a modest gorgeous house aide named Rosa and her grown-up captivation. Rosa is depicted as a physically and verbally manhandled worker young lady to an upsetting yet now and again kind special lady. Rosa fantasized about the cochero whom she named to be "Blessed messenger" who later-on referred to be as Pedro. She envisioned him as not the same as other men, more brave, gentler, and her rescuer from her hopeless existence with her courtesan. Holy messenger turned into Rosa's trust and exemplification of longing to be free from subjugation. Her admirer Sancho then again was unpleasant and discourteous towards her and fiercely hurt her. She kept running from her escort's home and Sancho's clumsy arms. She yearned to discover her "Heavenly attendant". This story is completely astonishing, that the young lady is loaded with suppositions and that it hurt her such a large amount of the things inside of her. However, her guardian angel does not so much exist. Blessed messenger was only an assume that she developed. At last, Rosa just acknowledges her fortune as a hopeless hireling. Rather, the man she accepted to be her rescuer, was the person who gave back her back to her abandoned life.
At last, we are the person who hold our life and predetermination. We are the person who's clearing a path along our lives. Everything in life is a decision, nobody to be fault of whatever circumstance you are to be and you are in. no negative things and no awful things will happen on the off chance that you wouldn't let it to. Among every one of those chose stories to give and underscore the importance of the word trickiness are by one means or another the same and some way or another can be counteracted if the chance will change. In life we generally need to recollect that everything has its results. Life is loaded with decisions, it is up to the individual of what way they will pick and what way they will get into.
The Precariousness of Human Condition in Selected Five Stories
Queenie B. Dela Cerna ASENGL3 (TTH 7-8:30)
There are five stories that we will be tackling in this paper: The Dead Stars, the Cask of Amontillado, Axolotl, A Little Cloud and The Popular Mechanics. These five stories were analyzed on what danger do this characters has or what bad attitudes do they have and whats the effect of that attitude. The first story that will be discuss is the Dead Stars that was written by Paz Marquez Benitez, followed by the Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe, Axolotl by Julio Cortẚzar, a Little Cloud by James Joyce and the Popular Mechanics by Raymond Carver. The Dead Stars was all about Alfredo Salazar who has a fiancee named Esperanza, among the process of their wedding, Alfredo had liked another woman which is Julia Salas, the sis-in-law of Judge Del Valle. The second story is the Cask of Amotillado or in other words the Barrel of Sherry. This story evolves in the two main characters, Montresor and Fortunato. Montresor is the narrator and the murderer, Fortunato is a wine connoisseur and the victim. The Axolotl was all about a narration of the creature that is also the axolotl. (A salamander noted for its permanent retention of larval features, such as external gills, the axolotl, or axolote, is found in lakes near Mexico City, where it is considered edible.) The narrator narrates his experience about the Axolotl that he went everyday to observe in the aquarium of the Jardin des Plantes. The fourth story was a little cloud, the story is all about little chandler and his old friend Ignatius. These two men had a higher dream, to be professional and to travel the world, but these things was not achieve by little Chandler unlike Ignatius who had traveled around the world and then slowly fulfilling his dreams. When they meet again after 8 years, Ignatius became really succesful unlike what little chandler had obtained. The last story was entitled, Popular Mechanics by Raymond Carver. This story is all about a husband and a wife who has a baby. The beginning of the story was the quarrel of the couple. The boy packed his clothes, put them in his suitcase. When his finished, the boy want to take the baby with him but the girl refuses.
The story dead stars were all about Alfredo Salazar who has a fiancee named Esperanza. Along the process of their wedding, Alfredo liked another woman who is Julia Salas, the sister-in-law of Judge Del Valle. The bad attitude that Alfredo Salazar has was when he had liked another woman though he already had a finacee and that they are gonna get married soon. It became bad because it seems that he does not love Esperanza after all, though this issue was happening in reality, society still dictates that this behavior shall not be tolerated because it is not right. Being confused with what Alfredo feels towards Esperanza is not totally right, first because Esperanza is already his fiancee and he should be patient towards it. Things should not be rush, patience is totally needed and everything has a process, it takes time and effort. Alfredo needs to wait and be patient about Esperanza’s decision not to liked or flirt with another woman. The second one is that it is not right, Alfredo’s behavior is not actually right because he seems committing adultery and it is obviously agaisnt the law. Committing adultery is such a big crime; you can file a case if that someone feels much mistreated and been cheated, if someone wants to fight for you. Another reason why Alfredo felt about it is that it is man’s weakness. It is in their nature, that men are very impatient and they really hate waiting. They can wait but not too long, they are easily got bored and got angry towards things. Moreover, once they saw beatiful and sexy women, they are easily attractive to it. They tend to forget that they already had commitment and that they already loved someone. Men easily get fall with the temptations around that the society brings. Men hate waiting, at some point, one of the reason why their relationship gets cold is the length of time in which he was engaged to Esperanza, because they know each other very well and became too comfortable with each other. The spark of their love or the excitement starts fading and then Alfredo found someone or another one to discover which Julia Salas was. Some factor why Alfredo got attracted to Julia is that their personality are totally opposite, Alfredo was calm and placid while Julia was lively and full of vitality. Maybe Alfredo got excited when he found the characteristics that he lacked to Julia.
Other reason that is also happening in reality was being unreasonable. The sin that committed adultery that happened to like another person or other girl is unreasonable. In stories, even in reality, this sin is very unreasonable, it is hard to find reason and defend yourself on why you had committed that kind of mistake. However, how many times you tried to explain yourself it still not enough because you will be having a hard time to find and dig reasons to defend what you have done. Though Alfredo and Esperanza had gone all through of it, their wedding was still materialized or pushes through. Alfredo still fulfills his promises, to avoid social ridicule, but Alfredo felt being deprived by what he did. So he learned to distant and detach himself from Esperanza or being out of reached, though he stayed with her and treat her gently.
The second story is the Cask of Amotillado or in other words the Barrel of Sherry. This story evolves in the two main characters, Montresor and Fortunato. Montresor is the narrator and the murderer, Fortunato is a wine connoisseur and the victim. The story begins when Montresor and Fortunato meet at a carnival. For the reason that Fortunato had wronged him many times, Montresor was furious with Fortunato so he planned to kill Fortunato. When Montresor saw Fortunato at the festival, he invited Fortunato to his house and said his going to show him the cask of Amontillado, because Fortunato was very drunk, he went with Montresor without even knowing that Montresor has a plan ion killing him. The bad attituted that Montresor has is being a murderer. Murder is totally a big crime, it is greatly against the laws not only to the laws that we have here on earth but also with the laws of God. Once you murder someone for whatever wrong it has done is a crime, you can be imprisoned or even sentenced to death once you are caught, but if not there is no justice in it. Montresor was being wrong when he decided to kill fortunato for being wronged him many times because whatever a person does to you, big or small, intended or not, still you do not have the right to kill him or senteced him to death because you cannot just take away anybodys life. Once violence is being paid with violence, you cannot achieve peace in it. In the story, there is no sign of regret to Montresor for what he did to Fortunato. No justice was given for what happened to Fortunato because no one knows that he was killed and who killed him. It was totally a silent murder, a well planned murder. Though no justice has given to Montresor in the story, in reality once you murdered somenone and then found that you killed a person, you will probably be imprisoned for how many years. What is worst is that you might be sentenced to death or be killed by killers whom the family had paid.
The third story is the Axolotl; it was all about a narration of the creature that is also the axolotl. (A salamander noted for its permanent retention of larval features, such as external gills, the axolotl, or axolote, is found in lakes near Mexico City, where it is considered edible.) The narrator narrates his experience about the Axolotl that he went everyday to observe in the aquarium of the Jardin des Plantes. This creature which is the Axolotl was became the obssession in the story, the narrator was being obssessed that he went everyday to the aquarium to observe this creatures. He examines the Axolotl carefully and watches them closely. He sometimes talk to them, but what is worst on having this kind of obsession is that he may look like a crzay person. As the narrator describes the Axolotl, he talks to them and comes to a point that he felt that they are connected with each other. Along the way of his narration, he uses the first person as if he is the Axolotl, describes what the Axolotl felt inside the aquarium. It is as if his describing or narrating his experience as and Axolotl inside the aquarium. On what Axolotl totally feels, the narrator puts life to the Axolotl and he made them human. Being obssessed with someone or something, doing many things just to impress them or to satisfy your need is good but too much obssession towards someone or something is not good, not at all, not anymore. Once a person is obssessed with it, a person will do anytrhing just to satisfy it without even thinking the consequences or what will be he looks like. Doing many things, anything that you want to do, even the craziest thing is not bad, but once you abused it, that is not good, because too much can cause many problems.
The fourth story was a little cloud, the story is all about little chandler and his old friend Ignatius. These two men had a higher dream, to be professional and to travel the world, but these things was not achieve by little Chandler unlike Ignatius who had traveled around the world and then slowly fulfilling his dreams. When they meet again after 8 years, Ignatius became really succesful unlike what little chandler had obtained. As there conversation goes on, little chandler totally got jealous to Ignatius. Being a succesful man, who had travelled the world, which fulfill his dreams? They talked a lot, totally a lot, as they go on with their conversation, little Chandler realized something, he had “this what if” in his mind. What if he did not marry too early? What if he was tall, What if he can still go travel to other country? However, this imagination came back to reality, the reality that he has to face what fate he is facing and stop daydreaming. The precarious behavior of this story is the part when little Chandler made realizations, that it seems he regret everything that had happened to him, that he regret having his wife and his son, that he regret everything that he has. Realizing what Ignatius had achieved right now, and how successful Ignatius is. Regrets are not actually bad, but regreting when he already had his family, he has wife and a son, it is bad to regret having them at present because at some point his wife and his son gave him a lot and means a lot to him. Later on, littler Chandler just realized that he should not blame things or regret about them. They who came unto his life is a blessing and has a purpose.
The last story was entitled, Popular Mechanics by Raymond Carver. This story is all about a husband and a wife who has a baby. The beginning of the story was the quarrel of the couple. The boy packed his clothes, put them in his suitcase. When his finished, the boy want to take the baby with him but the girl refuses. As their quarrel continues, the girl carries the baby and went to the kitchen, but the boy followed him and holds the other hand of the baby. The baby’s faced turned red and started to scream but both of them still continue with there fight. As they continue grab each other’s hand of the baby, the girl notices that the baby is slipping from her hands, but the boy didn’t mind it. the baby almost slips in her hands, but it didn’t, by then the issue had been decided. By what they did specially for the men, do not be driven away by your emotions. Things can be negotiate through talking and not with the harsh ones. Think of the consequences that would come, and if somebody might get hurt by what they are doing.
In conclusion, the five stories had different precarious, but all of them gave a lesson. A lesson that you can apply to your everyday life. Whatever things a person do, or whatever decisions a person is making. He or she should think twice before doing something else.
The last story was entitled, Popular Mechanics by Raymond Carver. This story is all about a husband and a wife who has a baby. The beginning of the story was the quarrel of the couple. The boy packed his clothes, put them in his suitcase. When his finished, the boy want to take the baby with him but the girl refuses. As their quarrel continues, the girl carries the baby and went to the kitchen, but the boy followed him and holds the other hand of the baby. The baby’s faced turned red and started to scream but both of them still continue with there fight. As they continue grab each other’s hand of the baby, the girl notices that the baby is slipping from her hands, but the boy didn’t mind it. the baby almost slips in her hands, but it didn’t, by then the issue had been decided. By what they did specially for the men, do not be driven away by your emotions. Things can be negotiate through talking and not with the harsh ones. Think of the consequences that would come, and if somebody might get hurt by what they are doing.
In conclusion, the five stories had different precarious, but all of them gave a lesson. A lesson that you can apply to your everyday life. Whatever things a person do, or whatever decisions a person is making. He or she should think twice before doing something else.
The Precariousness of Human Condition as Reflected in Five Selected Short Stories
Submitted to Rene Marquez Bonifacio
Submitted by Gerald Alvior Emberga
Unsafe, perilously flimsy, shaky, unverifiable or frail, these words unmistakably portray the practices of people on their connection inside of themselves and towards the general public. It is so common and inalienable for people to act diverse, for instance, not being reliable in his or her activity in managing distinctive circumstances in life. One of the variables of human that backings his or her dubiousness is the feeling. Naturally, feelings are works of an individual's own mind synthetic procedures. Notwithstanding that, Hannah Arendt on her work The Human Condition (1958) states that "human condition is to be sure the representation of a tricky universe of flimsiness and of questionable future". Indeed, even in our ordinary living, human practices and responses couldn't be anticipated, there were seasons of claims and affectation furthermore times of trustworthiness and generosity. Every one of these irregularities would be found in the general public today, even inside of yourself, with your neighbors and to the general population encompassing you at this moment. In any case, generally, these are not by any means characterized and acknowledged specifically, not at all like if these could be found in a story, dramatization or in a novel. Along these lines, writing truly assumes a critical part in portraying these frail activities of people through the unpredictable qualities and identities of characters in the story or how these anecdotal individuals act and act toward the difficulties and clashes compensated for them. Since human condition incorporates procedures of considering, willing and judging, then, in these chose five short stories, characters will be depicted as the way they think, settle on choices and act against the deterrents he or she meets.
One clear obvious of dubiousness of a character or for a human is that there are changes inside of him, inside and remotely. In Ryunosuke Akutagawa's Rashomon, the worker of the samurai changes into an alternate individual a long way from being a noteworthy and stately man. As he, a humble hireling, as of late let go, is considering whether to starve or to wind up a hoodlum to make due in the fruitless times. Indeed, even along these lines of thinking about the worker of the samurai, one would see a little shakiness of him. Be that as it may, when he experienced the old lady, who was taking hair from the dead bodies to make wigs, he was nauseated, and chooses then that he would rather take the way of honesty regardless of the fact that it implied starvation. What's more, the lady whose body the old lady was as of now selling so as to loot additionally bamboozled individuals on her life snake meat and asserting it was fish. In this situation the man demonstrated insecurities as well as the old lady. One could infer that there are legitimate reasons why human acts conflictingly or precariously, in this story, due to monetary issues and for survival. Despite the fact that the circumstance is entirely distinctive, the consequent ascent of wickedness to encourage survival in this unforgiving world emerges. That is the reason one couldn't accuse the activity of the hireling of the samurai, prepared with self-control, aware and moral conduct could really submit a terrible demonstration like that.
On the off chance that a very much restrained man demonstrated an absolutely tricky condition by transforming into a criminal in the Rashomon, then in “The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe” Vengeance is the planned demonstration of causing harm in return for harm. Exact retribution additionally is the phantom that frequents one man's spirit for very nearly fifty years in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado." Is retribution truly fulfilled by Montresor in Poe's story? Actually no, not just is it not fulfilled, be that as it may, likewise incidentally he damns himself for all time everlasting! Toward the starting Montresor gives us his two criteria for vengeance: "A wrong" he says "is unredressed when requital surpasses its redresser. It is just as unredressed when the vindicator neglects to make himself felt all things considered to him who has done the off-base." Are these two criteria met? "No revenge appears to overtake Montresor". Yet, that is exactly how it appears. From the onset of the story " the storyteller Montresor experiences a blameworthy conscience" which implies that Montresor did endure. Poe additionally makes no sign that Montresor ever told Fortunato why he is executing this "motiveless evil". In this way, neither of Montresor's necessities of retribution are represented. As a general rule Montresor licenses himself to be changed from family justice fighter into a wanton homicide. "He Montresor counts on God's judgment as the last instrument of his requital. He kills his foe by driving him into sins of pride, vanity and tipsiness". Here Montresor comes up short too. At the point when Fortunato represents a last petition to God for leniency to his killer and his God, "'For the love God, Montresor!' "Yes," I said, 'for the love of God”. "To this, Montresor is hard of hearing and when the petition to God receives a benevolent hearing in paradise, Montresor's stratagems backfires. Fortunato, fortunate as his name recommends is spared; Montresor damned". This is reiterated by Gruesser when he composes "going through with the homicide, Montresor strongly resists God, condemning himself for unsurpassed." Cooney additionally expresses that Montresor misses the incongruity toward the start of his own admission, "You who so surely understand the way of my soul". This infers he has been admitting to this "cleric" for a long time, be that as it may, has not been admitting the greater part of his wrongdoings; this thusly makes the greater part of Montresor's admissions futile. Cooney too offers with us that as a result of these false admissions rather than being instruments of salvation they get to be instruments of punishment. "Here, most likely, is the incongruity of a admission without apology, an incongruity that makes the whole arrangement turn around upon the doer"(Cooney 196). So now not just does he have the blood of Fortunato staring him in the face, be that as it may, the rage of God on his head. In Poe's last line "In pace requiescat," "let him rest in peace," Montresor appeals to God for the spirit of Fortunato, yet as with the recounting his admission Montresor understands that he doesn't fulfill his retaliation on any level. He did not even accomplish the sole prerequisites for his own image of revenge. What's more, now must face his own spirit and God in light of the fact that, "Indeed, even now, when on his deathbed Montresor admits all his sins, he is cheated in intuition himself forgiven"(Cooney 196). Still, tragically, with this little supplication to God and admission, for all endlessness Montresor will be recognized as an unfeeling, savage killer.
This story The Cask of Amontillado is such a bewildering story, that it tells us the regular scene behind every individual, the genuine way of individual behind every character. It moreover demonstrates to us the lesson on effects of retaliation that it gives nothing close to a total force blackout of a human's life. Both of the critical character expected novel parts to identify with unmistakable characteristics of a person. The story totally offers viewpoint to human unsteadiness for it has this side of someone is being below average, some individual has been conveyed down to raise some individual and that undeniably suits to the word irregularity. If The Cask of Amontillado has full of Montresor’s vengeance to Amontillado, then in A Country Doctor by Franz Kafka, delineates the appalling self-double dealing of an individual confronted with his own loss of confidence in his calling. The specialist promptly accuses different components the states of his job, his patients, the decrease of religious conviction for his inability to complete his obligations, essentially, to mend those in need. When he neglects to perform his obligations as a healer, his life loses all feeling of reason and meaning. The specialist's existential emergency is somewhat of his own making and halfway the aftereffect of his compelling social separation. He has dismissed Rosa for quite a long time, says that it is extremely hard to achieve a shared comprehension with his patients, and feels tormented by the purportedly bogus ringing of his night chime. In spite of the fact that there seems to be a breakdown in a reasonable social group the specialist is an authority of a political area and consequently some portion of a bureaucratic framework at some expel from the general population (represented in the content by the separation that he should travel this specific night) the solid subjective predisposition of his report of his connections to other individuals puts into inquiry his entire comprehension of who he is and what he does. The peruser needs to approach the specialist's own particular evaluation of his circumstance with doubt and ask what is the truth behind his self-indulging inability to mend or even start to treat, the boy’s horrible wound. In the story, Kafka looks at the significance of confidence by thinking about its nonattendance as exhibited by the withering young fellow. It is about confidence versus pharmaceutical. Could doctors recuperate without confidence? Is the profound viewpoint expelled from the physical? Are physical diseases indication of supernatural clashes? The spirit mind-body talk about has resounded during that time and it is hard to disregard the nearby connection between the two. Kafka's confidence inclines him to trust that afflictions have otherworldly battles. Doctors must have moral sense to have the capacity to recuperate and prescription ought to be a demonstration of confidence. Kafka's "A Country Doctor" is a heartbreaking story of man's failings. It offers no reclamation, no relief and no break. We need to confront our difficulties decisively and affirm ourselves like a genuine man. Maybe, then, we would touch base at a sheltered spot where we can see and in the end admit to ourselves our frailties as people.
If the human precariousness of the character in the story A Country Doctor delineates the appalling self-double dealing of an individual confronted with his own loss of confidence in his calling, in the story Legend of Sleepy Hollow In spite of the fact that the story is cheerful, told in a clever way, it doesn't paint the most complimenting picture of humankind it likely does not "provoke a generous perspective of human instinct" as Crayon says he wishes to do in his composition. This is especially valid in the wild childishness seen in a large portion of the characters. Most clearly, Ichabod wants Katrina above all for the expansion to his material riches she would speak to, and he even envisions himself auctioning off her family's homestead once it would be in his ownership, for the cash. Notwithstanding when Ichabod demonstrates his better qualities, assisting around the homesteads he stays at and keeping the youngsters and wives glad, his essential objective in doing as such is to keep his hosts content with the goal that they will give him a chance to stay, and keep on encouraging him. Yet this is not by any means the only sample of avarice or childishness. Katrina utilizes Ichabod to secure Brom's love - she might comprehend Ichabod's actual intentions, yet in any case, it can't be denied that she doesn't falter to utilize him to suit her reasons. That this narrow-mindedness, or possibly conceit, is not restricted to a couple characters turns out to be clear when Ichabod vanishes. An inquiry gathering is made, yet simply because Hans Van Ripper needs his missing seat back, and when there is no indication of Ichabod, no one considerations. This is on account of has no obligations, the presumption being that in the event that he had owed anybody any cash, they would have put a great deal more exertion into discovering him. Accordingly Sleepy Hollow is an accumulation of individuals who, as in many spots, put their self-intrigue first
From a precarious characters in Legend of Sleepy Hollow, there is also this story of Edgar Allan Poe Fall of the House of Usher basically spins around the remarkable relationship in the middle of Roderick and his twin sister. At the point when the ghostly figure of Madeline first shows up, we can't figure out if she is a genuine living individual or some type of daydreamed model. In spite of the fact that Madeline's status as an undeniable individual stays questionable even at the work's decision, what is clear is that she imparts some kind of psychic liking to her sibling, one that rises above the typical relationship between kin. Some basic perusers of the story keep up that the physical likeness in the middle of Roderick and Madeline infers that they are the posterity of a depraved relationship. Others have recommended that Roderick must execute his sister to maintain a strategic distance from the abhorrence of propagating the Usher line through an indecent demonstration of interbreeding. In any case, the issue of interbreeding aside, it is obvious that Roderick and Madeline Usher are so firmly bound to one another that they seem, by all accounts, to be components of a solitary mind. To be sure, in one perusing of the story, Roderick and Madeline are two resources of the same soul. This would accord with Poe's hypothesis of the characteristic division of human identity and the inherent inclinations of its parts to look for get-together. The storyteller here is not untrustworthy similarly that the killing storytellers of "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" are. He promptly concedes that his record might be stained by his temperament of agony, however we never question the veracity of what he lets us know, including the restoration of Madeline, Roderick's demise, and the sudden breakdown of the House itself. There are, notwithstanding, numerous open-finished inquiries that are not determined by the story's end. Consequently, for instance, we don't know whether Madeline planned to slaughter Roderick in their last grasp or to unite with him. Poe attempts to fill in these spaces for us. His motivation is to make and support a solitary impact in the peruser's psyche, and, toward the end, we are persuaded that the creator has more than accomplished this end. Indeed, literature always gives a view of significant human experiences that could be used in analysis and discussion about certain topics. Just like real people, fictional characters also go through difficult situations, decisions and changes that would shape their attitude and personality in the end. One could not blame the changes they had in their lives because these are part of the complex tendencies of human condition. The precariousness in human condition has ended up being available in varying backgrounds even as a general rule or in fiction. As Arendt (1958) said,” when social helplessness is tested, the fragility of human issues is uncovered”. At long last, in this life, people would never be satisfied and sure in life as a result of the unusualness without bounds. Thus it is typical to be unstable yet not to be excessively genuine and clear in that way.
References: The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe A Country Doctor by Franz Kafka Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe Rashomon by Ryunosuke Akutagawa Encarta Dictionary, 2009 The Human Condition (1958) by Hannah Arendt http://www.gradesaver.com/the-fall-of-the-house-of-usher/study-guide/themes http://www.gradesaver.com/the-legend-of-sleepy-hollow/study-guide/themes (Feb 28, 2014). A Country Doctor - A Cautionary Tale of The Dangers of Non-Androgyny. Study Standard. Retrieved Dec 29, 2015, from https://www.studystandard.com/essays/a-country-doctor----a-cautionary-tale-of-the-dangers-of-non-androgyny-1178
The Precariousness of Human Condition as Reflected in Five Short Stories
Submitted to Rene Marquez Bonifacio
Submitted by Leomar Llagas Onido
Actually human were made equivalent in regards on their race and societal position. Everybody has the capacity and ability to be unrivaled relying upon our inspiration and endeavor. Fundamentally we are likewise interconnected to the practices and conventions that shape our humankind towards general society. It is characteristic for people to act various, we are progressive we tend to push our limits just to adapt to circumstances. One of the positive unmistakable variables that trigger human instability is the emotions. Sentiments are the most essential implicit component of the human innovation. It permits us to think, to stroke, to modify, to be upbeat, to be delicate to the general population around and living inside of us. Bit normally, emotions are predisposition; we can feel prevalent on the off chance that we have accomplishments, riches and so forth and mediocre and unstable in the event that we tumbled to adapt the pattern of life. Everybody of these anomalies can be recognized in our general public today. Indeed, even you yourself and the general population around you that make progress toward survival in this convoluted world. Regardless, for the most part it is simply describe and depicted particularly not unless of it is passed on and interpreted into writing, similar to stories, performance or books. These instruments hoist the progressive system of the human condition, through composing. In any sense it fuses and accept a basic part in depicting these delicate exercises of human's trough the diverse capricious human qualities that distinguishes characters. At that point in these picked five short stories, characters will be recognized, inspected and examined on how they depict, settle, think and respond on the stories that give dubiousness condition.
Each of the five stories I've picked is unquestionably have instability of human condition. As in these stories uncovers and mirror the human need, personal hole, and singular instability towards others and the general public all in all. Human attributes changes, internal and external, it is clear. Everything blurs and changes. In the “Rashomon” by Akutagawa, the story develops in distinctive and unforeseen ways that gives one fascinating contentions on the way of truth, human shortcoming and trust. . In portrays the situation of an out-of-work worker who considers his destiny at Rashomon, the door of an incapacitated building in twelfth century Kyoto. The hireling knows, or trusts, that with a specific end goal to survive he should resort to robbery, yet he is at first hesitant to take. Over the span of the story, on the other hand, his experience with an old lady, herself a cheat, causes him to alter his opinion, or it empowers him to justify falling back on burglary as a lifestyle. His choice to take is without a doubt affected by the unsettled times, as well as by the ghastly environment of Rashomon. There are two characters, the worker and the old lady. Both appear like genuine individuals with attributes that are naturalistic. The worker demonstrates his quality and social class with his sword and physical force. The old lady has no class however speaks to the lower class that is endeavoring to live. The character's activity addresses the pursuer about the relationship between human instinct and internal identity. The dichotomy of ethical quality and corruption are associated through the characters. The worker had chosen not to take before entering "Rashomon" holding up his profound quality. The worker determines his ethical battle by surrendering any profound quality. He essentially following in the line of the individuals who damage others to keep themselves alive. However after the old lady's discourse about offering hair to survive, he changes. The story is constructed around his moral problem of regardless of whether to stay genuine and bite the dust or turn into a cheat with a specific end goal to live. His level headed discussion is determined in his experience with the old lady. He chooses to end up a criminal and takes from her with a specific end goal to survive. The old lady taking hairs gives the method of reasoning to taking: everybody does it; there is no other approach to survive. Her legitimization of what's she's doing turns into the event for him choosing to wind up like her. The topic is the humorous introduction of the defenses of survival as a definitive quality. A severe world without human qualities. The hireling gets to be similar to the lady who is similar to the lady she takes from. The worker will get by until he meets somebody who does to him what he did to her. Then again, Estrella Alfon's Servant Girl. It focuses on Rosa, a family unit help working for an oppressive lady a mishandled cleaning specialist who aches for flexibility, joy, and cherish. Rosa was a kind, patient and understanding girl. In spite of the beatings of her mistress, she stayed with her and continues to do her job. She was being abused by her special lady and was trusting that one day she would have the capacity to be liberated from all the misuse she was encountering. In this Story, we can say that it can be identified with such a variety of genuine circumstances of the individuals who are in the same positions of Rosa. It tells us to know the tragic reality of a percentage of the other individuals working under other people who have a higher societal class than them. The misuse that one encounters is brought about by the prevalent thinking about their "bosses". In spite of the fact that she has the snippets of defiance to the treatment she gets from her special lady, Rosa fundamentally acknowledges it as a feature of the plan of things.
Estrella Alfon's work shares the narrative of Rosa and her experience catches the passionate crazy ride than she has. From the scribble she felt of having a "holy messenger" then returning to the miserable reality of the perspective of what she truly I and what she truly is doing. The utilized of "Heavenly attendant" symbolized despite the fact that it was only for a brief minute, the aching for bliss and opportunity of Rosa. The way she envisioned Angel appeared as though he was likewise aching for her and that he was searching for an approach to see and be with her once more. The creator ready to indicate how edgy Rosa felt with a specific end goal to feel satisfaction. The contemplations and illusions that she having was an easy to make tracks in an opposite direction from every one of the hardships that she experiences. Be that as it may, then toward the end of the story, it demonstrates her creative ability took her to a spot in her psyche that did not exist. The tragic truth that Pedro or the holy messenger did not consider anything if his nice thought he did to the lady. This conveyed to the truth that she was simply envisioning was only a hallucination for her to make tracks in an opposite direction from the misuse that she was encountering inside in her fancy woman house. As a general rule, it can be said that there are individuals, who tragically, can identify with Rosa's encounters. The story raises an issue about class and about sex which does not by any stretch of the imagination investigate or resolve. In the event that the worker young lady is delineating the experience of the mishandled cleaning specialist. "The God Stealer" by Francisco Sionil Jose demonstrates a profound comprehension of quite undeniable issues felt in antiquated societies everywhere throughout the world. Disregarding the way that story was sprightly told cleverly, it doesn't paint the most complimentary picture of mankind it like does not "incite a liberal viewpoint of human intuition. It bargains straightforwardly with issues key to the legacy of the nation. There are two primary characters in the story, an American, Sam Cristie and a man of Ifugao legacy who have turned out to be dear companions however working at the same office for various years. They are universally popular for building more than 2000 years prior the celebrated rice terraces which numerous consider one of the miracles of the world. As Sam, prognosticated his craving to see the renowned rice patios and he needs to buy a little statue of an Ifugao God as a trinket to take back to New England with him. Overwhelmed by their beauty and awestruck at what went into building them over 2000 years ago. The terraces are presently in genuine risk of being lost to the world. To keep up them is exceptionally work concentrated and the youngsters of the way of life can profit working in Manila than they can in their introduction to the world groups obviously a titan city likewise appears to be more energizing to the youthful than a ten house town with no power.
Ifugaos rehearse a religion more established than Christianity part of the story is the contentions these powers cause in Philip who has tackled enormous city ways and changed over to Christianity. At first Philip seems a bit embarrassed for his friend to see where he came from. Philip is received coldly by his family, they regard him as a deserter to his heritage. We attend a festival held in their honor, we meet the aging and ill grandfather, we learn about how the live, see the foods they eat and get very good feel for the lives of the Ifugao people in this powerful story. It shows a deep understanding of very real problems felt in ancient cultures all over the world. How do you keep the young people rooted in the culture when they can make a lot more money, and have seemingly a more exciting life, in a mega-city. At that point in a Little Cloud by James Joyce depicts disappointment, disappointment, escape, disdain, obligation and loss of motion. This early understanding into Chandler's disappointment or escape from reality (his employment) is critical as it goes about as a sort of portending to later occurrences in the story when they finds exactly how disappointed or baffled Chandler really is. Chandler feels that to succeed in life he should change his life. That change incorporates leaving Dublin as well as leaving his wife Annie and his young child as well. The entrapment of Little Chandler is more than geological. A Little Cloud" underlines the subject of being caught in one's own particular life As Joyce delineates it, Ireland frames a sort of mental jail for him. His despairing demeanor and his desires of being perceived as a component of the Celtic school uncover him as, best case scenario, a trite and commonplace writer. Chandler's loss of motion is tossed into sharp difference by Gallagher's noteworthy profession. The way to Gallagher's prosperity, actually, has been leaving Ireland. Minimal Chandler can just enjoyment such a great amount in his old companion's position. Generally, Gallagher serves as an indication of how caught Little Chandler truly is. Chandler has ambiguous goals of distributed his verse, yet it soon gets to be evident that Gallagher is not the man to help it. Chandler's mental imprisonment extends to his questions about Gallagher's travels. He asks again and again if Paris is a "moral city," as if that were a simple question, as if morality were something to be measured on a scale. This position is all the more amusing because of the last few stories we've read, in which we've been treated to a broad spectrum of cheating, manipulation, abuse, and unkindness In any case, Gallagher's off-putting character qualities just make Chandler more angry. He feels that Gallagher does not merit the achievement he's had. What's more, in light of the fact that he feels his detainment more intensely, he takes it out on his kid. We find out about the numerous things controlling Chandler. As he tries to peruse the Byron lyric and the youngster cries, Chandler understands that he won't have the capacity to break free of his commitments. His misuse of his child, his one little snippet of opportunity, is trailed by the normal negative results, including regret. In addition, the little upheaval does not make Chandler any less caught. It is likewise toward the end of the story that Joyce investigates the subject of obligation. It is strictly when this episode, when Chandler strides back and feels contrite, lastly assuming liability. It is very conceivable that Chandler understands that the most imperative thing in life is not for him to escape to London and turn into an artist yet rather to stay in Dublin, as a father to his young child.
In Popular Mechanics by Raymond Carver it depicts separation, conflict, struggle and communication or rather the lack of it. This physical distance between both characters is important because it sets the scene of the story when it becomes obvious that both characters no longer wish to be with each other. It is most likely that a relationship, one that is pure, has been tainted. The story describes an argument between a man and a woman that rapidly escalates into a physical struggle over their baby. A man and a woman’s struggle over a child can clearly be seen as their relationship. Another idea is that the struggle within their relationship is causing emotional pain to the child. Perhaps the fighting is tearing the child apart, this is having a great impact on his or her life. Their world is being flipped upside down and inside out as the rest of the world carries on with their daily lives. They are simply unaware and unconcerned that two individuals are being encompassed in the depths of hell. Presently, we're never advised certainly what happens to the infant, so I assume there is a chance that one guardian figured out how to wrest the infant effectively from the other. The folks have as of now thumped down a vase, a touch of hinting that doesn't look good for the child. What's more, the exact opposite thing we see is the folks fixing their hold on the child and pulling back hard in inverse bearings. What is also interesting at the end of the story is the final sentence in the story, ‘In this manner, the issue was decided.’ It is a passive sentence that is far removed from what is actually happening in the story and suggests finality. Either the baby’s arm has been broken or more sinister, the child is being ripped apart in the struggle between both parents. There is also a sense of irony at the end of the story. Both parents want the baby and this is made clear by their fighting over him. However the last sentence suggests that neither parent may actually have succeeded in getting the child. Indeed, literary pieces always gives a view of significant human experience that could be in analysis and discussion about certain topics, just like humans fictional characters is also undergone difficult situations, decisions and changes that would shape their attitude and personality in the end. One could not blame the changers they had in their lives because there is part of their complex tendencies of human condition. The precariousness in human condition has ended up being available in varying background even as a general rule. Because thers no guarantee, human condition is always precarious in different angles: about the end of the world, identity, emotion, survival and circumstances. All these uncertainties may be present in life, but man has to realize he should not be shaken. Man may want to quest for certainty yet it blocks the search of meaning. He has to know the uncertainty is the very condition to impel him to unfold his powers. As Vincent van Gogh, pronounced “For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream”. Life indeed is a continuous battle. The human condition is always beset with trivialities, of instabilities, of uncertainties.
References: Retrieved from http google.com on December 27. 2015. Retrieved from http://www.enotes.com/topics/rashomon Retrieved from http://hartzog.org/j/rashomon.htm Retrieved from http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/1069.html Retrieved from http://estrellaalfon.blogspot.com/2013/03/critique-servant-girl.html Retrieved from http://lit102.blogspot.com/2007/08/servant-girl-by-estrella-alfon.html Retrieved http://carantohum014.blogspot.com/2009/07/estrella-alfons-servant-girl.html Retrieved http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dubliners/section8.rhtml Retrieved http://www.shmoop.com/dubliners/little-cloud-characters.html Retrievedhttp://www.academia.edu/9147216/A_Marxist_Criticism_of_The_God_Stealer_by_Francisco_Sionil_Jose Retrievedhttp://www.studymode.com/essays/Critical-Analysis-Of-The-God-Stealer-1803391.html Retrieved http://sittingbee.com/popular-mechanics-raymond-carver/ Retrieved http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/raymond-carvers-popular-mechanics-what-symbolism-487142
The Precariousness of Human Condition As Reflected in Five Selected Short Stories
Submitted by: Laguardia, Mia Raquel Q. ASENGL3
Submitted to: Sir Rene Bonifacio
As they say, life is full of uncertainty. Nobody knows what will happen on a person’s life in the future. Those who are weaklings and being bullied today might become a successful leader tomorrow, a dreamer might just end up a dreamer having a dream without getting it into actions and a person full of virtue and the kindest you have ever known might be the worst enemy you wish you never had. Some say life is simple and only humans are the one who makes it complicated. The result of a person’s life in the future lies on the decision on whether to take the risk in life or to just play it safe. If something is worth the risk, go for it. As the saying goes “You only live ones”. Precarious is defined as something that is not safe, unsteady, uncertain, and dubious and is characterized by a lack of security or stability that threatens with danger. Humans have different experiences and tend to understand things differently based on their own understanding which is lies on the experiences they had. The way humans think and respond to any situation in life contributes to the precariousness of human condition. As said earlier, life is full of uncertainties but whatever happens, life should not be spend with ‘what ifs’ but with ‘what is’ in order to prepare for ‘what will be’ The precariousness of human conditions are being shown on Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Cask of Amontillado’, Akutagawa Ryunosuke’s ‘Rashomon’, Estrella D. Alfon’s ‘Servant Girl’,James Joyce’s ‘A Little Cloud’, and Franz Kafka’s ‘A Country Doctor’.
Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Cast of Amontillado’ revolves on a two man who are friends named Fortunato and Montresor. Montresor had this feeling of revenge against Fortunato that he came to the point of making a vow out of it because of the insult ventured to him by Fortunato. Montresor wants to punish Fortunato but not just an ordinary punishment but a punishment with impunity. It was not stated what was said as an insult by Fortunato to Montresor that it made him want to take revenge that he even planed for it carefully without Fortunato having the hint or idea that every time he sees Fortunato, Montresor’s smile was at the thought of his immolation. It is inevitable that there are certain people like Fortunato who says the things all he wants without minding what the person would feel just to impress other people. Fortunato said hurtful things to Montresor but the latter borne them as best as he could. He took all those hurtful words and filled it in his heart until it was compressed to the point that he burst and became the person who is badly desperate just to make his revenge. In human life there are instances like Fortunato whom he thought Montresor as his friend without knowing that the one he considered as his friend has a plan to execute him to accomplish his revenge. It is inevitable that in real life also there are people whom a person mistakably considered someone as a friend when in fact they are really traitors. Humans tend to be like Montresor who are smiling when in front of many people but deep inside they are really in pain. Stock all the pain in their heart without someone to share their burdens in life and those pains, as the time goes by becomes hatred. Humans are not born perfect and has its limit of being kind to others especially if that kindness is being taken for granted and abused which happened to Montresor in the story. Montresor knows Fortunato well. Montresor knows that even if Fortunato is a man to be respected and even feared of, he still has a weak point and he knows what exactly it is. He knows that Fortunato is boastful most of the time but when it comes to wine he is an expert and sincere especially to old wines. He is so overwhelmed with wines that Fortunato would rather chose to see Amontillado than to have time with his engagement to Lucresi and even denied it to Montresor. Fortunato even chose to care for the wine than his health. No matter how many times Montressor discouraged Fortunato in seeing Amontillado because he is sick, he still persisted. While they are heading their way to see Amontillado, Montresor is reminding Fortunato to be cautious while following him and praising him of his rich, respect from other people, their admiration, that there are a lot of people who loves him, his happy life which once he was also were and that he is a man to be missed. He is very caring to Fortunato that the latter has no idea that what they are heading is going to be his place of death, a catacomb.
“Make your friends close and your enemies closer” as they say and that is what exactly Montresor did to Fortunato. He knows where Fortunato is good at, knows his character and his weakness. He became clever on planning his execution to Fortunato but because of his revenge to him, he became sad in his life which he stated while they were heading to see Amontillado. Other people became desperate, sad and frustrated because of their will to revenge to other people. They spend their time to those things instead of investing it to more relevant to become progressive in life. Aside from the time wasted, it also adds burden to someone’s heart, worst is they might involve other innocent people. On Fortunato’s part, he became desperate and aggressive just to taste the wines, especially the Amontillado and became insensitive to Lucresia’s feelings regarding their engagement and careless to his health. He became hard headed because if he just listened to Montresor who discouraged him for many times, he could have not been buried on the catacomb. As reflected to human condition, some people tend to be more materialistic and inclined to earthly things instead of the time spend to more relevant things as said earlier. Some people takes loved ones for granted.
Rashomon by Akutagawa Ryunosuke There comes in human life where one is to choose between doing good things from doing bad. But as much as someone wants to control the situation, the circumstance of his or her life just would not cooperate that it will come to the point that someone is torn between being virtuous be that as it may, will wind up starving and doing underhanded things however will make somebody survive from starving to death, and that is the story entitled Rashomon is all about. Another story that reflected on the precariousness of human condition is Akutagawa Ryunosuke’s ‘Rashomon’. The story focuses on the main character’s conflict between his self on whether to choose doing good things and to follow good virtues or to commit evil things in order to provide for his basic needs and that is to eat and in order to survive in the life he has been put into. The story was focused on a servant who got fired on his job and had nowhere to go. He is lowly waiting under the Rashomon gate for the rain to stop. It would normally expect to find two or three other people waiting for the rain to let up but during that moment, there was nobody there but him, all alone. However, the rain did stop after a while but the servant still would not have anything to do. Normally, he would have expected to return to his master’s house, but he had been discharged from the administration of his master four or five days from that day because of many different tragedies and deterioration that their place, Kyoto, is experiencing during that time. It turns out that the lowly servant, trapped in the rain, had nowhere to go, and does not know what to do. The servant is starting to worry on how he would makes his living for his everyday life and how he would be able to get solution for his hopeless situation. The servant’s situation is so pitiful the way his case was described by the author. He had no one to talk to and cannot think of someone who can help him out in his problem. This can also be reflected on human life where it is inevitable to experience such unexpected happenings in life. No one knows when the happy moments will end, replaced by those sad moments. Being the victim of the uncertainty of life is more harder especially if a person is being left behind by whom you call ‘friends’ and worst, by the people whom you call ‘family’ who are not by your side when you needed them most. A person is lucky to have someone having other people to lean on during calamities in life but on the servant’s case, he got no one but himself and nothing but the clothes he is wearing during that time and it also happen to some people in real life from a sudden turn of events which is one of the precariousness of human condition. The darkness of night gradually sets in from above which might represent the gloomy life of the servant during that point of time. He thought that in order for him to get through his “hopeless situation” he might have to set his morals aside because in the event that he declined to do things that he believed were unethically he would only end up starving to death under a roofed mud wall or on the side of the road. He said to himself that “If I am willing to do whatever it takes to survive, I am bound to become a thief”.
Despite of the situation that the servant is facing, he still has the courage to think about his morality which is an evident that he values it so much. He is torn between morality from his survival and he has to face a big decision in his life. But at the end, the servant thought the servant has given up his morality at the end of his conversation with the old white-haired woman in a dusky-red kimono. The woman made the servant realized that it is not bad to steal other people’s things as long as the reason for committing it is in order for him not to starve to death. This commonly happen to the people who are victims of the situation regarding committing unlawful doings because they cannot think of other things ways to survive especially that they are desperate and want to do anything in order to live. Many can relate to the story of the servant especially now a days that poverty and crimes are very rampant. More people are engaging to committing wrong doings in order to survive for the sake of their family and their selves or both. Morality is not a very big deal nowadays, as other people say because we have to be practical this days. The story shows that no one can really judge a person from what he or she has been or she had become because no one knows what that person had gone through. No matter how evil may seem in doing things he or she has still his or her good side. And also has the chance to change for the better and that everybody deserves a second chance.
Servant Girl by Estrella D. Alfon
Estrella D. Alfon’s ‘Servant Girl’ also depicts the precariousness of human life in a way that Rosa who is a servant is being abused by the lady she is working for but still, he works for her mistress. She had no any plans of escaping from her mistress until he met ‘Angel’. The story talks about Rosa, a manhandled house keeper who aches for opportunity, satisfaction and love. She was being abused by her mistress what's more, was trusting that one day she would have the capacity to be liberated from all the misuse she was encountering. At that point one day, while she was out, conveying a bowl on her head with her paramour's garments, she incidentally slipped and fell creating for her lower leg to swell. A man in his tartanilla halted and helped her with her bowl. After the occurrence, she turned into a changed woman. Rosa felt cheerful and fairly enamored with the cochero. Envisioning him needing him to see her and needing him to hear her voice. She would sing out loud when her mistress was in an up state of mind so she would not be chided and she would envision how the cochero, despite the fact that he can't see her, he would ache for her voice. She would likewise envision him passing her paramour's home while she was inside thus that was the motivation behind why she couldn't see him. She felt sorry for the individuals who might ridicule her for she trusted that she had "Angel" that dealt with her when she was in trouble. Until, there comes a period when she experiences a cochero who was heedlessly riding his tarantilla. Because of her resentment, she tossed a stone and the cochero got irate. He undermined Rosa that he would convey her to the municipio for what she had done yet then she understood who it was. It was "Angel" who was in front of her. She continued calling him Angel yet he continued saying that that was not his name. He didn't perceive Rosa until she specified the first occasion when they saw one another. After what happened, she then acknowledged the amount she was simply envisioning 'their affection' and that every last bit of it was not genuine. Also, that 'Angel', now his genuine name "Pedro" did not consider anything when he helped Rosa when she was harmed. Thus Rosa did a reversal to her courtesan's home and proceeded with her occupation and disregarded her arrangements on getting away and on not retreating again on mistress' house.
The story can be identified with some genuine circumstances of the individuals who are similarly situated as Rosa. It tells a thought about the pitiful reality of a few individuals working under other people who have a higher social class. The mistake that one encounters are brought about by the predominant thinking about their 'bosses'. Estrella Alfon's work shares the account of Rosa and her encounters being a house keeper under somebody who are injurious of their energy in light of the fact that they are the person who is paying for them. It catches the enthusiastic thrill ride that Rosa has; from the crying to the delight of having a "Angel" then returning to the perspective of who she truly is and what she is doing. The utilization of "Angel" as Pedro's name before Rosa knew, symbolized despite the fact that it was only for a brief minute, the aching for bliss and opportunity of Rosa will be given to him by 'Angel'. What's more, that the way she envisioned Angel appeared as though he was additionally aching for her and that he was searching for an approach to see and be with her once more. Estrella Alfon could indicate how edgy Rosa felt with a specific end goal to feel joy. The considerations and illusions that she was having been a basic approach to make tracks in an opposite direction from every one of the hardships that she was experiencing all the live long day. It was a path for her to let herself know that she has it better among other individuals for they didn't have an Angel that dealt with them when they were in need. It was an explanation behind her to be upbeat. Yet, then, toward the end of the Estrella's story, it demonstrates how her creative energy assumed her to a position in her brain that did not exist. The miserable truth that Angel or Pedro did not consider anything of his nice thought to this lady took her back to reality that what she was simply envisioning was only a fantasy for her to make tracks in an opposite direction from the misuse that she was encountering inside her mistress' house. Estrella Alfon indicates another dismal side of a man is the same condition as Rosa. Truly, it can be said that there are individuals who, tragically, can identify with Rosa's encounters. The author could appear and share every one of the considerations and feelings of Rosa all through the whole story. This work of Estrella Alfon conveyed the peruser to an acknowledgment that despite the fact that it is difficult to say, the fact of the matter arrives are truly cases like this everywhere throughout the nation and even the world. This work will offer a man some assistance with being reminded on the most proficient method to treat others.
Another precariousness of human condition is the envy of a person to other person which does not matter even if he or she is your friend or a member of the family. There are some who just cannot be supportive of other person’s success and be happy about it. Insecurity begins and so as crab mentality that is very popular among many people way back, until now. Being envious is sinful but many just cannot help to be one like Thomas Malone Chandler on the entitled ‘A little Cloud’. James Joyce’s ‘A Little Cloud’ is a story about two men who are friends like the story of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Cask of Amontillado’. The difference is that ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ is about the vengeance of Montresor to Fortunato and Fortunato’s greediness to wines, specifically Amontillado while ‘A little Cloud’ is about the envy of Thomas Malone Chandler to his friend, Ignatius Gallaher and Chandler is so envious about it because he did not become as successful as his friend and lives the same old life for many years. Thomas Malone Chandler is otherwise called 'Little Chandler' and is called that way because as he was depicted in the story that however he was yet marginally under the normal stature, he gave one the thought of being a little man. His hands were white and little, his edge was delicate, his voice was peaceful and his behavior were refined. He took the best care of his reasonable, luxurious hair and mustache and utilized fragrance cautiously on his tissue. The half-moon of his nails were immaculate, and when he grinned you got a look of a line of infantile white teeth and Little Chandler's stature might speak to his life being not dynamic and is stuck with it. Little Chandler was welcomed by Gallaher, and of the colossal city London where Gallaher lived and he can't get his considerations about. While minimal Chandler is sitting at King's Inns, his work place. He thought of the changes from the last time they saw one another which is as of now eight years. The companion whom he had known under a shabby and necessitous pretense had gotten to be famous and effective figure in London Press. He considered life and felt pitiful as what dependably happened when he considered life and felt futile it was to battle against fortune on the grounds that he had battle himself all his life and done the things he could with a specific end goal to crane his life to destitution yet, he is still unsuccessful. Like Little Chandler, many people wanted to be rich and successful in life but are not doing ways to be one and instead of working smart and do things to fulfill their dreams, what they are doing is to just to dream without fulfilling them. As a result, like Little Chandler, ends up a dreamer but not an achiever. One reason of Little Chandler being not effective in life is on the grounds that he has no guts. He recollected the books of verse on his racks at home wherein he had purchased amid his bachelor days and he had moved toward numerous night times, as he sat in the little room of the corridor, he had been enticed to bring one down from the bookshelf and read out something to his wife. Be that as it may, bashfulness had constantly kept him down in this manner; the books had stayed on their rack. In some cases he rehashes the same aim yet old news happened over and over. He could have done the things he want in order to express his love to his wife and from the fact that it is his wife already and he is still shy about such things like reading books to her and did not even commit to try his intention even ones when it would not make any harm to anyone of them is an evident that he is coward over petty things that does not even worth it.
It is inevitable that what happens in Little Chandler in the story happens also in real life. Some people are afraid of taking risk and afraid to show their soft side because they might get rejected or disappointed from the reaction of other people. Those people who are afraid of getting out of the box, stays there but keeps on complaining about their life, that they are doing they can just to be successful in life. At the point when Little Chandler was headed to their meeting place, he was extremely energized until he went by Corless, he had never been in the spot yet he knew the value of the name. He likewise realized that individuals went there after the theater to eat clams and drink mixers and he had heard that the servers there communicated in French and German. He saw that the general population entering the spot wore boisterous dresses and numerous wraps. Their countenances were powdered and they got up to speed their dresses, when they touched earth, as frightened Atalantas. He had dependably gone out without turning his head to look. It was his propensity to walk quickly in the road even by day, and at whatever point he ended up in the city late during the evening he rushed on his way uneasily and enthusiastically. From this scene, it can be that Chandler needs to go that sure place yet even until that time he can't at present bear to run inside and blend with other individuals inside. He knows the spot well it is as though he researched that specific spot and the general population who are for the most part inside it in light of the fact that he likewise saw their get up when entering inside. The longing is wrecked in his considerations that one day he may likewise get the benefit to enter the spot and to see the spot for himself. In any case, as he rushed himself keeping in mind the end goal to get to Gallaher's meeting place, he picked the darkest and limited avenues and, as he strolled intensely forward, the quiet that was spread about his strides agitated him; the meandering, noiseless figures pained him; and on occasion a sound of low outlaw chuckling made him tremble like a leaf. There came to the point in human’s life that someone has to choose a certain path in his or her life. Whatever path someone had chosen, it will lead and take a big part to his or her future whether it will lead to success or like Little Chandler in the story that maintained his life into unprogressive one. The path that he chose is like the path that he chose for his life. He walks on the dark and narrowed street but then his footsteps troubled him. He is only doing the things that also makes him scary and gets him into trouble while the narrow streets represent his narrow-minded. He does not look for new things and just stick with the old thing that is why he is being left behind in life.
In real life situation, there are people who are afraid of changes wherein change is the only constant in this world and that change is an opportunity to the new phase in life in order to be a better person to make decisions better and to be more matured in facing challenges in life. As little Chandler reviewed the past, he noticed the signs of future greatness of his friend. Many said the Gallaher was wild; drank freely, borrowed money on all sides and got mixed up on some affairs but it is inevitable that he has talent. He thought that there was always something in Ignatius Gallaher that impressed him. Even if he was out of money, he still kept up a bold face. The guts that little Chandler has nothing of and he cannot deny the fact that he admired him so much for that. “No guts, no glory” and this also applies in life. People are busy noticing other people and how good they are with stuffs that sometimes end up with insecurities, forgetting that they should mind their own lives and business because they also have a life of their own and minding others would not make them any good. Little Chandler animated his pace on Capel Street and without precedent for his life, he felt himself better than the general population he passed. Interestingly, his spirit rebelled against the dull inelegance of the road. He thought without uncertainty that in the event that he needed to be fruitful, he needed to leave from Dublin on the grounds that he considers the thought that he could do nothing in Dublin. He saw ahead the hindered poor houses and felt sorry for it and pondered, as what he generally does, in the event that he could compose a lyric to express his thought. He believed that he can make utilization of Gallaher's associations and maybe he may have the capacity to get it into some London paper for him. He was hopeful to the point that it might be the begin for his accomplishment later on. He ventured forward with awesome boldness. As Ignatius Gallaher and Little Chandler at last met, from the way Gallaher talk and his behavior and how minimal Chandler reacts to him, it can be obviously seen that Little Chandler is the inverse of Gallaher. Gallaher is striking, Little Chandler is not, and Little Chandler is not kidding and reacts to Gallaher in an extremely concise way while Gallaher is garrulous yet Gallaher had been into numerous spots while Little Chandler remained focused all his life. He begrudged Gallaher for every one of the things he had accomplished and to the individual he had ended up. He felt extremely differentiate between his own life and his friend's, and it appeared to him uncalled for. Gallaher was his second rate in conception and training. He was certain that he could show improvement over his companion had ever done, or could ever do, an option that is higher than negligible tasteless reporting in the event that he just found the opportunity, Little Chandler thought. He faulted his shyness as the impediment of his "apparently" achievement.
The events similar in the story usually happen during reunions. People get to discover who became successful and achieved the dreams they had been dreaming and those who have big dreams but ended up as someone like Little Chandler, stock up in a small place, Dublin, and in his life. Human’s life is really unpredicted, no one knows who will be successful in life and who will not but the future will just based on the present things that a person is doing and not just by dreaming in his or her life. In this story, the precariousness of life in human condition is more on a person not getting out of the box or his comfort zone and being regretful about it because he is badly sick and tired in his life because he do not see any progress from it. Some people just do not learn to appreciate their self first than the others and value the things they have and do great things from it that leads to inner struggle like Little Chandler in the story.
A Country Doctor by Franz Kafka
Humans came into a point of time where a person is bound to choose between your loved one and your career. Someone is going to choose to save other people and that he is bound to because of his work or to save the person whom you discovered a newly found feeling towards him or her. Another story that thinks about the shakiness of human condition is Franz Kafka's 'A Country Doctor'. The story is about the doctor who organized his profession than to spare his servant, Rose. However, laments for it at last. One of the wealthiest and most suggestive of Franz Kafka's messages, "A Country Doctor" portrays the shocking self-misdirection of an individual confronted with his own particular loss of confidence in his profession. The doctor accuses different variables like the states of his vocation, his patients, the decrease of religious conviction for his inability to complete his obligations, particularly, to recuperate those in need. The specialist felt that once he neglects to perform his obligations as a healer, his life loses all feeling of reason and significance.
The doctor’s inward emergency is incompletely of his self-making and mostly the consequence of his amazing social seclusion from other individuals and got nobody with him but Rosa. Then again, he has dismissed Rosa for quite a long time, and says that it is extremely hard to achieve a shared comprehension with his patients, and feels something for his worker where he is not certain of in the event that it truly matters that he would give up his work to it. In spite of the fact that there seems to be an issue in the social group amid that time, the doctor is an authority of a political region and is a piece of a bureaucratic framework at some expel from the general population which was represented in the content by the separation that he should go in a specific night to mend a patient is the solid subjective predisposition of his report of his connections to other individuals that puts into inquiry in his entire comprehension of who he is and what he does. The story is similar to a bad dream that is "a failed dream since it insists on stating the anxiety without offering solutions to the sleeper who is tormented by intolerable and unavoidable emotional strain" (Sandra 113). All through the story the peruse faculties the apprehension and the dread in the scenes. The short and the tight portrayal as the story begin appear to uncover the uneasiness of what the doctor feels. The horses and the groom's abnormal nature are a vital part of the doctors's bad dream. Steeds with long legs "slither" out of pigsty, is unreasonable and a component of the dream. These steeds might be said to take after legendary animals as they took the specialist to the patient in a split second as is he stunned and blinded and they returned him to his place such as old men. Additionally the horses' neighing and viewing through room windows of the wiped out and when the family uproots the doctor his garments and makes lie adjacent to the patient all loans to the nightmarish climate prevailing in the story. A thought about the story is the essential and general thoughts communicated in a story and spins around different truths that the general population request the outlandish from the doctor in a way that they have lost their confidence and the minister appear to be of no utilization to them. They accept that the doctor can do everything. The significance of confidence is inspected by the author as he thinks about its nonattendance on the diminishing patient. It's about faith versus medicine. Then again, doctors must have moral sense to have the capacity to recuperate other individuals and medicines ought to be a demonstration of confidence. Putting fault on other individuals is likewise something else that can be reflected in the story. Because of his own deficiencies as a doctor and definitely, puts fault on other individuals. He trusts his powerlessness to go to his patient can be faulted for his absence of horses. Despite the fact that he sees the reality of his patient's ailment, the specialist still accuses the patient for absence of confidence. There is nobody point the specialist focuses at his inadequacies yet he diligently gripes that the general public expects a lot from him. He additionally accuses an "antecedent" for his poor execution in his administration. Taking everything into account, Kafka's "A Country Doctor" is an account of man, experienced by different difficulties. He has no break aside from confronting them. It is the point at which he confronts these difficulties that he understands that he is frail as an individual and there are a few components that is out of his control.
Therefore, different stories reflects about the different precariousness of human condition. The story of the ‘Cask of Amontillado’ reflects hatred and vengeance on Montresor’s part while greed and selfishness on Montresor’s character that lead them both to a situation in their life where the other committed murder for in order to revenge because of just an insult which Montresor thinks as a very big deal that he is willing to killing other people. There comes in a human life that forgiving other people is just so hard that committing revenge is the only solution they can think of but in reality, it would not do them good but would in the end make them suffer from within. The story of Rashomon on the other hand reflects a humans mind whether to choose between good or bad due to human condition as a result, the servant became a person whom he does not want to be but has no choice because being a thief is the only thing that he can see in order to survive. This commonly happen nowadays especially in a third world country where there are lots of unfortunate people. On the other hand, the story of the servant girl, Rosa was oppressed and maltreated by her and oppression is also a common issue nowadays especially with domestic people from other countries. It is as if working abroad is a very risky thing because there is a possibility that someone will just be a slave, oppressed and maltreated with other people. On the story of ‘A little cloud’ and ‘Country doctor’ talks about the main character’s decision makings which they both regret but it was too late before they realized what they should have done things in life.
References: Encarta Dictionary A Country Doctor by Franz Kafka The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe Rashomon by Akutagawa Ryunosuke Estrella D. Alfon’s ‘Servant Girl’, James Joyce’s ‘A Little Cloud’
Therefore, different stories reflects about the different precariousness of human condition. The story of the ‘Cask of Amontillado’ reflects hatred and vengeance on Montresor’s part while greed and selfishness on Montresor’s character that lead them both to a situation in their life where the other committed murder for in order to revenge because of just an insult which Montresor thinks as a very big deal that he is willing to killing other people. There comes in a human life that forgiving other people is just so hard that committing revenge is the only solution they can think of but in reality, it would not do them good but would in the end make them suffer from within. The story of Rashomon on the other hand reflects a humans mind whether to choose between good or bad due to human condition as a result, the servant became a person whom he does not want to be but has no choice because being a thief is the only thing that he can see in order to survive. This commonly happen nowadays especially in a third world country where there are lots of unfortunate people. On the other hand, the story of the servant girl, Rosa was oppressed and maltreated by her and oppression is also a common issue nowadays especially with domestic people from other countries. It is as if working abroad is a very risky thing because there is a possibility that someone will just be a slave, oppressed and maltreated with other people. On the story of ‘A little cloud’ and ‘Country doctor’ talks about the main character’s decision makings which they both regret but it was too late before they realized what they should have done things in life.
References: Encarta Dictionary A Country Doctor by Franz Kafka The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe Rashomon by Akutagawa Ryunosuke Estrella D. Alfon’s ‘Servant Girl’, James Joyce’s ‘A Little Cloud’
The doctor’s inward emergency is incompletely of his self-making and mostly the consequence of his amazing social seclusion from other individuals and got nobody with him but Rosa. Then again, he has dismissed Rosa for quite a long time, and says that it is extremely hard to achieve a shared comprehension with his patients, and feels something for his worker where he is not certain of in the event that it truly matters that he would give up his work to it. In spite of the fact that there seems to be an issue in the social group amid that time, the doctor is an authority of a political region and is a piece of a bureaucratic framework at some expel from the general population which was represented in the content by the separation that he should go in a specific night to mend a patient is the solid subjective predisposition of his report of his connections to other individuals that puts into inquiry in his entire comprehension of who he is and what he does. The story is similar to a bad dream that is "a failed dream since it insists on stating the anxiety without offering solutions to the sleeper who is tormented by intolerable and unavoidable emotional strain" (Sandra 113). All through the story the peruse faculties the apprehension and the dread in the scenes. The short and the tight portrayal as the story begin appear to uncover the uneasiness of what the doctor feels. The horses and the groom's abnormal nature are a vital part of the doctors's bad dream. Steeds with long legs "slither" out of pigsty, is unreasonable and a component of the dream. These steeds might be said to take after legendary animals as they took the specialist to the patient in a split second as is he stunned and blinded and they returned him to his place such as old men. Additionally the horses' neighing and viewing through room windows of the wiped out and when the family uproots the doctor his garments and makes lie adjacent to the patient all loans to the nightmarish climate prevailing in the story. A thought about the story is the essential and general thoughts communicated in a story and spins around different truths that the general population request the outlandish from the doctor in a way that they have lost their confidence and the minister appear to be of no utilization to them. They accept that the doctor can do everything. The significance of confidence is inspected by the author as he thinks about its nonattendance on the diminishing patient. It's about faith versus medicine. Then again, doctors must have moral sense to have the capacity to recuperate other individuals and medicines ought to be a demonstration of confidence. Putting fault on other individuals is likewise something else that can be reflected in the story. Because of his own deficiencies as a doctor and definitely, puts fault on other individuals. He trusts his powerlessness to go to his patient can be faulted for his absence of horses. Despite the fact that he sees the reality of his patient's ailment, the specialist still accuses the patient for absence of confidence. There is nobody point the specialist focuses at his inadequacies yet he diligently gripes that the general public expects a lot from him. He additionally accuses an "antecedent" for his poor execution in his administration. Taking everything into account, Kafka's "A Country Doctor" is an account of man, experienced by different difficulties. He has no break aside from confronting them. It is the point at which he confronts these difficulties that he understands that he is frail as an individual and there are a few components that is out of his control.
The events similar in the story usually happen during reunions. People get to discover who became successful and achieved the dreams they had been dreaming and those who have big dreams but ended up as someone like Little Chandler, stock up in a small place, Dublin, and in his life. Human’s life is really unpredicted, no one knows who will be successful in life and who will not but the future will just based on the present things that a person is doing and not just by dreaming in his or her life. In this story, the precariousness of life in human condition is more on a person not getting out of the box or his comfort zone and being regretful about it because he is badly sick and tired in his life because he do not see any progress from it. Some people just do not learn to appreciate their self first than the others and value the things they have and do great things from it that leads to inner struggle like Little Chandler in the story.
A Country Doctor by Franz Kafka
Humans came into a point of time where a person is bound to choose between your loved one and your career. Someone is going to choose to save other people and that he is bound to because of his work or to save the person whom you discovered a newly found feeling towards him or her. Another story that thinks about the shakiness of human condition is Franz Kafka's 'A Country Doctor'. The story is about the doctor who organized his profession than to spare his servant, Rose. However, laments for it at last. One of the wealthiest and most suggestive of Franz Kafka's messages, "A Country Doctor" portrays the shocking self-misdirection of an individual confronted with his own particular loss of confidence in his profession. The doctor accuses different variables like the states of his vocation, his patients, the decrease of religious conviction for his inability to complete his obligations, particularly, to recuperate those in need. The specialist felt that once he neglects to perform his obligations as a healer, his life loses all feeling of reason and significance.
In real life situation, there are people who are afraid of changes wherein change is the only constant in this world and that change is an opportunity to the new phase in life in order to be a better person to make decisions better and to be more matured in facing challenges in life. As little Chandler reviewed the past, he noticed the signs of future greatness of his friend. Many said the Gallaher was wild; drank freely, borrowed money on all sides and got mixed up on some affairs but it is inevitable that he has talent. He thought that there was always something in Ignatius Gallaher that impressed him. Even if he was out of money, he still kept up a bold face. The guts that little Chandler has nothing of and he cannot deny the fact that he admired him so much for that. “No guts, no glory” and this also applies in life. People are busy noticing other people and how good they are with stuffs that sometimes end up with insecurities, forgetting that they should mind their own lives and business because they also have a life of their own and minding others would not make them any good. Little Chandler animated his pace on Capel Street and without precedent for his life, he felt himself better than the general population he passed. Interestingly, his spirit rebelled against the dull inelegance of the road. He thought without uncertainty that in the event that he needed to be fruitful, he needed to leave from Dublin on the grounds that he considers the thought that he could do nothing in Dublin. He saw ahead the hindered poor houses and felt sorry for it and pondered, as what he generally does, in the event that he could compose a lyric to express his thought. He believed that he can make utilization of Gallaher's associations and maybe he may have the capacity to get it into some London paper for him. He was hopeful to the point that it might be the begin for his accomplishment later on. He ventured forward with awesome boldness. As Ignatius Gallaher and Little Chandler at last met, from the way Gallaher talk and his behavior and how minimal Chandler reacts to him, it can be obviously seen that Little Chandler is the inverse of Gallaher. Gallaher is striking, Little Chandler is not, and Little Chandler is not kidding and reacts to Gallaher in an extremely concise way while Gallaher is garrulous yet Gallaher had been into numerous spots while Little Chandler remained focused all his life. He begrudged Gallaher for every one of the things he had accomplished and to the individual he had ended up. He felt extremely differentiate between his own life and his friend's, and it appeared to him uncalled for. Gallaher was his second rate in conception and training. He was certain that he could show improvement over his companion had ever done, or could ever do, an option that is higher than negligible tasteless reporting in the event that he just found the opportunity, Little Chandler thought. He faulted his shyness as the impediment of his "apparently" achievement.
It is inevitable that what happens in Little Chandler in the story happens also in real life. Some people are afraid of taking risk and afraid to show their soft side because they might get rejected or disappointed from the reaction of other people. Those people who are afraid of getting out of the box, stays there but keeps on complaining about their life, that they are doing they can just to be successful in life. At the point when Little Chandler was headed to their meeting place, he was extremely energized until he went by Corless, he had never been in the spot yet he knew the value of the name. He likewise realized that individuals went there after the theater to eat clams and drink mixers and he had heard that the servers there communicated in French and German. He saw that the general population entering the spot wore boisterous dresses and numerous wraps. Their countenances were powdered and they got up to speed their dresses, when they touched earth, as frightened Atalantas. He had dependably gone out without turning his head to look. It was his propensity to walk quickly in the road even by day, and at whatever point he ended up in the city late during the evening he rushed on his way uneasily and enthusiastically. From this scene, it can be that Chandler needs to go that sure place yet even until that time he can't at present bear to run inside and blend with other individuals inside. He knows the spot well it is as though he researched that specific spot and the general population who are for the most part inside it in light of the fact that he likewise saw their get up when entering inside. The longing is wrecked in his considerations that one day he may likewise get the benefit to enter the spot and to see the spot for himself. In any case, as he rushed himself keeping in mind the end goal to get to Gallaher's meeting place, he picked the darkest and limited avenues and, as he strolled intensely forward, the quiet that was spread about his strides agitated him; the meandering, noiseless figures pained him; and on occasion a sound of low outlaw chuckling made him tremble like a leaf. There came to the point in human’s life that someone has to choose a certain path in his or her life. Whatever path someone had chosen, it will lead and take a big part to his or her future whether it will lead to success or like Little Chandler in the story that maintained his life into unprogressive one. The path that he chose is like the path that he chose for his life. He walks on the dark and narrowed street but then his footsteps troubled him. He is only doing the things that also makes him scary and gets him into trouble while the narrow streets represent his narrow-minded. He does not look for new things and just stick with the old thing that is why he is being left behind in life.
The Precariousness of Human Condition as Reflected in Five Selected Stories
By: Janelyn C. Ardeña ASENGL3 (TTh:07:00-08:30)
Outline
I. Introduction II. Body: The Precariousness of Human Condition as Reflected in Five Selected Stories: A. Cask of Amontillado B. Popular Mechanics C. A Little Cloud D. God Stealer E. Fall of the House of Usher III. Conclusion
The Precariousness of Human Condition as Reflected in Five Selected Stories
Introduction Precariousness defines in Merriam-Webster Dictionary as not safe and dependent which this paper was focused. A lot of stories contain and show different precariousness of human condition that mirrored people’s characteristics in the society. This paper analysed the precariousness of human condition that was found in this five selected short stories; Cask of Amontillado, Popular Mechanics, A Little Cloud, God Stealer and Fall of the House of Usher. These stories were analysed through the characterization of the characters in each stories which contain precariousness of human condition. These characterizations mirrored the human nature of which people can reflect and relate their selves.
(Cask of Amontillado) The first story that shows precariousness of human condition is the “Cask of Amontillado”. It is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. The story shows how revenge can make a person do bad things. One main precariousness of human condition in this story is a person’s pride that cannot forgive someone that leads to revenge. This story highlight the two main characters named Montressor and Fortunato. The story started when Montressor saw Fortunato, his friend in the carnival and invited him to go in his house to have some wine. Fortunato was already drunk but he still follows Montressor to have some cup of Amontillado. When they arrived at Montressor’s place Montressor buried Fortunato inside the catacomb alive. This shows that Montressor already planned how to get his revenge from Fortunato. It is also the reason why he got his chance and made his evil deed successfully. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t reveal the reason why Montressor got mad to Fortunato that leads into his friend’s death. But it is clear that Montressor was really offended by Fortunato. Montressor was not able to forgive Fortunato that was the reason why he took his revenge and killed his friend. It is really clear that Montressor had a lot of characters which precarious to someone just like his being prideful and revengeful. Montressor's pride made him deeply mad to Fortunato. He was not able to forgive Fortunato because of his pride. Another, his being revengeful that maybe also cause of his pride which leads to the death of Fortunato. There were a lot of people in this society that have this kind of negative characteristics that so inevitable. At first, these characteristics seem so light but the truth is, it can kill someone. A lot of people cannot able to notice that their pride and anger leads them to downfall. Another thing about Montressor is that, he is an unreliable. At the very beginning of the story it was stated that Montressor is narrating of what he had done fifty years ago. Maybe people will doubt if his confession is true. The audience cannot really trust him because of two things; if he was able to plastered Fortunato into the vault, people cannot trust him and if he did not kill Fortunato because his lying then the audience cannot still trust him. This characterization of Montressor reveals the truth about human condition.
He is also an unsympathetic character because as the readers read the story he is like an alien. He is a secretive character which only revealed himself a little. Readers cannot sympathize to him because he is a murderous and still living freely right now out of his crime. This personality of Montressor reflects a lot of people’s personality. Montressor represents a sneaky and vengeful part of human beings which reflects most people in the society. Another, Montressor is so ambiguous if he is confessing or bragging in telling his crime for the past fifty years. Either confessing or bragging it also reflects in human nature. Sometimes, people want to confess to ask forgiveness in order to be free from burden but sometimes also people want to brag to let someone know and reflects their faults. Another character that shows human’s precariousness or weakness is the character of Fortunato. Fortunato is the victim who was killed by Montressor. Fortunato’s weaknesses are; addiction, insensitivity, trustfulness, pridefulnes and greediness. From the very start of the story it is obvious that Fortunato is addicted to wine. It is stated in the story that before Montressor envited him to taste Amontillado in the carnival he was already drunk. In the time that Montressor envited Fortunato to try the Amontillado he still craved for it. He even let himself down in the catacomb to get the Amontillado to fulfill his thirst. Fortunato’s addiction to wine made him blind from Montressor’s attack. Fortunato is also insensitive. He never sense that he was already offended and hurt Montressor. He did not even notice that Montressor is mad at him. Fortunato has a character of being trustful, he easily trust Montressor. Sometimes being too much trustful can be someone’s weakness. It is Fortunato’s weakness that made Montressor easily killed him. Another weakness of Montressor is being prideful and so greedy. It is presented in the story that Fortunato is either too greedy or too prideful. When Montressor mentioned Luchesi, Fortunato hastily grabbed the opportunity to taste first the Amontillado before Luchesi do. He maybe want to prove that he is a good wine taster compared to Luchesi. These characteristics were shown in the story as human weaknesses that lead to human’s downfall.
(Popular Mechanics) Next story that portrays precariousness in human condition is the “Popular Mechanics”. It is a short story written by Raymond Carver with a theme of separation. The tone of the story is one of aggression and anger. This story is composed of three characters; a man, woman and a baby. The man and woman is couple not specified if married or not they have this baby with no name. The couple was fighting for who will get the baby because they were separating. The precariousness of human condition by the characters was shown throughout the story. One is for being an aggressive person and high pride. The story started with a man packing his things while a woman is watching his standing by the door. The physical distance of the two implies that the characters were no longer wanted to be with each other. The author also uses short sentences throughout the story which illustrates the end of the relationship between the characters. Unfortunately, the cause of the couple separation was not stated by the narrator but the opening of the story symbolizes a relationship that was once healthy but turned badly. In the day of their separation, the couple was fighting over the baby. But first, it appears that the father only wants the photo of the baby but the wife took it. The father of the baby got angry then he stopped down and he want to take the baby from the woman. The man asked the baby from the woman but she doesn’t like to give it. The parents seemed playing tug- of-war, tightening their gripped on the baby. The two was pulling hard the baby in opposite direction. By their forces it is not impossible to injure the baby. It is obvious that the couple were not even concern about the baby’s health. They were not even care if the baby was crying in pain. They seemed less concern for baby’s situation, but only for their pride. At first, the father doesn’t really want the baby he just doesn’t want that the mother to have the baby. Both parents were aggressive; they do not like to be inferior by one another. They were both angry which they forgot that they were hurting the baby. They were throwing accusations with each other. The couple was like playing that each other of them don’t want to lose.
The man in the story seems so quite at the very start of the story. He looks so calm while the woman yelled and use heavy words to show her anger. This scene foreshadows that the conflict will get worse. The author suggests that when a relationship of a couple ends it may cause a big conflict. This conflict will not only affect each other but also it affects to their children. For example in the story, it was not told if what happened to the baby but for sure the baby was hurt. In real life when parents get divorce their children will be affected mainly not physically but for sure it affects emotionally and psychologically. The theme of the story is about a separation of couple in an aggressive manner which implies that if there is a misunderstanding it is good to talk and settle it in a smooth way. A lot of couples can relate with this story such as a conflict between each other that sometimes leads to separation. Most people have its own pride which cannot really want someone overlap them. In this story, the conflict of the two was not settled because of aggression. Anger will bring no good to a person’s life especially to a couple with a child.
(A Little Cloud) Another story which shows precariousness of human condition is the short story entitled “A Little Cloud” written by James Augustine Aloysius Joyce on 1914. This story distinguished about human status. The characterization of the characters shows a lot of weaknesses. The main character is mentally trapped with envy about his friend’s success. Envying to someone’s life is one of the precariousness in human condition shown in this story. The story has 4 characters named Little Chandler, Ignatius Gallagher, Annie, and the baby boy. The main character of the story is Little Chandler. Little Chandler is described as small in physical structure and childlike. He dreamed to be a great poet in his fruitful days but ended up to be a clerk. He became a husband to Annie and a father to his baby boy. Little Chandler has a friend named Ignatius Gallagher that he haven’t seen for 8 years long. After eight years they decided to meet in Corless’, one of the Dublin’s most cosmopolitan bars. While waiting, he imagines Ignatius Gallegher eight years ago on how his friend borrow money on all sides. When the two met they talked about their old gang, Ignatius Gallagher told Little chandler about his journey in far places. Little Chandler felt shy because he never travelled for outside Dublin. Little Chandler felt jealousy about Ignatius Gallagher’s success. Ignatius Gallagher serves as how Little Chandler is mentally trapped not only geographically. Little Chandler’s mental imprisonment pushed him to be more curious about Gallagher’s travels. He even asked if Paris is a “moral city”. Little Chandler was hurt emotionally because he envy about Gallagher’s success. Little chandler felt that his friend Gallagher does not deserve the success he had. Little Chandler is an ordinary man but still capable to dream but ruled by circumstances. He felt inferiority to Ignatius Gallagher. He was hurt more when he thought that he is smarter compared to Gallagher during their student’s life. After the meeting of Ignatius Gallagher and Little Chandler, Chandler felt upset. When Chandler got home he imagined himself if what it would be if he pursue his dreams and did not marry Annie. His family symbolizes as the hindrance to his success. When he stared at the furniture inside their house he even more felt trapped. His melancholy became deeper. To express his pain he opened a volume of Byron’s poems and read it. As he continues reading the poem, the child woke up and start to cry. He stopped reading and tried to comfort the child but the child didn’t stop crying. As the child kept crying he screams “stops”. When Annie got home the child is still crying and she confronted Little Chandler if what he did to the child. In this scene Little Chandler felt again the entrapment, he do not have much freedom from his obligations. He cannot even finish reading a poem because of his child and he also trapped for working to earn money.
This shows that Little Chandler is mentally and geographically trapped. A lot of people in the society are more like Little Chandler trapped by some circumstances or obstacle to reach his dreams. It is not easy to handle mental entrapment because it can make the person fall. The characterization of Little Chandler mirrored a lot of people in the society. He is an immature person in terms of physical, emotional and social. In physical, it is stated in the story that he is a short and have this child-like teeth. He is also emotionally immature because he envy so much about Gallagher’s success. In social, he was not able to express his emotions for his wife and he did not even notice that Gallagher is not interested in helping him. Little Chandler also is so ambitious in a sense that he only dream but he did not work for it. This personality mirrored a lot of Filipino people in the society, some dream only big inside their minds but do not put so much effort to achieve it. Being too much ambitious will make someone miserable just like Little Chandler. He is also jealous to Gallagher’s success in which made him upset. He compared himself to Gallagher and ended with a feeling of inferiority. He felt so trapped between his family and career. According to the story, Little Chandler is introvert which he cannot express his emotion to his wife. An introvert person is dangerous, he or she only keep what he or she feels. A person just like this does not know how to express what is inside his or her mind. The second character in the story was named Ignatius Gallagher. He is an unsympathetic character and also insensitive. He did not mind if he already hurt Chandler’s feelings. His characterization is not an admirable one.
God Stealer Next story that contains precariousness of human condition is the story “God Stealer”. It is a short story written by Francisco Sionil published on 1958. This story illustrates about Ifugao’s culture. It also talks about family, friendship, and culture. One of the characters shows a lot of weaknesses in human condition. For example, being too much hospitable, disloyal, pride fullness and disrespectful. This characteristic is precariousness in human conditions. This story emphasized two characters named Philip Latak and Sam Christie. Philip Latak is an Ifugao who worked in manila. He is a friend of Sam Christie. Sam Christie is an American and a friend of Philip Latak. One day, Philp Latak accompanied Sam Christie in going to Baguio. . Sam Christie is a tourist who wants to visit Mt. Province. When they got at the said place, Sam Christie was amused by the view of Rice Terraces. At their arrival Philip Latak felt a bit embarrassment for his friend knew where he came from. When Philip Latak was regard by his family as deserter his grandfather still welcomed him. In the other side, Sam Christie wanted to buy a statue of an Ifugao God as a souvenir but none of the Ifugao wants to sell their Gods. Philip Latak offered Sam Christie to steal his grandfather God to shoe his gratitude to Sam. On the next day Philip Latak’s grandfather died because he discovered that his gods was stolen. After the consequence Philip Latak decided to stay in the mountain to pay everything. The characters in the story shows a lot of precariousness in human condition especially Philip Latak. Philip Latak shows a lot of characteristic that mirrored most of the Filipinos people. For example, being too much gratitude, pride fullness, disloyal and disrespectful which makes people weak. Philip Latak stole his grandfather statue to pay gratitude to Sam Christie. It is true that he is the one who killed his grandfather. He did not respect their beliefs, cultures and relatives. He considers himself as a city boy. He forgot his own culture he did not want to return in his mountain life. He became disloyal in his own family and able to steal the god of his grandfather. This kind of character will bring no good to a person life. This story was inspired in colonialism in Filipino people colonized by same country which brought another culture. In fact a lot of Filipino’s thought that other culture is better than their own. It is the result of colonialism called colonial mentality. Just like the character of Philip Latak, he thought that his own culture is inferior compared is to escape from the life of the mountain. He even felt shy with his own cultures. Philip Latak also thought that the life in the city is much easier compared to the mountain.
Other character that shows precariousness is Philip Latak’s family especially his grandfather. His grandfather easily trust him never doubt that Philip would betray him. This story shows a lot of characteristics whish give danger to a person’s life. This story also thought the readers to be proud for their own culture. The story emphasized about the friendship of Sam Cristie and Philip Latak. Their friendship was truly proved when Philip Latak stole the Totem of his grandfather for Sam. Some critic said that the characterization of the character symbolizes about colonization. For example, the name of Philip symbolizes Philippines whereas Sam Cristie symbolizes foreign people also represents Christianity.
(Fall of the house of Usher) “Fall of the House of Usher” is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe that Published in 1839. This story shows more than one weakness of human characters which become a sort of precariousness. For example, human isolation and illness will be considered as weakness. This story presented a person who wants to escape from his fault. To escape he called someone to accompany him with his problem. One of the characters in the story has a mental deficiency which pushed him to made bad things. The characters in the story are; the narrator, Roderick Usher and Madeline. Roderick Usher has a mental illness, his twin sister named Madeline with a cataleptic disease. In the first part of the story, Roderick Usher invited his unnamed friend into his house. When his friend arrived, he introduced his twin sister who was ill. One day, Roderick Usher asked his friend to help him burry Madeline inside the house. They buried Madeline temporarily inside the house alive. After how many days had passed, Roderick Usher and his friend felt some strange. One night, Roderick Usher cannot sleep well; when his friend came into his room he looked so scared. His friend read a story to calm him. As the story goes on the tension became stranger that whatever his friend was reading Roderick Usher felt it. Roderick Usher felt that the event in the story is really happening into his room. At the end, Roderick Usher saw Madeline and his friend ran away. As Usher’s friend was running away the house is falling. The story seems so scary but it is not the main message of the story instead the message is all about the precariousness of human condition. The precariousness was shown by the character’s personality in the story. One of the characters was named Roderick Usher. He is a man with mental illness. He has a weak personality just like being a coward and having a mental illness. Mental illness is a very weak condition of human health. Having this illness a man cannot think and do well. A man with this illness is very pitiable, his judgments is not so accurate. For example, according to the story Roderick Usher buried his living twin sister inside their house. A man with this disease is very dangerous. He can be able to kill his own family without his consciousness. Another Roderick Usher’s weakness is being a coward. He was scared of what he did and he want to escape from the consequences of his deeds. He even called his friend to accompany him. He wanted to clean his conscience by trapping someone to be blamed. A lot of people in the society shared this kind of Roderick Usher’s personality. They are claiming themselves clean but the truth is they are not. The story emphasized that being a coward will cause a person’s downfall. Roderick Usher fell by his own hand. He scared of things so much which made him fall together with their house.
. Roderick Usher is also isolated. It is stated in the story that Usher's family never had put forth and that the family lay in direct line family. Maybe Usher's family practiced the implication of incest. They live for a long time in dark rooms of the house according to the story. It shows that is not good to be isolated, people should socialize to someone. Being incest can cause illness such as abnormalities for their children's health. It also caused a madness to individuals which dangerous in human condition. Another character in the story that shows human precariousness is Usher’s friend or the narrator of the story. He is the man who went hastily by Roderick Usher’s call and he also trusts his friend easily. Sometimes being too trustful can be someone’s weakness that will brought him into danger. The narrator looked like a fool because of being too trustful and loyal. He was blind about Roderick Usher’s plan. He even helps Roderick Usher’s foolishness of burying Madeline alive. Having a mental disease is very dangerous. Another is being a coward can also make a person fall.
Conclusion Therefore, these five stories show a lot of precariousness of human condition through character's characterization. These characterizations serve as a weakness of individuals which mirrored reality. The examples of human weakness are; being revengeful, insensitive, too much aggressive, jealous to someone's success, immature, too much trustful and mad. These characteristics will lead to a person's downfall.
References
Analysis of 'Popular Mechanics' by Raymond Carver. (2015, May 20). Retrieved from http://shortstories.about.com/od/ContemporaryStories/fl/Analysis-of-Popular-Mechanics-by- Raymond-Carver.htm Goulumian, M. (2013, November 7). "Popular Mechanics" by Raymond Carver Style, Tone, and Irony. Retrieved from http://kirkmanenglish.wikidot.com/forum/t-721790/popular-mechanics-by-raymond-carver-style-tone-and-irony Lazar, M. (No Date). James Joyce’s “A Little Cloud” and Chandler’s Tears of Remorse. Retrieved from http://jsse.revues.org/577 “Popular Mechanics” by Raymond Carver. (2014, August 27). Retrieved from https://emilyclineenglish.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/popular-mechanics-by-raymond-carver/ The God Stealer: Filipino Identity in Fiction. (2007, December 15). Retrieved from http://ithmlit102.blogspot.com/2007/12/god-stealer-filipino-identity-in.html http://www.enotes.com/topics/little-cloud/in-depth http://www.gradesaver.com/poes-short-stories/study-guide/summary-the-cask-of-amontillado http://www.shmoop.com/fall-of-house-of-usher/literary-devices.html http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/poestories/section11.rhtml
The Precariousness of Human Condition in Selected 5 Short Stories
Mary Bhel B. Ibias AB-ENGLISH 3
Introduction
The condition of the human uses an action that allow them to react on what they had to react. There are different kinds of human condition in the story, and by the use of fiction it can help them to analyse the people precarious and how they can deal with it. The life of the people can be studied where the characters and the way of life can be progress. This is reflected in five short stories with the precariousness human condition. The Popular Mechanics, God Stealer, Rashomon, A Clean, and Well- Lighted Place, and
OUTLINE I. Popular Mechanics A.) Introduction of the couple’s conflict over the baby B.) The plot of the story where the fighting takes place
II. God Stealer A.) Introduction of the characters relevance situation B.) The plot of the story and its consequences to its actions a.) patriotism of Philips Ifugao b.) the loss of the god c.)The death of Philip's grandfather d.) the struggle between the two friends C.) The precariousness of the uncertain things a.) the unconscious decisions and actions of Philip b.) the regression of Philip c.) the big change of his life III. Rashomon A.) Introduction of the uncertain conditions of the servant and the old lady B.) The plot of the hardest situations a.) the servant inside the abandoned house b.) the old lady's working c.) stealing the kimono C.) The reasons of bad human choices IV. A Clean, and Well- Lighted Place A.) The precariousness of tempered younger waiter to the old man a.) a sudden urge to do his desired action b.) the closing of the cafes c.) the poor old man conditions V. Fall of the house of Usher
I. Popular Mechanics
The personality of the person can be noticed based on their actions. The conflict over the baby has something to do with the relationship of the parents who had already fighting. The separation of the couple can affect the child conditions especially when they hurt the baby. In the popular mechanics short story written by Raymond Carver, human is precarious on the fight that leads to a physical struggle match over the baby. The man and woman with an unnamed characters, were a married couple who are separating and fighting over on who should get the baby. The lack of communication, separation and struggle between the opposing characters as fight leads to a physical tugging match over the baby’s presence. In the beginning of the story it starts inside the room whereby the man is packing his clothes. Then suddenly the woman came inside the room and said that she was glad he’s leaving. Then she saw the baby’s picture and pick it up as she wiped her eyes. It seems that the woman was teary eyed because she wiped her tears and got out. He looked around the bedroom before turning off the light and that matters turning from bad to a worse situation of the couple inside that little house. Then he went to the living room. The woman stood in the doorway of the kitchen while holding the baby. The man said that he wanted the baby but the woman didn’t agree. He came near to her and trying to grab the baby on her grip. The baby innocence is not considered anymore because their minds are focus with their personal struggle. She tried to hold the baby over the corner but he reach her and tightened his hands on the baby as they shouted to each other. Anger can be written all over their faces and the flowerpot behind them fall down and the baby was red-faced screaming. As the couple both angry and shouting while grabbing the baby on each other arms then her reaction are very repulsive as she scream as her hands on the baby came loose. Then she grabbed the baby’s other arm but he would not let go. He felt the baby slipping out of his hands and pulled back very hard. In this manner the issue was decided.
Base on their actions they had already a conflict and they haven't talk about it. They just acting as if they are the enemy to each other. The woman are much more shouting at the man that was actually so annoying and their language is harsh. Their fight is meaningless and they shows undesirable manners. But there is no consideration to both couple because they were so eager just to get the baby without even care if they actually hurt the baby, both of them keep denying the fact that they hurt the baby. All the progress is precarious, and the solution did not occur because they haven’t confronted each other on whether they might have a heart to heart talk to fix their problem. Both the characters that simply stay on the same emotion anger and aggressive with no settlement occurs that even no good things will happen to them and only their bad situation will only occurs. But in the end no one gets the baby. A tragic ending that almost becoming predictable with words like forced, hurting, screaming, fisted, break, pushed, knock down and etc. A tenuous situation can make the person lack of understanding to other people. In the story of Popular Mechanics there are things that is hard to evaluate to the settlement of their problems. The baby who is actually part of the conflict in the story were force to pull by the man and a woman who suddenly become so aggressive. There is no good in fighting and no one gets the benefits of the baby because they just turn themselves into a monster, a terrifying monster who were so desperate just to get what they wants. No good result will come unto them just like the thing happen to the baby who were ripped apart or maybe dead by now.
II. God Stealer
The things of human lost has a pave way of struggles, when the action takes a greater part there could be a possibilities that a sudden action can gives a greater impact to other people. According to Joes Claveria, he stated that “a man can lose his soul when he is corrupted an easy life”. The life has change because the soul was gone from its original body. Second, that man is precarious about his decision-making in the God stealer by Francisco Sionil Jose. Philip Latak is a native Ifugao that named Ip-pig, and who has converted to Christianity. He has spent the last few years working with Sam Christie. Philip decided to go home on his land to visit his sick grandfather and join the tribe. Sam also wanted to go with him and experience their different traditions on their tribe and also to see the god of an Ifugao because Sam Christie has an interested in the gods of different culture. As a result they both went to the Philippines. They arrive at the place where the tribe welcome them. On the night there is a tribulation in their places where there is a welcome party on Philip's homecoming. His grandfather don’t like Sam, it shows that when Philip was invited to his father's house including Sam, it seems that his father didn't give a warm welcome to Sam. It is because his father dont like foreign people because they can take everything including his son Philip. That is the reason why his father want to prevent him from getting close to the foreigner. So the ritual of Philips grandfather started when he pour the blood of the pig on the statue while reciting the prayer. Sam was bored during that time so he decided to sleep in the room. On that night something happen when Philip has gotten inside the room drunken with a stolen god on his hand that is soak with blood because he wanted to repay Sam kindness. Sam was shock when he saw the god of Philip's grandfather without a doubt. Sam was worried on what could be the next thing to happen because of Philip unconscious action was not right.
Philip woke up in the morning when he received news that his father is dying and went his house. Sam find out that his father died because the loss of his god. That precariousness of men when he lost the things that he treasure the most can drive them crazy on finding it. The sudden loss of god can affect the condition of his grandfather. Philip decision of stealing the god of his grandfather is a precarious of men when he has lost his way in the state of unconscious. His uncertain decision is rejected on his own conscience and thinking that he made a mistake. Philip didn't expect that his grandfather would had died. This time he regretted of stealing the god and blaming his friend Sam for having the interest in the gods of the Ifugao, and that he made a wrong decision upon his unconscious condition. There are things in life that whatever we do it can create a big impact to life. It is like a bomb that can affect to people personality. You don't know what could be the possible effect in stealing someone’s valuable things. In case that it happens it won't turn back the time and losing it can lead to a great plague. The precariousness of an unwanted things to do is hard to control especially when someone has something to have from others, it can force yourself to get it even though it has off limits. That could be the reason you hurt or kill someone unexpectedly. The reason why the man was horrible in making decisions simply because it is like a psychological attributes that is part in human mind and reflexes. To act in a way can make satisfaction towards the incident where Sam has interested in gods. This time Philip Latak has respond to repay Sam kindness by stealing the statue. The thing that is valuable is lost including the grandfather of Philip. The feelings of losing is a feeling for sadness, madness, or even gone mad. These impacts when seeing the emotions to other people can includes in caring for what could be the next thing to happen. The precariousness of stealing someone’s valuable items is a great terror to every personal issues. Latak loosing temperance and manner can be a bad habit of rapid exclusions. Sometimes we need to accept the fact that certain things will never go back to its certain condition. The condition will never change especially when it is already done. The precarious of such thing to people were actually part of life. It includes people and they have no idea what certain things will do.
III. Rashomon
Third, that man is precarious about the choices in Rashomon by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. The unnamed servant who lost his job on the temple where he currently lives. He wears a kimono as he walk alone from nowhere. He was hungry and has lost his way, suddenly the heavy rain poured until he was fully wet. He felt the cold breeze on his body and he doesn't any have a place to stay from the rain. While he was walking in the rain he saw the Rashomon gate and by the looks it is a creepy house with a dark aura to be felt. By the appearance of the house it looks like an abandoned place. He decided to go inside the house for a place to stay.
There is light on the upper part of the house he went there and when he open the door he look so devastated. There were many dead bodies that are found in the room in different direction. There was also an old lady who were actually doing something to the dead woman. He was curious so he went near to that old lady and telling her that what she was doing was wrong but the old lady answered him that she really need the hair for living without it she would not live. She said that she know the dead woman before she died. The old lady told him that the woman was actually selling dried fish to many people. But the truth is, it is not a fish but rather a snake that sliced into thin layer so that it wouldn't be noticed. The woman lied to everyone and she’s doing the bad thing. Thinking that it is not a good thing to do and the reason was invalid. Then the servant suddenly kick the old lady and stole her clothes while leave her naked on that room. Base on his action he has lost his conscience he didn’t even bother to care for the old lady's condition. The precarious of servant is like living in hell. He don't have any choice but to steal the clothes for he was wet and suffer in cold. Someday he has a decision where he can steal in order for him to survive. According to Stephen Prince analysis, the heroism and desire for restoration of the story embodied to struggle with a dark opposite. When he ask something about the will the world be changed because people themselves are weak and easily corrupted. Haunted by the human to bad deeds such as lie and deceive. The characters make a hell out of the world and make truth a difficult thing to find. This is truly a hellish vision the world dissolves into nothingness as the illusions of the ego like shadows on a shifting landscape. Like the dark portrait for Kurosawa. The story is a convincing solution to the moral and epistemological dilemmas that Kurosawa has so powerfully portrayed in real life’s situation nowadays. In all his life he will be a person of disappointment and making a sins to the eyes of other people. To be physically ill and psychological responsive can be able to turn into negative attributes. Hunger can drive people to lose his way that drives them to do bad things. A lot of things to be part of and ones it he will be, he will cannot escape him from doing things in a great terror. Cannot even realize his bad to worst situation where he don't have any choice. Everyone knows what is right and what is wrong and doing could be so difficult to adjust.
Someday there are things that you must do in order for you to keep living in this world. To the choices we made for the situation where we are hungry and don’t have anything. No money, no fame, no home, and no job for living. In choosing between the two, either for doing good things when hungry can make the person forget on he/she must do. Bad things are the bad deeds that can make everyone so confuse to the things to do and cannot be understand. The precarious of human condition will turn into madness and cannot take under control. The loss of hope can risk everything in which cannot even do the thing in the right position. That is why stealing, lying, and bad habits will occur and it can take as a challenge of anyone's to do things for living. Everything is hard to evaluate in thinking that there were many things that is hard to understand in terms of hardships and sufferings. There are lots of things to learn in precariousness of human conditions there are times that we just need to go to a place where we can fulfil the needs and cannot have it on the self. A lot of things can be done but no exact way in trouble it seems that no care will had. Behind the sufferings of the person they were force to do such things and take the risk by taking actions without a doubt. What the person decision can make that person uncertain things conditions come. Due to its lacking situations a lot of negative things will come because of their own precariousness. The only that comes in the mind of the servant are the things that they can only do without a control.
IV. A Clean, and Well- Lighted Place
That man is precarious to its tempered situation in A Clean, Well- Lighted Place by Ernest Miller Hemingway. The old man were sitting on the cafe while waiting for his order to come. He takes order from the waiter, a wine that can satisfy himself. The old man was spending his time of a cafe for a many times. To relax and fell the light of the cafe is his habit. The younger waiter was already angry because he thinks that he was always takes order by the old man. He was furious and losing his temper on the hoary old man for he wanted to go home on his wife. He wanted to close the cafe and let the old man go out, even though it is not yet their curfew hours. But the older waiter refuse for the young waiter to closed the cafe. His heart sank to what the old man condition. But the young waiter who keeps complaining has a stone heart on old man, by the use of an unpleasant words the old man was hurt and ill. He also shouted to the old man to stop ordering because they are going too closed. He actually pushed the old man to get out in the cafe. So the old man only accepts what the waiter did to him without complaining.
A lot of things are meaningless when it comes to the point that the situation became where the old man was standing and cannot understand by the young waiter. Only the older waiter could understand him because they are almost the same age and old enough to understand such things on their own. The young waiter represents his precariousness of his attitude towards the old man. His unpleasant attitude is a thing that can affect other person. Expressing the anger, irritation, furiousness, and shouting are the things that gives impact on the story. The condition of the young waiter where his wife was already waiting for him in their house, and was having the desire to be with her and still craving for it to happen. He was already a bit of unconscious on her wife’s wants and he tend to forget his job. He can't even concentrate to serve the old man when he supposedly pour the wine on the old man’s on purpose. To remind the old man that he was already in a bad mood and he doesn't want to serve the poor old man. Even though his co-worker older waiter give him a good advice by telling the tragic story of the old man still he didn't listen to it. In the end they both go home with different way. The Epiphany or the realization of the difference between two places can be compared to what it contains. The precariousness of the unpleasant mood of young waiter can be seen by the old man. The story has a thing that can make a person wondered. Then the characterization between the old man and the old waiter is the same.it can reflects to what other feels because there are a lot of studies that can widen the ideas of the reader. The sufficiency of the human consumption to its valuable or invaluable conditions has the difference between young and old person. The person's life is all the same where they can experience of being old.
V. Fall of the house of Usher
The fall of the House of Usher is a short story that is written in first-person point of view. The fall of the Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, is the precarious of fear by its supernatural thing. Much of this stage has to do with the house itself, rather than Usher or his sister. An unnamed narrator arrives at the House of Usher, in a very creepy mansion owned by his friend Roderick Usher. For many years Usher still stay on the house and he has been sick lately, because of a disease of the mind, he ask for help from his friend who is actually the narrator in the story. The narrator spends some time admiring the spooky Usher edifice. The narrator explains that Roderick and his sister are the last of the Usher bloodline, and that the family is famous for its dedication to the arts such as music, painting, literature, etc.
The narrator was describing the house's atmosphere that looks like a terror house or a horror house. Another thing was the mysterious and deadly illness of Usher that is hard to describe and the suspense actions gives a great impact to the narrator to be afraid of the ghost of Madeline. The internal conflict of Usher was his bad condition, his illness can be a problem and it is hard to prevent and cannot be cured forever. The collapsing of the house together with Usher can be his plague where he cannot escape from it. The precarious of human condition can make Usher to follow his family's faith by having a relationship with their own blood. She even has an affair to his sister Madeline. The faith of the house which cause destruction to Usher's life has killed him. While the narrator has a precarious of unexpected things that can make him afraid of the supernatural being like the example of sudden Madeline existence at the side of Usher. Roderick indeed appears to be a sick man. According to the site of shmop.com, Usher suffers from a hyper-sensitivity to light, sound, taste, and tactile sensations; he feels that he will die of the fear he feels. Madeline also, suffers from catalepsy and soon she will die, and part of it to the belief that his creepy house has the perception of things that is hard to imagine. The narrator tries to help him to get Usher thinking for his own death by giving him time to do his interest of arts that Roderick loves, like the literature and music. It doesn’t seem to help him fully recover and still his illness continue to grow deeply through his mind. As Roderick predicted, Madeline soon dies. All we know is that Roderick tells the narrator she’s dead, and that she appears to be dead because of her catalepsy, she might just look like she’s dead. At Roderick’s request, the narrator helps him to get her body in one of the vaults underneath the mansion. While doing those things, the narrator discovers that the two of them were twins and that they shared some sort of supernatural. About a week later, on a dark and stormy night, the narrator and Usher find themselves unable to sleep. They decide to pass away the scary night by reading a story book. As the narrator reads the word aloud, all the sounds from the fictional story can be heard resounding from below the mansion. It doesn’t take long for Usher to freak out; he jumps up and declares that they buried Madeline alive and that now she is coming back. Sure enough, the doors blow open and there stands a trembling, bloody Madeline. She throws herself at Usher, who falls to the floor and, after "violent" agony, dies along with his sister. The narrator flees; outside he watches the House of Usher crack in two and sink into the dark, dank pool that lies before it. The terror that arises from the complexity of character forces can shape human destiny of life. The horrifying events can result complicated circumstance. The reasons of the House of Usher falls to ruin was because of evil existence to human world that been at work in the House of Usher family for generations until now. Roderick Usher's illness comes from his family evil trait. Usher refers evil infecting in the house as the Haunted Palace. The narrator implies that there has been marriage between relatives of the Usher race. Madeline Usher was a tenderly beloved sister Usher companion for long years. The isolation of Roderick and Madeline Usher lock themselves inside their own mansion without any progress of the outside word and it seems that no one knows what happen to them any. The Usher family can describe as the failing mansion itself. Roger and Madeline suffer from mental illness and is characterized by anxiety, depression, and other symptoms.
In the past, a victim of catalepsy was sometimes called dead by a doctor unfamiliar with the condition. On Madeline case she is still alive and not dead when her brother and the narrator entomb her the truth was she is just in a state of catalepsy. When she awakens she enters to Usher chamber, and falls on his side while the narrator look in terror and afraid to face her which resulted for him to run. She and her brother then die together. Besides Roger and Madeline, the narrator himself may suffer from mental instability, given his reaction to the depressing scene that he describes in the opening paragraphs. If he is insane, all of the events he describes could be viewed as manifestations of his sick mind–illusions, imaginations, dreams, hallucinations of things. The effect of horror, can oppress the morbidity and anxious anticipation of terrifying events in the story. When the narrator describes the story it seems that it is filled with mystery. A lot of things that is hard to believe from his story. He looks like a crazy type of person who imagine things.
References:
Beebe, Maurice. "The Universe of Roderick Usher" as collected in Poe: A Collection of Critical Essays, Robert Regan, ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1967. p. 123. Crowther, Bosley. (1951). Rashomon. New York Times Company. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=EE05E7DF1730A42CA44A4CC2B7799D8E6896 Cummings, Michael J. (2005 ). Retreived from http://cummingstudyguides.net/Guides2/Usher.html
Claveria, Joey. A Marxist Criticism of The God Stealer by Francisco Sionil Jose. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/9147216/A_Marxist_Criticism_of_The_God_Stealer_by_Francisco_Sionil_Jose Evans, Walter (1977). "'The Fall of the House of Usher' and Poe's Theory of the Tale". Studies in Short Fiction 14 (2): 137–144. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris and Sheila Fitzgerald. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1988. 403–5. Perry, Dennis; Sederholm, Carl (2009). Poe, "The House of Usher," and the American Gothic. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 9–10. Popular Mechanics- Raymond Carver. (2013). Retrieved from http://sittingbee.com/popular-mechanics-raymond-carver/ Popular Mechanics by Raymond Carver. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.collegetermpapers.com/TermPapers/Poetry/Popular_mechanics_by_Raymond_Carver.html Prince, Stephen. (2012). The Rashomon effects. Retrieved from https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/195-the-rashomon-effect Raymond Carvers Popular Mechanics. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/raymond-carvers-popular-mechanics-what-symbolism-487142 What is the theme of "Popular Mechanics" by Raymond Carver? (2015). Retrieved from http://www.ask.com/art-literature/theme-popular-mechanics-raymond-carver-59e5ce64c222412
The Precariousness of Human Condition as Reflected in Five Selected Stories
Vanessa C. Pamawos ASENGLISH-3 (TTH 7:00-8:00) Introduction
Dangerous, instability, changeability, inconsistency, insecurity and uncertainty, these words describe the inherently natural behavior of human as they interact within themselves, to other people and to their society (Thesaurus, 2016). These behavior is so natural and usual behavior that each person possess. People tend to act different, not consistent and not certain in his or her decisions and action in his/her life. In our daily life, we cannot easily predict or know the behavior of a person. There are some who at first appears to be an angel, doing good deeds. But, later on that someone will become as far from being what he/she is before. There are some people who is inconsistent and uncertain on his or her decisions in life and some people change internally within themselves. These instabilities and inconsistencies of human behavior are present and would be seen in our world today, with your friends, family and even within yourself. However these inconsistencies of behavior are not judge and understand directly. In this manner, the role of literature is really significant in analyzing and describing these inconsistencies. These inconsistencies are describe by knowing the personalities of the characters in the story, and how this character act and behave. Rashomon, Dead Stars, The God Stealer, The Fall of the Usher and The Cask of Amontillado, these are the five selected stories. The characters in this five stories will be described according to the way they act, behave, think, make decisions and the way they handle the problems and circumstances that comes in their way.
The precariousness of human character is shown if there are internal or external changes within him/her. In Ryunosuke Akutagawa's Rashomon, the internal changes of the main character is clearly shown. The servant is a lower class man and who is recently fired from his job. The servant is contemplating whether to do what is right and will starve to death or do evil in order for him to survive. He is really thinking deeply of what he will going to choose. The servant is supposed to be a respected and honorable person because he is a samurai. However, as the story goes, the servant suddenly change internally after meeting up with the old woman. When the servant encounters the old woman who is stealing hairs from the body of the dead woman, he feels disgusted and furious to the old woman. Because for the servant, stealing hair from the dead person is immorally wrong. He is determined to choose the righteous way even if it means starvation or death. However, the old woman also explains to the servant she is stealing hairs from the dead body in order to earn money, for the old woman to survive. Moreover, the old woman also told the servant that the dead woman is also a cheater. She is a cheater because she sells a meat of a snake to many people, claiming it to be a dried fish. This suggests that the old woman and the dead woman will do anything even if it is bad to survive. The old woman says that stealing hair to the dead person is not totally wrong. The old woman is forced to this even if doing so is immoral and gross. Knowing the old woman's side, the servant of the samurai realizes that people are doing this to stay alive. Then, the servant chooses to become a thief just like her in order to stay alive. So the servant cannot blame the old woman why he become a thief. So, he immediately steals the beautiful kimono of the old woman, leaving her naked. In this scenario, one can conclude that people tend to do bad things in order to survive. This suggests that there are valid reasons why a person behaves dangerously inconsistent and unsteady. In the story of Rashomon, because of poverty and economical problem, people are force to do bad deeds because they do not have a choice. The servant of the samurai is precarious in the sense that he changes from a well-disciplined and respected person into a thief. He is considered a threat in the society because of he is a thief. The precariousness of the servant is his inconsistency and the internal change happens within himself.
If an honorable and well-disciplined man shows precariousness of human condition by choosing the path of unrighteousness - turning into a thief, then in Dead Stars by Paz Marquez Benitez, the feelings of the main character bewildered his major decisions in life. In the story of Dead stars, Alfredo Salas, the main character shows a precarious condition because of his inconsistency and instability of his feelings towards Esperanza. Alfredo Salazar is still a bachelor even if he is already over 30 years old. He is in love with Esperanza and they are engaged for four long years. However, his love for his fiancée, Esperanza suddenly disappeared and find himself attracted to Julia Salas. Julia is his neighbor and who is new in their town. This employs that Alfredo Salazar doubts and is confused for his feelings for Esperanza. One can say that Alfredo Salazar shows uncertainly and inconsistency of his major decision of marrying Esperanza. Also, he is uncertain and inconsistent of his feelings for Esperanza after meeting Julia Salas. Alfredo Salazar developed feelings for the pretty young woman, Julia Salas, leading him to confusion. Because of his growing feelings for Julia Salas, he become confused whether to do something he should do ( to marry Esperanza) or to do something he want to do ( to be with Julia Salas). The unstable feelings of Alfredo Salazar puzzled his major decision in life, which is to marry Esperanza. This means that because of the instability of his feelings for his fiancée confuses him whether to marry her to be with Julia. It also affects Esperanza and Julia Salas. They will both get hurt because of Alfredo Salazar. Esperanza is hurt after knowing that Alfredo has something special feelings for Julia. This is evident in the lines that Esperanza said to Alfredo. “If you mean you want to take back your word, if you are tired of why don't you tell me you are tired of me?” she burst out in a storm of weeping that left him completely shamed and unnerved ( Benitez, n.d.). Also Alfredo Salazar does not only hurt Esperanza but he also hurt Julia Salas. It is not clearly stated in the story but the pain is evident in her reaction when she finds out about the engagement of Alfredo Salazar. It is evident in her lines that Julia Salas said to Alfredo Salazar. I should offered congratulations long before, but you know mere visitors are slow about getting news (Benitez, n.d.). There is a bit of sarcasm in her words. There is a hint of pain in this line after hearing that Alfredo Salazar will be marrying soon without telling her. In this scenario, one can conclude that the inconsistency and instability of the feelings of a person will puzzle his / her major decisions in life. This means that unstable feelings can affect his major decision in life. Alfredo Salazar shows precarious condition because he let himself love other woman even if he already has a fiancé. His feelings are inconsistent and changeable that can hurt someone, like Esperanza. Alfredo Salazar is a threat to the feelings of woman because he has the ability to hurt Esperanza, whom he make her wait for four years to marry her. He is considered dangerous because he can hurt the feelings of a person emotionally. At this point one can say that the precariousness of Alfredo Salazar is shown when he is inconsistent with his feelings that would puzzle his decision in life.
If Alfredo Salazar, an over 30 years old bachelor experienced precarious conditions and that leads him into confusion that puzzled his major decision, then in the story of the God stealer, the instability on the beliefs and custom of Philip Latak(the main character) leads him to abandon his own culture. Philip Latak was once devoted Ifugao to his own cultural identity, beliefs and custom. It was said in the story that Igorots, like Ilocanos have a sense of inferiority no matter how urbanized they are. But except for Philip Latak, who is proud of his cultural identity, his being Ifugao."(Philippine Literature, 2010). This lines suggest that Philip was once have a strong sentimental affection to his cultural identity. But his devotion to his culture eventually changes when he started to work in the city. He no longer gives importance and concern to his culture instead he make himself Christian. He no longer respects the Ifugao beliefs and ideas. Making himself a Christian employs that Philip Latak shows instability and inconsistency of his beliefs and custom. It is also an act of abandoning his culture by making himself a Christian. Moreover, Phillip Latak has a best friend named Sam Christie, who also his co-worker. Sam Christie goes to Baguio city together with Philip Latak because he wanted to see the rice terraces. Aside from that goes, Sam Christie wants to purchase an original figurine of Ifugao God as his souvenir. But the figurine is not for sale because it is important for the Ifugao. Philip Latak really wants to help his bestfriend because he wants to return that favor to his friend. The precariousness of Philip Latak is clearly shown in his instability and inconsistency of his beliefs and culture and when he stole the figurine of the Ifugao God. Philip Latak stole it even if the figurine is owned by his grandfather. He really wants to help his friend because he owes him a lot, especially to his job. This is the reason why he stole the figurine. At this point of the story, the inconsistency of the main character, who was once a devoted Ifugao, prevails. The main character is inconsistent because at first he has strong affection to his own beliefs and costums. But later on, he no longer respects his own culture when he stole the ifugao figurine. In this scenario, one can conclude that the devotion of person will change to the point that he/she will abandon his own culture for other people. The main character is forced to steal the figurine because he wants to do a favor for his friend in return. Philip Latak become precarious when he stole the ifugao figurine of his grandfather. Moreover the way that Philip Latak behaves is dangerous. He is considered dangerous because he becamed a thief for his friend. He considered a traitor because he betrays his fellow Ifugao people.
If the human precariousness of Philip Latak in the story The God Stealer leads him to abandon his own culture by means of stealing the Ifugao figurine, then in the story The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe shows the precariousness of the main character by burying his twin sister alive. Roderick and Madeline are the last of Usher blood line and when Roderick that his sister soon will die. Because of her suffering from catalepsy, his character changes into an immoral person because he buries his own sister alive. This suggests that he kills his own twin sister. He killed Madeline because he really appears to be dead when Roderick looks at her. She appears to be dead because of her catalepsy. Moreover, Usher invites his boyhood friend who is unnamed in the story. The reason why Roderick invited his friend that he want to prove that did not kill his sister, that the disease (catalepsy) is the one who killed her sister. In the story, Roderick Usher has also an illness. He is not well because he suffers physical, emotional and mental illness. But the illness of Roderick Usher is more on mental illness. This suggest that he knows that Madeline is still alive when they burry it under the vaults of his house. That is why the mind of Roderick and Madeline is connected even if Madeline is already dead, he still feels the presence of Madeline. In addition, Usher become precarious because his parents raise them in isolated place. Madeline, the twin sister of Roderick can be considered precarious because she is a danger to Usher and to his unnamed friend. The reason for that is her soul seeks for revenge because she is buried alive. When she dies, her soul is not at peace. In the story, Madeline has the power to scare and threaten Usher and the narrator. It is evident in the scene when Madeline suddenly appears in the door and goes towards Usher and drags him down. At this point of the story, one can say that human will do something immoral because of his illness and wrong predictions. Also, the soul of a person who seeks revenge will hunt the person who commits sin to him/her.
From a precarious man Philip Latak in The God Stealer there is also Montresor, who did something bad to take revenge on his friend in the Cask of Amontillado. In all the characters in the five stories, he is the the most precarious of them all because he was revengeful to the point that he will kill his own friend without regret and hesitations. His insecurities, his pride, and his willingness to take revenge push him to kill his own friend, Fortunato. In story of Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe shows that Montressor is insecure to Fortunato. Because,Fortunato is a virtuoso. Fortunato is skillful for anything that is why Montressor patiently waited for the right time to kill Fortunato. He is insecure to Fortunato because Montressor is poor and inferior compared to Fortunato. Because of this Montressor is really jealous because Fortunato is richer and skillful in wine compared to him. Another reason why he killed Fortunato is that his friend Fortunato, insults him many times as indicated in the story. The insensitive Fortunato insults the over sensitive Montressor.That is why he wants Fortunato to pay for all his insults to him. In addition, Montressor is also a prideful person. He does not want to feel inferior towards Fortunato. He wants to be superior to everyone because he does not want to be insulted from anybody. Because insulting him will step down his pride. He does not want anyone to step down his pride because he really values his pride more than his friend. His pride pushes him to plot a revenge to Fortunato. He plan to kill his so called friend because he is full of pride. Montressor is precarious because he is a revengeful person. Revengeful person is dangerous. He is really willing to do anything to the point of killing someone which is immoral in order for him to take revenge. Eventually he kills Fortunato and he considered it as a "perfect crime". It is just very subtle reasons to kill Fortunato but then Montressor is unstoppable of killing him. That is why the perfect crime happens and the killer did it without hesitation left in his mind. The way Montressor behaves is not safe, he is indeed dangerous to the people in their society. Also, Montressor is a dangerous person because he is a great pretender. He is wearing the mask of an angel behind his true identity -an evil. He pretends to be a friend of someone but later on, he will just betray and stab his friend in his back very hard. Montressor shows precariousness of human condition when he kills Fortunato for his own selfish pride.
Conclusion
Indeed, the five selected short stories show precariousness of human condition. These stories reveal important human experiences that explains why a person behaves in a certain way. The fictional character in these stories are like real people because they also experience inconsistency and instability of his or her decision and changes that would define their personality. People could not blame the changes happened in a certain person. These changes has certain reasons why it happened. As the servant of the samurai turns into a thief, Alfredo lost his feelings to his fiancee and get attracted to other woman, Philip Latak who stole his grandfather's Ifugao figurine, Roderick Usher bury his own sister alive and Montressor killed his friend Fortunato, the precariousness in human condition has shown, described and presented in all aspects of life and even in fictional people.
References: Akutagawa. (2015). Rashomon and Other Stories. Retrieved http://www.jonescollegeprep.org/ourpages/auto/2015/5/6/54761847/rashomon%20stories.pdf. Benitez, P. (N.D.). Dead Stars. Retrieved from http://www.sushidog.com/bpss/stories/stars.htm Poe, E. (1846). The Cask of Amontillado. Retrieved from http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/poe/cask.html Precariousness. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/precariousness The Fall of the House of Usher. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.eapoe.org/works/tales/usherf.htm The God Stealer ( Franciso Sionil Jose ). (2010). Retrieved from http://gabrielslibrary.blogspot.com/2010/04/god-stealer-fransico-sionil-jose.html?m=1
Ampinos, Aiza G. ASENGL3 UNDERSTANDING FICTION The Precariousness of Human Condition Introduction Precarious is an adjective word that means; depending on the will or pleasure of another; dependent on uncertain premises; dependent on chance circumstances or unknown conditions, or uncertain developments characterized by a lack of security or stability that threatens with danger (Meriam-Webster's dictionary). Precariousness on the hand is a state of being precarious, means uncertain, unstable or insecure. Man in nature are born precarious. He has the characteristics of being unstable as there is no consistency in his human mind One factor that distinguishes his precariousness is his emotion. The shifting of his emotion from one state to another proves the unstability of his being. However in every circumstances, there is always one factor that causes it's changes and that what we are about to found out in this paper. In this paper, I would like to tackle the precariousness of human condition based on the five selected short stories that were already presented in our understanding fiction class. The five stories are the Cask of Amontillado, Roshomon, popular mechanics, Servant Girl, and the Clean Well lighted Place. This study is conducted through content analysis of each stories.
I. The Cask of Amontillado Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado is a well written piece. It tackles about the retalliation of the underestimated one. Montresor, Fortunato's friend for a long time who was always hurt of his jokes that reaches his ear as an insults killed Fortunato on purpose by lacking him in the vault. The story is obviously focused on revenge. In the story, the will to avenge his hurted ego triggers the descission made by the main character of the story. The precariousness of human condition is evident in Poe's work, The Cask of Amontillado. Montressor on the beginning of the story holds his patient as Fortunato continues to throw insults at him and his family. He hids hatred in his heart that he promised himself that he would seek revenge one day. The emotion of Montressor shifts from being patient to madness and it was triggered by the action of his friend Fortunato. For how many years he endured the pain as Fortunato had insulted him, there comes a time for his most awaited revenge. As we read between the line presented in the story, one could tell that Fortunato planted a bomb on Montressor heart that he, Fortunato happened to has a capacity to make it explode. Triggered by so much envy and hatred, Montressor finally grasp the opportunity to end Fortunato's life. Being human, it becomes inevitable for Montressor to envy and hate even in his friend Fortunato because of her character as a human. From being patient, to envy, to hatred, this shifting of Fortunato's emotion are somehow because of the certain situation he is into. At the beginning of the play, it was presented there that Montressor already has a plan of killing fortunato. The situation of the story actuate the main character to show different emotion in a short span of time. The story ended when Montressor accomplished his revenge successfully. The end does not shown that Montressor felt guilty on killing his friend rather it was as if the thorn was being pulled in him.
II. Roshomon Roshomon is a story about a servant searching for a place to shelter in a dark winter night. When he arrived at the Roshomon which is a tall gate, he saw an old woman in where the dead bodies lie. The old woman in there was pulling a dead bodies hair. When the servant reprimanded her, she confessed that she was pulling a hair of the dead to make a wig. The main character of the story Roshomon which is the servant of the samurai shows the precariousness of human condition. At the beginning of the story, the servant is characterized as loyal servant to his master, the samurai. But this positive character turns into a negative one as he struggles to find ways to survive. The unstability of his human mind was triggered by the situation he is in. His will to survive is the primary factor that proves his procariousnes. He got carried away by the certain circumstances of life which is one factor that shows precariousness of human condition. Human can live either an host or parasite. As an host he can be the stronger, or dominant member of a commensal or symbiotic pair. He can live independently, without depending to certain someone or being. And as a parasite, he lives depending on what is being provided by him. If the one his is depending would vanish, he too surely perish. However, being a host defines dominantly on human's nature. In the case of of the characters of the story, which is the servant and the old woman it was their necessity that triggered their emotion to shift. At first, as mention above, the servant only wanted to go back to his master but unfortunately, the situation did not permit it to happen. Instead he discover himself at the Roshomon where there are so much corpse to be found. The situation provides the reason of the twist and turn of the emotion of the servant's character. While in the case of the old woman, the will to survive pushed her to go at the Roshomon and pulled the hair of the dead. It was stated in the story that the old woman formerly selling a dried snake fooling the buying that it was a dried fish. The old woman was caught that it why she finds another work that would provide for her consumption.
III. Popular mechanics The story happens in one setting only. When the two couple argue about who should have the baby, their child. Since no one was willing to gave up, they play tag of war of the baby. And since no one was willing to let go, they end up hurting the baby. The story ends up on unspecified ending to whom was the baby given. Man in nature are born selfish. How much good a person is, there would always comes a time that he would only think what makes him happy or what would satisfy him. In the case of the story popular mechanics, the two character husband and wife are both has a behaviour of being selfish. At first, the wife wanted the husband to go. The husband wanted to leave with the baby but the wife did not approved. She wanted the child for herself. Unfortunately, the husband wanted the child on his own too. Two persistent individual willing to have the baby.
IV. Servant Girl Servant Girl is a story of a girl named Rosa who was described as timid young lady. Rosa works for her cruel, abusive mistress. She was always being told to washed laundry and there s he met Sancho who took a liking on her. Some girls that were also laundering always teases her to Sancho as he shows interest at her. But s he doesn't like Sancho for she fells in love with a cochero whom she called angel but revealed in the end that it wasn't his name but it's Pedro. Rosa in the story shows the precariousness of human condition as reflected on his feeling towards Sancho and Pedro. When she meet Sancho, she doesn't feel something towards him. She remains empassive even if Sancho wanted to gain her attention. However the shifts of emotion happens when Rosa was being teased by the girls. It is one factor that affect the precariousness of her condition as a human. On the other hand, when it comes to her abusive mistress, she has this feeling of fear that eas supported in one paragraph of the story which is "Her mistress’ voice came to her, calling impatiently, and she tried to hurry. When she arrived, the woman asked her what had kept her so long, and without waiting for an answer she ranted on, saying she had heard the women joking in the bathhouse, and she knew what had kept the girl so long. Her anger mounting with every angry word she said, she finally swung out an arm, and before she quite knew what she was doing, she slapped Rosa’s face." Her fear is evident just looking at this line. Her emotion shifts from anger to fear. But as the story goes on, because Rosa is human she doesn't escape the inevitability of her human condition. Rosa also felt love and hope when she meet the cochero whom she called angel but it didn't last long. Rosa assumes that one day the cocheto would passed by her mistress' house but it didn't happen. Her hopes slowly fade not until she was being reprimanded by her mistess when she ordered her to buy wine when she encountered Sancho. He hurt her making the wine pour all into the ground which make her went home without it. On her way she thinks of the possibity of what her mistress might do to her. Mixed emotions are hard to tell, wether worried, wondering, afraid. Because she doesn't know if she will be believe or forgiven if she tells the truth. Rosa shows precariousness of human condition as her emotion shifts from one state to the other. Just like any other stories they are also triggered by some factors. In case of Rosa, first,it was Sancho who got an interest to her whom she did not like. Second, it's her abusive mistress who always mistreated her. Hurting her physically and emotionaly. The beating of her mistress made her decide never to come back on her place again. But she did came back because of her "Angel", Pedro. She even willing to forget what her mistress done to her. This sudden change of heart of Rosa only proves the unstability of human condition.
V. A Clean Well Lighted Place A clean well lighted place is a short story about an old man spending her liesure time at a bar. The young boy who works in that bar wanted the old man to go home already as it was already late but the man refused to as he still want to stay in that bar. The young man says to the other crew of the bar that old man are nasty and that be doesn't want to grow old for for him, when you got old you already became useless. The precariousness of human condition that was being shown in the story A Clean Well Lighted Place can be both seen in the character of the old man and the young man. The old man wanted to stay in that place as he wanted to relax. He always told the people that that was left in the bar because he liked it there. However he also told the crew of the bar about growing old.
Conclusion Man in nature cannot escape the precariousness of his being. Wether he like it or not, he can't hide the fact that his condition changes from time to time. However, the shifting of his emotion depends on various circumstances. In the five stories that been duscussed shows tha different factors that affect the shifting of the state of emotion from one state to another. It could be the intellectual self or a certain phenomenon.
“The Precariousness of Human Condition in the Selected 5 Short Stories” “Walang forever”, that is what most of the people believe into nowadays. The food you would fond of right now would not last because the changes of your health. The age you had right now will be changed next year. The song you are listening now would end 3 minutes later. If today is the 3rd of January, tomorrow surely is the 4th. If in the past week it was 2015, then now it is a new year of 2016. If yesterday you had a very sweet relationship, today might end a bitter one. Just like anything in this world, man’s condition is uncertain. There hasn’t a forever because we can’t just stay where we are, we want to explore and change. That is the meaning of being a human. Human condition has no guarantee and so it is precarious in various respect. This is reflected in five selected short stories. Silent Snow, Secret Snow, a boy named Paul Hasleman is precarious in daydreaming about snow. Paul Hasleman, who finds it increasingly difficult to pay attention to his classwork, and grows more distant from his family. He is, instead, becoming more and more entranced by daydreaming about snow. This began when he was lying in bed one morning, awaiting the approach of the postman. Aiken divides “Silent Snow, Secret Snow” into four distinct sections. In section I, the story introduces Paul Hasleman, age twelve, a student in Mrs. Buell’s sixth-grade classroom. Paul is distracted, however, by his intense memory of an event that occurred several days before. He thinks about the globe that figures in the day’s geography lesson and hears Deirdre, the girl who sits in front of him, awkwardly answer a question about the definition of the term “equator.” A few days earlier, Paul had the impression that snow had fallen; the sound of the postman’s feet on the cobblestones outside his house suddenly sounded muffled. When he got up and looked out, however, the cobblestones were bare and there was no snow.
Yet in his own mind, Paul is mysteriously aware of a “secret snow” that signals his growing sense of detachment from the real world. Paul recalls that the sound of the postman’s footsteps grow less and less distinct each day, and are audible only as the postman draws closer and closer to the Hasleman’s house. Paul speculates about the necessity of keeping this strange knowledge from others and rehearses a family conversation over dinner as if he were practicing a play. Meanwhile, in the classroom, Mrs. Buell talks about the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century search to discover the Northwest Passage. When Paul rouses himself sufficiently to successfully answer a question about Henry Hudson, Deirdre turns in her chair to smile at him with “approval and admiration.” At last the bell rings for dismissal. In Part II, Paul is on his way home from school. He thinks about the secret snow and how difficult it is to drag himself out of bed each morning when all he wants to do is stay in bed. For Paul, the world grows increasingly more alien, incomprehensible, and repulsive. For example, he takes inventory of the items in a dirty gutter, and stares at tracks left by a dog in the sidewalk when the cement was freshly poured. He then arrives at his own house and is troubled by the thought that it is the sixth house from the corner, when he had all along supposed it to be the seventh. The house seems strange as he comes inside from the street. In Part III, after supper, Paul’s parents grow concerned about their son and call in a doctor to examine him. Paul regards the examination as an inquisition, and becomes emphatically defensive. During the exam, Paul hears the secret snow. The pressure of the doctor’s questions forces Paul to admit that his recent state of distraction stems from constantly thinking about the snow. His parents react negatively, and Paul fails to understand the full impact of his revelation. In Part IV, Paul rushes to his bedroom. The whiteness of the snow has become overwhelming. He now views his mother as a “cruel disturbance,” a hostile intruder as she tries to help him. He rejects her defiantly as he finally slips away. Unable to hear the expected footfalls, the boy imagines that they have been muffled by newly fallen snow, and is surprised when he looks out the window and discovers that there is no snow on the ground. Paul's increasing distance and indifference to the world around him alarms his parents. He has to struggle to get dressed and converse with others, because of the allure of his daydream about snow. They eventually call in a physician, who makes a house call to examine Paul. After revealing that he likes to think about snow, Paul tears himself away from the meeting with the physician and retires to his room. When his mother pursues him, he tells her "Go away... I hate you!", and is lost in the dream world of the snow. Sanity is defined as the ability to function in
the everyday world and interact with people. Conversely, insanity is measured by the degree to which one is unfamiliar with everyday occurrences and the inability to communicate with others. Deirdre’s eagerness to answer Mrs. Buell’s geography question is evidence of her sanity. The globe that figures in Mrs. Buell’s geography lesson is a symbol for the real and everyday world in which people, as they mature, become increasingly interactive. In contrast, Paul’s desire to avoid reality and seek refuge in the sheltering snow is indicative of his increasing behavioral abnormality. Paul believes that he cannot adequately describe the ethereal loveliness of his new world. Moreover, he worries that any attempt to describe it would bode ill for him. “Would it be safe to explain?” he asks himself. “Would it be absurd? Would it merely mean that he would get into some obscure kind of trouble?” So he keeps quiet about his inner snowstorm until his mother, father, and family doctor prod him to talk about it. By that time, he has already crossed the threshold into mental illness. Paul perceives the real world as ugly, dreary, and broken compared to his new world of pristine snow. Consequently, it becomes a struggle for him to confront reality. He was trying to escape from the reality of dirty and mundane world. Most of the people need an escape from reality once in awhile but Paul’s way of doing it had led him into mental illness. While some may not be able to jump on the next plane to an island-getaway, some also can escape from reality mentally just like Paul. Because every mind is different, it may take some trial and error to find out how you best are able to mentally escape reality. Truly escaping reality using your mind takes practice, but can be a great way to feel reinvigorated and able to handle anything that life may throw at you but the worst thing is that it can make you mentally insane. The way we experience life events during our early years permanently modifies our brains and determines the things that can make us happy. Paul Hasleman, age twelve and presumably in the sixth grade, lives in an American town, probably in New England. Prior to the onset of his madness, Paul was an ordinary boy, good at geometry, and excited about geography. At first he is considered introspective, but it is soon clear that he is detached from reality; this alienation is metaphorically represented in this story as the secret snow. As the disturbance takes over, Paul feels terribly lonely. As his sickness triumphs, Paul becomes distinctly paranoid regarding the “gross intelligences” that surround him. He only vaguely understands the pain that he is causing others. It seems that a valid interpretation of “Silent Snow, Secret Snow” can neither avoid purely psychological issues, the theme of child-parent conflict, for example nor justifiably ignore the realistic tragedy of a twelve-year-old boy’s world demolished by madness.
The second short story is Rashomon by Akutagawa Ryunosuke which takes place at the gate called Rashomon in Kyoto. The servant is precarious in his honesty and morality. Before an incident happened, the servant was honest to his own self and as well as to others. As a servant of a samurai master, he should be honest and have a clean heart and mind. Morality is the distinction between right and wrong. It is the determination of what should be done and what should not be done. Morals deal with behaviors as well as motives. There is a great deal of discussion on what the source of morals is and whether or not they are objective. Biblically, morals are derived from God's character and revealed to us through the Scriptures. He was uncertain when he had encountered the old woman. The servant had served a samurai for a few years; however, due to the decline of Kyoto, was dismissed. The devastated city had no time to repair the rusting gate. It had become a dark place where unidentified corpses were abandoned. A servant that had gotten dismissed by his master sits on the steps in the pouring rain wondering if he should become a thief to make a living. He sees a fire by the top of the stairs so he sneaks up and looks. There is an old woman pulling hair out of the corpses. By the sight of this, he cannot hold in his anger, he pulls out his sword and pushes the old woman on the ground. She told him, making wigs with the hair was keeping her alive. After a little thinking, he pulls off her kimono and runs off deciding that he had to steal to eat. He abandons her naked on the stairs and disappears into the night. The servant shows his strength and social class with his sword and physical power. The character’s action questions the reader about the relationship between human nature and inner self. The dichotomy of morality and immorality are correlated through the characters. The servant had decided not to steal before entering Rashomon holding up his morality, however after the hag’s speech about selling hair to survive, he changes. His morality disappears, as he reaches out for her kimono, sending him into the lower class equal to the hag. The hag is almost like a devil. The servant himself is transformed into one through their interaction. Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing. This script portrays such human beings, the kind who cannot survive without lies to make them feel they are better people than they really are. It even shows this sinful need for flattering falsehood going beyond the grave even the character who dies cannot give up his lies when he speaks to the living through a medium. Egoism is a sin the human being carries with him from birth; it is the most difficult to redeem. A desperate servant trying to decide whether to become a thief in order to survive, can't make up
his mind. Then he finds a woman stealing hairs from the dead in order to survive. Her rationalization of what's she's doing becomes the occasion for him deciding to become like her. The major character who is the servant. He changes in the course of the story. The story is built around his ethical dilemma of whether or not to stay honest and die or become a thief in order to live. His debate is resolved in his encounter with the old woman. He decides to become a thief and steals from her in order to survive. The old woman stealing hairs provides the rationale for stealing: everyone does it; there is no other way to survive. The servant resolves his moral struggle by giving up any morality. He simply is the next in the line of those who violate others in order to keep themselves alive. The irony of the incident is that the woman's justification for stealing from the dead, becomes his rationalization for stealing from her. A brutal world without human values. If the only value is survival, then there is no morality only the struggle of all against all. The servant becomes like the woman who is like the woman she steals from. The servant will survive until he meets someone who does to him what he did to her. The third story is Popular Mechanics. "Popular Mechanics" by Raymond Carver depicts a story of a married couple during a dispute. As the husband begins to pack his belongings and leave his wife, he demands to take full custody of their baby. A physical fight breaks out as both parents take control of the baby's arms and begin to pull it, similar to a "tug-of-war" game. Both the man and the woman is precarious in solving their problem. The man and the woman are suddenly not fighting about their loveable baby, but they act like they are children and are fighting about a doll. They forget that the baby can get hurt and mentally hurt also. I think that is why the main title is Popular Mechanics, because the little baby become a mechanical thing that they both want so bad. Raymond Carver writes his stories in a very minimalistic way. The settings in the beginning of the story determines the remainder part of the story. Minimialism is a way to write fiction. Minimialism has a slogan that says less is more. The use of adjectives decides the atmosphere in the story and the characters inner feelings and moods, so even though we, as readers, do not get a description of the personas feeling we know how they feel and why they act like they do because of the setting in the story. In minimalism there is no personal emotions or feelings as the same in Popular Mechanics, where there is no description of the characters feelings. The story was originally published under the name "Popular Mechanics" but was later renamed "Little Things." The story begins with the man packing up to leave when he
and the wife get into an argument over who is going to keep the baby. The reason for their separation is not clear, but it is not amicable. The husband and wife display a lack of communication during their argument, which quickly devolves into a physical struggle. The final line, "In this manner, the issue was decided" is ambiguous but suggests that either the baby's arm is broken or the baby is ripped apart by the parents' struggle to keep him. The irony of the last sentence is that neither parent gets the baby, even though they were each so desperate to have him. The story foreshadows what happens to the baby when the flowerpot in the kitchen falls and breaks due to the struggle. Their way of solving their problem is not helping them. The baby is much more affected with it. The fourth short story that shows precariousness in human conditions is “Servant Girl” by Estrella D. Alfon. The main character Rosa who is the servant girl is precarious in fighting for her right. She was almost there when she tried to leave the mistress but at the end, she still went back to the mistress. Estrella Alfon's Servant Girl talks about Rosa, an abused maid who longs for freedom, happiness and love. She was being maltreated by her mistress and was hoping that one day she would be able to be freed from all the abuse she was experiencing. Then one day, while she was out, carrying a basin on her head with her mistress' clothes, she accidentally slipped and fell causing for her ankle to swell. A man in his tartanilla stopped and helped her with her basin. After the incident, Rosa felt happy and somewhat in love with the cochero. Imagining him wanting him to see her and wanting him to hear her voice. She would sing aloud when her mistress was in an up mood so she would not be scolded and she would imagine how the cochero, even though he cannot see her, he would long for her voice. She would also imagine him passing her mistress' house while she was inside and so that was the reason why she could not see him. She pitied those who would mock her for she believed that she had an 'Angel' that took care of her when she was in distress. Then one day, she encounters a cochero who was recklessly riding his tarantilla. Due to her anger, she threw a stone and the cochero got angry. He threatened Rosa that he would bring her to the municipio but then she realized who it was. It was 'Angel' who was infront of her. She kept calling him Angel but he kept saying that that was not his name. He did not recognize Rosa until she mentioned the first time they encountered each other. After this incident, she then realized how much she was just imagining 'their love' and that all of it was not real. And that 'Angel', now his real name 'Pedro' did not think of anything when
he helped Rosa when she was injured. And so Rosa went back to her mistress' house and continued on with her job. In this story, we can say that it can be related to so many real-life situations of those who are in the same position as Rosa. It tells us the sad reality of some of the people working under others who have a higher societal class than them. The abuses that one experiences is caused by the superior thinking of their 'masters'. Estrella Alfon's work shares the story of Rosa and her experiences being a maid under someone who abuses her. It captures the emotional roller coaster than she has; from the crying to the joy of having an 'Angel' then coming back to the state of mind of who she really is and what she is doing. The use of 'Angel' as Pedro's name before Rosa knew, symbolized even though it was just for a brief moment, the longing for happiness and freedom of Rosa. The way she imagined Angel seemed like he was also loning for her and that he was looking for a way to see and be with her again. Estrella Alfon was able to show how desperate Rosa felt in order to feel happiness. The thoughts and illusions that she was having was a simple way to get away from all the hardships that she was encountering day in and day out. It was a way for her to tell herself that she has it better among other people for they did not have an Angel that took care of them when they were in need. It was a reason for her to be happy. But then, at the end of the Estrella's story, it shows how her imagination took her to a place in her mind that did not exist. The sad truth that Angel or Pedro did not think of anything of his kind gesture to this woman brought her back to reality that what she was just imagining was just an illusion for her to get away from the abuses that she was experiencing inside her mistress' house. Estrella Alfon shows another sad side of a person is the same condition as Rosa. In reality, it can be said that there are people who, unfortunately, can relate to Rosa's experiences. The writer was able to show and share all the thoughts and emotions of Rosa throughout the entire story. This work o Estrella Alfon will surely bring you to a realization that even though it is hard to say, the reality is there is really cases like this all over the country and the world. This work will definitely get us reflecting on how we treat others. This story for me is somewhat synonymous to real life for it really portrays the things that a typical naughty mistress should do. The servant should also fight for her right. Being a servant doesn’t mean that she will let the mistress abuse her. The servant shows precariousness in fighting for her right as person. She was maltreated but still she wants to work for the mistress. Maybe she was not good servant but it is not right that the mistress will treat her like a slave.
The fifth story is entitled "Dead Stars by Paz Marquez Benitez. Alfredo is precarious in his emotion. “Yes it’s sad to belong to someone else when the right one comes along.” This song was running in my head while I was reading the story Dead Stars. Reading the story brought me mixed emotions: anger, sadness, excitement, confusion, etc. etc. I was not sure if I’ll feel sorry for Esperanza or Julia. However, in the end, I felt sorry, for, none other than the main character of the story, Alfredo. Alfredo, at his 30’s had not yet married but engaged to Esperanza for 3 years. However, Esperanza patiently waited for Alfredo to set the table. Alfredo met Julia Salaz just before he and Esperanza would get marry. He felt as if he would be much happier beside Julia. To make the long story short, he found himself caught up in the middle of a rock and hard place. He found himself falling in-love with Julia. However, Julia found out that he would be soon married to Esperanza. On the other hand, Esperanza felt the coldness of Alfredo. She knew why Alfredo was acting such way and told him that she is not blind to see what he was up to lately. He ended up marrying Esperanza still, as Julia already said goodbye to him and went back to her hometown. Paz Marquez had shown the readers about how human can be so irrational and irresponsible at times. He had a good picture of how we can be careless at choosing relationships. We choose a person so quickly without analyzing if we really love them and will be happy with them for the rest of our lives. Then we see that time is running so fast and we are being left behind. Colors of the past will fade and we could not do anything to repaint it. We will wish that we could bring back our youth but we realize that we only have one life to spend. I imagined myself as Esperanza, as I have been in a long relationship just like her. I admire how Paz had described her character. It’s as if I could see myself in her shoes. I wonder if I were her… Would I do the same? Probably yes, but if I could see that the man I’ll be marrying is not going to be happy with me, I’ll set him free. Paz’s short story showed some Filipino traits like marrying at a certain age. In the first part of the story, his sister and father was talking about Alfredo who has not married yet at his age of 30. It’s as if he should be bothered a lot if he’s not yet marrying at his age. In the Philippines, as I could see, a lot of people marry at a young age. A Filipino or Filipina should marry and have children before turning 30 years old. While in western countries, 30 is the start of their best years, just like what the movie “13 going on 30” had shown. It does not matter if they still don’t have fiancé at the age of 30. It doesn’t bother them a lot if they have not married yet. It also showed also some Filipino traditions like celebration of the Holy week. Paz showed how families spend time together in the church. The story was written in
the year 1925, when people less accepted broken engagement, marriages and families. In my opinion, the reason why Alfredo did not choose to go after Julia was because it was unacceptable at his time. In the 20th century, Filipinos have already learned to accept broken marriages or engagements; and I think if Paz had written this story in the 20th century, he would have written a different ending, and perhaps with a different title.I was wondering why the title is Dead Stars. In the end, I realized its significance. It was entitled as such to symbolize memories of our youth. ‘Dead Stars’ means memories of the past flying in our heaven of thoughts. We sometimes look at them for a while and realize that it has already passed away… already dead. We could not bring back the real shine to normal. It is a story of "what if as a married man again meets the woman he fell in love with many years earlier while engaged to his wife. The story is basically a compilation of the complicated circumstances that every man has to go through in life. Alfredo was once in love with Esperanza, no doubt, but there comes a time when love fades, and the only thing holding you together is the vow you gave your fiancée, that which you cannot take back. Why can't you take it back? It is because you are afraid of what will be the reaction of the people around you, especially during the time of the story. What's visibly wrong about this is that most often than not, men refuse to listen to their own yearnings and simply submit to further dehumanization. Love here, though perhaps genuine to a point, for Alfredo, is seemingly weak and purposive. Weak, because it is eventually overcome by propriety, and purposive because it was merely a tool to justify his desire to go against society; that for once he will not be a puppet, but the master of his own fate. In the story, Alfredo falls drastically in love with Julia even as he is engaged to Esperanza, but in the end forgoes the idea. He kept on holding on to that glimmer of "what could have been" throughout the years of his marriage to Esperanza, but upon meeting Julia again, he realizes that what he thought was there, had now gone for more than one reason. First, it is possible to say that after what society has done to him (dehumanized him), he found at peace in his place, and sought no more that illusive dream of yesterday. He understood, after meeting her again, that it was nostalgia that was taking hold of his heart, and not the "love" that he once felt for her. It is said in the story that he is not unhappy with his marriage, but a part of him always slips away from the world in order to dream of another life that could have blossomed, had he chose Julia over Esperanza. On the other hand, it is possible that there was no real love to speak of, but a desire for something else. He desired youth. Although relatively young, he desired the qualities that the youthful possessed: vigor, passion, vitality. These are a
few things that he lacked as a person and to find these in Julia gave him a sense of completeness. It was a welcomed changed in his life, and he wanted to hold on to it for as long as he could, since even if he couldn't be like Julia, he is comforted by the thought that he was able to meet someone who is different from everybody else, and that she could have been his wife. He is noted to be of a cool and calm demeanor, which is why it seems out of character if he suddenly bursts with energy. Dead stars symbolize things that are present but are left unspoken of. The love between Alfredo and Julia seemed real, but look closer and one can state that it was hardly mutual, and that it was impossible to last. Esperanza's devotion to Alfredo also resembles love, but since she believes in the "regenerative virtue of institution" more than true love, it is safe to say that she is in the relationship, because of moral obligation. So what one thought as real (or present) is now nothing but an illusion. It serves as a literary time machine for readers as it enables them to understand how courtship, marriage and fidelity were viewed through the early 1900 standards. It renders a sound comparison between the past and the present, the existing modern culture and the fading, almost obsolete tradition. Although the comparison and contrast provides a good critical foundation, another highly significant aspect of this short story involves the main character, Alfredo Salazar, which, always applies to whatever era, hence the focus of this paper. His confusion, weakness and unreasonableness are innate flaws of humans. Perhaps one of the many reasons why this work is timeless is that readers never fail to see a part of them in Alfredo Salazar’s character, making the short story a rich source of serious ruminations on society, love and humanity. People oftentimes give high regard to the society in which they belong. They try to adhere to the norms, traditions and culture of their society, though sometimes the conformity would require them to sacrifice a part of themselves – an opinion, an emotion or a decision. However, there are cases wherein the established norms and rules of society are the ones which should prevail. In Dead Stars, the main character, Alfredo Salazar, was torn between making two important decisions – to marry or not to marry. But just like other dilemmas, the crossroad in which he found himself in was not to be solved without harming anyone. He was engaged to Esperanza, his fiancée of four years. Theirs was undoubtedly a love that was true. But for some reasons, apparently on Alfredo’s part, a change of heart has taken place. He has fallen for Julia Salas, the sister-in-law of the judge whom his father had a meeting with. After spending several afternoons and conversations, he found himself slowly getting attached to her that he started losing concern for Esperanza. In the end, however, he married his fiancée and though
their marriage was not an unhappy one, he still could not take the possibilities of a future with Julia off his mind. Until one day, their paths crossed again and he realized one painful truth that led him to liberation at last. Human emotions are very intricate and delicate both at its lowest and highest. And so is love. When Alfredo was still passionately attached to Esperanza, he was overwhelmed. Taking the conversation of Alfredo’s sister, Carmen, and his father, Don Julian into consideration, readers can deliberately conclude that he was indeed in love. The excerpt was a good manifestation of how change in men occurs. But since change is men’s “wine and bread” according to Angela Manalang-Gloria, it is as essential as living itself, and therefore the most important things to be considered after the transition are the causes, the way one deals with change and the consequences. Alfredo was aware of the cause of his change. Another significant reason as to his emotional wanderings could be the length of time n which he was engaged o Esperanza. As what Don Julian had philosophize, couples who were engaged for so long become too comfortable and familiar with each other that the spark of love that was felt at the time the romance was just starting to blossom would expectantly cool down – that it “argues a certain placidity of temperament – or of affection – on the part of either, or both”. Another factor to be considered was the contrast of Alfredo and Julia’s personalities. Alfredo was “calm and placid” while Julia was lively and full of vitality. The difference between them must have excited him as he saw in her the things he lacked. However, though aware he was of the possible reasons why he, as well as men, or even humans in general, succumb to acts or thoughts of subtle infidelity, his attitude towards what is moral and not becomes shadowed in the attempts to justify his own behavior. Stances about the argument he had with Esperanza regarding the latter’s anger toward Calixta’s cohabitation with the man she’s not married to, may vary. But again, one’s act was expected to adhere with what is the established morality in a certain society. Because of what seemed as a liberal notion, Alfredo was trapped in a situation where he has to defend himself and in the process, what was manifested was his greed. Alfredo shows precariousness. He was uncertain of his feelings for both Julia and Esperanza.
These five selected stories; Silent Snow, Secret Snow, Rashomon, Popular Mechanics, Servant Girl, and Dead Stars reflects precariousness in human conditions. The main characters were uncertain of their emotions and thinking. They are like weather; they changes and they are not constant in decision-making. The most painful suffering is the uncertainty of what the present suffering might bring a person. Because there’s no guarantee, human condition is always precarious in different angles: about the end of the world, identity, emotion, survival, and circumstances. All these uncertainties may be present in life, but man has to realize he should not be shaken. R. I. Fitzhenry declared, “Uncertainty and mystery are energies of life. Don’t let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity.” Man may want to quest for certainty yet it blocks the search for meaning. He has to know that uncertainty is the very condition to impel him to unfold his powers. If your situation is precarious, you are not in complete control of events and might fail in what you are doing at any moment. Precariousness in human conditions always exist. In our everyday lives, we usually changes our mind. Nothing is permanent in this world. Everything is just temporary. Even our decision changes from time to time and we also regrets the most. We are just human. We are not perfect. We are weak.We were sometimes deceived by our own feelings and that is the reason why there are things in life that we made uncertain. We commit mistakes. We, people, the human condition is precarious.
The five short stories used in this paper are: The Fall of House of Usher, God Stealer, Rashomon, Servant Girl and Popular Mechanics. This stories are chosen for the instances shown in the story are happening in reality, with this we can then clearly see and identify the different human conditions that has a great precarious towards the family, self and society that the readers may reflect. On the further section of this paper, it discusses the background, summary of the story and the precariousness of human condition as reflected on the selected short stories. This paper will discuss also the disadvantages of the human characteristics portrayed by the characters in the different short stories and how it may affect the society and to the people around us. The character traits in the selected short stories are the major instrument to identify human condition's precariousness. Both minor and major characters are being used in this paper to wrap up all the main or salient point of determining the precariousness. Upon reflecting on each story's themes, moral lessons and character portrayal we can easily then determine the precariousness present and has been reflected in the storh in regards with the human conditio s. This paper will not just also analyze the characters portrayal but it also involves the different circumstances happening in real life situation to make things cleare and elaborately been explained for further clarrifications on the said claim.
The Fall of the House of Usher This story was written by Edgar Allan Poe and published in the year 1839. This story is about the narrator's friend named Roderick Usher who he visited the house since Roderick sent him a letter requesting him to come over at their house since he is suffering a physical and emotional ill. The narrator found their house creepy both outside and inside and even found cracks on yhe house's walls. When Madeline died, Roderick's twin sister because of Catalepsy a very strange disease, they both burry the girl temporarily on the tomb below the house not realizing that Madeline is still alive because according to Roderick he's afraid the doctor might use the body of her sister for a study. One night, Roderick and the narrator can't sleep that's why they just chosed to read a medieval story instead and let the night pass away and then suddenly they both heard a noise and Madeline was revealed on a door wearing a white blooded rob, because of fear Roderick died and the narrator run off away upon escaping, the house of Usher cracked and crumbled up on the ground.
God Stealer "God Stealer" was written by a Filipino National Artist F. Sionil José and published in the year 1959. The story is about Philip Latak an Ifugao who already forgot where did he came from and already considered himself as a city boy and his officemate and friend Sam Cristie an American, the two are heading to Baguio since Sam wants to buy an Ifugao God. When they arrive Latak's grandfather was glad that Latak came home that is why he wants to throw a party for his grandson, however, the two friends didn't found any Ifugao people who are willing to sell theirs. That is why during the party which is planned by Philip's grandfather as a welcome to him he stole the God of his grandfather just to give it to Sam as a sign of gratitude and the reason why the old man died knowing that the God was gone. For the trouble he made, Philip decided to stay in Ifugao and not to go back in Manila anymore because he felt guilty and decided to carve another God again as a replacement.
Rashomon Is a masterwork of Akira Kurosawa published in the year 1950. The story was nga between a servant and an old woman on a miserable gate of Rashomon. The servant was recently fired and currently thinking whether to become a thief or starve to death. When the servant go upstairs he saw the old woman getting hair from the dead body because according to the old woman she steals hair to survive from starvation, because of this the servant brutally robs the old woman's robe and then run off and disappear into the night.
Servant Girl A story written by Estrella Alfon. In the story, Rosa the servant girl has a drunkard mistress and has a bad temper and hits her hard. One day, Rosa was walking after washing the linens but got scared by dogs the reason why she fall and got strained. A Cochero helped her and send her home the reason why he start admiring the cochero and named it as "angel". One evening, Rosa's mistress asked her to buy a wine, Sancho the man who had a crush on her insists to walk
her home and Rosa got perveted by him that is why Rosa punched Sancho and Sancho hit her as well. When she got home, the mistress got furious because of the broken bottle of wine and hits Rosa hard the reason why Rosa run off from the house and while walking a horse come closer to her and the driver perveted her, for for that she throw a stone to the driver. The driver got furious and ask her why she did that, she recognized the guy and that was Angel she realized something. At the end of the story Pedro, the guy named angel sent Rosa home and she still end up being a servant girl.
Popular Mechanics A story written by Raymond Carver. The story starts with a husband packing things inside a room, when his wife saw the picture of their baby she get it. Later on, the couple then engaged on a huge argument regarding where the baby would be put the custody, both of them wants the baby and don't wanf to give to another. The husband wants the baby but the wife won't let him have it. The husband got furious and both the husband and wife grab the baby like its as if they're playing a tag-off-war and the baby fell not identified if what then happen next.
II. In the story of Edgar Allan Poe entitled The Fall of House of Usher, the character who portrayed a sudden precariousness are the Usher Siblings; Roderick and Madeline. The two both possesses a trait that eventually lead them to their fall. Specifically, Madeline the twin sister of the main character has this strange disease called catalepsy which made her twin brother the main character Roderick to freak out. For this, she has this sudden precariousness for making the people around her become hysteric because of her condition. Example of this situation is when she was burried alive and has been assumed by the narrator and Roderick that she was dead and has rose into life or even assumed as a ghost, that made Roderick scared and the cause of Roderick's death. As for Roderick Usher, he is such a hysteric, fearful and stupid or dumb kind of a person. Knowing what happened to his sister he didn't actually think what are the symptoms of his sister's disease enable for him not to get hysterical every time it occurs. The cause of his hysterical, fearfulness and dumbness are his death and the fall of their house. If we manage to analyze and reflect this traits portrayed by the character to human conditions in our society and reality, the kind of chaos happened inside the story will also happen in the reality. The story reflected such precariousness of human having this kind of traits specifically Roderick's traits acting in terms of sudden accidents or emergencies, if humans do have traits as what Roderick possesses those people can't help anything in an instance instead he or she will just make things worst as shown in the story itself. Accordingly, during emergency time we should not panick, freak out or what for us to think clearly and for us to know what would be the right thing to do without disturbing or making such thing to fail. Emergencies most especially
that kind of Madeline's case which involves death and life maybe will ofcourse make you panick, hysteric or unable to know what will do, this kind of reaction will absolutely lead into a precariousness since you can't be able to do anything to help an emergency and maybe because of this as mentioned earlier you'll just make everything worst. Secondly, in the story God Stealer, from the title itself it actually talks about a thief, and ofcourse thieves are dangerous which means stealer do really has a precarious traits. However, with this story, its not just about stealing but also accepting and loving who you really are or in other
words, its also about being contented of what you have. This story reflected a precarious towards human condition because the character of Latak or rather the main character is uncontented and has the ability to hurt the ones he love for his career or for his earthly cravings. It is not safe because first it can make the people around you hurt and even hate you, second you will definitely served well by the thing called 'karma' and lastly the people you love might gone because of this inappropriate attitude. Another main reason why the story reflect a sudden precariousness is because when Latak stole the God of his own grandfather. If we try to reflect, Latak can betray his own family how much more to other people? He can do every thing even if it takes a loved one to die for the sake of his desires and dreams which eventually at the end of the day, he was served by a karma and that is to feel guilty upon the death of his loving grandfather. Well, some people who has this great dreams in life do everything in a proper way just to fullfil the particular success, but stealing or making a bad move to get the thing or to fullfil the dreams you desire has this great danger not just to yourself but also to the people around who loves you so much and that has been shown
in this story. Danger or negative effects such as ruining your name that will eventually cause other people to not to respect you anymore, you will then recieve a lot of hurtful words and judgments against you because of what you just did which is stealing and you can't help but to let them since you're really guilty for doing so and this would then have a psychological effect within yourself or to someone who commit such thing. The person might isolate himself, starts to bs violent to those people who will bully or say hurtful words to him or maybe if he or she can't accept such already he or she might commit suicide and that is very dangerous not just to himself but also with the society. The precariousness of being such an uncontented person may or may not have a complete danger in the world or reality, but as what reflected in the story the fall of the character was also caused by this trait and possibly such trait will also maybe existing today and can be the reason also of anyones fall. The same case on the story Rashomon, it is also about being a thief but in the God Stealer's case it contains a twist involving the family, the race and dreams. In Rashomon, it shows desperation that triggers a person to do such crime. Again, this is not safe in a human condition for again stealing is a crime even if you just did that for survival. To the fact that it is not really a proper or
good thing it’s not really safe to do so. Truly, that poverty really has this factor of motivating a particular person to steal as what the main character portrayed in the story, we can conclude that within our society not all those people who steal does not make such things for fun or for buying illegal drugs but they do this to survive from starvation. However, even if the intention is good it is still not safe for it can harm other people as what the main character did to the old woman and it can make the freedom of the person who did this thing banished for he or she will always hide to run away from the crime he or she committed. Another precariousness condition of human reflected in the story is on how the minor characters made other people being fool. On a particular scene or part of the story, while the old woman was currently getting a hair from a woman's corpse she told the servant that the woman used to sell a dried snake's flesh and lies to the buyers that that was a fish but the truth is, its really not. What the woman did before is really not safe for maybe this things she sell might harm his buyer's health. Desperateness too was also portrayed by the woman to survive from starvation just like the servant and again this is not safe since your making the lives of others at risk because of such desperateness which eventually made a person think only for themselves and not with other people just to survive which is kind of unfair and shows a lack of sense of humanity. In the Servant Girl story, the precariousness of human condition shown in the story are the oppression of the mistress to the servant named as Rosa and how the two man namely Sancho and Pedro perveted or showed a lack of respect to the main character. Its really not safe and inappropriate how the mistress hit Rosa hard because of such shallow reasons, one example is when Rosa got home with a broken bottle of wine. She hits Rosa without knowing the servant's side why the bottle was broken and such. The mistress showed an inhuman act because of the violence, human's condition as shown here in the story's seen are very unfair, why? Since it shows that there would be an edge between rich and poor and it shows how pathetic the situation of the oppressed people and how violent and rude those people who gains a power. It somehow represent those people who doesn't care of what other might feel if they dis this, if they do that, those people who don't give a damn and only think only about themselves. This is a not safe trait and dangerous because he or she can make the one she or he's oppresing unto become depress and maybe can affect psychologically and inner struggle for instance. Another portrayal which shows a precariousness to this story is between the two man named Sancho and Pedro, of course
The Precariousness of human condition as reflected in five short stories Hershey Rose N. Unson ASENGL3
A human has its own individual character as he or she interacts with other people and towards the society. Precarious, dangerous and uncertain are one to describe the human condition that naturally humans act differently. It is clearly about the fundamental issues of human existence on how they live their lives, on how their lives affect by their society and on how nature rarely affects their lives. Naturally speaking, humans act differently because of dealing different situations that may lead into a positive or negative. Human condition is uncertain; he or she does not know when and where his or her life ends up. As what Martin Luther King, Jr. said that “All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.” This means that what makes possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty without knowing what comes next. Human condition is precarious for it has no guarantee at all as reflected in the five short stories that I will be tackling.
being a pervert is such a huge danger most especially in regards to woman in general just like Rosa. Pervert people can destroy someone's dignity and even respect. This shows an unsafe conditions for the pervertness might lead into a very bad move that will eventually destroy someone's life maybe. Seeing this kind of people in the society today, mostly those people who loves to pervert or show no respect to a girl are those people who has capabilities of harming a woman such as drug addicts and/or those people who already has an history of doing this so. This is a condition of a human kind that is very dangerous for if may lead to a sudden crime and importantly it can maybe affect someone's life emotionally and psychologically. Lastly, in the story Popular Mechanics, inside the story the society was not involve but the family was. The story shows that human precariousness can not only be seen and experienced through the society but it can also be seen inside the home or family. The human precariousness as reflected in the story is on the possesiveness of one kind that will actually lead to sudden accidents, its not saying that because of too much possesiveness is not good, its just that even if you are so you still got to do a proper process in acting so or act in a proper way of possessing something. The husband and wife inside this story was reflected as having a precariousness towards their child its because of how they involved the baby with their fight, if your going to read the story you will actually percept that the baby was totally hurt upon making him or her as a rope, like in a tag-off-war. Its really not safe knowing thaf this parents had the capabilities of hurting their baby because they let theirselves immerse on the angriness they felt among each other. This sudden precariousness was considered, for there are such negative effects they can cause towards their baby. First, the baby maybe at the end of the story died or even sent to the hospital because of the injuries acquired during their fight and maybe, it may affect the relationship of the baby towards them like for instance the baby suffered a trauma because of what they did. The wife in the story shows a warfreak kind of a woman, if we observe in the society if this kind of conflict happens they act calm even if they're not for the sake of their children for most of the mothers knows how to act calmly to avoid such violent and improper situations and to avoid such huge quarel issues and also to make all things good and end up peacefully. However, the mother or wife in this story didn't actually know how to act calmly and peacefully in front of her baby, in fact she didn't care if what would then her baby would feel
First, in “A clean well lighted place’’, man is precarious about nothingness and loneliness. An old man, an older waiter and younger waiter doesn’t have a name in the story. An old man comes every night in a well lighted café and drinks brandy until past closing time. A younger waiter always eager to return home for his wife is waiting for him. He doesn’t seem to care that others can’t say the same and doesn’t recognize that the café is a refuge for those who are lonely. The younger waiter is immature and says rude things to the old man because he wants to close the café early. He seems unaware that he won’t be young forever or that he may need a place to find solace later in life too. The old man tries to commit suicide because of despair but the younger waiter said that there is absolutely no reason to commit suicide if one has money. For the younger waiter, money solves all problems, but for old man nothingness is beyond the younger waiter’s understanding. Nothing or nothingness. This is exactly what the story is about. Nothingness and the steps we take against it. When confronting a world that is meaningless, you cannot reject it directly just likes cancelling a call or breaking up with your girlfriends or boyfriends, it means that it is clearly a subject matter of the feelings of man’s condition of nothingness. The intention of this particular old man is clean and that he likes to drink brandy in a clean, well-lighted place does leave with dignity. This is not much, this aged scrap of human dignity in the face of the human condition of nothingness, sometimes it is all that we have. We can clearly see that nothingness is the reason that the old man comes to the cafe every night and drinks until he is drunk. He doesn’t want to sleep until morning when it is still light. The story emphasizes the old man and the older waiter’s lives because the older waiter knows the nothingness of the old man. The older waiter knows all about despair and fear that the old man experience. What is important in the story is not only the condition of nothingness in the world but the way that the old man and the old waiter feel and respond to this nothingness. Just like light, it is an attempt to hold off the darkness, not permanently but as late as possible. The old man's essential loneliness is less intolerable in light, where there is dignity. The danger of being alone, in darkness, in nothingness, is suicide. At this point, we can clearly see differences between the old waiter and the young waiter especially in their antithetical attitudes toward the old man. The young waiter refuses to serve the old man another drink because he wants to get home to his wife, and, in contrast, the old waiter is resentful of the young waiter's behavior. The old waiter knows what it is like to have to go home in the dark. He himself will not go home to sleep until daybreak when he will not have to fall asleep in the nothingness of darkness. Left alone, the old waiter is isolated with his knowledge that all is nothing. He is standing at a dirty, unpolished bar. He cannot achieve even the dignity that the old man at the cafe possessed he knows that he will not sleep. Perhaps he has insomnia, but we know better. The old waiter cannot sleep because he is afraid of the darkness, afraid of nothingness.
upon witnessing such inappropriate scene even if she might think that the baby will still not understand. Psychologically speaking, due to this kind of conflict the baby can have a gap towards his parents and this will eventually lead to a misleading future of the baby. The precarious traits shown to this story has really the major effect on the baby.
III. This five stories presented in this paper merely shows some of the unsafe traits of a mankind that are present in our society. This story shows the effects of each characters precariousness within our own home or outside the walls of our home. It even shows some emotional, physical and psychological disadavantages of each negative characteristics reflected in the characters of each story. The story based on the precariousness of human condition discussed above tells that the story was not just created fictionally but it was created to present a trait of a mankind which has an effect both socially, physically, psychologically and emotionally. The character's presented are coward and ill (The Fall of House of Usher); theif, uncontented and desperate (God Stealer and Rashomon); Oppressed, violent and unrespectful (Servant Girl); and warfreak (Popular Mechanics). Obviously, this traits are really not safe for again as mentioned earlier it has negative effects on the society and even within oneself. Such human precariousness reflected on the five short stories selected may have an effect that depends on a person's own perception but most of the time it really has a negative effects. Being a warfreak, coward, having a strange disease, being desperate and being unrespectful may not affect and create a dangerous perceptions to others but some people mostly are somehow affected most especially for those people who has a sensitive feelings and minds that can may affect them psychologically to be exact. Though it may not have an effects within the society, but this not just affect someone but it can also affect emotionally and physically the person who does this things for the society might do something harmful against him or her, like for example, judging and saying hurtful words
Second, that man is precarious about identity portrayed in the “God stealer” by F. Sionil Jose. Philip Latak known as Ip-pig is working and living in Manila for his own good. He has a boss and a friend named Sam Christie, an American. Sam Christie wants a souvenir after seeing the place of Philip which is the God. In this sense, we Filipinos are very hospitable that we will do everything just to impress others without knowing that we are also offending other people. Philip, in order for him to impress Sam Christie, he stole the God of his grandfather just to give it to Sam Christie believing that it would be his way of showing his gratitude to Sam and also for giving him a rise at work not considering the consequences of stealing the God of his grandfather. The next day, his grandfather dies after knowing that his God was stolen. Because of what happened to his grandfather, he informs Sam that he will not going back to manila. Philip became miserable that he cannot bring back the life of his grandfather. He realize his full and final separation from the place he lives in before. The story shows two people with different origin, one from Philippines and the other from America. Philip comes from the Ifugao culture which is one of the oldest intact cultures in Asia. Philip became less sentimental with his cultural identity, beliefs and customs because his will is to impress and get a high rank with his work, he is struggling about his own than his cultural identity. He forgets the place where he became and molds him as a person. Identity holds no warranty for people with different mixture like Filipinos and Americans who are the character of the story. Hence, many Filipinos are uncertain about their identity. Thus, whichever identity Philip takes, he has no assurance that he can bring back his grandfather.
Third, that human is precarious about impermanence in the short story “The haunted house” by Virginia Woolf. There are only two character in the story which is the Ghost couple who are both flat and static. The story takes place in a house where two ghost, a couple where used to live. The Couple- Ghosts think that the present living occupants of their former house have already found the buried treasure that they are looking for. In these sense, we can see that the Ghosts- Couple misses the time when they are still alive and reminiscing the thing they were used to do with. The ghosts- couple are still searching for their treasure and they are wondering whether is in the garden realizing that the treasure was not found by the house’s present occupants the ghosts are relieved that it is safe, and such treasure is really theirs. The ghosts-couple compares their moment that lives in their house. That their moments are more cherished the couple who are present occupants in their house. Those moments are the best and opposite compares to the present couple that the happy thought and love that the ghosts shared with each other. This story is haunting yet beautiful the beginning starts off with a ghostly couple “That is looking for something, something that it is belong to them when they were alive. It has an irony that those who are belonging to you before won’t last for you are just living in this world impermanent. Things are not always as they appear. They are not permanent but rather they are impermanent. Finally the ghosts kwon that the treasure is really safe and theirs and such treasure is not tangible thing, but intangible, found in the light in the heart.
against him or her. Human precariousness as again reflected in the story shows how people can act rudely and cruelly to other people, it shows how huge are the possibilities they can do harm and negatively affect other peoples lives and confidence among themselves. It shows how can a person affect someone's relationship towards his or her own family or how can a family member hurt his or her co-family member. Generally, earch human comditions truly has a precarious effect that was shown upon analysing and upon reflecting on each five short stories selected. It explains that in every kimd of situation there will always be a precarious act and traits in each human that will lead or cause a sudden fall or conflict to our environment and society. As a whole, the reflected human conditions doesn't just affect the people around ans the environment but also within ourselves and inner struggle. If we think more deeply, in just one precarious consitions reflected in each story, it truly has an effect fo each and every human kind physically and emotionally. This five stories selected made an absolute details and themes in determining such precarious and living the readers mind something to reflect about by showing a negative traits of a human through the character's portrayal and how does this traits affect everything around us. As mentioned in the introduction, using real life situations to make things understandable is a great help upon reflecting from the precarious presented. As what have been observed this is really happening in our society today anyway so its not really that hard to reflect on it. With the help of determining such precariousness will help us know that this kind of things are existing and made us realize that such things do really has a big effects even if that was small or
even big. It definitely shows that in each one of us we can always had a not safe capabilities or traits that will really have a major effect to someone that will somehow made us realize and teach us that we should avoid to do such harma and always think and reflect before commiting or doing it so to avoid such conflict that can distort our image or personality our relationship to others and basically our living as a human. This study did show such precariousness will lead to such fall that actually the cause of not fullfiling such dreams, end up being the same as usual, suffer even harder and/or end up being disappointed as well. This made show us to realize and
even warn us to the sudden disadvantages of such precarious even if we think that the things we did are good enough. This paper presented the precarious behaviour of humankind as present in our society today base on the five stories selected in which those five stories merely showed most of the circumstances happening in our world today. As what explanation and reflection was presented on the first parts of this paper, it also made us conclude that the story is not just made for us to learn moral lessons but also to see beyond human's behaviour disadvantages that made us felt pity while reading the said story's since mostly of the main character of the story did made the readers felt pity because they had this pathetic situations encountered.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AP Literature Blog. August 2014. Popular Mechanics. Retrieved from https://emilyclineenglish.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/popular-mechanics-by-raymond-carver Edgar Allan Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” (reprint), The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe (1850), 1:291-309.Retrieved from http://www.eapoe.org/wor k s/tales/usherf.htm Rashomon Essay. Retrieved from http://www.megaessays.com/ viewpaper/1069.html Philippine Literature: The God Stealer (Fransico Sionil Jose). Retrieved from http://gabrielslibrary.blogspot.com/2010/04/god-stealer-fransico-sionil-jose.html?m=1 SERVANT GIRL by Estrella D. Alfon. Retrieved from http://www.sushidog.com/ bpss/stories/servant.htm
Fourth, that human is precarious about vengeance in the story Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe. The story is the narrator’s account of his ability to carry out a chilling plot of revenge against his offender. At the start of the story, Montresor describes how he has stilted annoyance towards Fortunato because of the “Thousand Injuries” however, when he is already offended Motresor wants vengeance. Towards his friend Fortunato Montresor takes advantage of tipsy Fortunato to his enormous house where there is no one else in light of the fact that he let his orderlies have the night off. He promise with a taste of Amontillado to Fortunato. When the two men reach the last underground part, Montresor enchain Fortunato to the wall builds a new one to seal him in and leave him alive to death loftiness is a destructive force by showing the cruelties go in order to take revenge. We can reflect to ourselves the importance of thinking about love actions, as for Montresor he didn’t, we would realize that violence is hover a good way to solve our problem. When we want to act with violence then we think that it is uncertain but we should also stop and think again, reflect on the cruelty of violence in the past and in the present, and we should always remind ourselves that there are better ways to solve one conflict.
Lastly, that human is precarious about forbidden love in the dead stars by Paz Marquez Benitez. The story is about the betrayal of self- feelings and the loss of a feeling to someone. Alfredo Salazar, who is the protagonist of the story, was betrothed to Esperanza, whom he loves so much in his youth and he promise to marry her. Alfredo speaks to men who are confounded and narrow minded who have been locked in to a young lady for quite a while and being undecided when to wed his fiancée. After around four years of engagement they were going to get hitched. He concedes the way that he was especially more satisfied with Julia than with Esperanza. Furthermore, it additionally difficult for Alfredo to hurt his fiancée in the event that he will break his guarantee as Esperanza is sat tight him for so long. Alfredo realized that he was giving Julia something he was not allowed to give the affection. He thought that it was simple being with Julia, so natural that he could overlook his stresses over how the world would say to him when they thought about his fiancée Esperanza. The affection in the middle of Alfredo and Julia appeared to be genuine, however look closer and one can express that it was not really shared that it is difficult to keep going. Esperanza's dedication to Alfredo looks like adoration. Be that as it may, the short story of affection here, however maybe bona fide to a point, for Alfredo, is apparently feeble and purposive. Frail, in light of the fact that it is in the end defeat the nature of fitting in with ordinarily acknowledged guidelines of conduct or good. Purposive, in light of the fact that it was only an instrument to legitimize his craving to go against to society. in the story, Alfredo experiences passionate feelings for Julia regardless of the possibility that he is as of now drawn in to Esperanza, however at last swears off the thought. he continued clutching "imagine a scenario where he didn't wed Esperanza and consider the possibility that he disregards the general public?" during the time of his marriage to Esperanza, however after meeting Julia once more, he understands that what he believed arrived, had now gone quite recently like dead stars that will be in the long run a dark gap. In the wake of meeting her once more, he comprehended that it was wistfulness that was grabbing hold of his heart, and not love that he once felt for her. it is said in the story that he is not content with his marriage, but rather a piece of him generally disappears from the world keeping in mind the end goal to long for another life that could have on the off chance that he had picked julia over Esperanza.
Since there is no guarantee, human condition is dependably tricky in distinctive edges, about the loneliness and nothingness, identity, impermanence, vengeance and forbidden love. All these instabilities might be available in life, yet human needs to figure it out he ought not be shaken. R. I. Fitzhenry declared, “uncertainty and mystery are energies of life. Don’t let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity.’’ Man might need to journey for conviction yet it hinders the quest for importance. He needs to realize that vulnerability is the very condition to instigate him to unravel his powers. Life indeed is a continuous battle. The human condition is dependably assailed with details, of hazards, of instabilities. The above different five short stories reflects unavoidable condition that mankind needs to confront. There will dependably be individuals who might proceed to play against fate, regardless of the trickiness of life.
The assumption that precarity is fundamental to human existence has often been transmuted into a will to precariousness as an authentic condition for being human. (Simon During 2015) Hannah Arendt in her Human Condition and refers to processes of thinking, willing and judging. It’s an evidence of precariousness of a character or for a human is that there are changes within him, internally and externally. In Joseph Conrad, when the main character Arsat has been in deep conflict within himself by the situation he encountered. The story goes like this. There is a white European sailor and his crew arrives at Arsat’s outpost on the edge of a lagoon in the Malayan archipelago, to find that his friend’s wife is dying of fever. The two men fall into reminiscence, and Arsat recounts how he came to form the relationship with his woman.He abducts her from her family with his brother’s help. His bother taunts him for not being more defiant, but Arsat knows that he will be killed if caught. Nevertheless, Arsat greatly admires his brother’s courage and strength. When they are pursued by the local Rajah’s men, Arsat’s brother holds them at bay with a gun whilst Arsat and the woman escape. But when all his shots are fired the pursuing men catch the brother and kill him. At this point in the narrative Arsat’s wife dies. The white man offers to take Arsat away on the ship, but he chooses to stay by the lagoon. The themes of the story are remorse, stagnation and selfishness. Remorse when he regret for abandoning his brother to the rajah's men. Stagnation when Arsat’s guilt has been poisoned their opportunity for a contented life. Selfishness when Arsat runs off with Diamelen without even to come to the aid of his brother. There are two contentions to support this claim. First, when Arsat realized that he made the wrong decision, that he chose romantic love over brotherly love. Second, when Arsat realized that life is uncertain and death is everywhere. In the first contention, in chapter 10 in the story “He paused and seemed to listen to them dying away very far- beyond help and beyond recall. Then he said quietly “Tuan, I love my brother”. In the second contention, it was stated in the Chapter 11. “Now, I can see nothing-see nothing. There is no light and no peace in this world, but there is death-death for many. We were sons of the same mother and I left him in the midst of the enemies, but I am going back now” In this line, we can see that death is always around. Tuan believed that with Diamelen, they can conquer everything even death. It was all wrong. Love is really deceitful. People should always keep in mind to balance it with logic and emotions most especially if families are involved. We should think and feel if what is the right thing to do and what is not. Procrastination, the opposite of decision, is a common enemy which practically every man must conquer.
Sometimes we find ourselves faced with difficult choices. In a life filled with choice after choice after choice, we're bound to make a few mistakes. Life can sometimes feel like a big game of trial and error, and often you don't have any idea what the best choice might be the people are responsible for their actions even if we are in the state that we only have to choose one from two great things. Think it wise and forecast the ramifications ahead of the decision. A bad decision is one in which you override your senses and choose an option that, at some level, you know you should not. Understand that there will be consequences to any decision. Sometimes these can be unpredictable and unexpected. The universe has its own plans, as they say. After such events it’s easy to say that you would have made a different decision. It's not easy to make mistakes and it's certainly harder to make mistakes when you knew the whole time that you were making them, but, by focusing on the present and on being positive, it's possible to overcome. If you want to move forward from wherever you've found yourself, again you have to take responsibility for your choices and actions. Keep in mind that this is not a time to think of excuses for why it happened; this is a time to understand why it happened so you can avoid making similar decisions in the future. If your decision hurt anyone else, the best thing you can do is apologize and explain. When you've made a bad decision, it can be tempting to dwell on that but, believe me, that's a waste of time. The most productive thing you can do to move forward from your choice is to focus on what's happening now. We do have different perception and how we live our life. As for me, I always practice dispassion and detachment in relation to the story. Some people dispassionately do battles in life with wicked outer elements while courageously facing inner enemies so he can be able to detach from them. Maybe in this power of detachment and dispassion enables one to face life’s challenges with calm and grace.In the eyes of other people reflect pain and disillusionment. They have beaten for life; they have so many broken dreams and only death awaits. Maybe from detachment can be one way of strengthening their spirit. The mistake they made was in preparing themselves for the harsh lessons their Creator set for them on life’s path. And also, going with the flow is not about giving up self-effort, but rather about accepting reality. It is about recognizing when it is time for action and when it is time to sit it out. After you have done all that is humanly possible during a period of crisis and the situation is still beyond your ability to remedy. Therefore, you should anchor yourself with spirit of endurance.
The short story "The Cask of Amontillado," by Edgar Allan Poe has often been considered to be one of the world's most perfect short stories. The theme for this story is about revenge. It’s when he was in deep rage to kill someone. The path to wealth is not to chase money for its own sake, but to understand and develop our own intrinsic talents and inclinations.Sometimes, it will rob your enthusiasm and creative brilliance if you don’t do a good deed. The goes like this, the narrator in this story vows revenge upon a man named Fortunato. He takes advantage of Fortunato's ego and lures him down into the recesses of an underground vault to taste a rare wine, a cask of Amontillado. The main character was Montressor, he was the one who abled to manipulate this other man and murdered it, and He started with a confusing sentence. He says, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.” This sentence is written in elaborate style, marks the speaker as a formal, educated man and meant to be from a respectable family. By the sentence itself, it actually means that Fortunato has been insulting Montressor and Montressor itself have took it personally and vowed for revenge. Perhaps Fortunato insulted him because of wine knowledge. It got to be so offensive. Montressor wants revenge with impunity. Impunity means without punishment. He want kill Fortunato in a way that it will not cause the police to come and arrest him. He also thinks that he is the redresser; he’s the one who’s going to bring justice to this situation. We can really outlook Montresor simply as an unreasonable, cold-blooded murderer. He presents us with only a vague understanding of his motivations, and his pretense of good will and careful manipulation of Fortunato indicates the care with which he has planned Fortunato's death. Fortunato does not realize the extent of his danger at the first place until he has been chained to the granite, and even then he remains too drunk to completely comprehend what has taken place for some time.
Montressor says” at length I would be avenged”. He didn’t want to take risk himself, he plays it cool and waited until an opportunity presents. So he lured him into his catacombs. One of his strategies is to play with Fortunato’s vanity in wine knowledge. There are two contentions to support this claim. First, when Montressor imagined insults such magnitude that causes him to do horrible revenge deeds. Second, when use honorable strategy in order to achieve his unforgivable deeds. The speaker has revealed that in the end that it happened fifty years ago. Maybe Montressor have said felt conscience for so long or he just wanted the audience to know that he had his sweetest revenge without being found out. In life, we shouldn’t be afraid of criticisms instead we should take it as a gift. It’s an opportunity for as to learn and change. We cannot escape from the judgments of other people, it comes naturally. But from whatever things we say, whatever things to do, we should acknowledge that it’s all our responsibility. Making bad deeds won’t make us even safer in this cruel world. Comparison begins with competition.When we lose our first race, we realize that someone else is faster than us. Montressor has been in this state already. If you compete and don’t win on a regular basis, you can develop the mindset that you will never achieve what you want.You become accustomed to disappointment. Disappointment can also materialize personal relationships.If you have experienced much disappointment in your life, this will eventually cause you to mistrust both others and yourself.You become cynical about it. Let’s be honest, when you imagine taking revenge on someone, nine times out of 10 you’re thinking about doing something illegal. Not smart. While you think it may feel good to get even, that feeling will so fade when they’re slapping the cuffs on your wrists. And if you mess around and take it too far, the loss of your freedom won’t be the biggest issue. Causing irreversible bodily harm or even taking a life would be hell on your conscious. People hurt people. That’s the way of the world. It’s nothing new. There’s no shame in getting hurt. It happens to all of us. There is however, shame in intentionally trying to hurt someone else. It’s childish.while your former flame may have intentionally or unintentionally hurt you along the way. Once you’ve taken your revenge you might feel a moment of contentment, but in the long run the pain hasn’t gone anywhere. This is also a good time for self- inquiry. When a man’s spirit keeps on demanding greater satisfaction for his conduct.He is in a state of uncertainty, confusion and sometimes pain and anger. He is overwhelmed by his own new discovery of a multitude of enemies within himself in the form of his own character defects: greed, anger, self-doubt, self-limitation, jealousy, envy, fear, shame, hatred, small mindedness, delusion, desire, hypocrisy and pretension.He has discovered that his own mind is the root of high and low, honor and insult, joy and sorrow. While at the same time his foes are many and his capacity to overcome these is meager. Usually at this stage, within himself he is going through a powerful transofmation for either good or for the bad.
Self-knowledge is essential to self-growth. Again, we must first understand motives for our own actions in order to understand others.The world is not so simple that we can just make and follow rules about what is right and wrong. We have to seek an understanding of ourselves so that we will know what we ought to do in any given situation. So back to the main character is in the battle of matter of material success. The circumstances will not change until his knowledge and understanding take on a living form within him. In conclusion, sometimes people with big egos who think that they are above average have a strong fear of failure.The greater the personal ego, the greater the sense of loss can be should be untinkable.This is a loss of status in the eyes of others, who will suddenly perceive that the egotistical person is not as powerful as they previously thought. So Montressor has a great personal ego. The Legend of Sleeping Hollow by Washington Irving is a creepy story. It uses imagination and the supernatural to make it a romantic piece of American literature that is still adapted by television today.The story starts off with this guy named Ichabod coming from Connecticut to Sleepy Hollow, NY to teach. The only skill he has is teaching. He moves around from neighborhood to neighborhood tutoring kids and staying in people's houses. He keeps all of his belongings in a big handkerchief. Then he gets a student named Katrina Van Tassel. Her family is very rich. Ichabod wants to marry her so he can get to her family's money. He has one big problem, because she has a boyfriend (Brom Bones). Brom Bones knows Ichabod is hitting on his woman so he plays a lot of pranks on Ichabod. Then Ichabod is invited to a party at Katrina's house. He goes there to try and get Katrina. Ichabod gets to dance with her and Brom Bones gets really jealous. After the party, Ichabod finds out that the only reason she danced with him was to make Brom Bones jealous. Ichabod gets mad and rides away. When he is riding, the headless horseman rides up to him and throws his head at Ichabod. The next day the people find Ichabod's horse but can't find Ichabod. They spread rumors about him. Some say he is dead, some say he is afraid to come back to Sleepy Hollow. Whenever Brom Bones hear people talk about the headless horseman and Ichabod, he smiles. There are two contentions to support this claim. First, when Brom Bones smiles when he hears the story about Ichabod Crane and the headless horseman.Second when Ichabod looks down on the people of the town. He thinks he is much smarter, because he comes from Connecticut. So, it makes it hard to feel sorry for him. In the first contention, it was stated in Chapter 10 that, “This story was matched by Brom Bones, who made light of the Galloping Hessian as an errant jockey. He affirmed that, on returning one night from a neighboring village, he had been overtaken by this midnight trooper; that he had offered to race with him for a bowl of punch, and should have won it, too”
In the second contention, Chapter 3 It was stated that, “He was, moreover, esteemed by the women as a man of great erudition, for he had read several books quite through, and was a perfect master of Cotton Mather's 'History of New England Witchcraft “. We are not perfect beings, but still behind these imperfections we absolutely want to go beyond limits. Sometimes, when we are eager to have something, we tend to take risk even if it will cost our time, money. With these investments, we don’t overlook the upcoming events and get disappointed instead. In the first contention, we can say that we can’t escape from people who love to see us suffer just for their own benefit. In the second contention, even if we think that we have everything. There is also a part of us that can weaken our thoughts and living. I cans see Ichabod was being bullied too.In life, bullying leaves a lot of wounds and scars in the victim. Fear is seriously the most destructive of emotions.Fear wears so many different masks and comes in so many forms.In our conscious awareness, fear is a vague but constantly nagging uneasiness.It is the biggest barrier for us to overcome in order to experience and fulfill our true potential. If your fears feel overwhelming, the distress from the fear can interfere with your ability to function and you may experience intense anxiety or nervousness. Reflect on your fears and notice how much they affect your life. Fear is an adaptive function that prolongs our lives.The story also wants us to foresee about breaking the bondage of fear of success and fear of failure. Each one of us is driven to a certain extent by fear- fear to rise, fear to fall, fear that we will remain in the same place. Every time we accomplish something and move ahead, we have to exchange the known conditions of our life for uncertainty and unfamiliarity. Before we can succeed, we must clearly understand that success means change and the risk of failure. I have a hard time thinking if who’s the arrogant one. But arrogant people assume that they will succeed at a given task. They have had success before.Its natural for them to think that success will continue to come their way. Arrogant people are disliked because they believed that they have a divine right to continued success. That Evening Sun by William Faulkner.It was first appeared in the March 1931 issue of American Mercury. It emphasizes the differences between the past and the present. It is a dark portrait of white Southerners' indifference to the crippling fears of one of their black employees. It is also an exploration of terror, vengeance, and solitude. This story has become one of Faulkner's best known and most popular stories.
"The Precariousness of Human Condition as Reflected in Five Select Short Stories"
Human condition according to Learn.lexiconic.net, “it's about the fundamental issues of human existence”. In other words, it is any thing concerning the human nature and existence, from characteristics, events and situations or how we live our lives. While, precarious is an adjective which means not safe, strong, or steady. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2016). It is synonymous to ‘dangerous’. The Precarious of human condition depends on the person involve. In the selected five stories (Servant Girl, The Cask of Amontillado, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, Popular Mechanics, and A Little Cloud), the precariousness of human condition is reflected in the different people or characters and different situations. The first story, “Servant Girl” by Estrella Alfon is about the servant who’s verbally and sometimes physically abused by her, obnoxious but kind at times, mistress. Her name is Rosa, and she always wants to go to the public bathhouse, to laugh and gossip with the other women there. When she got into an accident in the street, she met a cochero who treated her injury and bleached the linens. After that incident with the cochero, Rosa started to dream about him, being infatuated with what she named him “Angel”. But then she eventually realize that all those things about Angel were just her mind inventing things to comfort her in her everyday life as a servant, just some wishful thinking. In this story, the precariousness is reflected by the main character Rosa. She was a servant, and her only companion in the house is her mistress. It will be expected that, being a bit timid or just shy, she didn’t have any experience and knowledge in interacting with the opposite gender. When she took a liking with the cochero who helped her, she then assumed that the cochero have the mutual feelings with her. She expected too much on something she doesn’t really know about. She was being naïve and a bit irrational when she left her mistress’ house at the middle of the night. It was a precarious expectation she has, it was dangerous how she trusted some stranger and it was dangerous that she was walking in the streets at night. What if the cochero, or well known as Pedro, isn’t a nice person as she thought he is? There might something bad that could have happened to her just because she was depending on uncertain premises. This is one of example of the precariousness of human condition. When a person don’t have the knowledge or experience on something, something bad could happen to that individual.
The theme are conveyed by this story is fear, innocence and inequality.Faulkner's story reveals the tragic irony in the situation: Nancy's husband wants to kill her for her adulterous act despite the fact that she only slept with a white man because she was poor and needed money. Quentin is lamenting the change in society and the innocence that he may have lost since he was a child or that he is suggesting that like Jefferson, he too has changed and may not necessarily react, today, as he did as a nine year old when it came to Nancy’s plight. Quentin and his sibling’s inability to grasp the significance of what may happen Nancy is noticeable several times in the story. The theme inequality in the story, there are always inequality in life.When Mr Stovall beats up Nancy, despite the incident being witnessed by a policeman, Mr Stovall is not arrested. Mr Stovall, who is possibly the father of Nancy’s child is not only white but deemed to be a pillar of the community and as such no action is taken against him. No action being taken against Mr Stovall is purely based on his job (banker and deacon) and the colour of his skin. There are two contentions to support this claim. First, when Nancy was afraid for the ramifications. Second, the mindset of the society is sometimes unethical Racism comes out naturally, we can find inequality. Racism has a significant impact both on the individuals who experience it and the wider community. There’s one thing from this story wants to give in. During crisis, don’t let outsiders in on miseries. Because even the most sympathetic people would rather be in the company of a winner. To those who have contributed to and cased your crisis , do not give them the satisfaction of knowing that they have the power to hurt you. We have to let them know that our apparent crisis turned out to be a blessing in disguise. When drastic change and chaos occur in your life, a very effective antidote is inactivity. Except if we really need justice but for some small instances that we can’t avoid in our life. Doing nothing is easier said than done, especially when ones life has been turned upside down. It requires tremendous power of endurance and ability to act against every instinct of our nature, which continuously attempts to repair the situation. When you recognize the proper time to act, this newfound energy will aid you in realizing your desired result. Some people thought that they are way better than the other, or they judge you for what they see but not what you feel. The story may also remind us we should live our life as if it were someone else’s. If you find your life unbearable, then imagine the life you are living is not yours and that it belongs to someone else. You will fear no criticism and agonize over no defeat. Knowing how to handle adversity is a valuable skill. It is all about the state of mind. Our negative experiences in life are essential elements for us fulfill our intended destiny. Unless we possess the power of endurance to live through the dark of the night, we will not see the glory of daybreak. The twin influences of blame and criticism gradually eat away at your natural confidence. They can come from a number of different sources. You presume that there must be something wrong with you, because frequently this exclusion comes without explanation or reason. The impact of loneliness causes you to reflect inwardly and presume that you are at fault, since others have clearly found reason not to include.
The second story, “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, is a story of Montresor, have been insulted by Fortunato, seeking revenge. He lured Fortunato by deceiving him about a cask of Amontillado. Fortunato, being fond of wine, went with him. Montresor brought him to the deepest part of his home, the catacombs. There he trapped Fortunato, putting a brick wall that Fortunato can’t get out of and left him for dead. In this story, the precariousness of human condition is reflected by both Montresor and Fortunato. Montresor was filled with so much negative emotions that he was blended in thinking rationally. Humans are different from other animals because humans have the ability to think rationally, but because we tend to depend on our emotions, a human will think irrationally, leaving human not far from common animals. To Montresor, the precariousness of human condition he reflected in the story is the emotionality of the humans. It affected his decision making. To Fortunato, he reflected the dangerous way of living of the most human being. About Fortunato, to my understanding, was a bit of a tactless person. He reflected most personalities or characters of human beings. Humans will make jokes and humours, but sometimes going overboard and becoming insensitive of other people, and because human’s emotion is heightened than the rational part, it is resulting of someone being hurt. If all humans could have think first before uttering words, there will be no word such as ‘revenge’. There’s also the precariousness of how he live his life, a happy-go-lucky kind of life Fortunato live. In the third story, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway, the two waiters are waiting to close up their café for the night. They only have one customer left, an old man. He's a regular at the café, and the waiters seem to know all about him. Apparently, the old man attempted to hang himself the previous week, but was stopped mid-suicide by his niece. The older waiter and younger waiter argued about the possible cause. Throughout the night, the younger waiter keeps insulting the old man and in the last part refuses to give the old man another order, for a reason of wanting to go home already. It ended with the waiters closing because the old man paid already. The older waiter took his time in closing, thinking about people like the old man, just wanting to have a clean, well-lighted place to kill time alone.
The short story A Haunted House by Virginia Woolf is a story about permanence of love, the difficulties of marriage, the inevitability of death. When looking at its title, the reader presupposes that this is going to be an obviously scary narrative. But the story is about the importance of love. It didn’t sound scary because of the use of narrative style and poetic devices. To cut the story short, in the same the house ghosts search for their treasure, they roam the house, opening and closing doors and drawing curtains back. here the house is haunted not by the ghosts themselves, but by the memories they made there Although they try not to disturb the living couple, the latter can hear them now and then.The narration reveals that it is the rediscovery of the places in and around the house where the ghosts spent little moments expressing their love for each other. After an encounter with the ghost couple in their bedroom, the living couple realizes what the ghosts are seeking. It’s the treasure of love. Love is what we live for and is truly the most important thing in our lives. The real mark of greatness is shown through love’s actions of kindness, compassion, helpfulness, and caring. You feel this in your heart. You’re on the right path and in your right place if you feel love in your heart and let it live there to motivate, guide, heal, and influence yourself and others. Through love we find our sense of belonging. It may not come through the form of family, but through others who are close to you and who you care about and who show up for you. . Exactly three things need to be remembered in a marriage if it is to be a mutual bond of sharing, caring, and loving throughout life: love, trust, and forgiveness. We know a hundred number of couples in healthy, long-term marriages who still fight the urge to love stupidly.Everyone has an opinion on love, but there are so many contradictions. The truth can only be found in the bible. If only you have understand the words you’ve read, then probably you have a good idea of what love really is. Love in its genuine form requires a complete focus not just on the wants of the other person but also their mental, emotional,social, physical, and spiritual needs. However, some people are blinded to what really matters. They tend to forget what really is important in life. It’s not about money or any material things but the love for each other.
The precariousness of human condition is reflected by the old man and the younger waiter. The old man was a lonely man, which was obvious. When human beings are lonely, it is sided by the emotion of sadness. In most said in studies, when a person is sad or depressed, there will be a possibility of having a thought of suicides and acting on it. In the old man’s situation, he is one of those people who think that dying is the only solution to their problems. It is another example of precarious emotionality of human condition. Then, there’s the younger man. He was being insensitive to the feelings and situation of the old man. He was having a precarious mouth. Just like Fortunato in The Cask of Amontillado, the younger man was being tactless. The only upside in this story was the older waiter who understood the people like the old man. The fourth story, “Popular Mechanics” by Raymond Carver, is about a couple fighting. It started with the man packing his things in the bedroom, while the woman nagged about him leaving. When the man was about to leave, at that time the woman was carrying their baby, he wanted to take the baby with him. He took the baby from the woman, but the woman doesn’t want the man to take the baby with him, so she took the baby back, but the man won’t let go. They keep pulling the baby to their side, like playing a tag-of-war, while the baby cried loudly. The story ended in hanging cliff. In this story, the precariousness of human condition was reflected by the couple. They were both filled with negative emotions, there’s some anger, sadness and pain, but it was portrayed by no specific character. Just the situation, just by reading it, those emotions was identified. The couple was having an unstable relationship, leading to the man wanting to leave. They have reflected the lack of stability in relationships, which occurs in most human relationship. Be it with a lover, a friend, a sibling, or a family. Without secureness or stability, the relationship is bound to crash down. Like what happened in the story. It is how they live their lives, it was dangerous and not only to them but also to their child. The obvious precariousness of the story, the way the couple handled the baby was dangerous. There could have happened with the baby, something bad, if the story was not left hanging. If the story was continued, the baby would be in harm, and then it will lead to both of the man and the woman blaming each other. It was a precarious emotions that they have, it resulted danger in the child’s life.
Human beings will invest time and energy with those who can benefit them the most. Our culture is driven by our ego’s needs, which means that if we are important, we have a chance of being recognized as wonderful, great, or admirable. We can call it as greed The World English Dictionary defined that "greed is excessive consumption of or desire for food; gluttony; excessive desire, as for wealth or power." Greed has caused more damage to the relationships of families and friends. This source of greed truly demonstrates that our society, whom cherishes things more than people or relationships. Often we are so concerned with what makes us feel good that we forget what makes us great. Greed is definitely one of the seven deadliest and a human failing that few manage to escape and it has been the downfall of many. Sacrifice and love are only medicines that can cure it. The Qur’an says: Ignominy shall be their portion wherever they are, unless they (seize) a rope from God or a rope from people (3:112). This means that those nations can make progress when they begin to obey God’s commands or are backed by some powers, as is the case today. Otherwise, ignominy shall follow them. Regardless of their current status, when compared with their long history of ignominy, they still live in constant fear,insecurity, and uncertainty about their future. (Nursi 2002).
In general conclusion, these five stories have depicted most important life lessons that we should ponder. Whatever the source of our insight, it’s these moments that bring us to a deeper understanding of our world. The better understanding we have of life, the more we live in the truth. First, there are fearsome monsters out there, but if you stare into all their yellow eyes without blinking once, you can tame them and temper them and get home before supper gets cold. Second, No matter what your vice is knowledge, avarice be prepared to curb it or pay the price.Third, Think through the consequences of your actions. Most especially if you want to avenge something that would go beyond limits in moral law. The moral lesson we may derive is that Revenge is not always equal to the offense it portends to make right, particularly if the act of retribution is murder. Fourth, greediness blinded us to what really is important. Greed has caused more damage to the relationships of families and friends.Be kind,You have no idea what the other person is going through. This could be the worst day of their life. Take deep breaths and count to ten before you act or respond to them.Relieving the pressure on youself, you can cope up much better. And also, don’t be frightened to speak from the heart.If you feel passionately about your subject, let the audience feel the passion.Passion helps make a talk memorable because it increases the rate of knowledge.Some lessons are already mention at the end of every story.
The fifth and the last story, “A Little Cloud” by James Joyce, is about Little Chandler. Little Chandler's friend, Gallaher, left Dublin eight years ago for London, and has since made a successful career for himself as a journalist. But then Gallaher's coming back for a visit and wants to see Little Chandler. Little Chandler works as a copyist in Dublin, but as he thinks about Gallaher, his friend’s achievement, "he became sad." They met and chat, catching up with their lives. While their talking, Chandler was becoming jealous and sort of comparing himself to his friend. After they meet, in chandler’s house, he was left at home with his kid while his wife went out to get groceries. While the kid was sleeping, he keeps on thinking of ‘what ifs’. What if he was not married, what if he also left Dublin, what would his life would be. The little baby wakes up crying, and won't stop. Chandler's really impatient, and he yells "Stop!" at the child, who begins to scream and "sob convulsively". It was a bad timing, because right at the same moment, Annie comes home, and she got angry that she looks at Chandler with "hatred." She then took the child. Chandler then, felt so ashamed that he starts to cry like a baby. In this last story, the precarious human condition was reflected by the main character, Little Chandler. He was at first a simple family man in a simple town. But when he reunited with his old friend, he started to change. His character turned into the envious, doubtful and prideful person. He compared himself to his friend in the past and concluded that he should be in Gallaher’s place because he was smarter than him before. Then he doubted his decision in marrying his wife, having the life he has right now. The precariousness of the fast shift of his characteristics, the precariousness of his internal conflict and the precariousness of his emotions, those are the precariousness of human condition that Little Chandler poses. He thought that he had lost his aspiration of having a better life and that’s why his trapped in the life he currently lives. Most of the characters in those five stories have a common denominator, they have been too dependent on their emotions. It causes them to decide the way they did, which lead them in pain or in danger. In conclusion, when a human being is emotional, it can lead to irrational thoughts. Those thoughts would affect the human’s decision making that could lead them to danger. The precariousness of human condition as reflected in five select short stories was the unbalanced way of thinking of human beings. Our human nature, human society and how humans should live their lives should be in balance. To not live life just playing but also working, to have our natural animal instincts and characteristics while also being civilized. With these, we could prevent the precariousness of human condition and could live our lives to the fullest.
REFERENCES: Michael J. Cummings. The Lagoon: A study guide. (2009) Retrieved from: http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides6/Lagoon.html. CliffsNotes. Poe's Short Stories. Retrieved from http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/p/poes-short-stories/summary-and-analysis/the-cask-of-amontillado Cliffsnotes.Faulkner's Short Stories. Retrieved from http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/f/faulkners-short-stories/summary-and-analysis-that-evening-sun/introduction Eastoftheweb.The Legend of Sleeping Hollow. Retrieved from http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LegSle.shtml Grade Saver.The Legend of Sleeping Hollow Summary. Retrieved from http://www.gradesaver.com/the-legend-of-sleepy-hollow/study-guide/summary Rotten Tomatoes. A Haunted House. Retrieved from http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_haunted_house/ Ebooks. A Haunted House. Retrieved from https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91h/chapter1.html
Reference: Merriam-Dictionary.com (2016) Welch, C. (2015). What is the "human condition"?. Retrieved from http://learn.lexiconic.net/humancondition.htm “Servant Girl” by Estrella Alfon The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway “Popular Mechanics” by Raymond Carver “A Little Cloud” by James Joyce
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ReplyDeleteRinan T Dayonayos
ReplyDeleteAB English TTh (7-8:30am)
Understanding Fiction (Eng. 42).
The Precariousness of Human Condition as
Reflected in Five Selected Short Stories
Precarious is one of the words that describe the behaviors of humans on their interaction within themselves and towards the society. Another describe for the word “precarious" are uncertain, dangerously, unsteady and insecure. People have different characteristics and attitudes. People are natural to them to have feelings and emotions. But before they have it, where it came from, is there a process due to the final actions. Biologically and chemically, emotions and feelings are works of an individual own brain chemical process. It is used the five senses to determine the people why their act before brain process come out (Biology Book, 2002). The five senses which described are sense of sight, hear, touch, taste and smell.
Moreover, According to Arendt (1958) on her work entitled The Human Condition stated that “Human condition is indeed the portrait of a precarious world of instability and of uncertain future. People don't know when or where an emotion comes out and it cannot predict when behaviors feel it. Because it depends to the environment and people why do humans act differently? Maybe because they discriminate in the society or because of his/her childhood feel unimportant. Not only in real people have characteristics or behaviors but also in fictional characters of the stories and novels in literature. In literature, if the characters feel angry also in reality man are also feel angry. Literature plays different roles in our lives. In selecting five short stories to give discussions and life these are The Cask of Amontillado, The God Stealer, A Country Doctor, The Legend of Sleepy Hallow and How to Tell a True War Story.
One clear evident of precariousness of a character or for a human is that there are insecurities and selfish with them internally and externally. In the story of Cask of Amontillado written by Edgar Allan Poe there are two men who had problem with itself in their personalities. The narrator, Montresor, opens the story by stating that he has been irreparably insulted by his acquaintance named Fortunato that he want to seeks for revenge.
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ReplyDeleteSo based on line it is clearly stated he wants revenge to fortunato so it means Montressor had embedded precariousness. Human also sometimes seek for revenge when it comes they are angry and they hurt. So it is natural to human to have that kind of personalities.
ReplyDeleteDuring the carnival season, Montresor, wearing a mask of black silk, approaches Fortunato. He tells Fortunato that he has acquired something that could pass for Amontillado, a light Spanish sherry. Fortunato (Italian for “fortunate”) wears the multicolored costume of the jester, including a cone cap with bells. Montresor tells Fortunato that if he is too busy, he will ask a man named Luchesi to taste it. Fortunato apparently considers Luchesi a competitor and claims that this man could not tell Amontillado from other types of sherry. Fortunato is anxious to taste the wine and to determine for Montresor whether or not it is truly Amontillado. Fortunato insists that they go to Montresor’s vaults. So based also in the line it is stated that Fortunate is selfish and a competitive. So it means Fortunato embedded the precariousness. Also human has attitude being selfish and sometimes being competitive themselves. Whether they believe or not human has attitude being selfish.
Montresor has strategically planned for this meeting by sending his servants away to the carnival. The two men descend into the damp vaults, which are covered with nitre, or saltpeter, a whitish mineral. Apparently aggravated by the nitre, Fortunato begins to cough. The narrator keeps offering to bring Fortunato back home, but Fortunato refuses. Instead, he accepts wine as the antidote to his cough. The men continue to explore the deep vaults, which are full of the dead bodies of the Montresor family.
Later in their journey, Fortunato makes a hand movement that is a secret sign of the Masons, an exclusive fraternal organization. Montresor does not recognize this hand signal, though he claims that he is a Mason. When Fortunato asks for proof, Montresor shows him his trowel, the implication being that Montresor is an actual stonemason. Fortunato says that he must be jesting, and the two men continue onward. The men walk into a crypt, where human bones decorate three of the four walls. The bones from the fourth wall have
been thrown down on the ground. On the exposed wall is a small recess, where Montresor tells Fortunato that the Amontillado is being stored. Fortunato, now heavily intoxicated, goes to the back of the recess. Montresor then suddenly chains the slow-footed Fortunato to a stone.
ReplyDeleteTaunting Fortunato with an offer to leave, Montresor begins to wall up the entrance to this small crypt, thereby trapping Fortunato inside. Fortunato screams confusedly as Montresor builds the first layer of the wall. The alcohol soon wears off and Fortunato moans, terrified and helpless. As the layers continue to rise, though, Fortunato falls silent. Just as Montresor is about to finish, Fortunato laughs as if Montresor is playing a joke on him, but Montresor is not joking. At last, after a final plea, “For the love of God, Montresor!” Fortunato stops answering Montresor, who then twice calls out his enemy’s name. After no response, Montresor claims that his heart feels sick because of the dampness of the catacombs. He fits the last stone into place and plasters the wall closed, his actions accompanied only by the jingling of Fortunato’s bells. He finally repositions the bones on the fourth wall. For fifty years, he writes, no one has disturbed them. He concludes with a Latin phrase meaning “May he rest in peace."
So in the story Cask of Amontillado, the two characters both had embedded the precariousness. People live in this world to make anything that they want. Because through the incident that Montressor seek for a revenge to Fortunato because he did not like the attitude of it, in short, being selfish. Because when it comes if you are not control yourself and the emotions comes out you can expressed or you can make a good or bad things. But in reality it is also happened neither in the stories nor the novels. We know in the bible stated in some part of it “Vengeance is mine" so whether if you felt bad to that person you don't need to make things. Because only God has power to do revenge and he is the only one who judge us in inside and outside.
If a man seeks for revenge because of his insecurities and the other man died because
through of his being selfishness in the story, the other story next entitled The God Stealer written by F. Sionil Jose. The story is about of a friendship. An American and a Filipino go to the Cordilleras to look at the rice terraces which were built by the Filipino's ancestors. There they find the meaning of their friendship, how it defines the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized.
ReplyDeleteThe story begins with two men named Philip Latak (an Ifugao from the Mountain Province now working in Manila) and Sam Cristie, an American on the bus to Baguio.Philip (Ip-pig) now lives in Manila against the wishes of his immediate family, particularly his grandfather who intended to bequeth to Philip his share of the famous rice terraces. They are on their way to Baguio for one purpose: Sam wants to buy a genuine Ifugao god as souvenir and Philip was to help him find an authentic one through his local connections.
Philip is a Christian who no longer has any respect or affection for the Ifugao customs and religion.He considers himself a city boy and has no inclination to return to mountain life. Despite this attitude, his grandfather is pleased to see him and decides to throw a big party in his honor. On the day of the party, Sam and Philip discover that no Ifugao is willing to sell his god. And as a last resort, Philip offers to steal the god of his grandfather because he feels it would be his way of showing his gratitude to Sam for giving him a rise at work. The consequences of this act are severe.The next day, his grandfather died because he discovered that his god was stolen. He also informs Sam that Philip will no longer be going back to Manila. Curious, Sam looks for Philip and find him working in his grandfather's house. Philip poignantly explains his reasons for choosing to stay in the mountains:
"I could forgive myself for having stolen it. But the old man- he had always been wise, Sam. He knew that it was I who did it from the very start. He wanted so much to believe that it wasn't I. But he couldn't pretend - and neither can I. I killed him, Sam. I killed him because I wanted to be free from these. These cursed terraces. Because I wanted to be
grateful. I killed him who loved me most.." a faltering and stifled sob.In the dark hut, Sam noticed that Philip is now attired in G-string, the traditional costume of the Ifugao. Furthermore, Philip is busy carving another idol, a new god to replace the old one which Sam will take to America as a souvenir.
ReplyDeleteIn the story The God Stealer, Philip Latak had embedded the precariousness. Because he changes a lot after he worked in Manila. Philip chose first what his friend wants than to his grandfather. Filipino people are too hospitable and generous when it comes often to the foreigners. But at last his grandfather was died because the God was stealing. It is significant to his grandfather to preserve their culture and suddenly it was lost and stolen. Philip's repudiation of his Ifugao heritage may be extrapolated to mean that Filipino's rejection of his own roots and its replacement with colonial values. It is significant that Philip steals the God for Sam out of gratitude. It is the Filipino gave up his most precious symbol of his past traditions to the Americans as an expression of gratitude. And by giving this symbol away, the Filipino murders his own roots. The Filipino is a confused, emotionally disturbed and helpless, plagued by the fact that he repudiated his past, or that he could not do anything to help the suffering. Symbolic of the foreigner's exploitation and imperialistic ambitions on the Filipino.
If the culture is often not precious because of his friend will. The next story is entitled A Country Doctor written by Franz Kafka. The story was written in the first person, thereby imparting an exciting degree of immediacy to the story. The story begins in the past, switches to the present in the rape scene, reverts to the past, and finally shifts back to the present at the end, thus elevating the final catastrophe to the level of timelessness. At an even faster pace, images that share no logical connection with each other rush toward the story's last sentence. "A false alarm on the night bell once answered, it cannot be made good, not ever." Here is a good starting point for examining the story. From the story's last sentence; it becomes evident that the whole story is the inevitable consequence of a single
mistake. In human we truly respect our profession and we need to help the people. As a doctor we need to save our patient to need to still alive. Because when it comes that you are a doctor, people called you a savior in the land.
ReplyDeleteIn portraying this nightmare, Kafka has succeeded in portraying the situation of the man who wants to help but cannot. Kafka may well have seen himself and the whole profession of writers in the position of the country doctor: a man fighting against ignorance, selfishness and superstition, he remains exposed to "the frost of this most unhappy of ages." This is a diagnosis not only of a specific situation but also of the condition of our whole age. This is why the patient's question is not if the doctor will heal him or cure him, but if he will save him. "That's how the people act in my district; they always expect the impossible from the doctor," he says, explaining why he or, on another plane, the writer — cannot be of any real help to the patient. He finds himself confronted with people whose consciousness is still attached to the realm of magic. They reveal this by stripping the doctor of his clothes and laying him in the bed alongside the patient. "The utterly simple" tune following this ritual reflects their primitivism, which would not hesitate to use the doctor as a scapegoat and kill him if his art should not work.
Although "In the Penal Colony," written two years earlier, is a better expression of Kafka's horror of World War I, there is much concern here for innocent scapegoats. The anxiety prevailing throughout this story also reflects Kafka's problems resulting from his second engagement to Felice Bauer and his deteriorating health. Shortly after his condition was diagnosed as tuberculosis, he wrote to Max Brod that he had predicted this disease himself and that his anticipation occurred in the wound of the sick boy in "A Country Doctor."
There are many more autobiographical elements, none of them "proving" anything in the strict sense of the word, but all of them shedding some additional light on the gloomy world of Kafka. The story is dedicated to his father, who ignored it completely. The misunderstanding between the physician and the patient is a reflection of the equally barren
relationship between the old Kafka and the young Kafka. Knowing to what extremes Kafka tends to carry the art of name-giving, it is easy to see that the servant girl's name, Rose, is by no means accidental: "rosered" is the color of the meticulously described wound, and the color rose, as well as the flower, is an age-old symbol of love in its manifold facets. There is no need to insist on one specific meaning of the word, if only because Kafka himself does not. The meaning is clear, considering that December 1917, the year after he wrote "A Country Doctor," brought Kafka's final separation from Felice, his "rose" in both senses of the word.
ReplyDeleteThe groom represents Kafka's sometimes almost obsessive fear of a sexually superior rival. On this subject, he wrote that Felice did not stay alone and that someone else got close to her who did not have the problems which he, Kafka, had to face. In the story, the groom certainly gets to Rose easily, and if she says "no," she nevertheless runs into the house fully aware of her fate. "If they misuse me for sacred reasons, I let that happen too," the doctor says. Yet his sacrifice would be senseless because it is beyond a physician's power to help an age spiritually out of kilter. It is out of kilter because, as everywhere in Kafka's work, people have lost their faith and have taken to living "outside the law," listening to the false prophets of unbridled technological progress and conformism. The boy does not trust the doctor, and his family displays the subservient and naive behavior of the average patient. As the doctor puts it: "They have discarded their old beliefs; the minister sits at home, unraveling his vestments, one by one; but the doctor is supposed to be omnipotent." This is why the song of "Oh be joyful, all you patients — the doctor's laid in bed beside you!" is the "new but faulty song": the empirical and the transcendental realms are no longer one; the only way they meet is in the form of a clash leading to a "false alarm."
Only if we understand Kafka's notion of disease as resulting from seclusion can we begin to understand the country doctor. He is the subject and the object of his long quest or, expressed differently, the psychoanalyst of his own inner landscape (on another level, our
whole secularized age) and the patient. And Kafka, though interested in Freud's teachings, regarded at least the therapeutical part of psychoanalysis as a hopeless error. According to Kafka, anxiety and concomitant alienation are the direct consequence of man's spiritual withering, and all psychoanalysis can possibly do is discover the myriad pieces of one's shattered universe.
ReplyDeleteWithout his doing anything special, the doctor draws exactly the help he needs when he kicks the door of the pigsty. Like his whole trip, the sudden appearance of horses, groom, and gig bears the mark of the miraculous and the supernatural. Ever since Plato's (Phaidros) famous parable of the chariot being pulled by one white horse and one black horse, symbolizing the bright and the dark aspects of irrationality (rationality is in charge and tries to steer a middle course), horses have symbolized instincts and drives. The fact that they have come out of a pigsty here underscores their animalistic nature. Twice the doctor complains that his own horse died, and both times his remarks are accompanied by winter scenes, suggesting the barrenness of the (spiritual) wasteland around him.
Right away, the horses respond to the fiery "gee up" of the groom, who has already demonstrated his kinship with their world by calling them "brother" and "sister." The doctor also yells "gee up" at the end but, time being the correlative of experience, they will only crawl "slowly, like old men"; escaping from the patient and erring through the snowy wastes, the doctor has no experience by which to divide up time and, consequently, loses his orientation. The horses take over completely, at any rate, covering the distance to the patient's farm in an incredibly short period of time which, symbolically enough, is exactly the time it takes the groom to subdue Rose. Greatly adding to the story's dramatic impact, the doctor's night journey and Rose's rape are merged here on a logically inexplicable level.
"You never know what you're going to find in your house," Rose says, "and we both laughed." This line may be a clue. It is important that it is she who says this statement; she is better attuned to the realm of irrational forces than he, who spends most of his trip regretting that he has never noticed her, much less enjoyed her physically and spiritually.
Now he realizes his negligence, but now it is too late because she has already been sacrificed to the groom. Her comment and their laughter at the sudden appearance of the horses reveal that these sensual and spiritual elements are present, but that they need to be brought out. On a literal level, this happens as they come out of the pigsty.
ReplyDeleteThe closing picture of the fur coat trailing in the snow behind the doctor mirrors the helplessness of one who has been "betrayed." Traveling through endless wastes on his straying gig, the doctor is doomed to see the symbol of warmth and security without being able to reach it. Naked and cold and gone astray, the country doctor is the pitiful picture of disoriented mankind drifting over the treacherous landscape of its sick collective consciousness. And there is no end in sight because "he was used to that."
The question of the doctor's guilt provokes thoughts of uncertainty and ambiguity. As everywhere else in Kafka's work, the hero does not commit a crime or even a grave error. We are apt to get closer to the situation when we realize that he maneuvers himself, or permits himself to be maneuvered, into a state of mind which forces him to refrain from concrete decisions and commitments. In this sense, he becomes guilty of the classic existential sin, failing or refusing to become involved. By not taking his profession seriously and therefore lacking in responsibility, he forfeits his only chance of taking the decisive step from mere vegetating to conscious living. True, as a medical man he cannot be expected to save a patient whose sickness is, above all, of a spiritual nature. Yet he is guilty because he lacks the will to try his level best; he is afraid to act like a "world reformer" and pats himself on the shoulder for doing so much work for so little pay. Nor does he bother to view the wound as the result of the complex but undeniable interrelationship between physical and psychological factors of which Kafka himself was very much aware. Symptomatic of our age, the country doctor is the one-dimensional man who has lost a sense of participation, not only in the sphere of the sensual, but also in that of the spiritual. Like the doctor himself, his "pack of patients" has stepped outside the law" and into chaos. From there, they cannot help, the point being that they have lost the
capability of doing that long ago. Whoever breaks out of Kafka's "human circle" alienates himself to the point of death. Kafka is most clear in this story: the impossibility of curing our age is his subject.
ReplyDeleteThe doctor embedded the precariousness because he chose his profession than to his fiancée. Human being sometimes chooses first their profession to gain more income. But through our profession also lead us to circumstances. Sometimes we need to think of it what is the best to do and try to make it. Because the doctor chose the patient that he knew that it will going to be died but he try to act that the patient will still alive. But the consequence of that is maybe his fiancée was raped into the lust person. It was not stated in the last part what happened to the doctor’s fiancée, but if you think that his fiancée with someone lust person it could be have something bad happened.
The next story is entitled The Legend of Sleepy Hollow it was represents Irving’s second comic masterpiece, a ghostly tale about things that go bump in the night. The specter in question here is the mysterious Headless Horseman, said to be a Hessian trooper who lost his head in a nearby battle. Each night he roams the countryside in search of it. The unlikely hero in this tale is Ichabod Crane, an itinerant schoolmaster, whose name suits him perfectly: “He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together.” Ichabod Crane is a newcomer to the Hudson Valley. Ichabod’s quarters are whatever rooms the neighboring Dutch farmers who board him for a week at a time are willing to provide. Ichabod thus makes the rounds of the neighborhood, and his small salary, combined with his constantly changing address, allows him to store all of his personal possessions in a cotton handkerchief.
Because he comes from Connecticut, a state whose major product is country schoolmasters, Ichabod feels both superior to the old Dutch stock of the valley and frustrated by his perpetual state of poverty. He compensates for the former by regularly
caning the more obstinate of his little charges and for the latter by doing light work on the neighboring farms. He further supplements his income by serving as the local singing master, instructing the farm children in the singing of psalms. Never missing a chance to curry favor with the local mothers, Ichabod always pets the youngest children “like the lion bold” holding the lamb. In short, his single goal is self-advancement, and though he has merely “tarried” in Sleepy Hollow, he clearly will remain if his prospects improve.
ReplyDeleteOne of Ichabod’s music students is Katrina Van Tassel, the eighteen-year-old daughter of a prosperous Dutch farmer. She is “plump as a partridge; ripe and melting and rosy-cheeked as one of her father’s peaches.” She also, as her father’s only daughter, has “vast expectations.” Though she is also something of a coquette, the prospect of her inheritance makes her seem to Ichabod a desirable bride, and he determines to win her. Ichabod’s mouth waters when he contemplates the fruits of old Baltus Van Tassel’s land. He dreams of the fat meadowlands, the rich wheatfields, and the rye, buckwheat, fruit, and Indian corn that will be his if he can win Katrina’s hand. Once married to Katrina, he could invest in large tracts of land. He can even imagine Katrina with a whole family of children, setting out with him for promising new territories in Kentucky or Tennessee. It is, however, the sumptuous comfort of the Van Tassel home that makes him realize that he must have Katrina.
Winning Katrina, however, presents a problem in the person of her rugged, rough-edged Dutch boyfriend, Abraham Brunt, nicknamed “Brom Bones” because of his Herculean size and strength. Brom, who has long considered Katrina his, immediately recognizes Ichabod as his rival, and with his gang of roughriders plays a series of practical jokes on the Yankee schoolmaster. However, his pranks—stopping up the singing-school chimney, upsetting the schoolhouse, even training his dog to whine whenever Ichabod sings—do little to thwart the progress that Ichabod believes he is making in his campaign to win Katrina’s hand. Indeed, Ichabod is encouraged when he receives an invitation to a “quilting frolic” at the Van Tassel home.
Ichabod spends extra time dressing and even borrows a horse so that he can arrive in style. The horse, somewhat inappropriately named Gunpowder, is as gaunt and shabby as Ichabod, but this does not prevent him from thinking that Katrina will be impressed. Ichabod continues to imagine the Van Tassel wealth that he will have if he can make Katrina his, and he quickly becomes the center of attention when Katrina dances with him. Brom, meanwhile, looks on with helpless jealousy. Brom enjoys himself only when telling of his close encounter with the headless horseman. Ichabod counters with extracts from Cotton Mather and stories of his own close calls with Connecticut and local ghosts.
ReplyDeleteThe midnight quiet of the countryside, the gathering clouds, and the ghost stories that Ichabod has heard do not improve Ichabod’s mood. Indeed, he becomes increasingly uneasy as he approaches the tree from which Major Andre had been hanged. Ichabod knows that he will be safe if only he can cross the church bridge, but just then the goblin rider appears on his black horse, closing in fast behind him. Instead of disappearing in a burst of fire and brimstone as he has always been said to do, the rider throws his head at Ichabod. It strikes Ichabod’s own cranium, and the rider passes on like a whirlwind.
Though Ichabod’s borrowed horse reappears the next morning, Ichabod does not. The executor of his estate, Hans Van Ripper, burns Ichabod’s copy of Cotton Mather and the scrawled fragments of a few love poems to Katrina. Ichabod himself becomes part of Sleepy Hollow’s folklore. Some say that he was snatched by the Galloping Hessian, but others say that Ichabod is still alive, that he was afraid to return from fear of the goblin and Hans Van Ripper (from whom he had borrowed the horse) and was mortified by Katrina’s refusal. Brom Bones appears soon after such discussions, always wearing a knowing smile whenever the goblin’s pumpkin head is mentioned.
Near Tarrytown on the Hudson River is a little valley populated by Dutch folk that seems to be the quietest place in the world. A drowsy influence hangs over the place and people so that the region is known as Sleepy Hollow, and the lads who live there are called Sleepy Hollow boys. Some say that the valley is bewitched.
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ReplyDeleteA schoolteacher named Ichabod Crane arrives in the valley, looking like a scarecrow because of his long, skinny frame and his snipelike nose. As is customary, Crane circulates among the homes in Sleepy Hollow, boarding with the parents of each of his pupils for one week at a time. Fortunately for him, the valley’s larders are full and the tables groan with food, for the schoolmaster has a wonderful appetite. He is always welcome in the country homes because in small ways he has contrived to make himself useful to the farmers. He takes care to appear to be patient with the children, and he loves to spend the long winter nights with the families of his pupils, exchanging tales of ghosts and haunted places, while ruddy apples roast on the hearths.
ReplyDeleteThe main figure said to haunt Sleepy Hollow is a man on horseback without a head. The villagers speculate that the specter is the apparition of a Hessian horseman who lost his head to a cannonball; whatever it may be, the figure is often seen in the countryside during the gloomy winter nights. The specter is known to all as the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow.
Abraham Van Brunt “Brom” for short is Katrina’s favorite squire. Known for his tall and powerful frame, the locals have taken to calling him Brom Bones. A lively lad with a fine sense of humor and a tremendous amount of energy, Brom scares away Katrina’s other suitors. Brom Bones is a formidable rival for the gaunt and shaggy Ichabod. Brom would like to carry their battle over Katrina into the open, but the schoolteacher knows better than to tangle with him physically. Brom can do little more than play practical jokes on the lanky Ichabod.
The party is merry and exciting, punctuated by grand feasts and lively dances. Ichabod is enraptured by the cakes, pies, meats, and tea. He joins in the dancing, feeling himself to be at his best when he dances with Katrina. Later, he listens to the men exchange Sleepy Hollow ghost stories on the porch. As the evening wanes and the others leave, he tarries in an attempt to pay court to Katrina. Before long, however, he leaves the Van Tassels crestfallen at his lack of success and starts home on the gaunt Gunpowder. As he rides
along in the darkness, all the evening’s stories of ghosts return to haunt Ichabod, and he becomes even more dismal. In the darkness, he thinks he sees dim shapes and hears soft moans.
ReplyDeleteWhen Ichabod finally approaches the bridge over Wiley’s Swamp, his horse Gunpowder balks and will not respond to Ichabod’s urgent commands; then, across the marsh, through the dark evening, Ichabod sees something huge and misshapen. He calls out to the figure, which refuses to answer him. Ichabod’s hair stands straight on end, and he keeps to the road, thinking it must be too late to turn back. The strange figure keeps pace with him, whether he goes fast or slow, and before long Ichabod believes the dark shape to be a headless horseman holding his head on the pommel of his saddle. Ichabod soon loses his nerve and whips Gunpowder to a gallop; as they rush down the dark road, his saddle loosens and he nearly loses his grip, but he hugs the horse around the neck. He is so scared that he cannot even muster the courage to sing a psalm.
When Ichabod reaches the church bridge, where by tradition the headless specter should disappear in a flash of fire and brimstone, he hears the horseman close upon him. As he turns to look, the spirit seems to throw his head at the schoolmaster. Ichabod tries to dodge, but the head bursts against his skull and tumbles him from his mount. In the morning, a shattered pumpkin is found near the bridge. Gunpowder is found grazing at the farmer’s gate nearby. Ichabod, however, is never seen in Sleepy Hollow again, although later reports are heard that he has relocated. In the valley, they say that Brom Bones, long after marrying Katrina, laughs heartily whenever the story is told of the Headless Horseman.
In the story of The Legend of Sleep Hallow, the one had precariousness is Ichabod Crane because through his actions and ignorant. We know that we are new in village we heard some rumors about anything. So through our curiosity we need to know also what it is all about. So despite the fact that he is new in the village he really wants to interested to know about the Legend of sleepy hollow if it’s true or not.
The last short story is entitled How to Tell a True War Story written by O’Brien prefaces this story by saying that it is true. A week after his friend is killed, Rat Kiley writes a letter to the friend’s sister, explaining what a hero her brother was and how much he loved him. Two months pass, and the sister never writes back. Kiley, frustrated, spits and calls the sister a “dumb cooze.” O’Brien insists that a true war story is not moral and tells us not to believe a story that seems moral. He uses Kiley’s actions as an example of the amorality of war stories. O’Brien reveals that Kiley’s friend’s name was Curt Lemon and that he died while playfully tossing a smoke grenade with Rat Kiley, in the shade of some trees. Lemon stepped into the sunlight and onto a rigged mortar round.
ReplyDeleteO’Brien says sometimes a true war story cannot be believed because some of the most unbearable parts are true, while some of the normal parts are not. Sometimes, he says, a true war story is impossible to tell. He describes a story that Mitchell Sanders tells. Sanders recounts the experience of a troop that goes into the mountains on a listening post operation. He says that after a few days, the men hear strange echoes and music—chimes and xylophones—and become frightened. One night, the men hear voices and noises that sound like a cocktail party. After a while they hear singing and chanting, as well as talking monkeys and trees. They order air strikes and they burn and shoot down everything they can find. Still, in the morning, they hear the noises. So they pack up their gear and head down the mountain, where their colonel asks them what they heard. They have no answer.
The day after he tells this story, Mitchell approaches O’Brien and confesses that some parts were invented. O’Brien asks him what the moral of the story is and, listening to the quiet, Sanders says the quiet is the moral. O’Brien says the moral of a true war story, like the thread that makes a cloth, cannot be separated from the story itself. A true war story cannot be made general or abstract, he says. The significance of the story is whether or not you believe it in your stomach. Heeding his own advice, he relays the story of Curt Lemon’s death in a few, brief vignettes. He explains that the platoon crossed a muddy river
and on the third day Lemon was killed and Kiley lost his best friend. Later that day, higher in the mountains, Kiley shot a Viet Cong water buffalo repeatedly—though the animal was destroyed and bleeding, it remained alive. Finally Kiowa and Sanders picked up the buffalo and dumped it in the village well.
ReplyDeleteO’Brien expounds on his problem by making a generalization. He says that though war is hell, it is also many other contradictory things. He explains the mysterious feeling of being alive that follows a firefight. He agrees with Sanders’s story of the men who hear things in the jungle—war is ambiguous, he says. For this reason, in a true war story, nothing is absolutely true. O’Brien remembers how Lemon died. Lemon was smiling and talking to Kiley one second and was blown into a tree the next. Jensen and O’Brien were ordered to climb the tree to retrieve Lemon’s body, and Jensen sang “Lemon Tree” as they threw down the body parts.
A true war story can be identified by the questions one asks afterward, O’Brien says. He says that in the story of a man who jumps on a grenade to save his three friends, the truth of the man’s purpose makes a difference. He says that sometimes the truest war stories never happened and tells a story of the same four men—one jump on a grenade to take the blast, and all four die anyway. Before they die, though, one of the dead turns to the man who jumped on the grenade and asks him why he jumped. The already-dead jumper says, “Story of my life, man.”
Thinking of Curt Lemon, O’Brien concludes he must have thought the sunlight was killing him. O’Brien wishes he could get the story right—the way the sunlight seemed to gather Lemon and carry him up in the air—so that we could believe what Lemon must have seen as his final truth. O’Brien says that when he tells this story, a woman invariably approaches him and tells him that she liked it but it made her sad, and that O’Brien should find new stories to tell. O’Brien wishes he could tell the woman that the story he told wasn’t a war story but a love story. He concludes that all he can do is continue telling it, making up more things in order give greater truth to the story.
Cruan, Angelyn A.
ReplyDeleteintroduction
Most of the short stories are fiction. They are the reflections of the reality, they are the realizations of the real world in to an imaginative setting ang people. Even though short stories are product of creative imaginations they are very good way for a person to reflect into.
Each short story of different countries reflects the traditions, the culture, the characters of its citizens. For they made on the reflection, perspectives and experience of these people, and country.
A Haunted House, Dead Star, How My Brother Leon Brought Home A Wife, Popular Mechanics and Servant Girl are some of the best short stories and for in fact three of these five short stories are written of some Filipino authors.
In the story How to Tell a True War Story O’Brien had embedded the precariousness because he always think about the past what happened when he was a soldier in the Vietnam War. Even in reality people often think about something that are memorable or sometimes the tragedy they experienced. Because life is too easy to forget those happy things but we cannot forget those bad things. Just like people who are dead, people are praising and talking about his/her good things because they are afraid to say his/her bad things. Also if we encounter people sometimes we are truly to become a gossip and we are talking about his/her bad things that he made. So even though it is hard to forget those things we need to think of it as a replication of our life. We need to get move on in order to face a new life and new opportunities to come.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, literature is significant to us. Literature views significant human experiences that could be used in discussion about certain topics. Just like real people, fictional characters also go through difficult situations, decisions and changes that would shape their attitude and personality in the end. We could not blame those persons why they are changed, why he did it and why they are act like that. Just like in the story The Cask of Amontillado, Montressor planned to seek revenge to Fortunato because of his insecurities and also Fortunato killed because of his selfishness. In the God Stealer, Philip would give us a lesson that we should respect and value one’s own inheritance who gave to us the importance and desire to live in. At last Philip was changed, he decided to stay in Ifugao and he carved another God to replace it. In The Country Doctor, the doctor regret at last because he chose first his profession than to his fiancée even though his patient is going to be die. But he let his patient to die in relax not in worried. Also in the Legend of Sleepy Hallow, Ichabod Crane become an obsessive and ignorant to know if it is real the Sleepy
Hallow. He searched on it and at last he finally saw the sleepy hallow. Lastly, the How to Tell a True War Story is all about O’Brien reminiscing the past and he cannot move on what happened and finally he wrote it what happened in the war and it’s slowly released out his sadness. “When social vulnerability is challenged, the frailty of human affairs is exposed” Arendt (1958). Moreover humans would never contented they want to have but in reality we cannot predict what well be our future. It is normal to be precarious but not be too serious and put it limitation.
ReplyDeleteReferences:
A Country Doctor
Arendt,(1958). Human Conditioon Book. http://learn.lexiconic.net/humancondition.
How to Tell a True War Story
The Cask of Amontillado
The God Stealer
The Legend of Sleepy Hallow
how my brother leon brought home a wife
ReplyDeleteThe short story How My Brother Brought Home A Wife is written by a Filipino author named Manuel Arguilla, this is consider as part of American Colonial Literature.
The family of Leon/Noel is still not warm to Maria for they think that how can a city girl love a man who come from a province. How a girl who lives in abundance can love the life of a man who is not wealthy. Maria is afraid of the idea that she might not be accepted by the family of Noel/Leon. Maria is afraid that the father of her husband may not accept her as her daughter-in-law for she might not be able to cope the life in the province.
When they arrive to the place of Noel/Leon they took another way home to test Maria if she can endure sacrifices and be worthy as a wife of Noel/Leon. As she survive and overcome certain challenges to her, the father and the family of her husband become warmer and livelier to her.
The story shows how far can love move a person. How can love make the person sacrifice certain part of her/his life and face a certain difficulties to prove her/his love and be worthy of it, and love knows no social statuses.
Maria the city girl who fell in love and married a country man, at first she is not fully accepted by the family of the man she loves and her love is being question by the family of her husband.
Maria stands those people who love deeply and can sacrifice and prove everything for the name of love. These kind of people are the most courageous kind of man. Courageous because even people doubt her and her love for the other person she still stand firm and prove that she is worthy of certain love.
People when they fall in love, and they begin to be part on that persons' life he/she become afraid and inferior about the idea if the family of the person he/she love will accept, like and welcome her/him to the family. Those people who truly love somebody should never fell any inferiorities if the family of the man or the woman she/he loves will accept her/him for as long as the person involve on the commitment is true and sincere on their love to each other.
Noel/Leon is the man who married Maria. He is a country man who falls in love to a city girl. His family test her wife if she truly worthy of the love and to be wife of Noel/Leon. Noel/Leon is a typical country man. Where he belongs to a family who thought that their son can marry a country girl also. Typical Filipino families always get involve their selves to the commitment where their son or daughter committed into, they want to know the partner of their children of whom they will spend their lives into and if that person is truly deserving for their children. This is normal to Filipino families, for this is part of Filipinos tradition and culture because of the strong family ties.
The main conflict of the love of these two people is the opinion of the society. Society dictates that a city girl cannot love and sacrifice a part of her life to a country man. Society always dictate that a poor is for a poor only, a wealthy person is for a wealthy person and a country man is for a country woman and a city girl is for a city boy only. People should not let society dictate her/him on what is her/his decisions in life, especially on who to love and spend the rest of her/his life.
The short story wanted its readers to be strong and be courageous to fight their love, for true love worthy to fight for.
dead star
ReplyDeleteIn a relationship it comes along the responsibility of two people, the responsibility to be faithful, loyal, understand, respect and keep the fire always burning. These responsibilities that mentioned are very important for the relationship to continue, move forward and meaningful.
The two people inside that commitment should never keep any secret to his/her partner. Keeping secret to the other person on the relationship can damage trust and when the trust has damage, the relationship itself will follow.
On the story, Esperanza and Alfredo are engage, they are in a relationship for four years. At first they are warm for the feeling is still fresh and new and this two people are still getting to know each other deeply. As their wedding day is fast approaching, Alfredo become cold to Esperanza, for he meet Julia Salas. Their first meeting been followed by several meetings without the knowledge of Esperanza. Alfredo become comfortable and warm to Julia and he keep all his endeavors to Esperanza. These time, Esperanza already feel the changes towards Alfredo and some gossip about Julia and Alfredo arrive to her, despite of those gossips he stays positive towards Alfredo and to their relationship. Later on Julia Salas know that Alfredo is already engage to Esperanza. Julia Salas live her life faraway from Alfredo. The wedding of Esperanza and Alfredo take place smoothly. Years pass Alfredo has assign to work to different city where is the neighborhood of the city that Julia lives. He show Julia and until this time Julia is still single and Alfredo himself realizes that he no longer adore Julia Salas.
Many relationship are like on the story. Who undergone same temptations and struggles but the difference is that on the story they succeed on overcoming certain temptations in their relationship. There are many Alfredo and Esperanza on the society today but there are only few Julia Salas nowadays.
As Alfredo meet Julia Salas he become comfortable and warm to her and keep all his endeavors to her fiancé Esperanza. On this case Alfredo become unfair to Esperanza, for Esperanza has the right to know where Alfredos’ whereabouts are. Many relationship failed because of keeping secrets from their partner for it creates distance of the two people. Many men are like Alfredo this days, who attach their selves to other women even though they are in a relationship or they are married. For the reason that men tale it as a recreation
CONTINUATION
ReplyDeleteSecond, they see their selves to that person more than to their partner. Third, men just like new acquaintances and last men are just like that.
The theory of structuralism will help to analyze the character of Alfredo Salazar more. Lack of effort plus lack of discovering new things together will result to lack of interest to each other.
This formula will explain on why Alfredo Salazar fall out of interest to Esperanza. Men and boys, when they are in a relationship for a while they tend to loss and make no efforts for their partners, believing that it is no longer needed for those long term relationship. Lack of discovering and trying new things can lead to loss of interest towards the partner. Trying new things can make relationship grow and some men forget this. They just keep on doing the same thing and activity to their girlfriend for years, and find themselves get bored to their partners without realizing it is just product of their actions.
Esperanza symbolizes those women who feel that there are changes on their relationship but still they chooses to stay positive. This kind of attitude is good for it shows security in the relationship and to their partner but as what people say “to much trust without hesitations is no good.” Those Esperanza on the relationship are those people who do not believe easily to rumors or to his/her instinct that there are changes on his/her partner for he/she hold to the idea that they are in a commitment and his/her partner will not do anything that can hurt her/him. Most of Esperanza in the society are women. When women feel the changes on their relationship they deny it to their selves and stays positive, society call it martyr. On the case of Esperanza she never been martyr, for she confronted Alfredo about the issue and open the idea of cutting their relationship and postponement of their marriage. Some women lack this courage on saving their selves in so much pain and shame. For they are afraid of facing the fact that the will be hurt by the people they love and left alone.
On the case of Esperanza on staying positive despite of all negativities is somehow good but it is somehow not logical, without considering if their partner feel and do the same way to them.
Julia Salas become so comfortable with Alfredo Salazar. She does not have any idea that Alfredo is already engage to Esperanza. Nowadays, third party and mistresses are very mainstream. There are people who is more like in the same situation with Julia Salas. Julia Salas and Alfredo Salazar are not in a commitment but people surrounds them may think that it is still not right for there is someone that will be hurt. The character of Julia Salas stands for those people who easily attach themselves to someone who they do not fully know. This characteristic can lead to a lot of problems. This character can damage and ruin relationship, for they attach their selves to someone without knowing that person is already committed to somebody else. This kind of character can destroy families. In case that they attach their selves to a married man.
The good thing about Julia upon knowing that Alfredo is already engage she keep her limitations and distance herself to Alfredo to not to hurt the other people involve. Most women who are tag as “mistresses” do not do the same thing like Julia. Even they already know that the man is in a relationship and or married they still continue their forbidden relationship.
servant girl
ReplyDeleteThe short story servant girl is written by a Filipina, Estrella Alfon. This story reflects and represented some attitudes of Filipinos. The story revolves on the life of the servant girl named Rosa, who is physically and verbally abuse by her Mistress, but somehow sometimes her Mistress feel pity towards her. Rosa had an admirer named Sancho. Sancho is rude to Rosa and he keep on hurting her. One day Rosa get into an accident, this incident made way for her to meet this cochero who would later made Rosa consider him as her hope. This cochero help Rosa, after then Rosa call him as angel, that will uplift and will free her from her miserable life. Not later enough, Rosa realizes that it is just her illusion and expectation on believing that it is the cochero Pedro will help her on her life. So Rosa accepted her fate and continue on serving her Mistress.
The characters on the story are Rosa, Mistress, Sancho and Pedro. These characters represented different characteristics of every Filipino.
On the story Rosa is the servant girl who is physically and verbally maltreated by her Mistress, but still she render good services to her. This character of her represented those battered wives on the society, there are number of them who keep on beating by their husbands but still they stay for some different reasons.
First, wives cannot afford to leave their children or she cannot take it seeing her children growing up without a father or she cannot bare her children to grow as a product of a broken family. Second, wives do not have any sources of income to support her own needs and the necessities of her own children. Since most of the battered wives are plain housewives they do not have any job or any known activities to earn a living so they chooses to stay and endure the pain as a battered wives. Lastly, battered wives chooses to stay with their husbands because, his husband is powerful, her husband give them death threats or she chooses to stay because she has no other place to go.
Rosa is also describe on the story as fond on imagining things, inventing things on her head that would comfort her even if those things will never happen on the real setting.
On this generation there are many Rosa and this is the group represented by the youths. Many of those young people commit their selves in a relationship and expecting a fairytale like love story where there is always happy and happy endings and to the extent of expecting their partners to be perfect but they forgot they are committed to mortal one and on this case they end up hurting their own selves. This year, quotations like “there is no forever” hopeless romantic” and “friend zone” are very rampant. These are common terms use by the young generations for it reflects their own experiences.
Young people uses the term “there is no forever” for those failed relationship that only lasted for a couple of months and or weeks. Sometimes this group of youth who believes that there is no forever curse those happy couples who successfully battled those problems on their relationship by telling to them “there is no forever”
CONTINUATION
ReplyDeleteThe term “hopeless romantic” is being use by those people to describe their own love life where it is unsuccessful and colorless. People who consider themselves as a “hopeless romantic” has a different circumstances to base on. First, they engage into a relationship believing that they had already found the one but they still end up seeing their selves crying over and over again for the same person and reason. Lastly, every time they are on a commitment they are always being hurt.
The last is “friend zone” this term is more likely invented just around 2015. This term is use to describe those situation where the other person confess his/her feelings to other one but they do not have mutual feelings, for that person that being confess to consider him/her as her/his friend, and or no matter how great the love the other person has for the other one they always end up as a friend.
Too much expectations and imaginations of picture perfect things and ideal situations that are too far to happen, are all the main reason why people always end up hurting their on selves. It is the lesson that the character of Rosa trying to convey to readers.
Pedro on the story is the cochero who help Rosa and he is being tag by Rosa as “angel.” He is consider by Rosa as her hope that could help her free from her pitiful life situation. By the description given, Pedro on the society stands for those politicians during elections and after they are being elected.
On this country where politicians before elections will promise everything to voters, that if they are being elected on the position they can uplift them from their pitiful situations, they can give free access to education and on the health, they can open many opportunities and job that can boost the economy of the country, that they can end the corruption, that they can make everything better and voters being fooled by these sweet words of these traditional politicians. When they are elected they forget about their promises and those people who bring them to the position. They just give hope but they never do moves to support the hope they give. Instead of helping the people to uplift their lives what they do is to bring them back to their original situation of being poor worst being poorer.
CONTINUATION
ReplyDeleteEvery people meet Pedro in their lives. Where they consider that person as their hope, but then circumstances come along and then people will realize that person which they consider as their angel on their lives will just put them down. Pedros’ character will leave the lesson that people should not trust, expect and hope too much to others’ because they are might totally different from what people think they are and who actually they are.
Sancho is the admirer of Rosa and he is rude to her. During elementary and high school where the line “the more you hate, the more you love,” is very mainstream to hear. It seems that it is very true on the story. There are many kind of people like Sancho. People who are like this are those who think they can show their affection towards a specific person in a way of making them feel irritated, unwanted and being hurt always and believing that through this manner they can get that persons’ attention and affection too. The disadvantage on this attitude that they will never have the courage to tell and confess their feelings and everything will be too late. This is the character that Sancho wanted to remind to readers.
The Mistress, she is the one who abuses Rosa but sometimes she is a kind to her. There are people who are tough to others but in every tough people there are soft spot on them that are hidden very well. Many people represented by this character. On the television news there are people being killed by their own girlfriend/boyfriend because of too much love. In this case the real meaning of love is being stained by obsession. The attitude that being shown by the Mistress is dangerous, for sometimes people like this forget that small piece of goodness is still in their hearts because of their strong character of being violent and cruel.
a haunted house
ReplyDeleteThe short story A Haunted House by Virginia Woolf, talks about the important treasure, love. The title of the short story sounds scary but it does not reflect the content of the story, for it is not scary at all.
The main characters of the story are two ghost couple. This two ghost couple has been looking for the treasure on their house, for they think that these literally breathing couple that occupying on their house now will find the treasure. Time passes by this ghost couple are still looking for the treasure on the house. All the time that they been looking for the treasure, they reminisce their good and happy moments in every corner of the house when they are still alive. The ghost couple realizes that the treasure that they been looking for is their love for each other that been restore on every part of the house.
Love is the only thing that people should never give up for no matter what the reason is. Even though love can be shown and express through material things, but it is still important to show love to others through actions and sincerity.
The characters on the story are ghost couple and they are looking for the treasure, love.
Love make life colorful and when people fall in love they give everything to the person they love. It is more like what happen to the ghost couple on the story, that when they are still alive they love each other deeply. When death take their earthly body, their souls are still there for each other and give life to the line “till’ death do us part.” Time had pass they had forgotten that it is love that bring them together even after death. They had forgotten that it is love, their greatest treasure.
People nowadays are too blinded to see what are those things that really matter, greediness do that to people. On the story greed has been mention, for it blinded those ghost couple of seeing and realizing their greatest treasure. Greed destroy people, and worst greed destroy humanity. This kind of people who think more of themselves less than the situation of others will in the end left nothing to them. For they invest and divest things not love, relationship and commitment that will surely lasts until the end of age. Eventually people who are like this will realize what really matters in life, but the scary thing about this it might be too late.
continuation
ReplyDeletePeople will never become contented until greed is in their hearts. People like this are those people who think that it is the material things that will complete them and can make them happy. Greed people are those self-centered individuals who assume that it is the earthly things is all their greatest treasure.
Terrorism happens unexpectedly. This ISIS group who believes that they own the world and will conquer every single country and take innocent lives randomly, is the best definition of greed. This group kill many innocent people in exchange of their ill beliefs, minds and interests. In this manner greed destroy humanity.
Majority of the government officials are greed. They are on the position to serve people and give them the best kind of services they deserve , because of greediness instead of giving them the best services what they give is less than the people deserve. Corruption, killings and different vices trigger by greed. They corrupt peoples’ money for they want more, they want to live in a very luxurious life through peoples’ money. They are involve in killings for those people who show interest to the position where they are in. without reflecting that money is not the greatest treasure in life for the value of money fade and people cannot bring money into their grave.
popular mechanics
ReplyDeleteThe story Popular Mechanics of Raymond Carver talks about separation, conflict and aggressiveness.
Separation because, on the beginning of the story it started on narrating that the boy is packing his suitcase and the girl is so happy knowing that the boy is leaving. This scenario is indicating separation of two people who are legally or emotionally committed.
Conflict is the root of the separation, but it is not stated on the story. By the use of the theory phenomenology the conflict may become known. It is very obvious that it is easy for that two people on the story to separate their lives. The reader may conclude that these two people obviously committed to each other but not legally committed, in other words they just living together but not married. The reader may also conclude that the other root of the separation, is that the both of them might be financially not stable and emotionally not yet capable. Maybe the girl got pregnant at her very young age, and along the way they realizes that they are not yet ready of wife and husband responsibilities. Their aggressiveness warmer the fight.
As being observe on the characters of the story no name being mention but they are being specify as girl and boy. These girl and boy are both aggressive because of their pride. They are both prideful, that no one wanted to give up the baby. Instead on taking on consideration the sake of the baby, what they do is to fight more and worst involve physical fights to win the baby.
Aggressiveness and prideful attitudes can be positive and negative but to weigh it in, negative side always had the greater effect.
In the society today where a lot of teenagers become pregnant, early parenthood, addicted to drugs and involve to different crimes. This is because of aggressiveness. This aggressiveness trigger specially those innocent minds and souls. Teenage years is the age where aggressive is the highest emotion. Aggressive on making decisions and taking actions without being rational and logical, without putting into consideration the effect of it in the future, are really the thing of the youth.
Pride can use as a motivation of someone to become successful nevertheless, it can also be someones’ downfall. “Express but never impress,” this statement is very famous but it seems
continuation
ReplyDeletethat everyone is not reflecting on it. Pride can make someones’ mind crazy and it can stain someones’ heart.
Aggressive and pride can be a motivation of somebody to soar high and become successful but if these are being use to destroy others then it cannot bring goodness to oneself. For in the first place it cannot destroy others but it can destroy you yourself alone.
conclusion
ReplyDeleteA Haunted House, Dead Star, How My Brother Leon Brought Home A Wife, Popular Mechanics and Servant Girl are the best short stories of people to reflect on. Each characters of the short stories represented different kind of people on the society. These short stories are use for the people to reflect on.
A Haunted House teaches readers to not to be fool by the wonders that the world has to offer, that people should never forget that it is love that really matters after all and it is love the peoples' greatest treasure.
Dead Star wanted its readers to be aware of their responsibilities and limitations when they are in a relationship for the relationship to be secure, preserve and move forward.
How My Brother Leon Brought Home A Wife is the story or love and sacrifice. That love is worthy of sacrifice, and love without sacrifice is not worth it. This short story wanted its readers to be courageous enough to stand for their love and not to be affected by societies opinion.
Popular Mechanics is the short story for the young people to be responsible for their actions and decisions in their life. To make good decisions in the present for it will always affect the future.
Servant Girl is the short story of standing for yourself and be independent. This short story teaches readers to not depend the wellness of their life to others for in the end only their self will stand for them until the last.
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ReplyDeleteTTh 7-8;30
ASEnglish3
Introduction
Precarious, dangerously unstable, unsteady, uncertain or insecure, these words clearlydescribe the behaviors of humans on their interaction within themselves and towards the society. The entire story has its own instability of human condition, and it has different scenario. It is so natural and inherent for humans to act different, i.e., not being consistent in his or her action in dealing with different situations in life. One of the factors of human that supports his or her precariousness is the emotion. Biologically, emotions are woks of an individual’s own brain chemical processes .The entire story was focusing only what the human condition is of selected five stories and talks about how they may get the better of it all. Most of the story tells about how it’s degree of realistic and the best experience of the narrator at the same time was there. The narrator’s point of view helps the reader to understand some of thought throughout the story.
A Haunted House
The haunted house story talks about the human condition of permanence of love, how to endure love and then the difficulties of marriage or how to be with in a relationship. The story haunted house by Virginia Woolf is a short story full of symbolism, imagery, and irony of life especially in the world of love.
The condition of the human through this story is that they are finding for something that they cannot find it. The story of helps the reader to get a more in-depth perception of how the ghosts and the living people feel and helps the reader understand some of the thoughts of the story goes on. The living man and woman have no knowledge about what were the treasure talks about if it was money or such as gold or anything that is more valuable things that people are wanted to have. The things that were suddenly hide on their property. When they were alive, the ghosts are already had occupied the whole house more than a century before the present residents.
The couples are striving for searching for something that’s why they were in the house, they were looking for a buried treasure that they cannot found wherever the corner of the house they may go into. The story reveals the rediscovery of the places in and around the house where the ghosts spent little moments expressing their love for each other they go into the garden and other side of the house that they may feel the love when they are still alive. And then when the times when the female ghost says, “Here, sleeping; in the garden reading; laughing, rolling apples in the loft. Here we left our treasure.” After that couples who are living the house discover that they were a ghost who is living with them also, they realize that the ghost couple stays at the house for looking something and that something was their love to each other. The couples although are ghost they are not scaring because they are quiet and they not scared people around though people are scared. As the ghosts search for their treasure, they roam the house, opening the closing doors and drawing curtains back. Although they try not to disturb the living couple, the latter can hear them now and then.
The couples did not stop searching for what they are looking for in the house until them searches for something that cannot value for anything a treasure that nothing can pay when you have it. The treasure they are looking for is that is “the light in the heart” that is very safe and it is all for them both. The “the light in the heart” which means the love that is cannot payed for anything, that was the couples are looking for inside and outside the house and mots specially in the garden were maybe they are having memories the make their that they find for a couple of days.
Popular Mechanics
ReplyDeleteIn the story "Popular Mechanics” the human condition of this story is that it tells of how the family ethics of society are dying as the years go by, the development of downfall of the family life or the relationship of a family. The flow of the story goes like these, as the husband packing his things before of his leaving, and then the couple argues who will get the baby and get into a pull of fighting with the baby but no one let go of the baby by their bare hands and then suddenly the baby was slipping out of his hand. And then here it comes the biggest challenges happens. The baby was died because it was pulling back and forth very hard causing of the harshness of the parents while having a fight.
The condition of the two couples of being selfish and never get mind about the baby situation. They are so selfish for resenting their own will and decisions without the concern of the baby while they are quarrelling to each other. Parents should be observant in every decision they may made. In this story the most striking part is that how the family will develop after the downfall of family heartbreak. In this story teaches values about the failure of losing a family that leads to influential upbringing that the child or children will receive by this story tells how the popular mechanics explain very will what are those family ethics of society would be dying as years and time passing.
The type of Carver writing was called a dark writer because most of his stories focusing on the aspects of human nature that most of the main character or the protagonist have something to do in the end just to protect their dignity. This story was start with a man and a woman are fighting over their baby with their hand and keep on pulling the baby and they forget that it is the baby they are puling to each other that cause the hurt of the baby. They hurt each other, and they end up hurting the baby because of their hard action. Even though the only thing they have in common and whom they both love but maybe the precariousness condition that the couple was that they may lost their love to each other.
In the story of Popular Mechanics there are things that make the story unique from the other story because of the couples struggling, that can give more values to the family what should they may do or the couples should be observant in times of quarrelling. The couples are so fraught to shout face to face every day maybe who are actually fighting to each other. As The story the story continues when there’s a baby who actually part of the conflict in the story who were force to pull by the man and a woman who suddenly become so aggressive the woman and man are pulling each other.
The couples doesn’t have given such attention to the baby because of their eagerness, they are so keen to get the baby though the baby was actually hurt by what they do. The woman is actually shouting to the man that was already frustrated by the action of the woman. As they go fighting them are both denying that they totally hurt the baby because of their action of struggling? We know that there is no good in fighting you may hurt other people but you cannot get what are want, you cannot benefit something if you are just getting it with an hard action some like fighting. Like the couples who are fighting just to get the baby’s guidance see what the result of their fighting the baby got hurt that cause of the baby’s death.
A Little Cloud
ReplyDeleteIn this story the human condition is limitedly emotional and then also feeling useless and struggling against fortune, this being the burden of wisdom which the ages had bequeathed to him"; the story establishes Little Chandler’s physical, emotional, and social immaturity. Both of the character in the story thinks and speaks in clichés. The Little Chandler’s has an appearance of being little and a child with his own fantasies that much too seriously and shows no capacity for original thought or expression, and views the social and artistic life.
I can say the story’s human condition maybe was a doubtful too because he was doubting if he will be a successful someday if he had to go away when he had could do nothing in Duplin. In the story it is clearer to read that Chandler is emotionally limited. For the first time in his life he felt himself superior to the people he passed. For the first time his soul revolted against the dull inelegance of Capel Street Chandler’s thoughts and Gallaher’s conversation betray conventional attitudes in derivative, cliche-ridden language that belies their individual pretensions. And also the human condition in the story revealing of being unhappy at Corless's where he'll meet Gallaher and then the moods a little better by now. Chandler’s helpless draw any coherent or expressible conclusion from his actual experience.
Chandler feels so ashamed that he starts to cry like a baby. Little chandler, fantasizes about succeeding himself, as a writer of poetry. At the restaurant, Gallaher tells Little Chandler about his adventures abroad; was a type of precariousness little chandler was visiting his friend and then they are talking for something hid firend’s achievement in life, and then little chandler was amazed and then he was adore to do the same of his friend.
Little Chandler was felt insult by the success of his friend Gallaher and he was considered as downfall or an offense to Little Chandler because which he was not actually good. Little chandler felt jealous because of the success of his friend and reassured himself for the wrong decisions that he made for the rest of his life. Little Chandler regretted all his decision including his marriage its because for him it was his lost. But because of his own decisions that take him where he was for him that he was mad e for the wrong time and not acceptable for him. That is why, on the end of the story he felt guilty about the thoughts that passed on his mind he just wasted all his plans.
This story was very a good example of a human who is really regretted for the things they done to their life. That person who always regrets on their decisions in life is never good sign for the good future. Just like what chandler did he felt something regrets in his life but then he realized that things are happened in the past will be part of your life and grown up and it will not change and it will be part of your rest life. To be felt not regretted to the things that we didn’t expect to be happen we just need to accept the fact that it was happened for the good not for the bad. On that case, life may live simple and great and nothing regret will follow to you. The decision that you had done has nothing to do with the people that surround you made it for yourself not for the others.
You are the best author and the director of your own life you own it and don’t let anyone direct it. So for that you have the power to run it. And then the advices that other people gave were only part of your option and it is your choice to accept or neglect it after you heard it don’t take them easily, because in the end it’s your own decision.
Servant girl
ReplyDeleteThe story servant girl is a story of a maiden named Rosa who was experiencing too much suffering abused from her mistress and also experienced good and bad things in life. Especially in Love Rosa experienced too. Rosa fell in love to the first man she’s meet at the hallway. She fell love not just infatuation but rather love for her it was called love. She was a suffered to much miserable in the hand of her mistress but she can’t hide the fact that it was full of excitement she feel from the misery of her life until her Angel came.
Although she was suffered for too much but she enjoys her life, most especially when her angel came named Pedro the cochero. The life of a servant girl is somewhat miserable but full of exciting as the story go by. The way Rosa an ordinary laundry woman being maltreated by her mistress that's wishing that she could have a better life is very common societal issue. It’s very hard to be a worker or to be a servant just to provide our deeds in our daily life, the story of Rosa taught as some values and respects to our fellowmen lower or may upper class. This story teaches much literally trough to life it portraying human condition of a true servant or workers that a distinctive wicked mistress must doing to their servant or worker.
Rosa the girl works for her own deeds and was influence of bad humor but generous at times worked as a servant for her life. Maybe she was a martyr by all the bad things did of her mistress to her.
She was maltreated all by herself in every mistress when she gets into. She usually takes a work to be servant for just about a month but in her situation now is that she stayed for a year and until many years comes, while she can’t just stayed in just one place. Every time she transfer place to place just to work hard but this time she stayed and its takes a year now and then until now she work over so far.
Servant girl Rosa was very kind, had a lot patient and so much understanding girl. In spite of the defeats and angriness of her mistress to her, she stayed with her and continues to do her job.
Until the day, she met her angel named Pedro a cochero she met who helped her ease her swollen foot and the first beats she felt foe her entire life. The day she met that she called it angel she assumed and start dreaming that boy she regularly dream on Pedro the boy cochero. She says it was her angel because only of the difference characteristics that she may observe to Sancho who is absence of kind-hearted and being gentlemen to her.
The God stealer
ReplyDeleteThe god stealer is a story of a friendship by an American and a Filipino who is going to the Cordilleras to look at the rice terraces which were built by the Filipino's ancestors. Their friendship was found so much significance for them they can define their relationship as the colonizer and the colonized one. The condition of the two characters has a different type, for Philip who is a Christian and who was no longer has any respect or affection for the Ifugao customs and religion.
Philip was considering himself as a city boy and he was not have a time in returning to the mountain whatever it takes of his life he will does not have a plan of returning to mountain. His attitude of being a rude for his own native land, his grandfather decides to throw a big party in his honor despite of his bad attitude just his grandfather wants him to see. And then in the party Philip have meet Sam and he discovered something about the Ifugao, that no one is willing to sell his god. Philip does not obey and Philip offers to steal the god of his grandfather because he feels it would be his way of showing his gratitude to Sam for giving him a rise at work.
He doesn’t mind about what consequences will be after what he did, the consequences of his act are severing. Until his grandfather’s death, because his grandfather discovered that his god was stolen by someone. That cause of his emotionally reason why he is choosing to stay in the mountains because of the death of his grandfather that he was the behind reason at all, that he talks for Sam.
The God-Stealer was a good and very interesting because of the friendship shown in the story. The story showed how Filipinos are very hospitable to other people. The story never failed to explain how the character portraying the true human condition in the reality, of being friendly and hospitable to other people even to their enemy. The god stealer humans conditions is that showing how peoples are very friendly and sharing to other people who want to know more about the culture, tradition and belief that they wanted to learn and understand. The story makes a realization of how the person’s wealth and being a superb individual to the humanity whatever may be the native tradition that set apart. It also gives the values of patriotism in which, as a Christian or as a native one, we may have a different point in terms of religion, nevertheless we also try to understand and respect of one owns culture and beliefs.
The story also shows cruelness of the people in terms of food such like that poverty that country mostly facing every day. The starvation of foods that was presented in the story exactly about the Banaue rice terraces in Ifugao as what they perceived it for the happiness of the people lived there. Most of the people learn
Continuation…..
ReplyDeletehow to plant and perceived it was much is wealthier than the people who are living in the urban areas. Young people lived there was workaholic and very oriented for doing that makes them richer and more obliged to do very good thing that can make them also more money . The human condition in the story was said that they are more giving more importance in living their place that living in other places that you cannot feel the feel free or freedom.
The god stealer said that never give such rejection to your traditions and never forget to give importance to your culture it’s because rejecting your roots of life is like rejecting your future life. Just like what Philips did. His rejection of his Ifugao heritage may be concluded to mean that Filipino's rejection of his own roots and its replacement with colonial values.
It has also ignorance of understanding religion or the transmission of one’s own religion to the other. But whatever it takes of you have an attitude to make right things in life then, no can change it and no one can break the boundary you made for your life.
Don’t let other people ruined your beliefs and tradition, if you do you are just making yourself kneeled to the ground without an acceptable reason. Besides, the story gives an irrelevant action of a man by stealing things without any given permission by really wanting something in order to be contented but doing those things cannot make you happy for the rest of your life..
Conclusions
ReplyDeleteI conclude that most of the story has a different type of human conditions that teach us more values and importance about life. Just like the story Haunted House that they are looking for something that was more valuable and that was Love; they give importance what they have shared when they are still alive. I like also the story of A Little Cloud that teach how to mad a decisions in life .That the decision that you had done has nothing to do with the people that surround you made it for yourself not for the others . You own your life and direct it in a right way. As reflected in the five story that how precariousness human condition portraying and clearly describe the behaviors of humans on their interaction within themselves and towards the society.
Reference:
(Encarta Dictionary, 2009)
A Little Cloud From The Dubliners by James Joyce
A Haunted House Virginia Woolf
Servant Girl by Estrella D. Alfon ©2001 by Copper Sturgeon
The God Stealer By: Francisco Sionil Jose
Popular mechanics by Raymond Carver
Fall of the House of Usher
ReplyDeleteThe fall of the House of Usher is a gothic short story about an unnamed narrator visiting his boyhood friend named Roderick Usher on his ancestral house. When he arrived, he already felt that there was something bizarre on the house. The house was dull and in full gloom. When he arrived, he was welcomed by a weak Roderick looking much different the way he looked the last time they saw each other. He says that he was suffering from an illness and that any time soon he would perish. Roderick was also worried of the incoming death of his twin sister Madeline having an incurable disease. Madeline died one night and they buried her in the family vault underground right at under the narrator's bedroom. After the death of Madeline, Roderick has changed. He no longer plays instrument that he used to and no longer paint. One stormy night, Roderick gets inside of the narrators bedroom and said some strange things. In order to calm Roderick, the narrator read him a story. In some strange reason, whatever sounds that described at the novel he seem to hear it for real; The breaking of hermits door, the death-cry of the dragon and the ringing sound of the shield. Roderick then confessed that he also heard some strange noise many days ago and said that it was Madeline's noise moving from her coffin struggling to escape from the vault. He said they had buried her alive and she’s coming to scream at him for burying her alive. Roderick then said that Madeline was already outside the bedroom door and as if by cue, the door did flew open and there stood a horrible Madeline, pale and trembling with a blood on her white dress. She then fell heavily on the floor with her brother and Roderick also died at that moment.
Son coeur est un luth suspendu;
Sitot qu'on le touche il resonne.
– De Beranger
Translation:
"His/her heart is a poised lute;
as soon as it is touched, it resounds".
These lines are a quote from Le Refus, a song by French songwriter Pierre-Jean de Béranger, a (roughly speaking) contemporary of of the author. Beranger’s lyrics actually read
"Mon cœur" (my heart), but Poe changed them to read "Son cœur" (his/her heart). The main thing to ask is who composed this epigraph? Commonly, an epigraph is the writer's chance to give an indication to his examine in the matter of how to translate the work. However, I found in this content the genuine and the subjective are frequently linked. If so, we then need to ask to whom the verses refer. "Son" is the mean article in French, and it could signify "his" or "her" depending upon the subject. For this case, this subject is sexual orientation vague. Is the storyteller alluding to Roderick? Then, to Madeline? In the event that you trust the argument that the twins share some kind of relationship, or that they are two parts of the same individual, then the sex ambiguity is proper, as the epigraph can allude to both Madeline and Roderick together. Another fascinating, if marginally harder to swallow understanding is that Usher composed the epigraph in light of the fact that Usher composed the story. What are we given all through the whole story with the exception of many examples of Roderick's spooky aesthetic manifestations? Together, he and the storyteller listen to music, read books, and pore over work of art. In like manner, we see one of Usher's tunes, and one of his artistic creations; however we don't see a bit of his written work. Unless, that is, "The House of Usher" is that exceptionally subjective work we're absent. These lines portray a heart so alone that it is balanced and prepared for touch, thus delicate that it will resonate the minute it is. Review the story's subject of detachment and additionally Roderick's "intensity of the faculties" and have a go at running with that. Upon reading the text, certain sounds evoke intense anxiety attacks and feelings of rage and fear. I was drawn to the narration and the creepy mental haunting that the story showcased, and mainly I felt as though I could relate with Usher’s reaction to his surroundings. Closely, I was drawn to the narrator’s reflection that Usher wrote to him concerning a “mental disorder which oppressed him”. I felt a flood of relief and awareness flow over me especially after reading the word “oppressed”; finally, I felt, I have encountered an accountof an individual being likewise oppressed by a mental burden. Furthermore, I was drawn to Usher’s line:
ReplyDeleteI must perish in this deplorable folly. I dread the events of the future, not in themselves, but in their results. I shudder at the thought of any, even the most trivial, incident, which may operate upon this intolerable agitation of the soul. I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect—in terror. In this unnerved, in this pitiable, condition I feel that the period will
sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm, FEAR.
ReplyDeleteThe passage immediately roused feelings of exhaustion in me. The fixation on fear, especially of “events of the future” was all too familiar to me. As a person, I feared waking up in the morning to be confronted with anxiety-inducing sounds; I feared the classroom with such dread that it seemed to freeze like lead in my diaphragm and prompted bodily shakes and sweats. Most of all, I feared my future as an individual and my growing dislike of public places, of people, of everyday sounds, and of the disorder that had manifested itself in. Like Usher, I felt I “must perish” one day in a state of anxiety that had, unfortunately, been all too familiar to me already. Also, upon reading the story, I feel Usher’s condition as realistically as I feel my own and I recognize my own fears in both the narrator and Roderick. The painting of the crypt especially rouses psychological response due to the feeling of entrapment it represents. The narrator describes the painting as presented in the line:
…the interior of an immensely long and rectangular vault or tunnel, with low walls, smooth, white, and without interruption or device. Certain accessory points of the design served well to convey the idea that this excavation lay at an exceeding depth below the surface of the earth.
The description of the painting evokes perhaps the deepest fear of my subconscious: the knowledge that I am forever trapped with my disorder that has rooted itself deep beneath the surface of my mind. Continuing to read the story, I am moved by another passage in which the narrator describes Usher’s reaction to his own mental illness: “I beheld him gazing upon vacancy for long hours, in an attitude of the profoundest attention, as if listening to some imaginary sound” which is Usher is reacting to an “imaginary sound” in a way that I currently react to sounds. Immediately after reading this passage, my vision is clouded with memories of my own feeling of exhaustion; of times when I cannot find the strength to will away the anxiety and I find myself staring at dead objects. The most intense perceptions brought forth from my subconscious come in the final scenes of the text. I am reminded of my own anguish in Usher’s upset proclamation: “Not hear it?—yes, I hear it, and have heard it. Long—long—long—many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard it—yet—I dared not—I dared not speak!”. Reading his distressed confession immediately brings my own feelings of panic to the surface. When Roderick flees the scene as the house is collapsing and Usher lies dead I cannot help but feel stabbing envy of the narrator’s ability to escape the house and escape the mind of Roderick. Not only do I feel envious of Roderick for escaping, but I, regretfully, at times, desire to feel Usher’s final liberation from his mind, one he only finds in death.
However, this story reveal my expectations of relief, my fantasy of finally finding liberation from my phobia, my defenses that hide my horrible struggle with everyday anxiety, and the transformation of identity that I use to fill the “gaps” in the text. The text does, in fact, replicate psychoanalysis because in reading it I pull my fears to the surface from the furthest corner of my subconscious. I realize my anxieties, my fears, and my longings through the words of the text.
The Cask of Amontillado
ReplyDelete“The Cask of Amontillado” is arguably one of Edgar Allen Poe’s greatest works when it comes to a psychological thriller. Throughout the entirety of the story we see what is happeningthrough the eyes of the wicked killer, Montresor, as he lures his clueless victim, Fortunato, towhat would become his grave. Never is it explicitly stated why Montresor killed Fortunato, onlyhow, but if one can analyze the story closely a conclusion can be reached. The first personnarration of the story makes it even easier to see into the mind of Montresor and put the pieces ofthe puzzle together. With psychological analysis of “The Cask of Amontillado” and close examination of the setting and symbols within the story, Montresor’s motive for killing Fortunato can be uncovered.
“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.
These were the words spoken by the aged Montresor ashes lay on his deathbed, recounting the story of the day he killed Fortunato in the catacombs of his ancestors fifty years earlier. His telling is not a confession, but more of a simple recounting. Montresor feels little to no remorse for his crime “for he enjoys himself too much in the telling.” Montresor further dehumanizes himself when he says
“My heart grew sick; it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so”
...after hearing his chained victim sadly rattling the bells on his jester hat. Because of the seeming lack of feeling, and motive for killing Fortunato other than the briefly mentioned “insult”, most assume Montresor is insane; a killer without reason. This is not entirely true, however, as Montresor may be a madman, but he is not unmotivated. To begin to understand the murder, one must first understand the importance of the setting of “The Cask of Amontillado”. Though the story truly takes place on Montresor’s deathbed some fifty years later, the recounting takes place in eighteenth century Europe during Carnival. This time period and particular event are extremely important to the symbolism of the story. One of the first symbols, which is possible to overlook entirely, is the dress of the two characters. Montresor is dressed in a long, black roquelaire, the same coat worn by executioners of the time, and Fortunato in the attire of a jester; a fool. Though one may see this as an insignificant coincidence, as the story continues it is revealed that the end could have been predicted from the start. This still reveals no reason for the murder, though. The existence of functioning catacombs is also dependent upon the time period, and they themselves symbolize death. The fact that Fortunato was in no way suspicious of why he was being led into a mass grave shows truly how foolish he is. Another important symbol in the story is the trowel that Montresor is carrying. This is revealed to the reader when Fortunato makes a secret gesture of the Masons,
“He laughed and threw the bottle upwards with a gesticulation I did not understand.”
ReplyDelete…Fortunato questions Montresor, asking whether or not he is a Mason, to which he replies, after some confusion, “Yes, yes” (Poe 168) lying to further gain Fortunato’s trust. When asked for a signMontresor produces a trowel from under his executioners’ coat,
“It is this” he says.
…Fortunato then sees the very instrument of his demise and brushes it off as a joke. The trowelmay have meant nothing to Fortunato but to Montresor it is his revenge and he risks unveiling his plan to further hint at Fortunato of what is to come The family crest of the Montresors is also highly significant. The crest is “A huge human foot d’or , in a field of azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel.” The motto that accompanies this crest is,
“nemo me impune lacessit.”
…which means “no one provokes me with impunity”. This explains why Montresor is so Benton exacting his revenge on Fortunato; it’s in his blood. Fortunato, embodying the fool he is dressed as, replies to hearing this by saying “Good!” (Poe 167) The revelation of Montresor’s coat of arms truly was “a warning that Fortunato had ignored, costing him his life. Even the names of the characters in Poe’s work are symbolic. Fortunato means fortunate; somebody who is graced by chance without their own doing. Montresor translates to “my treasure” which is a metaphor for Montresor’s noble ancestry. This forgetfulness of the once noble Montresor family may have motivated Montresor to kill Fortunato out of jealousy; Montresor even says “You are happy, as once I was.” With this information it is easy to see that the status of the Montresors is waning, while new rich like Fortunato spring up left and right, nobles of the robe rather than the sword. The past nobility of the Montresors can also be seen bythe size of their catacombs, which amazes even Fortunato. The murder of Fortunato may have been a symbolic outlet of Montresor’s despair that he is less noble than his soon to be victim, who he sees as a grotesque excuse for a nobleman. The reason for the murder remains a grey area, but the manner in which it happened isobvious and ingenious at the same time. Montresor reveals in the beginning of the story that he fooled Fortunato into following him into the catacombs;
“…neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato a cause to doubt my good will. I continued, as my wont, to smile in his face, and hedid not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his Immolation.”
ReplyDelete…to get Fortunato to come with him, Montresor exploited one of Fortunato’s weaknesses: his ego. Fortunato believed he was a connoisseur of wines, which he himself disproves when he says
“Luch resi cannot tell amontillado from Sherry.” in response to Montresor saying he was going to ask Luchresi to test the amontillado. While sounding correct, Poe purposefully capitalized the “S” in sherry to highlight that Fortunato uses it as a proper name rather than a generic term for several varieties of wine. Once Montresor had baited Fortunato into entering the catacombs, he gave him more wine to impair his judgment further, and also to boost his ego; his pride is his impetus.The insult of which Montresor speaks when wanting to exact his revenge is not a singleact, but a continued action. The insult Montresor is referring to is simply Fortunato’s existence. Montresor is from a long line of powerful family members and is proud of his lineage, although his family’s nobility has certainly waned in recent times. This is made clear when Fortunato, who Montresor believes lesser than he, doesn’t remember the family crest or motto of the Montresor’s. Fortunato is noble because of his money, not because of his heritage like Montresor, and this creates a rift between the two. As powerful families like the Montresor faded from everyday life, new, wealthy individuals came forth to fill their place; Montresor sawthese people as imposters, threats to his way of life. He justifies the murder of Fortunato because of this belief. Everything about Fortunato not only offended Montresor, but threatened his way of life. Montresor was ashamed to be less renowned than Fortunato, and in turn he killed him in a desperate attempt to feel the power he feared he was losing. Driven mad by weakness, Montresor did everything he could to make himself superior to his victim: puns, trickery, manipulation, even chaining him to a wall and building an enclosure of brick and mortar around him. Just as Montresor hid his fears in a corridor deep in his mind; he hide the manifestation of them in the catacombs, deep in the earth.
A Haunted House
ReplyDeleteA man and a woman who occupy a house hear a male and female ghosts wandering about the dwelling as they talk about finding a treasure. The living man and woman have no knowledge of a treasure, such as gold or money, hidden on their property. When they were alive, the ghosts had occupied the house more than a century before the current residents. The woman died first, and the man left the house and traveled. “He…went North, went East, saw the stars turned in the Southern sky; sought the house, found it dropped beneath the Downs,” the narration says. The Downs are a range of Chalk Mountains along the southeastern coast of England. After the man died, he rejoined the woman ghost at the house they once occupied, the same house where the living man and woman now dwell. As the ghosts search for their treasure, they roam the house, opening the closing doors and drawing curtains back. Although they try not to disturb the living couple, the latter can hear them now and then.
And what is the treasure the ghosts seek? The narration reveals that it is the rediscovery of the places in and around the house where the ghosts spent little moments expressing their love for each other. The female ghost says, “Here, sleeping; in the garden reading; laughing, rolling apples in the loft. Here we left our treasure.” After an encounter with the ghost couple in their bedroom, the living couple then realizes what the ghosts are seeking.
The short story A Haunted House by Virginia Woolf, talks about the important treasure, love. The title of the short story sounds scary but it does not reflect the content of the story, for it is not scary at all. The main characters of the story are two ghost couple. This two ghost couple has been looking for the treasure on their house, for they think that these literally breathing couple that occupying on their house now will find the treasure. Time passes by this ghost couples are still looking for the treasure on the house. All the time that they been looking for the treasure, they reminisce their good and happy moments in every corner of the house when they are still alive. The ghost couple realizes that the treasure that they been looking for is their love for each other that been restore on every part of the house. Love is the only thing that people should never give up for no matter what the reason is. Even though love can be shown and express through material things, but it is still important to show love to others through actions and sincerity. The characters on the story are ghost couple and they are looking for the treasure, love. Love makes life colorful and when people fall in love they give everything to the person
they love. It is more like what happen to the ghost couple on the story, that when they are still alive they love each other deeply. When death takes their earthly body, their souls are still there for each other and give life to the line “till’ death do us part.” Time had pass they had forgotten that it is love that bring them together even after death. They had forgotten that it is love, their greatest treasure. People nowadays are too blinded to see what those things that really matter are, greediness do that to people. On the story greed has been mention, for it blinded those ghost couple of seeing and realizing their greatest treasure. Greed destroys people, and worst greed destroys humanity. This kind of people who think more of themselves less than the situation of others will in the end left nothing to them. For they invest and divest things not love, relationship and commitment that will surely last until the end of age. Eventually people who are like this will realize what really matters in life, but the scary thing about this it might be too late. People will never become contented until greed is in their hearts. People like this are those people who think that it is the material things that will complete them and can make them happy. Greed people are those self-centered individuals who assume that it is the earthly things is all their greatest treasure. Terrorism happens unexpectedly. This ISIS group who believes that they own the world and will conquer every single country and take innocent lives randomly, is the best definition of greed. These groups kill many innocent people in exchange of their ill beliefs, minds and interests. In this manner greed destroy humanity. Majority of the government officials are greed. They are on the position to serve people and give them the best kind of services they deserve, because of greediness instead of giving them the best services what they give is less than the people deserve.
ReplyDeleteHowever, corruptions, killings and different vices trigger by greed. They corrupt peoples’ money for they want more; they want to live in a very luxurious life through peoples’ money. They are involve in killings for those people who show interest to the position where they are in without reflecting that money is not the greatest treasure in life for the value of money fade and people cannot bring money into their grave.
Dead Stars
The story starts with a conversation of two people particularly talking about Alfredo Salazar and Esperanza's relationship. The two people are Carmen, his sister and Don't Julian, his father.
Alfredo Salazar is engaged to Esperanza, there relationship started in a very good way, like, Alfredo is so avid in showing his love to Esperanza but a few years later the relationship of the two became cold, Alfredo's feelings towards Esperanza slowly vanished merely because of Julia Salas. Julia Salas is the sister-in-law of Judge del Valle. Alfredo met Julia when one evening Don Julian and him went neighboring at judge's house and he probably got the chance to chat along with Julia at the vine-covered porch. The two then started to chat more often every Sunday after mass because Don Julian and judge del Valle always play a chess and Alfredo always come along with his father, and since he's not interested in watching the chess match he always find himself accompanied by Julia. The long time they chatted, Alfredo never mentioned to Julia that he is going to be married anytime soon. As each day he spent time along with Julia he never realized that his heart's feeling slowly changing, he started to keep all the things he's doing from Esperanza. One day, before the Holy week at Tanda, Alfredo knew that Julia will head back on her hometown already because her parents sent her a letter saying that she will spent the Holy week their made Alfredo felt sad. When the holy week came, Alfredo and Julia met at the end row of a Chinese store, this was the time where Julia congratulated Alfredo as he was going to be married on the month of May, Julia finally knew. Alfredo invited her and she said she will come and after that confrontation they parted ways. Alfredo visited Esperanza and hears her talking with someone about man's immorality. He condemned such things to her, Esperanza was nagging telling and worrying about what the people in their place will think because of what he did, because of this Esperanza then dared him to leave. However the wedding was still preceded. A few years later, Alfredo was in a town near the place of Esperanza for some particular case. His desire in wanting to see Esperanza made him decline the dinner offered to him and found himself heading the way to Julia's hometown and there she found the lady. Julia is still unmarried, as he's sitting next to her, Alfredo felt something missing. He felt the absence of such sparks every time she speaks and every time he looks at Julia's face and eyes. This made Alfredo conclude that everything has gone and passed away like their life as a youth and it all seems like dead stars all around them.
ReplyDeleteAn analysis of the short story "Dead Stars," a story of "what if" as a married man again meets the woman he fell in love with many years earlier while engaged to his wife. The story is basically a compilation of the complicated circumstances that every man has to go through in life. Alfredo was once in love with Esperanza, no doubt, but there comes a time when love fades, and the only thing holding you together is the vow you gave your fiancée, that which you cannot take back. Why can't you take it back? It’s because you are afraid of what will be the reaction of the people around you, especially during the time of the story.
What's visibly wrong about this is that most often than not, men refuse to listen to their own yearnings and simply submit to further dehumanization. Love here, though perhaps genuine to a point, for Alfredo, is seemingly weak and purposive. Weak, because it is eventually overcome by propriety, and purposive because it was merely a tool to justify his desire to go against society; that for once he will not be a puppet, but the master of his own fate. In the story, Alfredo falls drastically in love with Julia even as he is engaged to Esperanza, but in the end forgoes the idea. He kept on holding on to that glimmer of "what could have been" throughout the years of his marriage to Esperanza, but upon meeting Julia again, he realizes that what he thought was there, had now gone for more than one reason. First, it is possible to say that after what society has done to him (dehumanized him), he found at peace in his place, and sought no more that illusive dream of yesterday. He understood, after meeting her again, that it was nostalgia that was taking hold of his heart, and not the "love" that he once felt for her. It is said in the story that he is not unhappy with his marriage, but a part of him always slips away from the world in order to dream of another life that could have blossomed, had he chose Julia over Esperanza. On the other hand, it is possible that there was no real love to speak of, but a desire for something else. He desired youth. Although relatively young, he desired the qualities that the youthful possessed: vigor, passion, vitality. These are a few things that he lacked as a person and to find these in Julia gave him a sense of completeness. It was a welcomed changed in his life, and he wanted to hold on to it for as long as he could, since even if he couldn't be like Julia, he is comforted by the thought that he was able to meet someone who is different from everybody else, and that she could have been his wife. He is noted to be of a cool and calm demeanor, which is why it seems out of character if he suddenly bursts with energy.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Dead stars symbolize things that are present but are left unspoken of. The love between Alfredo and Julia seemed real, but look closer and one can state that it was hardly mutual, and that it was impossible to last. Esperanza's devotion to Alfredo also resembles love, but since she believes in the "regenerative virtue of institution" more than true love, it is safe to say that she is in the relationship, because of moral obligation. So what one thought as real (or present) is now nothing but an illusion.
Country Doctor
ReplyDeleteOn a cool winter night, a country doctor gets ready to leave from his home to tend to the needs of a wiped out patient ten miles away. Shockingly, he needs a horse for his carriage, yet his own particular horse has died one night before. As the specialist kicks open the way to his pigsty, a groom shows up and provided him with horses and secures them to the carriage. The groom forcefully kisses the doctor's house maid, keeping in mind the doctor wishes to chide him. He feels that he can't as he is in the man's obligation. As he withdraws in the carriage, the servant escapes inside the doctor's home, with the man in close interest with Rosa, the housemaid. The doctor wants to help her, however he is feeble as the horse go promptly to their expected destination. Once at his quiet's home, the doctor endeavors to treat his patient, an out of commission young man who doesn't seem to have any kind of illness. All things considered, the patient beseeches that the doctor let him die. The doctor then, notice that the patient has an appalling, grisly contamination on his side, which is assailed by multi-legged worms. The kid then asks to be spared. As his kin sees the doctor doing something to help him, the horses from outside have stuck their heads into the windows of the room. The family sings an odd, semi religious verse as the doctor works. They then continue to strip him stripped and lay him in bed with his patient under the evident impression this will cure him. The doctor guarantees his patient that his injury is not deadly, and immediately leaves the room, snatching his garments and instruments as he goes. He did not bother try getting dressed, and expeditiously tosses his materials into the carriage, yet the horses are exhausted and just walk through the snow. The doctors then loses hope at his prospects of returning home at the rate the horses are presently moving, and he thinks quickly about his servant's approaching assault, that his practice will be lost, and the way that his fur garment now dangles out of range at the furthest end of his carriage while he is still stripped in the harsh elements. He feels betrayed that none of his patients will help him.
Kafka’s “A Country Doctor” is a grim tale of an elderly rural surgeon who, facing his own mortality, has a vivid nightmare filled with hopelessness and fear. It has a depressing theme of youth and vitality versus age and depletion. The doctor faces numerous challenges in this short story. First, he must travel ten miles in a blinding snowstorm in the dark of night to the home of an ill patient. Worse still, his horse has just died, and he must find another horse to take him to
his destination. After the doctor discovers a groom and horses in an abandoned pigsty, he must deal with the certainty that, if he leaves the groom behind, his servant, Rosa, will be raped. Both of these predicaments anger him, as he is powerless on his own to fix them. Next, as the physician learns shortly after arriving at his destination, the boy whom he has been called there to treat, although not mortally wounded, tells him that he wants to die. Finally, he must struggle to return to his home after treating the patient, despite his nakedness and the fact that the horses are moving in dreamlike slow motion through the freezing night. As the story progresses and these two new challenges emerge, the narrator becomes calm and cool-headed, recognizing the pointlessness of his despair. Kafka’s story is nightmarish in its futility, as is the problem with most nightmares. Not simply is the doctor persecuted, but he can’t do anything about the arbitrary forces which he encounters. The sudden appearance of a groom and his other-worldly horses, the groom’s attack upon Rosa, the worms - with limbs ‘crawling out of the wound of the patient, and the doctor’s being stripped of his clothing by local families and town elders and then sung a haunting chorus by school children appearing, it seems, out of thin air, are all examples of the physician’s horrific dream. The predominant theme in the story is death. The physician is nearing the end of a life that has been fruitlessly spent trying to help the sick and dying. The story ends with the doctor, naked and cold, going slowly with the horses through the snowy desert like old men. The doctor now faces the death that so many of his patients have faced. Yet, unlike his patients, there is no one to help him; he is instead betrayed and abandoned by them. He has used his last breath to help a young man who, unlike himself, is not dying, yet chooses death over life. The narrator realizes he has made a huge blunder by helping others he has been left in solitude to face his own death, and has himself abandoned and betrayed the woman he left at home. The tale conveys the physician’s feelings of loneliness and lack of control, not only in his role as physician but also as a man. He has been unable to prevent the groom from attacking Rosa, who sought safety by running into the doctor’s home, locking the doors and turning off the lights. The narrator believes he cannot protect those close to him, even those in his own home because he must spend his time helping strangers seeking his medical assistance, people he has also often been unable to truly help. Although he is frustrated by his own shortcomings, it has been suggested that the physician blames others, not himself, for his failures: the boy does not want to live, the doctor has no horses, and even the groom, initially a saviour, has failed him. Interlinked with the themes of the doctor’s fear of impending death and his powerlessness is his
ReplyDeletedisappointment in his frequent failure to cure his patients, coupled with the patients’ unrealistic expectations of him. The ill boy’s family assumes the doctor will make him well, and the mother looks at the doctor disappointingly for not doing more. The narrator feels he is expected to perform feats beyond his capabilities, proven when he does not notice the patient’s gaping wound in his first examination. The story also addresses man’s inability to be an objective and realistic observer of his own fate. The doctor is treating a young man with a loving family and, although he has an injury (possibly self-inflicted) it is apparently not life-threatening. The patient insists that he wants to die, although, as the physician tells him, the boy’s condition is far less serious than that of others he has seen. As he tells the young man, the doctor has witnessed all degrees of sickness and death. In his experience, his patients’ offer their side and hardly hear the axe in the forest, refusing to either recognize the futility of their plight, or to appreciate what they do have, to say nothing of the fact that is coming closer to them. All the doctor can do, metaphorically and literally, is written prescriptions; he cannot change peoples’ beliefs concerning their plights.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there are also strong sexual overtones in this story. Indeed, the tale is Freudian in its sexual imagery (including the muscular, powerful horses and Rosa and the boys’ rose-shaped wound), and has been described as a story written as though in response to Freud. After examining the patient, the doctor is stripped naked by the townspeople, and dragged into bed next to the ill young man, who himself is shirtless. Even when the physician makes his hasty departure, he travels naked through the night. Earlier in the story, the groom savagely bites Rosa on her face, and the obvious implication is that she will be raped. His rose has been tarnished, leaving the physician feeling powerless and utterly alone as he is carried toward his death by a pair of ghostly horses.
Name: Jehanne Joyce U. Calabio
ReplyDeleteSection: ASEnglish3
The Precariousness of the Human condition as Reflected in 5 Stories:
The "human condition" is an important part of our understanding of literature. Literary critics often label a piece of writing as literature. Essentially, the discussion of the human condition is any thematic concern about human nature, human society or how we live our lives. In other words, it's about the fundamental issues of human existence. This 5 stories shows some issues connected to "human nature, human society or how we live our lives.
"The Cask of Amontillado"
"The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge....At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitely settled....I must not only punish, but punish with impunity."Now Montresor began to develop the perfect plan of retribution”.
"The Cask of Amontillado" is a powerful tale of revenge of Motresor’s precariousness toward his enemy. The story was a case of premeditated murder from the perspective of Montresor who vows revenge against Fortunato in an effort to support his time-honored family motto: "Nemo me impune lacessit" or "No one assails me with impunity." (No one can attack me without being punished.) In the story, it gives the readers some ideas in making a perfect crime which was a big mistake of making this theme. As a human, naturally we have pride where you respect yourself and deserve to be respect by other people or you may feel that you are more important or better than others. Montresor showed as a high pride person which is not a good emblem as the main character of the story. But his opponent named Fortunato do something offensive act that lead into his death. Montresor's point of view intensifies the effect of moral shock to Fortunato. Edgar Allan Poe does not intend for the reader to sympathize with Montresor because he has been insulted by Fortunato, but rather to judge him that he have a sinister mind. Montresor has his plan carefully worked out and committed a perfect crime but even if Motresor was affront by Fortunato, killing him is not the right vengeance. Throughout most of his evil deed against Fortunado, Montresor does not demonstrate any sense of guilt or regret. In fact, he seems to be rather enjoying himself and his diabolical plan. That’s the portrayal of his human nature that he is evil. In life, sometimes we get away with something that other people think is wrong but we don’t think it’s wrong and other times, we know what we did is wrong, and we wish somebody would find out so we can somehow try to make things right. That’s the trick of the story where you are to judge about Montresor’s crime that Fortunato’s did really deserve his death. But Montresor tries to convince the reader that his intentions are honorable in an effort to uphold his family motto. It is in a thought that Fortunato insulted Montresor to make him feel that he is better, powerful and perfect, but it only the result of insecurity and high self-esteem.
The setting of the story was horrible and scary. People may get an idea of making a cleaver move of being untrue. It showed that you can’t trust anybody especially to those nice to you. It has a negative outcome to the mind of the reader. It lessens your confident to make friends because you may think that you would be like Fortunato. It’s also a lesson about when you insult a person you might hurt him/her and become a source of sadness, shame or even anger like Motresor.
DeleteBut as a human we have this awareness our actions as being either morally right or wrong. So this is another area where we can totally identify with Montresor that he is confessing his sins or bragging about his crimes. Therefore, the best indication of guilt is at the end when he brag, Montresor writes, "My heart grew sick". The thought of Fortunado dying in there, for a moment, makes him sick. However, he blames it on "the dampness of the catacombs" and hurries away. The fact that he is confessing his story at a later date might also indicate that he has felt guilty for it, because he want to be free of the burden of our secrets.
The God Stealer
ReplyDeleteThe story God Stealer is a novel concentrates on the debilitating effect of the colonial rule in the Filipino identity formation and the Filipino's rejection of his own roots.
The story begins with two officemates Philip Latak a Filipino and Sam Cristie, an American both of them was helping each other. Philip (Ip-pig) now lives in Manila against the wishes of his family, he aspire on a career and forget his root. Phillips symbolized as the Filipino who choose to love other culture instead of his own culture. He was a egocentric man who only shows concern for himself and not his countrymen. Yet, he stole the God of his own grandfather and gave it to his friend Sam Cristie . He feels it would be his way of showing his gratitude to Sam for giving him a rise at work. He was self-absorbed that only cared about his own interest. His Ifugao’s spirit to their customs, belief and arts was no longer in his heart. He was poison with his ambitions and interest in life. He was being influence by Sam Cristie. They are on their way to Baguio for one purpose: Sam wants to buy a genuine Ifugao god as souvenir and Philip was to help him find an authentic one through his local connections. He wanted to produce impression and that’s the precariousness of his nature towards Sam Cristie. Due to his actions, the consequences are severe.
Philip is a Christian who no longer has any respect or affection for the Ifugao customs and religion. That’s why it takes a facile move to him to steal the God of his Grandfather. He doesn’t even feel that something he has done is morally wrong. He considers himself a city boy and has no inclination to return to mountain life. Despite this attitude, his grandfather is pleased to see him and decides to throw a big party in his honor. He doesn’t have any conscience of making his plan despite of the warm welcome of his countrymen. On the day of the party, Sam and Philip discover that no Ifugao is willing to sell his god beacause the ifugao’s respect their God and that’s a big discouragement for both Phillip and Sam. And as a last resort, Philip offers to steal the god of his grandfather. Philllip was unaware about how his grandfather value the God the he had stolen. He only thinks about himself.
The next day, due to a contemptible action, his grandfather died because he discovered that his God was stolen. He was poignantly informs Sam that will no longer be going back to Manila. He can’t forgive himself about what happened for his grandfather. He blamed himself that he killed his grandfather just because he wanted to be grateful. And because of Sam’s curiosity, he looks for Philip and found him working in his grandfather's house. Philip endures the conscience inside of him and chooses to stay in the mountains.
As a result, Sam Cristie noticed that Philip is now attired in G-string, the traditional costume of the Ifugao. His eyes were opened about giving a value to their culture when he witness that even his grandfather would die for his God. Furthermore, Philip is busy carving another idol, a new god to replace the old one which Sam will take to America as a souvenir.
Servant Girl
ReplyDelete“True respect means taking other people's beliefs seriously and assuming they are adult and intelligent enough to be able to cope with it if you tell them, clearly and civility, why you think they are totally, utterly and disastrously wrong.”-Julian Baggini
Servant Girl talks about Rosa, an abused maid who longs for freedom, happiness and love. Human nature does naturally bad and also naturally good, it’s depending upon the status of a person to put some level of treatment to someone. The precariousness of her weakness and being martyr to her mistress lead her to be maltreated and was hoping that one day she would be able to be freed from all the abuse she was experiencing. She was being mock with other girls and her mistress and accuses her that she was flirting Sancho. Just because she was a servant most of the people doesn’t have any respect about her. Though it all happened, she still values her work and her mistress even though she was always getting scolded. Thus she gave her mistress a good service in return for all the cruelness she has shown to her.
Then one day, while she was out, carrying a basin on her head with her mistress' clothes, she accidentally slipped and fell causing for her ankle to swell. A man in his tartanilla stopped and helped her with her basin. That man inspired Rosa to have some strength in getting out the abuses of her mistres and intended him to called Angel but the real name is Pedro. After the incident, the urge of emotion made Rosa felt happy and somewhat in love with the cochero. The normal feeling about being in love made Rosa daydreaming. This is the stage of developing the diversion of his action. She can’t concentrate to her work and she wanting him to see her and wanting him to hear her voice. Despite of her mistress abuses, she fantasized his Angel inspiration and a reason to felt happy. She pitied those who would mock her for she believed that she had an 'Angel' that took care of her when she was in distress.
This story is about dreaming brought by infatuation about Rosa and cochero who was recklessly riding his tarantilla. In their second met, she realized how much she was just imagining 'their love' and that all of it was not real and she found out that her savior does not exist. And that 'Angel', now his real name 'Pedro' did not think of anything when he helped Rosa when she was injured. She discover that she imagining and inventing thoughts that would comfort her everyday life as servant. Rosa had a good heart despite of her low status in life. She deserve to be respect unlike her mistress who was a drunkard.
After this incident, she realized that she was just fooling herself making believe of things that won’t really happen. It is widely shown the truth of reality of blind infatuation that really seems had bad result such as assuming things that were not really meant for. In the end Rosa accept her fortune as a miserable servant and went back to her mistress house and continued on with her job.
This story explains a lot such as kindness and hospitality to stranger that was showed off by Pedro who offers help to Rosa when she in trouble. The precariousness of assumption made her felt bad and desperate about thing that doesn’t exist.
How my brother Leon brought home a Wife
ReplyDelete“In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true either is true or becomes true.”-John Lilly
In the story, Leon arrived with his wife named Maria. They took a surprising route home for leon’s family, but it was meant as a test for Maria to see if she could endure the sacrifices she made and meet her new family. In the case of Maria, she was aware of the people might judge her so she must be careful. The precariousness of the characters in the story about themselves is to be true to people.
Baldo is the narrator of the story, the younger brother of Leon. Baldo is a quiet person. It is very detectable of observing his brother Leon and Maria. He was liked Maria as a wife of his brother and he help Maria towards confronting his father. But Maria loses confidence to talk to Leon’s father because she think that he might not like her and afraid that she will fail through the trials in order to be happy with Leon at his home. When his father asks him “Was she afraid of Labang?” Baldo lied and says “No, Father, she was not afraid.” Even though Maria afraid. It means that Baldo like Maria as a wife of Leon but inside, he also admires the beauty of Maria.
The people lives in the province predicted that Maria might surrender about the situation in the province because she was a city girl and not used to live in bushy land but the fact that the province is different from the city, she can be somewhat daunting, she still manages to overcome and under come any trials. Maria admits to having some fear, but also shows clearly it did not stop her. This is why the theme is related to how one may have to give up some things in order to find happiness in life or at least the best happiness that can be found in that particular life.
The precariousnesss of human’s mind in judging the person directly by just looking at his/her physical appearance. Leon has a strong personality because he did not afraid to present Maria to his father as her wife. He was very proud of Maria as her wife. Maria truly love Leon because she fight for what she believe was right, it doesn’t matter if the world told her that it’s wrong.
The father of Baldo has a deep personality. He was a responsible father because he use his righteous way as a head of the family. It only means that the father or the man is the authority. He doesn’t want Leon to go to the wrong way. So, he makes some trials to Maria trying to test her characteristic, her attitude, her looks, how she talks and the way she handle the situation. The good thing about it was Maria’s true personality bring up the Leon’s families trust. She was just being true despite of her affright situation. But the Maria learned that though there are sacrifices it is worth it in the end. The entire story serves as a test for the wife. Each test was to show whether the woman could indeed live with strangers all for love and one may have to surrender a small part of one's life in order to be happy
The Dead Star
ReplyDelete“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” Henry Louis Mencken, American Journalist
The story shows two points on the precariousness of the human condition in nature- being faithful and content. It deals with human weakness. Especially when one person falls in love and that’s involved decision making. The story revolves around Alfredo Salazar and his women: Esperanza, his fiancée of four years, and a young girl from out of town named Julia Salas. The character experience emotional attachment and struggles about every decision making.
Alfredo Salazar was a man who was engaged to Esperansa, a homely woman, literal minded and intensely acquisitive. She is one of those fortunate women who have the gift of uniformly beauty. Despite of Ezperansa’s beauty, the urge of temptation was within the side of Alfredo.
Alfredo met Julia whom he really admired the most. Alfredo Salazar, was torn between making two important decisions, to marry or not to marry. Everyone takes it for granted that Alfredo will eventually marry Esperanza and because of the support of their parents. Alfredo and Ezperansa get married. But although he is ashamed to admit it, the intensity of his passion for Esperanza has faded and he is attracted to Julia whom he meets at a dinner party. Alfredo can’t control his strong affection to Julia. He was attracted and perfectly cheated Esperanza. But he is aware that all his loved ones including Julia would disapprove of his failure to honor his understand with Esperanza. So he and Esperanza get married and have a family. Alfredo was trapped in a situation where he has to defend himself and in the process, what was manifested in his greed. Eight years later, he goes on a business trip to the town where Julia was still in unmarried lives. He goes to visit Julia, whom he has never forgotten. But he was surprised to find that he no longer feels attracted to her. He compares the memory of his love for her to dead stars, whose glow is still visible from earth for years after they are gone. In the story, dead stars symbolize a dream for something that is nonsexist. The guy loved the girl. She was his dream, his star. But like a dead star which is so far away, and whose shine could only be seen and cannot be reach.
To sum up all the nature conditions showed in the story, we as human are imperfectly incomplete ant yet we seem to fight to our own destiny. There some things that really made you feel angry, shame and regret. There are also some things that must be accepted if it’s is really not meant for you. In life you naturally you can get hurt especially if you assumed on something. That’s the realization in life. Therefore, you must live your life with all your true self with prayer and good deeds because God will grant you in the end. Moreover, there are also thing that you have to be content because too much lead to something bad and if you are trustworthy and true to others, good thing will come for you.
ReplyDeleteTo define precariousness it is necessary to say it is a quality, a way of being, an adjective issued from a time where travelling, reproduction, image and communication are accessible to everyone; a time of celebrated individuality and infinite choices. However, it is additionally a time of sickness, emergencies and frustrate of advanced guarantees. All that is postmodernity, where, with all the fraud inferred, everything is conceivable however not all that matters is legitimate. Reality of the world and the things is unobtainable1 now, and the representation of the Real2 inconceivable on the grounds that it is exactly the Real what we need to deny to be social subjects. Works of art in the Reality circle acknowledges the agreement between the Imaginary and Symbolic. Unsafe workmanship is more towards the outskirt, managing a counter agreement between the Real and Reality.
ReplyDeleteJust like in Ryunosuke Akutagawa's Rashomon, the laborer of the samurai changes into a substitute individual far from being an imperative and stately man. As he, an unassuming employee, starting late give up, is considering whether to starve or to end up a punk to make due in the vain times. To be sure, even thusly of considering the laborer of the samurai, one would see a little flimsiness of him. Nevertheless, when he encountered the old woman, who was taking hair from the dead bodies to make wigs, he was disgusted, and picks then that he would rather take the method for genuineness paying little mind to the way that it suggested starvation. Besides, woman whose body the old woman was starting now offering in order to plunder moreover hoodwinked people on her life snake meat and stating it was fish. In this circumstance the man exhibited insecurities and in addition the old woman. One could construe that there are true blue reasons why human acts conflictingly or problematically, in this story, because of financial issues and for survival. In spite of the way that the situation is altogether unmistakable, the subsequent climb of shrewdness to empower survival in this unforgiving world develops. That is the reason one couldn't blame the action for the worker of the samurai, arranged with poise, mindful and moral behavior could truly present a ghastly exhibit like that.
Same with the Haunted House short story discusses the human state of perpetual quality of affection, how to continue love and afterward the troubles of marriage or how to be with in a relationship. The story frequented house by Virginia Woolf is a short story loaded with imagery, symbolism, and incongruity of life particularly in the realm of adoration.
ReplyDeleteThe state of the human through this story is that they are finding for something that they can't discover it. The narrative of helps the pursuer to get a more inside and out view of how the apparitions and the living individuals feel and offers the pursuer some assistance with understanding a portion of the musings of the story goes on. The living man and lady have no information about what were the fortune discusses in the event that it was cash or, for example, gold or anything that is more significant things that individuals are needed to have. The things that were all of a sudden stow away on their property. When they were alive, the apparitions are as of now had possessed the entire house over a century prior to the present occupants.
The couples are making progress toward hunting down something that is the reason they were in the house, they were searching for a covered fortune that they can't discovered wherever the side of the house they might go into. The story uncovers the rediscovery of the spots in and around the house where the phantoms spent little minutes communicating their adoration for one another they go into the patio nursery and opposite side of the house that they might feel the affection when they are still alive. And afterward when the times when the female apparition says, "Here, dozing; in the greenery enclosure perusing; snickering, moving apples in the space. Here we exited our fortune." After that couples who are experiencing the house find that they were an apparition who is living with them additionally, they understand that the phantom couple stays at the house for looking something and that something was their affection to one another. The couples despite the fact that are apparition they are not startling on the grounds that they are tranquil and they not terrified individuals around however individuals are frightened. As the apparitions hunt down their fortune, they wander the house, opening the end entryways and moving window ornaments back. In spite of the fact that they do whatever it takes not to exasperate the living couple, the last can hear them every so often.
Same with the Haunted House short story discusses the human state of perpetual quality of affection, how to continue love and afterward the troubles of marriage or how to be with in a relationship. The story frequented house by Virginia Woolf is a short story loaded with imagery, symbolism, and incongruity of life particularly in the realm of adoration.
ReplyDeleteThe state of the human through this story is that they are finding for something that they can't discover it. The narrative of helps the pursuer to get a more inside and out view of how the apparitions and the living individuals feel and offers the pursuer some assistance with understanding a portion of the musings of the story goes on. The living man and lady have no information about what were the fortune discusses in the event that it was cash or, for example, gold or anything that is more significant things that individuals are needed to have. The things that were all of a sudden stow away on their property. When they were alive, the apparitions are as of now had possessed the entire house over a century prior to the present occupants.
The couples are making progress toward hunting down something that is the reason they were in the house, they were searching for a covered fortune that they can't discovered wherever the side of the house they might go into. The story uncovers the rediscovery of the spots in and around the house where the phantoms spent little minutes communicating their adoration for one another they go into the patio nursery and opposite side of the house that they might feel the affection when they are still alive. And afterward when the times when the female apparition says, "Here, dozing; in the greenery enclosure perusing; snickering, moving apples in the space. Here we exited our fortune." After that couples who are experiencing the house find that they were an apparition who is living with them additionally, they understand that the phantom couple stays at the house for looking something and that something was their affection to one another. The couples despite the fact that are apparition they are not startling on the grounds that they are tranquil and they not terrified individuals around however individuals are frightened. As the apparitions hunt down their fortune, they wander the house, opening the end entryways and moving window ornaments back. In spite of the fact that they do whatever it takes not to exasperate the living couple, the last can hear them every so often.
The couples did not quit hunting down what they are searching for in the house until them looks for something that can't esteem for anything a fortune that nothing can pay when you have it. The fortune they are searching for is that is "the light in the heart" that is exceptionally protected and it is just for them both. "The light in the heart" which implies the adoration that is can't paid for anything, that was the couples are searching for inside and outside the house and quips exceptionally in the patio nursery were perhaps they are having recollections the make their that they find for several days.
ReplyDeleteIn a clean, well – lighted place by Ernest Hemingway, Hemingway does not squander words on changing scenes or denoting the progression of time, surrendering it over to us to monitor what's occurring and the story's pacing. For instance, just a brief discussion between the servers happens between the time when the more youthful server serves the old man a cognac and the time when the old man requests another. Hemingway is not recommending that the old man has slugged back the cognac rapidly. Truth be told, the old man stays in the bistro for quite a while. Time has slipped by here, however Hemingway surrenders it over to us to take after the pace of the story. The pace of "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" might appear to be quick, yet the activity of the story really extends for any longer than it seems to. The sitting, drinking, and considering that occur are lazy activities. We might read the story rapidly, yet the scenes themselves are not quick.Just as Hemingway doesn't squander words by attempting to back off his scenes, he likewise shuns including pointless moves. For instance, when the more seasoned server leaves the bistro and thinks about nothingness, he completes his farce of petition to God and, with no move that recommends that he was strolling, we all of a sudden discover him remaining at a bar. Hemingway lets the server's considerations serve as the move. When he keeps in touch with, "He grinned and remained before a bar," we're intended to comprehend that the server had been strolling and moving as he was contemplating internally. What's more, when the server arranges a beverage at the bar, the barkeep offers him another only two sentences later. This is what happens when people are so busy working that when they have everything, they would just say that they have nothing.
Told in the first individual by an Italian privileged person, "The Cask of Amontillado" connects with the peruser by making him or her a partner to Montresor's ghastly story of requital. The casualty is Fortunato, who, the storyteller claims, gave him a thousand wounds that he persevered quietly, however when Fortunato challenged affront him, he pledged retribution. It must be an immaculate reprisal, one in which Fortunato will know completely what is going on to him and in which Montresor will be perpetually undetected. To achieve it, Montresor holds up until jubilee season, a period of "incomparable frenzy," when Fortunato, officially half-plastered and costumed as a jokester, is especially powerless. Montresor then illuminates him that he has obtained a channel of Amontillado wine yet is not certain he has gotten the real thing. He if, he says, have counseled Fortunato, who prides himself on being a specialist on wine, including that in light of the fact that Fortunato is locked in, he will go rather to Luchesi. Knowing his casualty's vanity, Montresor goads him by saying that a few morons contend that Luchesi's taste is as fine as Fortunato's. The last is snared, and Montresor conducts him to his vacant palazzo and drives him down into the family tombs, at the same time utilizing him with beverage. Through underground passageways with heaps of skeletons exchanging with wine containers, Montresor drives Fortunato, whose jokester's chimes jingle peculiarly in the mournful environment. In the most profound grave there is a little break, and there Montresor binds Fortunato to a couple of iron staples and after that starts to lay a mass of stone and mortar, with which he covers his foe alive. While he does as such, he savors the mental torment of his casualty, whom he then takes off alone oblivious, sitting tight in dread for his passing. Montressor is driven by vengeance to Fortunato which makes as a link to precarious things and actions.
ReplyDeleteIn my last short story, A Country Doctor. In spite of his inability to recuperate, the specialist recounts his story in a strikingly graceful and persuading way. So persuading is it, actually, that the peruser is likely at first to be completely taken in by the specialist's record. The specialist starts honestly enough by saying, "I was in a predicament," specifically, that he did not have a steed to take him to the far off patient. An adjustment in the specialist's story first gets to be detectable when he breaks into the current state right when he recounts the lucky man's assault on Rosa. He keeps on utilizing the chronicled present until he says that the patient acknowledged his anecdote about the birthplace of the injury and fell quiet. This adjustment in strained sets off the story's long center segment, in which the specialist's self indulging dissensions, ditherings, and questions about his calling prevail.
ReplyDeleteThe peruser must remember that the specialist relates the subtle elements of his last sickbed visit in a condition of absolute hopelessness, as he is driven in an apparently perpetual winter night by a couple of stallions over which he has truly no control. The franticness of his circumstance, in any case, does not turn out to be clear until the last section of his story. At first the specialist's disengaged portrayal draws the peruser's sensitivities and obstructs any distrustful reaction to what is being told. As the record develops, there are more signs that the specialist's cognizance is blurred by his own reasons for alarm and tensions—his sudden sympathy toward Rosa, his distrustfulness about the inexplicable help of the stallions, who appear at the transfer of higher strengths, his need to legitimize to himself his inability to act. Accordingly, the most awesome components of the story—the steeds' rate amid the introductory adventure, the horrible magnificence of the kid's injury, and the uncovering of the specialist—mirror the illusion of the specialist's bended cognizance instead of an incredible reality that may have faced him. The imaginative expertise with which the specialist turns his inability to adapt to the substances of his work into a splendidly enchanting account recommends that his genuine calling is as a storyteller and not as a healer. This man shows that pity and discourage to the people of the town because of what he promised to them that he cannot fulfill.
In conclusion, the Rashumon talks to us by saying that no one will live forever and that you must take care of yourself because no one will take care of it, other than you. In the Haunted House, they teach us that material things are just petty things compared to the memories and the times shared together with loved ones over the course of your life. In the Cask of Amontillado, Montressor teach us that vengeance is not good and will only worsten the situation you are currently having. In a Clean, Well-lighted place. All you have, the riches is without comparison to your family and loved ones. And lastly, a Country Doctor. We always commit to something yet we always forget them. This story tells us that action really speaks louder than words.
ReplyDeleteBuntog, Jerica O.
ReplyDeleteINTRODUCTION
Humans are fun of making wrong decisions and behavior that often lead them to struggle. They often made things complicated through this. They even suffer and regret those mistaken actions. Other things were taken for granted, until the time came that they will realized how important those things are.
These five (5) selected stories that the researcher selected show the precariousness of human condition. These stories are, A Little Cloud written by James Joyce, Cask of Amontillado written by edgar Allan Poe, A Clean and Well Lighted Place written by Ernest Hemingway, Dead Stars written by Paz Marquez, and Popular Mechanics written by Raymond Carver.
A Little Cloud. There are things in life that one regret to happen and wished to undo such things. There are times that one needs to be alone and embrace all the unlucky things that ever thrown to you. There are moments when people want to be just what they are but the sad truth is they are still a prisoner of their past.
Dreams are the second thing that is free in this world. People dream because people want to escape from the reality. They dream of what they want to be. There are incidents in the life of a person that may happen unexpectedly and these incidents may change the path that a person takes.
In the story A Little Cloud, the main character has this inner struggle to pursue his dream. He was not able to reach his dreams because he was being married on a young age. Until he met his old friend, unlike him his friend became successful and happy with his own life. Although Little Chandler (main character) was felt happy and contented with his life, Ignatius Gallaher (his friend) made him realized that he could be happier and more contented with his life if he ever pursue his dreams.
In real life, there are decisions that a person regrets and wishes to change it, the wrong decision which leads us to struggle. But no matter how often they try to undo those things, they just cant. In this case, human precariousness is highly observed.
Humans tend to ignore the problems that are ahead to them. In this story it just shows that, humans do not think of the possible effects of the sudden decisions that they made. The marriage of Little Chandler illustrates the failure of attaining his dreams. While Little Chandler portrays those people that give ups easily to their dreams.
Ignatius Gallaher stands for those people who are viewed as the less fortunate person. Since he was not so intelligent compared to Little Chandler but as they both grew old it is Ignatius Gallaher who became successful.
In life it is not always that the odds are in favor. The success of Ignatius Gallaher was not planned only that he was persevered by his dreams.
On the other hand, the failure of the life of Little Chandler was upon his own decisions. After a long year, Little Chandler then realized how far he was far yesterday. He never thought
of the success of Ignatius Gallaher for he believes that he is more intelligent than Ignatius. Chandler’s failure is thrown into sharp contrast to Gallaher’s success. The triumph of his friend was a reminder to him that how trapped he is in his own life.
ReplyDeleteThe carelessness of the humans is the main reason of its downfall. Base from the story Little Chandler has given more opportunities but unluckily got no one to hold. He is smart but he did not use his intelligence to make wise decisions. He was driven away from what he wants to be.
On the other hand, Ignatius Gallaher is just a simple lad who wishes to be successful. He is not smart but he was able to make wise decisions that walked him into what he is now. He maybe does not have the brain but he has the will. He remained faithful on his dreams.
This is just one of the many stories that humans should be reflected on. It tells a lot of human conditions that can be observed on this very moment. This story had just taught us that being a wise man is not measured on the intelligence he bare but on the decisions he made.
Cask of Amontillado. Some people are not concern on whatever they said on someone without even knowing that they had already insulted their peers. There are moments when people are thoughtless of the things they said which often leads to trouble against other people.
People are fun of making judgments and jokes to someone and unintentionally hurt somebody’s feeling and some may lead into misunderstanding or even death. There are many cases that this incident happened. It starts with a slow flow of conversation and ends up with bumpy bloody conversation.
Sometimes people are not aware of what they have uttered. Some people give reactions that are not really necessary to hear. This became a habit to everyone among these days. It is so easy for the other people to give judgments and a reaction to a certain event and worst is they cannot even give sympathy to someone who’s in the position.
In this story, Montresor felt insulted by his friend Fortunato without the knowledge of his friend. Upon this incident he made revenge that causes the death of Montresor. The story features revenge and secret murder as a way to avoid using legal channels for retribution. Montresor uses his subjective experience of Fortunato’s insult to name himself judge, jury, and executioner in this tale. “The Cask of Amontillado” takes subjective interpretation—the fact that different people interpret the same things differently—to its horrific endpoint.
Despite Montresor's sardonic jabs, Fortunato does not realize the extent of his danger until he has been chained to the granite, and even then he remains too drunk to completely comprehend what has taken place for some time. After repeatedly insulting Luchesi for his lack of intellect, Fortunato shows himself to be even more the dupable fool.
Montresor made a crime on murdering his friend along this; he was also at ease and in peace knowing that he had taken revenge over Fortunato. In his mind, the more important is on making revenge after what Fortunato did to him.
A person is define base on character. The way a person treats other people shows respect and honor. A man is considered to be a great man if he alone can give respect to his fellowmen.
In the case of Fortunato and Montresor, Fortunato did not show respect on Montressor. He felt the he is superior over Montresor. That is the reason why it is so aesy for him to insult
Montressor. And Montresor could no longer hold the anger that is cause of the insult of Fortunato, Montresor then planned to murder Fortunato.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, Montresor did not felt any guilt upon murdering his friend. In the part of Montresor it may not be a sin but on the eyes of the law. He must be imprisoned and must go on to due process.
In the end, committing a sin is against the social norms and biblical norms. It is not right to insult or give nasty comments on other people but it is not also right to plant revenge against other people. Let karma work for you.
A Clean, Well-lighted place. Once a person gets old no matter how big or small a family that is been created at the end of the day a person will always end up alone. The author of this story wants to imply that, in a world characterized by nothingness, what possible action could take place? That no character has a name and that there is no characterization emphasize the sterility of this world.
This story has shown no focus but on its meaning. The old man who drinks brandy at the clean, well-lighted cafe is literally deaf. He cannot hear them anymore. He is alone, he is isolated, sitting in the shadow left by nature in the modern, artificial world. Additionally, all of the light remaining is artificial light in this clean, "well-lighted" cafe. Visiting a café is a way of unwinding himself from being alone.
On the other hand, there are two waiters in the café. The older waiter felt sympathy on the old man for he also felt the same. While the young waiter felt angry and disturbed by the presence of the old man.
The old man and the older waiter shared same feeling, the feeling of being alone. What is important in the story is not only the condition of nothingness in the world but the way that the old man and the old waiter feel and respond to this nothingness. . The old man has his dignity. And when the young waiter says that old men are nasty, the old waiter does not deny the general truth of this statement, but he does come to the defense of the old man by pointing out that this particular old man is clean and that he likes to drink brandy in a clean, well-lighted place. And the old man does leave with dignity. This is not much this aged scrap of human dignity in the face of the human condition of nothingness, but sometimes it is all that we have.
At this point, we can clearly see differences between the old waiter and the young waiter especially in their antithetical attitudes toward the old man. The young waiter refuses to serve the old man another drink because he wants to get home to his wife, and, in contrast, the old waiter is resentful of the young waiter's behavior. The old waiter knows what it is like to have to go home in the dark; he himself will not go home to sleep until daybreak when he will not have to fall asleep in the nothingness of darkness
In order to hold nothingness, darkness, nada at bay, we must have light, cleanliness, order, and dignity. If everything else has failed, man must have something to remedy or else the only option is suicide and that is the ultimate end of everything.
ReplyDeletePopular Mechanics. Marriage is a union of two people who is willing to accept each other’s flaws and loving every tiny pieces of their being. The relationship in marriage breaks down if the couple does not truly love each other. Though one never knows if the couple was married, the social environment in the relationship between the two individuals was argumentative which ends in the collapse of the relationship.
What is observed in the society now is the growing percentage of teenage pregnancy and unwanted pregnancy. The couple in this story has a failed marriage or relationship. The boy packed his things and ready to go when he remembered his child. He wanted to get the child but the girl would not let him too. Although it was not mentioned in the story on what to the child, it can easily be conclude that no matter what happened to a couple having a child or children it is always them (children) who are mainly affected with this matter.
Teenagers who are now living together with their partner are the best example for this. Obviously the characters in the story are not ready on marriage life or on the idea of having a family. They are just driven by their love to each other on the first couple of months and then realized that they are not really meant for each other. Upon making decision like this a couple needs to understand the pros and cons of living together because in this state there is no turning back.
There are couples who are just thinking of the life with their partners without even thinking the life ahead of living with a partner. These couples are blinded, blinded by the present happiness that they feel. In living together with partner it is not always happy it is a bumpy endless ride.
What happened in the story is sad. The couple only thinks of the downfall of their relationship and not on what is the best for their child. The couple became selfish for this reason. As to the society today, this incident is always present. Couples who are suffering on the downfall of their relationship forget what is beyond and what is ahead of them. In this modern society, it became so easy to just dump a person out of their lives and live as if nothing happens. Other couples who suffered broken relationship with a child on their responsibilities would choose to leave their child on their relatives and worst deleting the presence of a child in their lives.
Couples who are married or not are really tested on problems to test their love and on how strong their relationship. But in the case of involving a child in the scene is different. Having a child is a great responsibility. For others it may sound easy but for those dedicated parents it will never be easy.
ReplyDeleteA parents need to be selfless and a parents must think of the best that they can give on the child. They must forget for themselves for the sake of their children. And most importantly is, a parents would not do anything that could harm their children.
Dead Stars. Every relationship is a great responsibility to your partner. Loyalty is number on in the list, your commitment to your partner and honesty. These are just some of the product of a lasting relationship.
In the story, the long term couple Alfredo and Esperanza is engaged after four years of being together. Just like any other couple Alfredo and Esperanza were both inlove and in the intimate feeling on the first month but as the wedding approaches, Alfredo’s treatment to Esperanza became cold. Until Alfredo met Julia Salas, he became comfortable hanging out with her and gossips are now spreading about them and the time came that Julia found out that Alfredo was already engaged and she decided to live away from Alfredo. Years pass Alfredo was assigned to work to different city where Julia also lived. He saw Julia and she is still single then again Alfredo realized that he is no longer in love with her.
The challenge that the couple had faced in the story can also be in real life situation. Relationship always goes on problem temptations are also present in every relationship and it is up to the couple if how they will handle the situation.
The sudden arrival of Julia in the love story of Alfredo and Esperanza was just a challenged to the engaged couple, although Alfredo almost develop feeling to Julia. In this case, the girl (Esperanza) must do her job. In relationship, it is not always that a man must fight. A girl must also fight for what she thinks she owns.
In the side of Alfredo, every boy must learn how to control temptation. Alfredo almost bites the trap. A man must know the worthy of his girl. The good in the side of Alfredo was he still chooses Esperanza. He did ran away to find Julia instead he marry Esperanza.
After years, Julia and Alfredo meet and then again Alfredo realized that he is no longer in love with Julia. It implies that Alfredo was never in love with Julia. The feeling that he felt before was just product of attraction. He was attracted to Julia but he was never in love with Julia.
In real life, mean and women became attracted to other men or women even if they are in a relationship. But never will be in love with that someone. It is possible that anyone can feel attraction to other sex even if they are currently in relationship.
In the side of Julia, the best thing that she did is staying away from Alfredo after knowing that he is already engaged. Not like other women do who are termed “mistress” they keep on pushing themselves to the man even though they already knew the truth.
ReplyDeleteA true couple knows how understand each other’s side. If one commits mistake just like being attracted to someone. The only solution to that is to talk. Just like in the story, Esperanza stays positive and believed that Alfredo would never leave her and that is actually what happened.
CONCLUSION
No one in this world is perfect. Everyone commits mistake. But as a person living in this world the only responsibility is to know what right from wrong. When one committed mistake it is not right to judge that person. Everyone deserves second chance no matter how big the mistake one has committed.
The precariousness of humans is inevitable. The only thing is how to make those wrong decisions right and just. There is no person in this earth who do not committed mistake. One must put in the mind that in every wrong decision that he or she made there is always a way of correcting those mistakes no matter how long it will take.
References
AP Literature Blog. August 2014. Popular Mechanics. Retrieved from https://emilyclineenglish.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/popular-mechanics-by-raymond-carver/
Enotes. NA. A Clean, Well-lighted Place. Retrieved from http://www.enotes.com/topics/clean-well-lighted-place/in-depth
Enotes. NA. The Cask of Amontillado. Retrieved from http://www.enotes.com/topics/cask-amontillado/in-depth
Sparknotes. NA. A Little Cloud. Retrieved from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dubliners/section8.rhtml
The Bibliophilic Night Owl.NA. Dead Stars. Retrieved from http://bibliophilicnightowl.blogspot.com/2011/01/summary-dead-stars-by-paz-marquez.html
The Precariousness of Human Condition as
ReplyDeleteReflected in Five Selected Short Stories
Submitted to
Rene Marquez Bonifacio
Submitted by
Rey Jan D. Rentutar
The Human Precariousness
Everybody has their own place on the planet, everybody assumes incredible parts in life, parts to make your own bliss and parts to make satisfaction towards other individuals around you. Now and then we are considering things that we consider as negative and that brings us terrible occasions that gives us issues and inconveniences. Everything in life is a decision, all that we confront in life is a choice, and it is yet a nature to a human instinct to pick a wrong choice and lament. By one means or another, we have this thing called predetermination, yet fate is shaped by your own hands and made by your own brain. They say to take after your heart at whatever point you go with a specific end goal to succeed, however this is not genuine, in light of the fact that your heart alone can never choose for your own great and the beat it makes is not exact to your future. The human shakiness is the thing that to be handled in this piece, as indicated by the lexicon the importance of dubiousness is a circumstance which someone in particular don't feel protected, solid, or enduring, contingent upon the will or delight of another, reliant on indeterminate reason, subject to risk circumstances, obscure conditions, or questionable improvements, described by an absence of security or strength that debilitates with threat. A few occasions in our lives sents us to feel these feelings, we once in a while feel undesirable, uncomfortable, and is by all accounts so quite squandered. Here are some of short stories that will give more accentuation towards the thought of human dubiousness. Pay near how these stories finished the thought of the word trickiness.
The Cask of Amontillado is such an astounding story, the storyteller starts by letting us know that Fortunato has harmed him. Much more dreadful, Fortunato has offended him. The storyteller must get revenge. He meets Fortunato, who is all spruced up in jokester garments for a jubilee festivity − and is now extremely inebriated. The storyteller says he's found a barrel of an uncommon liquor called Amontillado. Fortunato communicates willing enthusiasm for checking the wine's validness. Indeed, even in individual life, it is yet a characteristic to a man to exact retribution after an extremely pernicious occasion happened. Fortunato has obviously offended the individual who talks in the story who was later established out as Montresor. So he and the storyteller go to the underground burial ground, or "tomb," of the Montresor gang. Obviously, that is the place the storyteller keeps his wine. The storyteller drives Fortunato more profound and more profound into the mausoleum, getting him drunker and drunker along the way. Fortunato continues hacking, and the storyteller always recommends that Fortunato is too debilitated to be in any way down among the moist sepulchers, and ought to do a reversal. Fortunato just continues discussing the Amontillado. Montresor gradually eats thr time upon the circumstance gets more profound. He took the chance to set aside the time in giving himself a delight to make after Fortunato had offended him.
In the end, Fortunato strolls into a man-sized gap that is a piece of the mass of a truly frightful sepulcher. The storyteller affixes Fortunato to the divider, then starts to close Fortunato in the gap by filling in the opening with blocks. When he has one block left, he mentally torments Fortunato until he asks for benevolence – and we at last take in the storyteller's name: Fortunato calls him "Montresor." Fortunato in the story was completely the person who needed assistance, the time he has was taken by Montresor in taking vengeance. In a few occurrences, Montressor wouldn't have room schedule-wise to do this to Fortunato if the time hadn't arrived. Montresor saw the occasion as the ideal time to do his vengeance to Fortunato.
ReplyDeleteAfter Fortunato shouts out Montresor's name, he doesn't have any more lines. In any case, just before Montresor places in the last block, Fortunato rings his chimes. At that point Montresor completes the employment and abandons him there to bite the dust. At the very end, Montresor lets us know that the entire undertaking happened fifty years prior, and no one has figured out. This was totally a complete mystery, that after the minute that Montresor killed Fortunato, nobody had established out what had happened until he stands up what truly happened that night, and it was unquestionably shrouded in light of the fact that Montresor just stood up following fifty years from the time it happened.
This story The Cask of Amontillado is such an astounding story, that it lets us know the common scene behind each person, the real nature of individual behind each character. It additionally shows us the lesson on impacts of retribution that it gives nothing beside an aggregate power outage of a human's life. Both of the significant character assumed unique parts to speak to distinctive qualities of an individual. The story absolutely offers perspective to human instability for it has this side of somebody is being sub-par, somebody has been brought down to raise somebody and that unquestionably suits to the word dubiousness.
This next story in titled "Dead Stars" by Alfredo Salazar was pledged to Esperanza, his better half for a long time. The begin of their relationship was generally "warm", with Alfredo charming Esperanza like a man in desperate lovesickness. Be that as it may, as the years passed by, the warm adoration's flame gradually gleamed. Also, it was a direct result of Julia Salas. She was enchanting and joyful. He shared snippets of light yet now and then profound discussions with her when the legal advisor Alfredo went by Julia's brother by marriage, who was a judge. He generally ran there with his dad and since it was his dad who expected to converse with the judge, he was constantly left to Julia's organization. He never advised her he was locked in. At first he didn't see that an adjustment in his heart was taking structure. Be that as it may, then he began keeping subtle elements of his exercises to his life partner and after that the blameworthy feeling inched in. when he figured out that Julia was going to go to her inaccessible main residence, he felt blue and panicked. There are things in life that we surely don't have the choice yet to give the way. On account of Alfredo, he truly have needed Julia, however he didn't have the decision yet to save the path to his affection in light of the fact that Julia was at that point been taken by somebody and in ways he would prefer not to demolish somebody's relationship.
He met her in chapel after the Holy Thursday parade, despite the fact that he realized that Esperanza was at that point sitting tight for him. He drew closer her and she talked with him with an expression that let him know she at long last knew. She praised him and said she will be at his wedding. At that point they separated. This is truly so frightful to somebody's sentiments, particularly the minute when you see your adoration one being taken by another person. The thing there was physical fascination, the minute that they saw one another was no more the same the minute they saw one another some time recently. On the off chance that it was genuine romance, then it wouldn't be that lamentable to each of them. Desire was the thing that overwhelmed between them, this has driven them to lose their emotions to one another.
ReplyDeleteWhen he went to Esperanza in her home, he caught her conversing with another lady about disloyalty and indecency, to which he contemplated for the denounced. The announcement brought about an extreme anger to Esperanza and she let him know that she knew. She challenged Alfredo to surrender her, alongside profound quality and reason and her nobility as a lady and also her picture before the general public just for the purpose of his "being reasonable to himself".
In the end the wedding occurred. Also, following quite a long while, Alfredo was sent to an inaccessible town because of a lawful task. It irritated him so much on the grounds that it was close to Julia's main residence. In any case, regardless he ended up advancing toward her home in spite of himself. What's more, he discovered her there, pretty much as how and where he anticipated that her would be. She never wedded. Furthermore, he considered how life would be on the off chance that he wound up with her. However, everything was past the point of no return and he could never bring things back. He likewise saw that Julia lost something, yet the way that he didn't know what that is youth, affection, and radiance? What's more, when he took a gander at her he questioned on the off chance that she ever nurtured him, in the event that he has mixed up the past light in her eyes as indications of a conceivable sentiment. In any case, now they're all gone. Thus it was in fact all done. This story is truly that delicate and that it touches everybody's side and everybody could relate. The human instinct is absolutely unexplainable, there are things that we dream to have however when we are enticed, our brain gets puzzled and it drives us to make and be in the wrong way and choice.
An anonymous storyteller touches base at the House of Usher, an exceptionally unpleasant chateau claimed by his childhood companion Roderick Usher. Roderick has been wiped out of late, harrowed by a malady of the brain, and kept in touch with his companion, our storyteller, requesting help. The storyteller invests some energy respecting the marvelously spooky Usher building. At the same time, he clarifies that Roderick and his sister are the remainder of the Usher bloodline, and that the family is well known for its commitment to expressions of the human experience. Inevitably, the storyteller makes a beeline for see his company.
ReplyDeleteRoderick for sure has all the earmarks of being a wiped out man. He experiences an "intensity of the faculties," or touchiness to light, stable, taste, and material sensations; he feels that he will kick the bucket of the apprehension he feels. He properties a portion of his ailment to the way that his sister, Madeline, experiences catalepsy (an affliction including seizures) and will soon bite the dust, and piece of it to the conviction that his frightening house is aware (ready to see things) and has an extraordinary control over him. He hasn't left the chateau in years. The storyteller tries to offer him some assistance with getting his psyche off this poring so as to pass and unhappiness over the writing, music, and craftsmanship that Roderick so adores. It doesn't appear to offer assistance.
As Roderick anticipated, Madeline soon kicks the bucket. In any event we suspect as much. All we know is that Roderick tells the storyteller she's dead, and that she has all the earmarks of being dead when he takes a gander at her. Obviously, in view of her catalepsy, she may very well appear as though she's dead, post-seizure. Remember that. At Roderick's solicitation, the storyteller helps him to bury her body in one of the vaults underneath the chateau. While they do as such, the storyteller finds that both of them were twins and that they shared some kind of extraordinary, most likely extrasensory, bond.
Around a week later, on a dim and stormy night, the storyteller and Usher get themselves not able to rest. They choose to pass away the reading so as to terrify night a book. As the storyteller peruses the content so anyone might hear, every one of the sounds from the anecdotal story can be heard reverberating from underneath the house. It doesn't take long for Usher to blow a gasket; he hops up and announces that they covered Madeline alive and that now she is returning. Beyond any doubt enough, the entryways blow open and there stands a trembling, bleeding Madeline. She tosses herself at Usher, who tumbles to the floor and, after "vicious" misery, passes on alongside his sister. The storyteller escapes; outside he watches the House of Usher break in two and sink into the dull, moist pool that lies before it.
DeleteFrom an unstable characters in legend of the tired empty, there is additionally this account of Edgar Allan Poe Fall of the House of Usher, story fundamentally incorporates a woman who kicks the can, is secured, and gets to be alive at the end of the day. Nevertheless, did she ever kick the basin? Near the horrendous finale of the story, Usher yells: "We have put her living in the tomb!" Premature interment was something of an obsession for Poe, who included it in countless stories. In "The Fall of the House of Usher," in any case, it is not clear to what degree the magnificent can be said to speak to the strangeness of the events in the story. Madeline may truly have kicked the pail and risen like a vampire, much as Usher seems to have vampiric qualities, rising "from a lounge chair on which he had been lying at full length" when the Narrator first sees him, keeping up a key separation from all light and most sustenance, and winding through his grave such as house. In any case, a more sensible type of events recommends that she may have been stirred up for dead and luckily made sense of how to escape her tomb. Regardless, the line amidst life and passing is a fine one in Poe's fiction and Usher's examination of the "awareness of each and every vegetable thing" fits relevant with Poe's own specific diversions.
Without a doubt, writing dependably gives a perspective of critical human encounters that could be utilized as a part of investigation and discourse about specific themes. Much the same as genuine individuals, anecdotal characters likewise experience troublesome circumstances, choices and changes that would shape their disposition and identity at last. One couldn't accuse the progressions they had in their lives in light of the fact that these are a piece of the intricate inclinations of human condition. The instability in human condition has wound up being accessible in changing foundations even when in doubt or in fiction. As Arendt (1958) said," when social weakness is tried, the delicacy of human issues is revealed". Finally, in this life, individuals would never be fulfilled and beyond any doubt in life as an aftereffect of the oddity without limits. Therefore it is run of the mill to be shaky yet not to be too much bona fide and clear in that way.
The god stealer, F. Sionil Jose is an account of a companionship. An American and a Filipino go to the Cordilleras to take a gander at the rice patios which were fabricated by the Filipino's progenitors. There they locate the significance of their companionship, how it characterizes the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. The story starts with two officemates Philip Latak an Ifugao from the Mountain Province now working in Manila, and Sam Cristie, an American on the transport to Baguio.Philip Ip-pig now lives in Manila against the wishes of his prompt family, especially his granddad who planned to bequeth to Philip his offer of the acclaimed rice porches. They are en route to Baguio for one reason: Sam needs to purchase a honest to goodness Ifugao god as gift and Philip was to offer him some assistance with finding a bona fide one through his neighborhood associations. Because of the enthusiasm of Sam Cristie to gathering gift, Philip stole the god statuette and offer it to Cristie. This plainly expresses the human instinct to inspire is truly there and it might come to serve other individuals yet when the method for accomplishing it is negative, then there's no such way like tolerating and enduring these fixing. It might be alright to search for things to awe other individuals and search for ways where you could fulfill other individuals however we ought to dependably manage at the top of the priority list that the things are dependably with its outcomes, it might be negative it might be sure.
DeletePhilip is a Christian who no more has any admiration or fondness for the Ifugao traditions and religion. He sees himself as a city kid and has no slant to come back to mountain life. In spite of this state of mind, his granddad is satisfied to see him and chooses to set up a major gathering in his honor. Upon the arrival of the gathering, Sam and Philip find that no Ifugao is willing to offer his god. FurFrom an unstable characters in legend of the tired empty, there is additionally this account of Edgar Allan Poe Fall of the House of Usher, story fundamentally incorporates a woman who kicks the can, is secured, and gets to be alive at the end of the day. Nevertheless, did she ever kick the basin? Near the horrendous finale of the story, Usher yells: "We have put her living in the tomb!" Premature interment was something of an obsession for Poe, who included it in countless stories. In "The Fall of the House of Usher," in any case, it is not clear to what degree the magnificent can be said to speak to the strangeness of the events in the story. Madeline may truly have kicked the pail and risen like a vampire, much as Usher seems to have vampiric qualities, rising "from a lounge chair on which he had been lying at full length" when the Narrator first sees him, keeping up a key separation from all light and most sustenance, and winding through his grave such as house. In any case, a more sensible type of events recommends that she may have been stirred up for dead and luckily made sense of how to escape her tomb. Regardless, the line amidst life and passing is a fine one in Poe's fiction and Usher's examination of the "awareness of each and every vegetable thing" fits relevant with Poe's own specific diversions.
DeleteWithout a doubt, writing dependably gives a perspective of critical human encounters that could be utilized as a part of investigation and discourse about specific themes. Much the same as genuine individuals, anecdotal characters likewise experience troublesome circumstances, choices and changes that would shape their disposition and identity at last. One couldn't accuse the progressions they had in their lives in light of the fact that these are a piece of the intricate inclinations of human condition. The instability in human condition has wound up being accessible in changing foundations even when in doubt or in fiction. As Arendt (1958) said," when social weakness is tried, the delicacy of human issues is revealed". Finally, in this life, individuals would never be fulfilled and beyond any doubt in life as an aftereffect of the oddity without limits. Therefore it is run of the mill to be shaky yet not to be too much bona fide and clear in that way.
The god stealer, F. Sionil Jose is an account of a companionship. An American and a Filipino go to the Cordilleras to take a gander at the rice patios which were fabricated by the Filipino's progenitors. There they locate the significance of their companionship, how it characterizes the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. The story starts with two officemates Philip Latak an Ifugao from the Mountain Province now working in Manila, and Sam Cristie, an American on the transport to Baguio.Philip Ip-pig now lives in Manila against the wishes of his prompt family, especially his granddad who planned to bequeth to Philip his offer of the acclaimed rice porches. They are en route to Baguio for one reason: Sam needs to purchase a honest to goodness Ifugao god as gift and Philip was to offer him some assistance with finding a bona fide one through his neighborhood associations. Because of the enthusiasm of Sam Cristie to gathering gift, Philip stole the god statuette and offer it to Cristie. This plainly expresses the human instinct to inspire is truly there and it might come to serve other individuals yet when the method for accomplishing it is negative, then there's no such way like tolerating and enduring these fixing. It might be alright to search for things to awe other individuals and search for ways where you could fulfill other individuals however we ought to dependably manage at the top of the priority list that the things are dependably with its outcomes, it might be negative it might be sure.
DeleteTherefor, if all else fails, Philip offers to take the divine force of his granddad on the grounds that he feels it would be his method for demonstrating his appreciation to Sam for giving him an ascent at work. The outcomes of this demonstration are extreme. The following day, his granddad kicked the bucket on the grounds that he found that his god was stolen. He likewise advises Sam that Philip will never again be backtracking to Manila. Inquisitive, Sam searches for Philip and discovered him working in his granddad's home. Philip powerfully clarifies his explanations behind staying in the mountains, "I could excuse myself for having stolen it. However, the old man-he had dependably been savvy, Sam. He realized that it was I who did it from the very begin. He needed such a great amount to trust that it wasn't I. Be that as it may, he couldn't imagine - and neither would I be able to. I murdered him, Sam. I slaughtered him on the grounds that I needed to be free from these. These reviled porches. Since I needed to be thankful. I murdered him who adored me most." a wavering and smothered cry. Oblivious hovel, Sam saw that Philip is presently attired in G-string, the conventional ensemble of the Ifugao. Moreover, Philip is caught up with cutting another symbol, another god to supplant the old one which Sam will take to America as a gift.
The lesson here are these things as indicated by how they made it and made their own story. Philip's renouncement of his Ifugao legacy might be extrapolated to imply that Filipino's dismissal of his own roots and its supplanting with pilgrim values. It is noteworthy that Philip takes the God for Sam out of appreciation. It is the Filipino surrendered his most valuable image of his past conventions to the Americans as an outflow of appreciation. Furthermore, by giving this image away, the Filipino kills his own particular roots. The Filipino is a befuddled, sincerely exasperates and defenseless, tormented by the way that he revoked his past, or that he couldn't do anything to help the affliction. Typical of the nonnative's abuse and imperialistic aspirations on the Filipino.
DeleteThis is an account of a modest gorgeous house aide named Rosa and her grown-up captivation. Rosa is depicted as a physically and verbally manhandled worker young lady to an upsetting yet now and again kind special lady. Rosa fantasized about the cochero whom she named to be "Blessed messenger" who later-on referred to be as Pedro. She envisioned him as not the same as other men, more brave, gentler, and her rescuer from her hopeless existence with her courtesan. Holy messenger turned into Rosa's trust and exemplification of longing to be free from subjugation. Her admirer Sancho then again was unpleasant and discourteous towards her and fiercely hurt her. She kept running from her escort's home and Sancho's clumsy arms. She yearned to discover her "Heavenly attendant". This story is completely astonishing, that the young lady is loaded with suppositions and that it hurt her such a large amount of the things inside of her. However, her guardian angel does not so much exist. Blessed messenger was only an assume that she developed. At last, Rosa just acknowledges her fortune as a hopeless hireling. Rather, the man she accepted to be her rescuer, was the person who gave back her back to her abandoned life.
At last, we are the person who hold our life and predetermination. We are the person who's clearing a path along our lives. Everything in life is a decision, nobody to be fault of whatever circumstance you are to be and you are in. no negative things and no awful things will happen on the off chance that you wouldn't let it to. Among every one of those chose stories to give and underscore the importance of the word trickiness are by one means or another the same and some way or another can be counteracted if the chance will change. In life we generally need to recollect that everything has its results. Life is loaded with decisions, it is up to the individual of what way they will pick and what way they will get into.
The Precariousness of
ReplyDeleteHuman Condition in
Selected Five Stories
Queenie B. Dela Cerna
ASENGL3 (TTH 7-8:30)
There are five stories that we will be tackling in this paper: The Dead Stars, the Cask of Amontillado, Axolotl, A Little Cloud and The Popular Mechanics. These five stories were analyzed on what danger do this characters has or what bad attitudes do they have and whats the effect of that attitude. The first story that will be discuss is the Dead Stars that was written by Paz Marquez Benitez, followed by the Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe, Axolotl by Julio Cortẚzar, a Little Cloud by James Joyce and the Popular Mechanics by Raymond Carver.
The Dead Stars was all about Alfredo Salazar who has a fiancee named Esperanza, among the process of their wedding, Alfredo had liked another woman which is Julia Salas, the sis-in-law of Judge Del Valle.
The second story is the Cask of Amotillado or in other words the Barrel of Sherry. This story evolves in the two main characters, Montresor and Fortunato. Montresor is the narrator and the murderer, Fortunato is a wine connoisseur and the victim.
The Axolotl was all about a narration of the creature that is also the axolotl. (A salamander noted for its permanent retention of larval features, such as external gills, the axolotl, or axolote, is found in lakes near Mexico City, where it is considered edible.) The narrator narrates his experience about the Axolotl that he went everyday to observe in the aquarium of the Jardin des Plantes.
The fourth story was a little cloud, the story is all about little chandler and his old friend Ignatius. These two men had a higher dream, to be professional and to travel the world, but these things was not achieve by little Chandler unlike Ignatius who had traveled around the world and then slowly fulfilling his dreams. When they meet again after 8 years, Ignatius became really succesful unlike what little chandler had obtained.
The last story was entitled, Popular Mechanics by Raymond Carver. This story is all about a husband and a wife who has a baby. The beginning of the story was the quarrel of the couple. The boy packed his clothes, put them in his suitcase. When his finished, the boy want to take the baby with him but the girl refuses.
The story dead stars were all about Alfredo Salazar who has a fiancee named Esperanza. Along the process of their wedding, Alfredo liked another woman who is Julia Salas, the sister-in-law of Judge Del Valle. The bad attitude that Alfredo Salazar has was when he had liked another woman though he already had a finacee and that they are gonna get married soon. It became bad because it seems that he does not love Esperanza after all, though this issue was happening in reality, society still dictates that this behavior shall not be tolerated because it is not right.
ReplyDeleteBeing confused with what Alfredo feels towards Esperanza is not totally right, first because Esperanza is already his fiancee and he should be patient towards it. Things should not be rush, patience is totally needed and everything has a process, it takes time and effort. Alfredo needs to wait and be patient about Esperanza’s decision not to liked or flirt with another woman.
The second one is that it is not right, Alfredo’s behavior is not actually right because he seems committing adultery and it is obviously agaisnt the law. Committing adultery is such a big crime; you can file a case if that someone feels much mistreated and been cheated, if someone wants to fight for you.
Another reason why Alfredo felt about it is that it is man’s weakness. It is in their nature, that men are very impatient and they really hate waiting. They can wait but not too long, they are easily got bored and got angry towards things. Moreover, once they saw beatiful and sexy women, they are easily attractive to it. They tend to forget that they already had commitment and that they already loved someone. Men easily get fall with the temptations around that the society brings.
Men hate waiting, at some point, one of the reason why their relationship gets cold is the length of time in which he was engaged to Esperanza, because they know each other very well and became too comfortable with each other. The spark of their love or the excitement starts fading and then Alfredo found someone or another one to discover which Julia Salas was. Some factor why Alfredo got attracted to Julia is that their personality are totally opposite, Alfredo was calm and placid while Julia was lively and full of vitality. Maybe Alfredo got excited when he found the characteristics that he lacked to Julia.
Other reason that is also happening in reality was being unreasonable. The sin that committed adultery that happened to like another person or other girl is unreasonable. In stories, even in reality, this sin is very unreasonable, it is hard to find reason and defend yourself on why you had committed that kind of mistake. However, how many times you tried to explain yourself it still not enough because you will be having a hard time to find and dig reasons to defend what you have done.
ReplyDeleteThough Alfredo and Esperanza had gone all through of it, their wedding was still materialized or pushes through. Alfredo still fulfills his promises, to avoid social ridicule, but Alfredo felt being deprived by what he did. So he learned to distant and detach himself from Esperanza or being out of reached, though he stayed with her and treat her gently.
The second story is the Cask of Amotillado or in other words the Barrel of Sherry. This story evolves in the two main characters, Montresor and Fortunato. Montresor is the narrator and the murderer, Fortunato is a wine connoisseur and the victim. The story begins when Montresor and Fortunato meet at a carnival. For the reason that Fortunato had wronged him many times, Montresor was furious with Fortunato so he planned to kill Fortunato. When Montresor saw Fortunato at the festival, he invited Fortunato to his house and said his going to show him the cask of Amontillado, because Fortunato was very drunk, he went with Montresor without even knowing that Montresor has a plan ion killing him.
The bad attituted that Montresor has is being a murderer. Murder is totally a big crime, it is greatly against the laws not only to the laws that we have here on earth but also with the laws of God. Once you murder someone for whatever wrong it has done is a crime, you can be imprisoned or even sentenced to death once you are caught, but if not there is no justice in it.
Montresor was being wrong when he decided to kill fortunato for being wronged him many times because whatever a person does to you, big or small, intended or not, still you do not have the right to kill him or senteced him to death because you cannot just take away anybodys life. Once violence is being paid with violence, you cannot achieve peace in it.
In the story, there is no sign of regret to Montresor for what he did to Fortunato. No justice was given for what happened to Fortunato because no one knows that he was killed and who killed him. It was totally a silent murder, a well planned murder. Though no justice has given to Montresor in the story, in reality once you murdered somenone and then found that you killed a person, you will probably be imprisoned for how many years. What is worst is that you might be sentenced to death or be killed by killers whom the family had paid.
The third story is the Axolotl; it was all about a narration of the creature that is also the axolotl. (A salamander noted for its permanent retention of larval features, such as external gills, the axolotl, or axolote, is found in lakes near Mexico City, where it is considered edible.) The narrator narrates his experience about the Axolotl that he went everyday to observe in the aquarium of the Jardin des Plantes.
ReplyDeleteThis creature which is the Axolotl was became the obssession in the story, the narrator was being obssessed that he went everyday to the aquarium to observe this creatures. He examines the Axolotl carefully and watches them closely. He sometimes talk to them, but what is worst on having this kind of obsession is that he may look like a crzay person. As the narrator describes the Axolotl, he talks to them and comes to a point that he felt that they are connected with each other. Along the way of his narration, he uses the first person as if he is the Axolotl, describes what the Axolotl felt inside the aquarium. It is as if his describing or narrating his experience as and Axolotl inside the aquarium. On what Axolotl totally feels, the narrator puts life to the Axolotl and he made them human.
Being obssessed with someone or something, doing many things just to impress them or to satisfy your need is good but too much obssession towards someone or something is not good, not at all, not anymore. Once a person is obssessed with it, a person will do anytrhing just to satisfy it without even thinking the consequences or what will be he looks like. Doing many things, anything that you want to do, even the craziest thing is not bad, but once you abused it, that is not good, because too much can cause many problems.
The fourth story was a little cloud, the story is all about little chandler and his old friend Ignatius. These two men had a higher dream, to be professional and to travel the world, but these things was not achieve by little Chandler unlike Ignatius who had traveled around the world and then slowly fulfilling his dreams. When they meet again after 8 years, Ignatius became really succesful unlike what little chandler had obtained.
As there conversation goes on, little chandler totally got jealous to Ignatius. Being a succesful man, who had travelled the world, which fulfill his dreams? They talked a lot, totally a lot, as they go on with their conversation, little Chandler realized something, he had “this what if” in his mind. What if he did not marry too early? What if he was tall, What if he can still go travel to other country? However, this imagination came back to reality, the reality that he has to face what fate he is facing and stop daydreaming.
The precarious behavior of this story is the part when little Chandler made realizations, that it seems he regret everything that had happened to him, that he regret having his wife and his son, that he regret everything that he has. Realizing what Ignatius had achieved right now, and how successful Ignatius is. Regrets are not actually bad, but regreting when he already had his family, he has wife and a son, it is bad to regret having them at present because at some point his wife and his son gave him a lot and means a lot to him.
Later on, littler Chandler just realized that he should not blame things or regret about them. They who came unto his life is a blessing and has a purpose.
The last story was entitled, Popular Mechanics by Raymond Carver. This story is all about a husband and a wife who has a baby. The beginning of the story was the quarrel of the couple. The boy packed his clothes, put them in his suitcase. When his finished, the boy want to take the baby with him but the girl refuses.
ReplyDeleteAs their quarrel continues, the girl carries the baby and went to the kitchen, but the boy followed him and holds the other hand of the baby. The baby’s faced turned red and started to scream but both of them still continue with there fight. As they continue grab each other’s hand of the baby, the girl notices that the baby is slipping from her hands, but the boy didn’t mind it. the baby almost slips in her hands, but it didn’t, by then the issue had been decided.
By what they did specially for the men, do not be driven away by your emotions. Things can be negotiate through talking and not with the harsh ones. Think of the consequences that would come, and if somebody might get hurt by what they are doing.
In conclusion, the five stories had different precarious, but all of them gave a lesson. A lesson that you can apply to your everyday life. Whatever things a person do, or whatever decisions a person is making. He or she should think twice before doing something else.
The last story was entitled, Popular Mechanics by Raymond Carver. This story is all about a husband and a wife who has a baby. The beginning of the story was the quarrel of the couple. The boy packed his clothes, put them in his suitcase. When his finished, the boy want to take the baby with him but the girl refuses.
ReplyDeleteAs their quarrel continues, the girl carries the baby and went to the kitchen, but the boy followed him and holds the other hand of the baby. The baby’s faced turned red and started to scream but both of them still continue with there fight. As they continue grab each other’s hand of the baby, the girl notices that the baby is slipping from her hands, but the boy didn’t mind it. the baby almost slips in her hands, but it didn’t, by then the issue had been decided.
By what they did specially for the men, do not be driven away by your emotions. Things can be negotiate through talking and not with the harsh ones. Think of the consequences that would come, and if somebody might get hurt by what they are doing.
In conclusion, the five stories had different precarious, but all of them gave a lesson. A lesson that you can apply to your everyday life. Whatever things a person do, or whatever decisions a person is making. He or she should think twice before doing something else.
The Precariousness of Human Condition as
ReplyDeleteReflected in Five Selected Short Stories
Submitted to
Rene Marquez Bonifacio
Submitted by
Gerald Alvior Emberga
Unsafe, perilously flimsy, shaky, unverifiable or frail, these words unmistakably portray the practices of people on their connection inside of themselves and towards the general public. It is so common and inalienable for people to act diverse, for instance, not being reliable in his or her activity in managing distinctive circumstances in life. One of the variables of human that backings his or her dubiousness is the feeling. Naturally, feelings are works of an individual's own mind synthetic procedures. Notwithstanding that, Hannah Arendt on her work The Human Condition (1958) states that "human condition is to be sure the representation of a tricky universe of flimsiness and of questionable future". Indeed, even in our ordinary living, human practices and responses couldn't be anticipated, there were seasons of claims and affectation furthermore times of trustworthiness and generosity. Every one of these irregularities would be found in the general public today, even inside of yourself, with your neighbors and to the general population encompassing you at this moment. In any case, generally, these are not by any means characterized and acknowledged specifically, not at all like if these could be found in a story, dramatization or in a novel. Along these lines, writing truly assumes a critical part in portraying these frail activities of people through the unpredictable qualities and identities of characters in the story or how these anecdotal individuals act and act toward the difficulties and clashes compensated for them. Since human condition incorporates procedures of considering, willing and judging, then, in these chose five short stories, characters will be depicted as the way they think, settle on choices and act against the deterrents he or she meets.
One clear obvious of dubiousness of a character or for a human is that there are changes inside of him, inside and remotely. In Ryunosuke Akutagawa's Rashomon, the worker of the samurai changes into an alternate individual a long way from being a noteworthy and stately man. As he, a humble hireling, as of late let go, is considering whether to starve or to wind up a hoodlum to make due in the fruitless times. Indeed, even along these lines of thinking about the worker of the samurai, one would see a little shakiness of him. Be that as it may, when he experienced the old lady, who was taking hair from the dead bodies to make wigs, he was nauseated, and chooses then that he would rather take the way of honesty regardless of the fact that it implied starvation. What's more, the lady whose body the old lady was as of now selling so as to loot additionally bamboozled individuals on her life snake meat and asserting it was fish. In this situation the man demonstrated insecurities as well as the old lady. One could infer that there are legitimate reasons why human acts conflictingly or precariously, in this story, due to monetary issues and for survival. Despite the fact that the circumstance is entirely distinctive, the consequent ascent of wickedness to encourage survival in this unforgiving world emerges. That is the reason one couldn't accuse the activity of the hireling of the samurai, prepared with self-control, aware and moral conduct could really submit a terrible demonstration like that.
ReplyDeleteOn the off chance that a very much restrained man demonstrated an absolutely tricky condition by transforming into a criminal in the Rashomon, then in “The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe” Vengeance is the planned demonstration of causing harm in return for harm. Exact retribution additionally is the phantom that frequents one man's spirit for very nearly fifty years in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado." Is retribution truly fulfilled by Montresor in Poe's story? Actually no, not just is it not fulfilled, be that as it may, likewise incidentally he damns himself for all time everlasting! Toward the starting Montresor gives us his two criteria for vengeance: "A wrong" he says "is unredressed when requital surpasses its redresser. It is just as unredressed when the vindicator neglects to make himself felt all things considered to him who has done the off-base." Are these two criteria met? "No revenge appears to overtake Montresor". Yet, that is exactly how it appears. From the onset of the story " the storyteller Montresor experiences a blameworthy conscience" which implies that Montresor did endure. Poe additionally makes no sign that Montresor ever told Fortunato why he is executing this "motiveless evil". In this way, neither of Montresor's necessities of retribution are represented. As a general rule Montresor licenses himself to be changed from family justice fighter into a wanton homicide. "He Montresor counts on God's judgment as the last instrument of his requital. He kills his foe by driving him into sins of pride, vanity and tipsiness". Here Montresor comes up short too. At the point when Fortunato represents a last petition to God for leniency to his killer and his God, "'For the love God, Montresor!' "Yes," I said, 'for the love of God”. "To this, Montresor is hard of hearing and when the petition to God receives a benevolent hearing in paradise, Montresor's stratagems backfires. Fortunato, fortunate as his name recommends is spared; Montresor damned". This is reiterated by Gruesser when he composes "going through with the homicide, Montresor strongly resists God, condemning himself for unsurpassed." Cooney additionally expresses that Montresor misses the incongruity toward the start of his own admission, "You who so surely understand the way of my soul". This infers he has been admitting to this "cleric" for a long time, be that as it may, has not been admitting the greater part of his wrongdoings; this thusly makes the greater part of Montresor's admissions futile. Cooney too offers with us that as a result of these false admissions rather than being instruments of salvation they get to be instruments of punishment. "Here, most likely, is the incongruity of a admission without apology, an incongruity that makes the whole arrangement turn around upon the doer"(Cooney 196). So now not just does he have the blood of Fortunato staring him in the face, be that as it may, the rage of God on his head. In Poe's last line "In pace requiescat," "let him rest in peace," Montresor appeals to God for the spirit of Fortunato, yet as with the recounting his admission Montresor understands that he doesn't fulfill his retaliation on any level. He did not even accomplish the sole prerequisites for his own image of revenge. What's more, now must face his own spirit and God in light of the fact that, "Indeed, even now, when on his deathbed Montresor admits all his sins, he is cheated in intuition himself forgiven"(Cooney 196). Still, tragically, with this little supplication to God and admission, for all endlessness Montresor will be recognized as an unfeeling, savage killer.
ReplyDeleteThis story The Cask of Amontillado is such a bewildering story, that it tells us the regular scene behind every individual, the genuine way of individual behind every character. It moreover demonstrates to us the lesson on effects of retaliation that it gives nothing close to a total force blackout of a human's life. Both of the critical character expected novel parts to identify with unmistakable characteristics of a person. The story totally offers viewpoint to human unsteadiness for it has this side of someone is being below average, some individual has been conveyed down to raise some individual and that undeniably suits to the word irregularity.
ReplyDeleteIf The Cask of Amontillado has full of Montresor’s vengeance to Amontillado, then in A Country Doctor by Franz Kafka, delineates the appalling self-double dealing of an individual confronted with his own loss of confidence in his calling. The specialist promptly accuses different components the states of his job, his patients, the decrease of religious conviction for his inability to complete his obligations, essentially, to mend those in need. When he neglects to perform his obligations as a healer, his life loses all feeling of reason and meaning. The specialist's existential emergency is somewhat of his own making and halfway the aftereffect of his compelling social separation. He has dismissed Rosa for quite a long time, says that it is extremely hard to achieve a shared comprehension with his patients, and feels tormented by the purportedly bogus ringing of his night chime. In spite of the fact that there seems to be a breakdown in a reasonable social group the specialist is an authority of a political area and consequently some portion of a bureaucratic framework at some expel from the general population (represented in the content by the separation that he should travel this specific night) the solid subjective predisposition of his report of his connections to other individuals puts into inquiry his entire comprehension of who he is and what he does. The peruser needs to approach the specialist's own particular evaluation of his circumstance with doubt and ask what is the truth behind his self-indulging inability to mend or even start to treat, the boy’s horrible wound.
In the story, Kafka looks at the significance of confidence by thinking about its nonattendance as exhibited by the withering young fellow. It is about confidence versus pharmaceutical. Could doctors recuperate without confidence? Is the profound viewpoint expelled from the physical? Are physical diseases indication of supernatural clashes? The spirit mind-body talk about has resounded during that time and it is hard to disregard the nearby connection between the two. Kafka's confidence inclines him to trust that afflictions have otherworldly battles. Doctors must have moral sense to have the capacity to recuperate and prescription ought to be a demonstration of confidence.
Kafka's "A Country Doctor" is a heartbreaking story of man's failings. It offers no reclamation, no relief and no break. We need to confront our difficulties decisively and affirm ourselves like a genuine man. Maybe, then, we would touch base at a sheltered spot where we can see and in the end admit to ourselves our frailties as people.
If the human precariousness of the character in the story A Country Doctor delineates the appalling self-double dealing of an individual confronted with his own loss of confidence in his calling, in the story Legend of Sleepy Hollow In spite of the fact that the story is cheerful, told in a clever way, it doesn't paint the most complimenting picture of humankind it likely does not "provoke a generous perspective of human instinct" as Crayon says he wishes to do in his composition. This is especially valid in the wild childishness seen in a large portion of the characters. Most clearly, Ichabod wants Katrina above all for the expansion to his material riches she would speak to, and he even envisions himself auctioning off her family's homestead once it would be in his ownership, for the cash. Notwithstanding when Ichabod demonstrates his better qualities, assisting around the homesteads he stays at and keeping the youngsters and wives glad, his essential objective in doing as such is to keep his hosts content with the goal that they will give him a chance to stay, and keep on encouraging him. Yet this is not by any means the only sample of avarice or childishness. Katrina utilizes Ichabod to secure Brom's love - she might comprehend Ichabod's actual intentions, yet in any case, it can't be denied that she doesn't falter to utilize him to suit her reasons. That this narrow-mindedness, or possibly conceit, is not restricted to a couple characters turns out to be clear when Ichabod vanishes. An inquiry gathering is made, yet simply because Hans Van Ripper needs his missing seat back, and when there is no indication of Ichabod, no one considerations. This is on account of has no obligations, the presumption being that in the event that he had owed anybody any cash, they would have put a great deal more exertion into discovering him. Accordingly Sleepy Hollow is an accumulation of individuals who, as in many spots, put their self-intrigue first
ReplyDeleteFrom a precarious characters in Legend of Sleepy Hollow, there is also this story of Edgar Allan Poe Fall of the House of Usher basically spins around the remarkable relationship in the middle of Roderick and his twin sister. At the point when the ghostly figure of Madeline first shows up, we can't figure out if she is a genuine living individual or some type of daydreamed model. In spite of the fact that Madeline's status as an undeniable individual stays questionable even at the work's decision, what is clear is that she imparts some kind of psychic liking to her sibling, one that rises above the typical relationship between kin. Some basic perusers of the story keep up that the physical likeness in the middle of Roderick and Madeline infers that they are the posterity of a depraved relationship. Others have recommended that Roderick must execute his sister to maintain a strategic distance from the abhorrence of propagating the Usher line through an indecent demonstration of interbreeding. In any case, the issue of interbreeding aside, it is obvious that Roderick and Madeline Usher are so firmly bound to one another that they seem, by all accounts, to be components of a solitary mind. To be sure, in one perusing of the story, Roderick and Madeline are two resources of the same soul. This would accord with Poe's hypothesis of the characteristic division of human identity and the inherent inclinations of its parts to look for get-together.
ReplyDeleteThe storyteller here is not untrustworthy similarly that the killing storytellers of "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" are. He promptly concedes that his record might be stained by his temperament of agony, however we never question the veracity of what he lets us know, including the restoration of Madeline, Roderick's demise, and the sudden breakdown of the House itself. There are, notwithstanding, numerous open-finished inquiries that are not determined by the story's end. Consequently, for instance, we don't know whether Madeline planned to slaughter Roderick in their last grasp or to unite with him. Poe attempts to fill in these spaces for us. His motivation is to make and support a solitary impact in the peruser's psyche, and, toward the end, we are persuaded that the creator has more than accomplished this end.
Indeed, literature always gives a view of significant human experiences that could be used in analysis and discussion about certain topics. Just like real people, fictional characters also go through difficult situations, decisions and changes that would shape their attitude and personality in the end. One could not blame the changes they had in their lives because these are part of the complex tendencies of human condition. The precariousness in human condition has ended up being available in varying backgrounds even as a general rule or in fiction. As Arendt (1958) said,” when social helplessness is tested, the fragility of human issues is uncovered”. At long last, in this life, people would never be satisfied and sure in life as a result of the unusualness without bounds. Thus it is typical to be unstable yet not to be excessively genuine and clear in that way.
References:
The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
A Country Doctor by Franz Kafka
Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
Rashomon by Ryunosuke Akutagawa
Encarta Dictionary, 2009
The Human Condition (1958) by Hannah Arendt
http://www.gradesaver.com/the-fall-of-the-house-of-usher/study-guide/themes
http://www.gradesaver.com/the-legend-of-sleepy-hollow/study-guide/themes
(Feb 28, 2014). A Country Doctor - A Cautionary Tale of The Dangers of Non-Androgyny. Study Standard. Retrieved Dec 29, 2015, from https://www.studystandard.com/essays/a-country-doctor----a-cautionary-tale-of-the-dangers-of-non-androgyny-1178
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ReplyDeleteThe Precariousness of Human
ReplyDeleteCondition as
Reflected in Five Short Stories
Submitted to
Rene Marquez Bonifacio
Submitted by
Leomar Llagas Onido
Actually human were made equivalent in regards on their race and societal position. Everybody has the capacity and ability to be unrivaled relying upon our inspiration and endeavor. Fundamentally we are likewise interconnected to the practices and conventions that shape our humankind towards general society. It is characteristic for people to act various, we are progressive we tend to push our limits just to adapt to circumstances. One of the positive unmistakable variables that trigger human instability is the emotions. Sentiments are the most essential implicit component of the human innovation. It permits us to think, to stroke, to modify, to be upbeat, to be delicate to the general population around and living inside of us. Bit normally, emotions are predisposition; we can feel prevalent on the off chance that we have accomplishments, riches and so forth and mediocre and unstable in the event that we tumbled to adapt the pattern of life. Everybody of these anomalies can be recognized in our general public today. Indeed, even you yourself and the general population around you that make progress toward survival in this convoluted world. Regardless, for the most part it is simply describe and depicted particularly not unless of it is passed on and interpreted into writing, similar to stories, performance or books. These instruments hoist the progressive system of the human condition, through composing. In any sense it fuses and accept a basic part in depicting these delicate exercises of human's trough the diverse capricious human qualities that distinguishes characters. At that point in these picked five short stories, characters will be recognized, inspected and examined on how they depict, settle, think and respond on the stories that give dubiousness condition.
Each of the five stories I've picked is unquestionably have instability of human condition. As in these stories uncovers and mirror the human need, personal hole, and singular instability towards others and the general public all in all. Human attributes changes, internal and external, it is clear. Everything blurs and changes. In the “Rashomon” by Akutagawa, the story develops in distinctive and unforeseen ways that gives one fascinating contentions on the way of truth, human shortcoming and trust. . In portrays the situation of an out-of-work worker who considers his destiny at Rashomon, the door of an incapacitated building in twelfth century Kyoto. The hireling knows, or trusts, that with a specific end goal to survive he should resort to robbery, yet he is at first hesitant to take. Over the span of the story, on the other hand, his experience with an old lady, herself a cheat, causes him to alter his opinion, or it empowers him to justify falling back on burglary as a lifestyle. His choice to take is without a doubt affected by the unsettled times, as well as by the ghastly environment of Rashomon.
ReplyDeleteThere are two characters, the worker and the old lady. Both appear like genuine individuals with attributes that are naturalistic. The worker demonstrates his quality and social class with his sword and physical force. The old lady has no class however speaks to the lower class that is endeavoring to live. The character's activity addresses the pursuer about the relationship between human instinct and internal identity. The dichotomy of ethical quality and corruption are associated through the characters. The worker had chosen not to take before entering "Rashomon" holding up his profound quality. The worker determines his ethical battle by surrendering any profound quality. He essentially following in the line of the individuals who damage others to keep themselves alive. However after the old lady's discourse about offering hair to survive, he changes.
The story is constructed around his moral problem of regardless of whether to stay genuine and bite the dust or turn into a cheat with a specific end goal to live. His level headed discussion is determined in his experience with the old lady. He chooses to end up a criminal and takes from her with a specific end goal to survive. The old lady taking hairs gives the method of reasoning to taking: everybody does it; there is no other approach to survive. Her legitimization of what's she's doing turns into the event for him choosing to wind up like her.
The topic is the humorous introduction of the defenses of survival as a definitive quality. A severe world without human qualities. The hireling gets to be similar to the lady who is similar to the lady she takes from. The worker will get by until he meets somebody who does to him what he did to her.
Then again, Estrella Alfon's Servant Girl. It focuses on Rosa, a family unit help working for an oppressive lady a mishandled cleaning specialist who aches for flexibility, joy, and cherish.
Rosa was a kind, patient and understanding girl. In spite of the beatings of her mistress, she stayed with her and continues to do her job. She was being abused by her special lady and was trusting that one day she would have the capacity to be liberated from all the misuse she was encountering.
In this Story, we can say that it can be identified with such a variety of genuine circumstances of the individuals who are in the same positions of Rosa. It tells us to know the tragic reality of a percentage of the other individuals working under other people who have a higher societal class than them. The misuse that one encounters is brought about by the prevalent thinking about their "bosses". In spite of the fact that she has the snippets of defiance to the treatment she gets from her special lady, Rosa fundamentally acknowledges it as a feature of the plan of things.
Estrella Alfon's work shares the narrative of Rosa and her experience catches the passionate crazy ride than she has. From the scribble she felt of having a "holy messenger" then returning to the miserable reality of the perspective of what she truly I and what she truly is doing. The utilized of "Heavenly attendant" symbolized despite the fact that it was only for a brief minute, the aching for bliss and opportunity of Rosa. The way she envisioned Angel appeared as though he was likewise aching for her and that he was searching for an approach to see and be with her once more. The creator ready to indicate how edgy Rosa felt with a specific end goal to feel satisfaction. The contemplations and illusions that she having was an easy to make tracks in an opposite direction from every one of the hardships that she experiences.
ReplyDeleteBe that as it may, then toward the end of the story, it demonstrates her creative ability took her to a spot in her psyche that did not exist. The tragic truth that Pedro or the holy messenger did not consider anything if his nice thought he did to the lady. This conveyed to the truth that she was simply envisioning was only a hallucination for her to make tracks in an opposite direction from the misuse that she was encountering inside in her fancy woman house. As a general rule, it can be said that there are individuals, who tragically, can identify with Rosa's encounters. The story raises an issue about class and about sex which does not by any stretch of the imagination investigate or resolve.
In the event that the worker young lady is delineating the experience of the mishandled cleaning specialist. "The God Stealer" by Francisco Sionil Jose demonstrates a profound comprehension of quite undeniable issues felt in antiquated societies everywhere throughout the world. Disregarding the way that story was sprightly told cleverly, it doesn't paint the most complimentary picture of mankind it like does not "incite a liberal viewpoint of human intuition.
It bargains straightforwardly with issues key to the legacy of the nation. There are two primary characters in the story, an American, Sam Cristie and a man of Ifugao legacy who have turned out to be dear companions however working at the same office for various years. They are universally popular for building more than 2000 years prior the celebrated rice terraces which numerous consider one of the miracles of the world. As Sam, prognosticated his craving to see the renowned rice patios and he needs to buy a little statue of an Ifugao God as a trinket to take back to New England with him. Overwhelmed by their beauty and awestruck at what went into building them over 2000 years ago. The terraces are presently in genuine risk of being lost to the world. To keep up them is exceptionally work concentrated and the youngsters of the way of life can profit working in Manila than they can in their introduction to the world groups obviously a titan city likewise appears to be more energizing to the youthful than a ten house town with no power.
Ifugaos rehearse a religion more established than Christianity part of the story is the contentions these powers cause in Philip who has tackled enormous city ways and changed over to Christianity. At first Philip seems a bit embarrassed for his friend to see where he came from. Philip is received coldly by his family, they regard him as a deserter to his heritage. We attend a festival held in their honor, we meet the aging and ill grandfather, we learn about how the live, see the foods they eat and get very good feel for the lives of the Ifugao people in this powerful story.
ReplyDeleteIt shows a deep understanding of very real problems felt in ancient cultures all over the world. How do you keep the young people rooted in the culture when they can make a lot more money, and have seemingly a more exciting life, in a mega-city.
At that point in a Little Cloud by James Joyce depicts disappointment, disappointment, escape, disdain, obligation and loss of motion. This early understanding into Chandler's disappointment or escape from reality (his employment) is critical as it goes about as a sort of portending to later occurrences in the story when they finds exactly how disappointed or baffled Chandler really is. Chandler feels that to succeed in life he should change his life. That change incorporates leaving Dublin as well as leaving his wife Annie and his young child as well.
The entrapment of Little Chandler is more than geological. A Little Cloud" underlines the subject of being caught in one's own particular life As Joyce delineates it, Ireland frames a sort of mental jail for him. His despairing demeanor and his desires of being perceived as a component of the Celtic school uncover him as, best case scenario, a trite and commonplace writer.
Chandler's loss of motion is tossed into sharp difference by Gallagher's noteworthy profession. The way to Gallagher's prosperity, actually, has been leaving Ireland. Minimal Chandler can just enjoyment such a great amount in his old companion's position. Generally, Gallagher serves as an indication of how caught Little Chandler truly is. Chandler has ambiguous goals of distributed his verse, yet it soon gets to be evident that Gallagher is not the man to help it.
Chandler's mental imprisonment extends to his questions about Gallagher's travels. He asks again and again if Paris is a "moral city," as if that were a simple question, as if morality were something to be measured on a scale. This position is all the more amusing because of the last few stories we've read, in which we've been treated to a broad spectrum of cheating, manipulation, abuse, and unkindness
In any case, Gallagher's off-putting character qualities just make Chandler more angry. He feels that Gallagher does not merit the achievement he's had. What's more, in light of the fact that he feels his detainment more intensely, he takes it out on his kid. We find out about the numerous things controlling Chandler. As he tries to peruse the Byron lyric and the youngster cries, Chandler understands that he won't have the capacity to break free of his commitments. His misuse of his child, his one little snippet of opportunity, is trailed by the normal negative results, including regret. In addition, the little upheaval does not make Chandler any less caught. It is likewise toward the end of the story that Joyce investigates the subject of obligation. It is strictly when this episode, when Chandler strides back and feels contrite, lastly assuming liability. It is very conceivable that Chandler understands that the most imperative thing in life is not for him to escape to London and turn into an artist yet rather to stay in Dublin, as a father to his young child.
In Popular Mechanics by Raymond Carver it depicts separation, conflict, struggle and communication or rather the lack of it. This physical distance between both characters is important because it sets the scene of the story when it becomes obvious that both characters no longer wish to be with each other. It is most likely that a relationship, one that is pure, has been tainted. The story describes an argument between a man and a woman that rapidly escalates into a physical struggle over their baby. A man and a woman’s struggle over a child can clearly be seen as their relationship.
ReplyDeleteAnother idea is that the struggle within their relationship is causing emotional pain to the child. Perhaps the fighting is tearing the child apart, this is having a great impact on his or her life. Their world is being flipped upside down and inside out as the rest of the world carries on with their daily lives. They are simply unaware and unconcerned that two individuals are being encompassed in the depths of hell.
Presently, we're never advised certainly what happens to the infant, so I assume there is a chance that one guardian figured out how to wrest the infant effectively from the other. The folks have as of now thumped down a vase, a touch of hinting that doesn't look good for the child. What's more, the exact opposite thing we see is the folks fixing their hold on the child and pulling back hard in inverse bearings.
What is also interesting at the end of the story is the final sentence in the story, ‘In this manner, the issue was decided.’ It is a passive sentence that is far removed from what is actually happening in the story and suggests finality. Either the baby’s arm has been broken or more sinister, the child is being ripped apart in the struggle between both parents. There is also a sense of irony at the end of the story. Both parents want the baby and this is made clear by their fighting over him. However the last sentence suggests that neither parent may actually have succeeded in getting the child.
Indeed, literary pieces always gives a view of significant human experience that could be in analysis and discussion about certain topics, just like humans fictional characters is also undergone difficult situations, decisions and changes that would shape their attitude and personality in the end.
One could not blame the changers they had in their lives because there is part of their complex tendencies of human condition. The precariousness in human condition has ended up being available in varying background even as a general rule. Because thers no guarantee, human condition is always precarious in different angles: about the end of the world, identity, emotion, survival and circumstances. All these uncertainties may be present in life, but man has to realize he should not be shaken. Man may want to quest for certainty yet it blocks the search of meaning. He has to know the uncertainty is the very condition to impel him to unfold his powers. As Vincent van Gogh, pronounced “For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream”.
Life indeed is a continuous battle. The human condition is always beset with trivialities, of instabilities, of uncertainties.
ReplyDeleteReferences:
Retrieved from http google.com on December 27. 2015.
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Retrieved http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dubliners/section8.rhtml
Retrieved http://www.shmoop.com/dubliners/little-cloud-characters.html
Retrievedhttp://www.academia.edu/9147216/A_Marxist_Criticism_of_The_God_Stealer_by_Francisco_Sionil_Jose
Retrievedhttp://www.studymode.com/essays/Critical-Analysis-Of-The-God-Stealer-1803391.html
Retrieved http://sittingbee.com/popular-mechanics-raymond-carver/
Retrieved http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/raymond-carvers-popular-mechanics-what-symbolism-487142
English 42
ReplyDeleteUnderstanding Fiction
The Precariousness of Human Condition
As Reflected in Five Selected Short Stories
Submitted by:
Laguardia, Mia Raquel Q.
ASENGL3
Submitted to:
Sir Rene Bonifacio
As they say, life is full of uncertainty. Nobody knows what will happen on a person’s life in the future. Those who are weaklings and being bullied today might become a successful leader tomorrow, a dreamer might just end up a dreamer having a dream without getting it into actions and a person full of virtue and the kindest you have ever known might be the worst enemy you wish you never had. Some say life is simple and only humans are the one who makes it complicated. The result of a person’s life in the future lies on the decision on whether to take the risk in life or to just play it safe. If something is worth the risk, go for it. As the saying goes “You only live ones”.
Precarious is defined as something that is not safe, unsteady, uncertain, and dubious and is characterized by a lack of security or stability that threatens with danger. Humans have different experiences and tend to understand things differently based on their own understanding which is lies on the experiences they had. The way humans think and respond to any situation in life contributes to the precariousness of human condition. As said earlier, life is full of uncertainties but whatever happens, life should not be spend with ‘what ifs’ but with ‘what is’ in order to prepare for ‘what will be’
The precariousness of human conditions are being shown on Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Cask of Amontillado’, Akutagawa Ryunosuke’s ‘Rashomon’, Estrella D. Alfon’s ‘Servant Girl’,James Joyce’s ‘A Little Cloud’, and Franz Kafka’s ‘A Country Doctor’.
The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
ReplyDeleteEdgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Cast of Amontillado’ revolves on a two man who are friends named Fortunato and Montresor. Montresor had this feeling of revenge against Fortunato that he came to the point of making a vow out of it because of the insult ventured to him by Fortunato. Montresor wants to punish Fortunato but not just an ordinary punishment but a punishment with impunity. It was not stated what was said as an insult by Fortunato to Montresor that it made him want to take revenge that he even planed for it carefully without Fortunato having the hint or idea that every time he sees Fortunato, Montresor’s smile was at the thought of his immolation.
It is inevitable that there are certain people like Fortunato who says the things all he wants without minding what the person would feel just to impress other people. Fortunato said hurtful things to Montresor but the latter borne them as best as he could. He took all those hurtful words and filled it in his heart until it was compressed to the point that he burst and became the person who is badly desperate just to make his revenge.
In human life there are instances like Fortunato whom he thought Montresor as his friend without knowing that the one he considered as his friend has a plan to execute him to accomplish his revenge. It is inevitable that in real life also there are people whom a person mistakably considered someone as a friend when in fact they are really traitors.
Humans tend to be like Montresor who are smiling when in front of many people but deep inside they are really in pain. Stock all the pain in their heart without someone to share their burdens in life and those pains, as the time goes by becomes hatred. Humans are not born perfect and has its limit of being kind to others especially if that kindness is being taken for granted and abused which happened to Montresor in the story.
Montresor knows Fortunato well. Montresor knows that even if Fortunato is a man to be respected and even feared of, he still has a weak point and he knows what exactly it is. He knows that Fortunato is boastful most of the time but when it comes to wine he is an expert and sincere especially to old wines. He is so overwhelmed with wines that Fortunato would rather chose to see Amontillado than to have time with his engagement to Lucresi and even denied it to Montresor. Fortunato even chose to care for the wine than his health. No matter how many times Montressor discouraged Fortunato in seeing Amontillado because he is sick, he still persisted.
While they are heading their way to see Amontillado, Montresor is reminding Fortunato to be cautious while following him and praising him of his rich, respect from other people, their admiration, that there are a lot of people who loves him, his happy life which once he was also were and that he is a man to be missed. He is very caring to Fortunato that the latter has no idea that what they are heading is going to be his place of death, a catacomb.
“Make your friends close and your enemies closer” as they say and that is what exactly Montresor did to Fortunato. He knows where Fortunato is good at, knows his character and his weakness. He became clever on planning his execution to Fortunato but because of his revenge to him, he became sad in his life which he stated while they were heading to see Amontillado. Other people became desperate, sad and frustrated because of their will to revenge to other people. They spend their time to those things instead of investing it to more relevant to become progressive in life. Aside from the time wasted, it also adds burden to someone’s heart, worst is they might involve other innocent people.
ReplyDeleteOn Fortunato’s part, he became desperate and aggressive just to taste the wines, especially the Amontillado and became insensitive to Lucresia’s feelings regarding their engagement and careless to his health. He became hard headed because if he just listened to Montresor who discouraged him for many times, he could have not been buried on the catacomb. As reflected to human condition, some people tend to be more materialistic and inclined to earthly things instead of the time spend to more relevant things as said earlier. Some people takes loved ones for granted.
Rashomon by Akutagawa Ryunosuke
ReplyDeleteThere comes in human life where one is to choose between doing good things from doing bad. But as much as someone wants to control the situation, the circumstance of his or her life just would not cooperate that it will come to the point that someone is torn between being virtuous be that as it may, will wind up starving and doing underhanded things however will make somebody survive from starving to death, and that is the story entitled Rashomon is all about.
Another story that reflected on the precariousness of human condition is Akutagawa Ryunosuke’s ‘Rashomon’. The story focuses on the main character’s conflict between his self on whether to choose doing good things and to follow good virtues or to commit evil things in order to provide for his basic needs and that is to eat and in order to survive in the life he has been put into.
The story was focused on a servant who got fired on his job and had nowhere to go. He is lowly waiting under the Rashomon gate for the rain to stop. It would normally expect to find two or three other people waiting for the rain to let up but during that moment, there was nobody there but him, all alone. However, the rain did stop after a while but the servant still would not have anything to do. Normally, he would have expected to return to his master’s house, but he had been discharged from the administration of his master four or five days from that day because of many different tragedies and deterioration that their place, Kyoto, is experiencing during that time. It turns out that the lowly servant, trapped in the rain, had nowhere to go, and does not know what to do. The servant is starting to worry on how he would makes his living for his everyday life and how he would be able to get solution for his hopeless situation.
The servant’s situation is so pitiful the way his case was described by the author. He had no one to talk to and cannot think of someone who can help him out in his problem. This can also be reflected on human life where it is inevitable to experience such unexpected happenings in life. No one knows when the happy moments will end, replaced by those sad moments. Being the victim of the uncertainty of life is more harder especially if a person is being left behind by whom you call ‘friends’ and worst, by the people whom you call ‘family’ who are not by your side when you needed them most. A person is lucky to have someone having other people to lean on during calamities in life but on the servant’s case, he got no one but himself and nothing but the clothes he is wearing during that time and it also happen to some people in real life from a sudden turn of events which is one of the precariousness of human condition.
The darkness of night gradually sets in from above which might represent the gloomy life of the servant during that point of time. He thought that in order for him to get through his “hopeless situation” he might have to set his morals aside because in the event that he declined to do things that he believed were unethically he would only end up starving to death under a roofed mud wall or on the side of the road. He said to himself that “If I am willing to do whatever it takes to survive, I am bound to become a thief”.
Despite of the situation that the servant is facing, he still has the courage to think about his morality which is an evident that he values it so much. He is torn between morality from his survival and he has to face a big decision in his life. But at the end, the servant thought the servant has given up his morality at the end of his conversation with the old white-haired woman in a dusky-red kimono. The woman made the servant realized that it is not bad to steal other people’s things as long as the reason for committing it is in order for him not to starve to death. This commonly happen to the people who are victims of the situation regarding committing unlawful doings because they cannot think of other things ways to survive especially that they are desperate and want to do anything in order to live.
ReplyDeleteMany can relate to the story of the servant especially now a days that poverty and crimes are very rampant. More people are engaging to committing wrong doings in order to survive for the sake of their family and their selves or both. Morality is not a very big deal nowadays, as other people say because we have to be practical this days.
The story shows that no one can really judge a person from what he or she has been or she had become because no one knows what that person had gone through. No matter how evil may seem in doing things he or she has still his or her good side. And also has the chance to change for the better and that everybody deserves a second chance.
Servant Girl by Estrella D. Alfon
Estrella D. Alfon’s ‘Servant Girl’ also depicts the precariousness of human life in a way that Rosa who is a servant is being abused by the lady she is working for but still, he works for her mistress. She had no any plans of escaping from her mistress until he met ‘Angel’.
The story talks about Rosa, a manhandled house keeper who aches for opportunity, satisfaction and love. She was being abused by her mistress what's more, was trusting that one day she would have the capacity to be liberated from all the misuse she was encountering. At that point one day, while she was out, conveying a bowl on her head with her paramour's garments, she incidentally slipped and fell creating for her lower leg to swell. A man in his tartanilla halted and helped her with her bowl. After the occurrence, she turned into a changed woman. Rosa felt cheerful and fairly enamored with the cochero. Envisioning him needing him to see her and needing him to hear her voice. She would sing out loud when her mistress was in an up state of mind so she would not be chided and she would envision how the cochero, despite the fact that he can't see her, he would ache for her voice. She would likewise envision him passing her paramour's home while she was inside thus that was the motivation behind why she couldn't see him. She felt sorry for the individuals who might ridicule her for she trusted that she had "Angel" that dealt with her when she was in trouble.
Until, there comes a period when she experiences a cochero who was heedlessly riding his tarantilla. Because of her resentment, she tossed a stone and the cochero got irate. He undermined Rosa that he would convey her to the municipio for what she had done yet then she understood who it was. It was "Angel" who was in front of her. She continued calling him Angel yet he continued saying that that was not his name. He didn't perceive Rosa until she specified the first occasion when they saw one another.
After what happened, she then acknowledged the amount she was simply envisioning 'their affection' and that every last bit of it was not genuine. Also, that 'Angel', now his genuine name "Pedro" did not consider anything when he helped Rosa when she was harmed. Thus Rosa did a reversal to her courtesan's home and proceeded with her occupation and disregarded her arrangements on getting away and on not retreating again on mistress' house.
The story can be identified with some genuine circumstances of the individuals who are similarly situated as Rosa. It tells a thought about the pitiful reality of a few individuals working under other people who have a higher social class. The mistake that one encounters are brought about by the predominant thinking about their 'bosses'. Estrella Alfon's work shares the account of Rosa and her encounters being a house keeper under somebody who are injurious of their energy in light of the fact that they are the person who is paying for them. It catches the enthusiastic thrill ride that Rosa has; from the crying to the delight of having a "Angel" then returning to the perspective of who she truly is and what she is doing.
ReplyDeleteThe utilization of "Angel" as Pedro's name before Rosa knew, symbolized despite the fact that it was only for a brief minute, the aching for bliss and opportunity of Rosa will be given to him by 'Angel'. What's more, that the way she envisioned Angel appeared as though he was additionally aching for her and that he was searching for an approach to see and be with her once more. Estrella Alfon could indicate how edgy Rosa felt with a specific end goal to feel joy. The considerations and illusions that she was having been a basic approach to make tracks in an opposite direction from every one of the hardships that she was experiencing all the live long day. It was a path for her to let herself know that she has it better among other individuals for they didn't have an Angel that dealt with them when they were in need. It was an explanation behind her to be upbeat.
Yet, then, toward the end of the Estrella's story, it demonstrates how her creative energy assumed her to a position in her brain that did not exist. The miserable truth that Angel or Pedro did not consider anything of his nice thought to this lady took her back to reality that what she was simply envisioning was only a fantasy for her to make tracks in an opposite direction from the misuse that she was encountering inside her mistress' house.
Estrella Alfon indicates another dismal side of a man is the same condition as Rosa. Truly, it can be said that there are individuals who, tragically, can identify with Rosa's encounters. The author could appear and share every one of the considerations and feelings of Rosa all through the whole story. This work of Estrella Alfon conveyed the peruser to an acknowledgment that despite the fact that it is difficult to say, the fact of the matter arrives are truly cases like this everywhere throughout the nation and even the world. This work will offer a man some assistance with being reminded on the most proficient method to treat others.
A Little Cloud by James Joyce
ReplyDeleteAnother precariousness of human condition is the envy of a person to other person which does not matter even if he or she is your friend or a member of the family. There are some who just cannot be supportive of other person’s success and be happy about it. Insecurity begins and so as crab mentality that is very popular among many people way back, until now. Being envious is sinful but many just cannot help to be one like Thomas Malone Chandler on the entitled ‘A little Cloud’.
James Joyce’s ‘A Little Cloud’ is a story about two men who are friends like the story of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Cask of Amontillado’. The difference is that ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ is about the vengeance of Montresor to Fortunato and Fortunato’s greediness to wines, specifically Amontillado while ‘A little Cloud’ is about the envy of Thomas Malone Chandler to his friend, Ignatius Gallaher and Chandler is so envious about it because he did not become as successful as his friend and lives the same old life for many years.
Thomas Malone Chandler is otherwise called 'Little Chandler' and is called that way because as he was depicted in the story that however he was yet marginally under the normal stature, he gave one the thought of being a little man. His hands were white and little, his edge was delicate, his voice was peaceful and his behavior were refined. He took the best care of his reasonable, luxurious hair and mustache and utilized fragrance cautiously on his tissue. The half-moon of his nails were immaculate, and when he grinned you got a look of a line of infantile white teeth and Little Chandler's stature might speak to his life being not dynamic and is stuck with it.
Little Chandler was welcomed by Gallaher, and of the colossal city London where Gallaher lived and he can't get his considerations about. While minimal Chandler is sitting at King's Inns, his work place. He thought of the changes from the last time they saw one another which is as of now eight years. The companion whom he had known under a shabby and necessitous pretense had gotten to be famous and effective figure in London Press. He considered life and felt pitiful as what dependably happened when he considered life and felt futile it was to battle against fortune on the grounds that he had battle himself all his life and done the things he could with a specific end goal to crane his life to destitution yet, he is still unsuccessful.
Like Little Chandler, many people wanted to be rich and successful in life but are not doing ways to be one and instead of working smart and do things to fulfill their dreams, what they are doing is to just to dream without fulfilling them. As a result, like Little Chandler, ends up a dreamer but not an achiever.
One reason of Little Chandler being not effective in life is on the grounds that he has no guts. He recollected the books of verse on his racks at home wherein he had purchased amid his bachelor days and he had moved toward numerous night times, as he sat in the little room of the corridor, he had been enticed to bring one down from the bookshelf and read out something to his wife. Be that as it may, bashfulness had constantly kept him down in this manner; the books had stayed on their rack. In some cases he rehashes the same aim yet old news happened over and over.
He could have done the things he want in order to express his love to his wife and from the fact that it is his wife already and he is still shy about such things like reading books to her and did not even commit to try his intention even ones when it would not make any harm to anyone of them is an evident that he is coward over petty things that does not even worth it.
It is inevitable that what happens in Little Chandler in the story happens also in real life. Some people are afraid of taking risk and afraid to show their soft side because they might get rejected or disappointed from the reaction of other people. Those people who are afraid of getting out of the box, stays there but keeps on complaining about their life, that they are doing they can just to be successful in life.
ReplyDeleteAt the point when Little Chandler was headed to their meeting place, he was extremely energized until he went by Corless, he had never been in the spot yet he knew the value of the name. He likewise realized that individuals went there after the theater to eat clams and drink mixers and he had heard that the servers there communicated in French and German. He saw that the general population entering the spot wore boisterous dresses and numerous wraps. Their countenances were powdered and they got up to speed their dresses, when they touched earth, as frightened Atalantas. He had dependably gone out without turning his head to look. It was his propensity to walk quickly in the road even by day, and at whatever point he ended up in the city late during the evening he rushed on his way uneasily and enthusiastically.
From this scene, it can be that Chandler needs to go that sure place yet even until that time he can't at present bear to run inside and blend with other individuals inside. He knows the spot well it is as though he researched that specific spot and the general population who are for the most part inside it in light of the fact that he likewise saw their get up when entering inside. The longing is wrecked in his considerations that one day he may likewise get the benefit to enter the spot and to see the spot for himself. In any case, as he rushed himself keeping in mind the end goal to get to Gallaher's meeting place, he picked the darkest and limited avenues and, as he strolled intensely forward, the quiet that was spread about his strides agitated him; the meandering, noiseless figures pained him; and on occasion a sound of low outlaw chuckling made him tremble like a leaf.
There came to the point in human’s life that someone has to choose a certain path in his or her life. Whatever path someone had chosen, it will lead and take a big part to his or her future whether it will lead to success or like Little Chandler in the story that maintained his life into unprogressive one. The path that he chose is like the path that he chose for his life. He walks on the dark and narrowed street but then his footsteps troubled him. He is only doing the things that also makes him scary and gets him into trouble while the narrow streets represent his narrow-minded. He does not look for new things and just stick with the old thing that is why he is being left behind in life.
In real life situation, there are people who are afraid of changes wherein change is the only constant in this world and that change is an opportunity to the new phase in life in order to be a better person to make decisions better and to be more matured in facing challenges in life.
ReplyDeleteAs little Chandler reviewed the past, he noticed the signs of future greatness of his friend. Many said the Gallaher was wild; drank freely, borrowed money on all sides and got mixed up on some affairs but it is inevitable that he has talent. He thought that there was always something in Ignatius Gallaher that impressed him. Even if he was out of money, he still kept up a bold face. The guts that little Chandler has nothing of and he cannot deny the fact that he admired him so much for that. “No guts, no glory” and this also applies in life. People are busy noticing other people and how good they are with stuffs that sometimes end up with insecurities, forgetting that they should mind their own lives and business because they also have a life of their own and minding others would not make them any good.
Little Chandler animated his pace on Capel Street and without precedent for his life, he felt himself better than the general population he passed. Interestingly, his spirit rebelled against the dull inelegance of the road. He thought without uncertainty that in the event that he needed to be fruitful, he needed to leave from Dublin on the grounds that he considers the thought that he could do nothing in Dublin. He saw ahead the hindered poor houses and felt sorry for it and pondered, as what he generally does, in the event that he could compose a lyric to express his thought. He believed that he can make utilization of Gallaher's associations and maybe he may have the capacity to get it into some London paper for him. He was hopeful to the point that it might be the begin for his accomplishment later on. He ventured forward with awesome boldness.
As Ignatius Gallaher and Little Chandler at last met, from the way Gallaher talk and his behavior and how minimal Chandler reacts to him, it can be obviously seen that Little Chandler is the inverse of Gallaher. Gallaher is striking, Little Chandler is not, and Little Chandler is not kidding and reacts to Gallaher in an extremely concise way while Gallaher is garrulous yet Gallaher had been into numerous spots while Little Chandler remained focused all his life. He begrudged Gallaher for every one of the things he had accomplished and to the individual he had ended up. He felt extremely differentiate between his own life and his friend's, and it appeared to him uncalled for. Gallaher was his second rate in conception and training. He was certain that he could show improvement over his companion had ever done, or could ever do, an option that is higher than negligible tasteless reporting in the event that he just found the opportunity, Little Chandler thought. He faulted his shyness as the impediment of his "apparently" achievement.
The events similar in the story usually happen during reunions. People get to discover who became successful and achieved the dreams they had been dreaming and those who have big dreams but ended up as someone like Little Chandler, stock up in a small place, Dublin, and in his life. Human’s life is really unpredicted, no one knows who will be successful in life and who will not but the future will just based on the present things that a person is doing and not just by dreaming in his or her life.
ReplyDeleteIn this story, the precariousness of life in human condition is more on a person not getting out of the box or his comfort zone and being regretful about it because he is badly sick and tired in his life because he do not see any progress from it. Some people just do not learn to appreciate their self first than the others and value the things they have and do great things from it that leads to inner struggle like Little Chandler in the story.
A Country Doctor by Franz Kafka
Humans came into a point of time where a person is bound to choose between your loved one and your career. Someone is going to choose to save other people and that he is bound to because of his work or to save the person whom you discovered a newly found feeling towards him or her.
Another story that thinks about the shakiness of human condition is Franz Kafka's 'A Country Doctor'. The story is about the doctor who organized his profession than to spare his servant, Rose. However, laments for it at last.
One of the wealthiest and most suggestive of Franz Kafka's messages, "A Country Doctor" portrays the shocking self-misdirection of an individual confronted with his own particular loss of confidence in his profession. The doctor accuses different variables like the states of his vocation, his patients, the decrease of religious conviction for his inability to complete his obligations, particularly, to recuperate those in need. The specialist felt that once he neglects to perform his obligations as a healer, his life loses all feeling of reason and significance.
The doctor’s inward emergency is incompletely of his self-making and mostly the consequence of his amazing social seclusion from other individuals and got nobody with him but Rosa. Then again, he has dismissed Rosa for quite a long time, and says that it is extremely hard to achieve a shared comprehension with his patients, and feels something for his worker where he is not certain of in the event that it truly matters that he would give up his work to it.
ReplyDeleteIn spite of the fact that there seems to be an issue in the social group amid that time, the doctor is an authority of a political region and is a piece of a bureaucratic framework at some expel from the general population which was represented in the content by the separation that he should go in a specific night to mend a patient is the solid subjective predisposition of his report of his connections to other individuals that puts into inquiry in his entire comprehension of who he is and what he does.
The story is similar to a bad dream that is "a failed dream since it insists on stating the anxiety without offering solutions to the sleeper who is tormented by intolerable and unavoidable emotional strain" (Sandra 113). All through the story the peruse faculties the apprehension and the dread in the scenes. The short and the tight portrayal as the story begin appear to uncover the uneasiness of what the doctor feels.
The horses and the groom's abnormal nature are a vital part of the doctors's bad dream. Steeds with long legs "slither" out of pigsty, is unreasonable and a component of the dream. These steeds might be said to take after legendary animals as they took the specialist to the patient in a split second as is he stunned and blinded and they returned him to his place such as old men. Additionally the horses' neighing and viewing through room windows of the wiped out and when the family uproots the doctor his garments and makes lie adjacent to the patient all loans to the nightmarish climate prevailing in the story.
A thought about the story is the essential and general thoughts communicated in a story and spins around different truths that the general population request the outlandish from the doctor in a way that they have lost their confidence and the minister appear to be of no utilization to them. They accept that the doctor can do everything. The significance of confidence is inspected by the author as he thinks about its nonattendance on the diminishing patient. It's about faith versus medicine. Then again, doctors must have moral sense to have the capacity to recuperate other individuals and medicines ought to be a demonstration of confidence.
Putting fault on other individuals is likewise something else that can be reflected in the story. Because of his own deficiencies as a doctor and definitely, puts fault on other individuals. He trusts his powerlessness to go to his patient can be faulted for his absence of horses. Despite the fact that he sees the reality of his patient's ailment, the specialist still accuses the patient for absence of confidence. There is nobody point the specialist focuses at his inadequacies yet he diligently gripes that the general public expects a lot from him. He additionally accuses an "antecedent" for his poor execution in his administration.
Taking everything into account, Kafka's "A Country Doctor" is an account of man, experienced by different difficulties. He has no break aside from confronting them. It is the point at which he confronts these difficulties that he understands that he is frail as an individual and there are a few components that is out of his control.
Therefore, different stories reflects about the different precariousness of human condition. The story of the ‘Cask of Amontillado’ reflects hatred and vengeance on Montresor’s part while greed and selfishness on Montresor’s character that lead them both to a situation in their life where the other committed murder for in order to revenge because of just an insult which Montresor thinks as a very big deal that he is willing to killing other people. There comes in a human life that forgiving other people is just so hard that committing revenge is the only solution they can think of but in reality, it would not do them good but would in the end make them suffer from within.
ReplyDeleteThe story of Rashomon on the other hand reflects a humans mind whether to choose between good or bad due to human condition as a result, the servant became a person whom he does not want to be but has no choice because being a thief is the only thing that he can see in order to survive. This commonly happen nowadays especially in a third world country where there are lots of unfortunate people. On the other hand, the story of the servant girl, Rosa was oppressed and maltreated by her and oppression is also a common issue nowadays especially with domestic people from other countries. It is as if working abroad is a very risky thing because there is a possibility that someone will just be a slave, oppressed and maltreated with other people.
On the story of ‘A little cloud’ and ‘Country doctor’ talks about the main character’s decision makings which they both regret but it was too late before they realized what they should have done things in life.
References:
Encarta Dictionary
A Country Doctor by Franz Kafka
The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
Rashomon by Akutagawa Ryunosuke
Estrella D. Alfon’s ‘Servant Girl’,
James Joyce’s ‘A Little Cloud’
Therefore, different stories reflects about the different precariousness of human condition. The story of the ‘Cask of Amontillado’ reflects hatred and vengeance on Montresor’s part while greed and selfishness on Montresor’s character that lead them both to a situation in their life where the other committed murder for in order to revenge because of just an insult which Montresor thinks as a very big deal that he is willing to killing other people. There comes in a human life that forgiving other people is just so hard that committing revenge is the only solution they can think of but in reality, it would not do them good but would in the end make them suffer from within.
ReplyDeleteThe story of Rashomon on the other hand reflects a humans mind whether to choose between good or bad due to human condition as a result, the servant became a person whom he does not want to be but has no choice because being a thief is the only thing that he can see in order to survive. This commonly happen nowadays especially in a third world country where there are lots of unfortunate people. On the other hand, the story of the servant girl, Rosa was oppressed and maltreated by her and oppression is also a common issue nowadays especially with domestic people from other countries. It is as if working abroad is a very risky thing because there is a possibility that someone will just be a slave, oppressed and maltreated with other people.
On the story of ‘A little cloud’ and ‘Country doctor’ talks about the main character’s decision makings which they both regret but it was too late before they realized what they should have done things in life.
References:
Encarta Dictionary
A Country Doctor by Franz Kafka
The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
Rashomon by Akutagawa Ryunosuke
Estrella D. Alfon’s ‘Servant Girl’,
James Joyce’s ‘A Little Cloud’
The doctor’s inward emergency is incompletely of his self-making and mostly the consequence of his amazing social seclusion from other individuals and got nobody with him but Rosa. Then again, he has dismissed Rosa for quite a long time, and says that it is extremely hard to achieve a shared comprehension with his patients, and feels something for his worker where he is not certain of in the event that it truly matters that he would give up his work to it.
ReplyDeleteIn spite of the fact that there seems to be an issue in the social group amid that time, the doctor is an authority of a political region and is a piece of a bureaucratic framework at some expel from the general population which was represented in the content by the separation that he should go in a specific night to mend a patient is the solid subjective predisposition of his report of his connections to other individuals that puts into inquiry in his entire comprehension of who he is and what he does.
The story is similar to a bad dream that is "a failed dream since it insists on stating the anxiety without offering solutions to the sleeper who is tormented by intolerable and unavoidable emotional strain" (Sandra 113). All through the story the peruse faculties the apprehension and the dread in the scenes. The short and the tight portrayal as the story begin appear to uncover the uneasiness of what the doctor feels.
The horses and the groom's abnormal nature are a vital part of the doctors's bad dream. Steeds with long legs "slither" out of pigsty, is unreasonable and a component of the dream. These steeds might be said to take after legendary animals as they took the specialist to the patient in a split second as is he stunned and blinded and they returned him to his place such as old men. Additionally the horses' neighing and viewing through room windows of the wiped out and when the family uproots the doctor his garments and makes lie adjacent to the patient all loans to the nightmarish climate prevailing in the story.
A thought about the story is the essential and general thoughts communicated in a story and spins around different truths that the general population request the outlandish from the doctor in a way that they have lost their confidence and the minister appear to be of no utilization to them. They accept that the doctor can do everything. The significance of confidence is inspected by the author as he thinks about its nonattendance on the diminishing patient. It's about faith versus medicine. Then again, doctors must have moral sense to have the capacity to recuperate other individuals and medicines ought to be a demonstration of confidence.
Putting fault on other individuals is likewise something else that can be reflected in the story. Because of his own deficiencies as a doctor and definitely, puts fault on other individuals. He trusts his powerlessness to go to his patient can be faulted for his absence of horses. Despite the fact that he sees the reality of his patient's ailment, the specialist still accuses the patient for absence of confidence. There is nobody point the specialist focuses at his inadequacies yet he diligently gripes that the general public expects a lot from him. He additionally accuses an "antecedent" for his poor execution in his administration.
Taking everything into account, Kafka's "A Country Doctor" is an account of man, experienced by different difficulties. He has no break aside from confronting them. It is the point at which he confronts these difficulties that he understands that he is frail as an individual and there are a few components that is out of his control.
The events similar in the story usually happen during reunions. People get to discover who became successful and achieved the dreams they had been dreaming and those who have big dreams but ended up as someone like Little Chandler, stock up in a small place, Dublin, and in his life. Human’s life is really unpredicted, no one knows who will be successful in life and who will not but the future will just based on the present things that a person is doing and not just by dreaming in his or her life.
ReplyDeleteIn this story, the precariousness of life in human condition is more on a person not getting out of the box or his comfort zone and being regretful about it because he is badly sick and tired in his life because he do not see any progress from it. Some people just do not learn to appreciate their self first than the others and value the things they have and do great things from it that leads to inner struggle like Little Chandler in the story.
A Country Doctor by Franz Kafka
Humans came into a point of time where a person is bound to choose between your loved one and your career. Someone is going to choose to save other people and that he is bound to because of his work or to save the person whom you discovered a newly found feeling towards him or her.
Another story that thinks about the shakiness of human condition is Franz Kafka's 'A Country Doctor'. The story is about the doctor who organized his profession than to spare his servant, Rose. However, laments for it at last.
One of the wealthiest and most suggestive of Franz Kafka's messages, "A Country Doctor" portrays the shocking self-misdirection of an individual confronted with his own particular loss of confidence in his profession. The doctor accuses different variables like the states of his vocation, his patients, the decrease of religious conviction for his inability to complete his obligations, particularly, to recuperate those in need. The specialist felt that once he neglects to perform his obligations as a healer, his life loses all feeling of reason and significance.
In real life situation, there are people who are afraid of changes wherein change is the only constant in this world and that change is an opportunity to the new phase in life in order to be a better person to make decisions better and to be more matured in facing challenges in life.
ReplyDeleteAs little Chandler reviewed the past, he noticed the signs of future greatness of his friend. Many said the Gallaher was wild; drank freely, borrowed money on all sides and got mixed up on some affairs but it is inevitable that he has talent. He thought that there was always something in Ignatius Gallaher that impressed him. Even if he was out of money, he still kept up a bold face. The guts that little Chandler has nothing of and he cannot deny the fact that he admired him so much for that. “No guts, no glory” and this also applies in life. People are busy noticing other people and how good they are with stuffs that sometimes end up with insecurities, forgetting that they should mind their own lives and business because they also have a life of their own and minding others would not make them any good.
Little Chandler animated his pace on Capel Street and without precedent for his life, he felt himself better than the general population he passed. Interestingly, his spirit rebelled against the dull inelegance of the road. He thought without uncertainty that in the event that he needed to be fruitful, he needed to leave from Dublin on the grounds that he considers the thought that he could do nothing in Dublin. He saw ahead the hindered poor houses and felt sorry for it and pondered, as what he generally does, in the event that he could compose a lyric to express his thought. He believed that he can make utilization of Gallaher's associations and maybe he may have the capacity to get it into some London paper for him. He was hopeful to the point that it might be the begin for his accomplishment later on. He ventured forward with awesome boldness.
As Ignatius Gallaher and Little Chandler at last met, from the way Gallaher talk and his behavior and how minimal Chandler reacts to him, it can be obviously seen that Little Chandler is the inverse of Gallaher. Gallaher is striking, Little Chandler is not, and Little Chandler is not kidding and reacts to Gallaher in an extremely concise way while Gallaher is garrulous yet Gallaher had been into numerous spots while Little Chandler remained focused all his life. He begrudged Gallaher for every one of the things he had accomplished and to the individual he had ended up. He felt extremely differentiate between his own life and his friend's, and it appeared to him uncalled for. Gallaher was his second rate in conception and training. He was certain that he could show improvement over his companion had ever done, or could ever do, an option that is higher than negligible tasteless reporting in the event that he just found the opportunity, Little Chandler thought. He faulted his shyness as the impediment of his "apparently" achievement.
It is inevitable that what happens in Little Chandler in the story happens also in real life. Some people are afraid of taking risk and afraid to show their soft side because they might get rejected or disappointed from the reaction of other people. Those people who are afraid of getting out of the box, stays there but keeps on complaining about their life, that they are doing they can just to be successful in life.
ReplyDeleteAt the point when Little Chandler was headed to their meeting place, he was extremely energized until he went by Corless, he had never been in the spot yet he knew the value of the name. He likewise realized that individuals went there after the theater to eat clams and drink mixers and he had heard that the servers there communicated in French and German. He saw that the general population entering the spot wore boisterous dresses and numerous wraps. Their countenances were powdered and they got up to speed their dresses, when they touched earth, as frightened Atalantas. He had dependably gone out without turning his head to look. It was his propensity to walk quickly in the road even by day, and at whatever point he ended up in the city late during the evening he rushed on his way uneasily and enthusiastically.
From this scene, it can be that Chandler needs to go that sure place yet even until that time he can't at present bear to run inside and blend with other individuals inside. He knows the spot well it is as though he researched that specific spot and the general population who are for the most part inside it in light of the fact that he likewise saw their get up when entering inside. The longing is wrecked in his considerations that one day he may likewise get the benefit to enter the spot and to see the spot for himself. In any case, as he rushed himself keeping in mind the end goal to get to Gallaher's meeting place, he picked the darkest and limited avenues and, as he strolled intensely forward, the quiet that was spread about his strides agitated him; the meandering, noiseless figures pained him; and on occasion a sound of low outlaw chuckling made him tremble like a leaf.
There came to the point in human’s life that someone has to choose a certain path in his or her life. Whatever path someone had chosen, it will lead and take a big part to his or her future whether it will lead to success or like Little Chandler in the story that maintained his life into unprogressive one. The path that he chose is like the path that he chose for his life. He walks on the dark and narrowed street but then his footsteps troubled him. He is only doing the things that also makes him scary and gets him into trouble while the narrow streets represent his narrow-minded. He does not look for new things and just stick with the old thing that is why he is being left behind in life.
The Precariousness of Human Condition
ReplyDeleteas
Reflected in Five Selected Stories
By: Janelyn C. Ardeña
ASENGL3 (TTh:07:00-08:30)
Outline
I. Introduction
II. Body: The Precariousness of Human Condition as Reflected in
Five Selected Stories:
A. Cask of Amontillado
B. Popular Mechanics
C. A Little Cloud
D. God Stealer
E. Fall of the House of Usher
III. Conclusion
The Precariousness of Human Condition as Reflected in Five Selected Stories
Introduction
Precariousness defines in Merriam-Webster Dictionary as not safe and dependent which this paper was focused. A lot of stories contain and show different precariousness of human condition that mirrored people’s characteristics in the society. This paper analysed the precariousness of human condition that was found in this five selected short stories; Cask of Amontillado, Popular Mechanics, A Little Cloud, God Stealer and Fall of the House of Usher. These stories were analysed through the characterization of the characters in each stories which contain precariousness of human condition. These characterizations mirrored the human nature of which people can reflect and relate their selves.
(Cask of Amontillado)
The first story that shows precariousness of human condition is the “Cask of Amontillado”. It is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. The story shows how revenge can make a person do bad things. One main precariousness of human condition in this story is a person’s pride that cannot forgive someone that leads to revenge.
This story highlight the two main characters named Montressor and Fortunato. The story started when Montressor saw Fortunato, his friend in the carnival and invited him to go in his house to have some wine. Fortunato was already drunk but he still follows Montressor to have some cup of Amontillado. When they arrived at Montressor’s place Montressor buried Fortunato inside the catacomb alive. This shows that Montressor already planned how to get his revenge from Fortunato. It is also the reason why he got his chance and made his evil deed successfully. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t reveal the reason why Montressor got mad to Fortunato that leads into his friend’s death. But it is clear that Montressor was really offended by Fortunato. Montressor was not able to forgive Fortunato that was the reason why he took his revenge and killed his friend. It is really clear that Montressor had a lot of characters which precarious to someone just like his being prideful and revengeful.
Montressor's pride made him deeply mad to Fortunato. He was not able to forgive Fortunato because of his pride. Another, his being revengeful that maybe also cause of his pride which leads to the death of Fortunato. There were a lot of people in this society that have this kind of negative characteristics that so inevitable. At first, these characteristics seem so light but the truth is, it can kill someone. A lot of people cannot able to notice that their pride and anger leads them to downfall.
Another thing about Montressor is that, he is an unreliable. At the very beginning of the story it was stated that Montressor is narrating of what he had done fifty years ago. Maybe people will doubt if his confession is true. The audience cannot really trust him because of two things; if he was able to plastered Fortunato into the vault, people cannot trust him and if he did not kill Fortunato because his lying then the audience cannot still trust him. This characterization of Montressor reveals the truth about human condition.
He is also an unsympathetic character because as the readers read the story he is like an alien. He is a secretive character which only revealed himself a little. Readers cannot sympathize to him because he is a murderous and still living freely right now out of his crime. This personality of Montressor reflects a lot of people’s personality. Montressor represents a sneaky and vengeful part of human beings which reflects most people in the society.
ReplyDeleteAnother, Montressor is so ambiguous if he is confessing or bragging in telling his crime for the past fifty years. Either confessing or bragging it also reflects in human nature. Sometimes, people want to confess to ask forgiveness in order to be free from burden but sometimes also people want to brag to let someone know and reflects their faults.
Another character that shows human’s precariousness or weakness is the character of Fortunato. Fortunato is the victim who was killed by Montressor. Fortunato’s weaknesses are; addiction, insensitivity, trustfulness, pridefulnes and greediness. From the very start of the story it is obvious that Fortunato is addicted to wine. It is stated in the story that before Montressor envited him to taste Amontillado in the carnival he was already drunk. In the time that Montressor envited Fortunato to try the Amontillado he still craved for it. He even let himself down in the catacomb to get the Amontillado to fulfill his thirst. Fortunato’s addiction to wine made him blind from Montressor’s attack.
Fortunato is also insensitive. He never sense that he was already offended and hurt Montressor. He did not even notice that Montressor is mad at him. Fortunato has a character of being trustful, he easily trust Montressor. Sometimes being too much trustful can be someone’s weakness. It is Fortunato’s weakness that made Montressor easily killed him.
Another weakness of Montressor is being prideful and so greedy. It is presented in the story that Fortunato is either too greedy or too prideful. When Montressor mentioned Luchesi, Fortunato hastily grabbed the opportunity to taste first the Amontillado before Luchesi do. He maybe want to prove that he is a good wine taster compared to Luchesi. These characteristics were shown in the story as human weaknesses that lead to human’s downfall.
(Popular Mechanics)
ReplyDeleteNext story that portrays precariousness in human condition is the “Popular Mechanics”. It is a short story written by Raymond Carver with a theme of separation. The tone of the story is one of aggression and anger. This story is composed of three characters; a man, woman and a baby. The man and woman is couple not specified if married or not they have this baby with no name. The couple was fighting for who will get the baby because they were separating. The precariousness of human condition by the characters was shown throughout the story. One is for being an aggressive person and high pride.
The story started with a man packing his things while a woman is watching his standing by the door. The physical distance of the two implies that the characters were no longer wanted to be with each other. The author also uses short sentences throughout the story which illustrates the end of the relationship between the characters. Unfortunately, the cause of the couple separation was not stated by the narrator but the opening of the story symbolizes a relationship that was once healthy but turned badly. In the day of their separation, the couple was fighting over the baby. But first, it appears that the father only wants the photo of the baby but the wife took it. The father of the baby got angry then he stopped down and he want to take the baby from the woman. The man asked the baby from the woman but she doesn’t like to give it. The parents seemed playing tug- of-war, tightening their gripped on the baby. The two was pulling hard the baby in opposite direction. By their forces it is not impossible to injure the baby. It is obvious that the couple were not even concern about the baby’s health. They were not even care if the baby was crying in pain. They seemed less concern for baby’s situation, but only for their pride. At first, the father doesn’t really want the baby he just doesn’t want that the mother to have the baby. Both parents were aggressive; they do not like to be inferior by one another. They were both angry which they forgot that they were hurting the baby. They were throwing accusations with each other. The couple was like playing that each other of them don’t want to lose.
The man in the story seems so quite at the very start of the story. He looks so calm while the woman yelled and use heavy words to show her anger. This scene foreshadows that the conflict will get worse. The author suggests that when a relationship of a couple ends it may cause a big conflict. This conflict will not only affect each other but also it affects to their children. For example in the story, it was not told if what happened to the baby but for sure the baby was hurt. In real life when parents get divorce their children will be affected mainly not physically but for sure it affects emotionally and psychologically.
ReplyDeleteThe theme of the story is about a separation of couple in an aggressive manner which implies that if there is a misunderstanding it is good to talk and settle it in a smooth way. A lot of couples can relate with this story such as a conflict between each other that sometimes leads to separation. Most people have its own pride which cannot really want someone overlap them. In this story, the conflict of the two was not settled because of aggression. Anger will bring no good to a person’s life especially to a couple with a child.
(A Little Cloud)
ReplyDeleteAnother story which shows precariousness of human condition is the short story entitled “A Little Cloud” written by James Augustine Aloysius Joyce on 1914. This story distinguished about human status. The characterization of the characters shows a lot of weaknesses. The main character is mentally trapped with envy about his friend’s success. Envying to someone’s life is one of the precariousness in human condition shown in this story.
The story has 4 characters named Little Chandler, Ignatius Gallagher, Annie, and the baby boy. The main character of the story is Little Chandler. Little Chandler is described as small in physical structure and childlike. He dreamed to be a great poet in his fruitful days but ended up to be a clerk. He became a husband to Annie and a father to his baby boy. Little Chandler has a friend named Ignatius Gallagher that he haven’t seen for 8 years long. After eight years they decided to meet in Corless’, one of the Dublin’s most cosmopolitan bars. While waiting, he imagines Ignatius Gallegher eight years ago on how his friend borrow money on all sides. When the two met they talked about their old gang, Ignatius Gallagher told Little chandler about his journey in far places. Little Chandler felt shy because he never travelled for outside Dublin. Little Chandler felt jealousy about Ignatius Gallagher’s success. Ignatius Gallagher serves as how Little Chandler is mentally trapped not only geographically. Little Chandler’s mental imprisonment pushed him to be more curious about Gallagher’s travels. He even asked if Paris is a “moral city”. Little Chandler was hurt emotionally because he envy about Gallagher’s success. Little chandler felt that his friend Gallagher does not deserve the success he had. Little Chandler is an ordinary man but still capable to dream but ruled by circumstances. He felt inferiority to Ignatius Gallagher. He was hurt more when he thought that he is smarter compared to Gallagher during their student’s life. After the meeting of Ignatius Gallagher and Little Chandler, Chandler felt upset. When Chandler got home he imagined himself if what it would be if he pursue his dreams and did not marry Annie. His family symbolizes as the hindrance to his success. When he stared at the furniture inside their house he even more felt trapped. His melancholy became deeper. To express his pain he opened a volume of Byron’s poems and read it. As he continues reading the poem, the child woke up and start to cry. He stopped reading and tried to comfort the child but the child didn’t stop crying. As the child kept crying he screams “stops”. When Annie got home the child is still crying and she confronted Little Chandler if what he did to the child. In this scene Little Chandler felt again the entrapment, he do not have much freedom from his obligations. He cannot even finish reading a poem because of his child and he also trapped for working to earn money.
This shows that Little Chandler is mentally and geographically trapped. A lot of people in the society are more like Little Chandler trapped by some circumstances or obstacle to reach his dreams. It is not easy to handle mental entrapment because it can make the person fall. The characterization of Little Chandler mirrored a lot of people in the society. He is an immature person in terms of physical, emotional and social. In physical, it is stated in the story that he is a short and have this child-like teeth. He is also emotionally immature because he envy so much about Gallagher’s success. In social, he was not able to express his emotions for his wife and he did not even notice that Gallagher is not interested in helping him.
ReplyDeleteLittle Chandler also is so ambitious in a sense that he only dream but he did not work for it. This personality mirrored a lot of Filipino people in the society, some dream only big inside their minds but do not put so much effort to achieve it. Being too much ambitious will make someone miserable just like Little Chandler. He is also jealous to Gallagher’s success in which made him upset. He compared himself to Gallagher and ended with a feeling of inferiority. He felt so trapped between his family and career. According to the story, Little Chandler is introvert which he cannot express his emotion to his wife. An introvert person is dangerous, he or she only keep what he or she feels. A person just like this does not know how to express what is inside his or her mind.
The second character in the story was named Ignatius Gallagher. He is an unsympathetic character and also insensitive. He did not mind if he already hurt Chandler’s feelings. His characterization is not an admirable one.
God Stealer
ReplyDeleteNext story that contains precariousness of human condition is the story “God Stealer”. It is a short story written by Francisco Sionil published on 1958. This story illustrates about Ifugao’s culture. It also talks about family, friendship, and culture. One of the characters shows a lot of weaknesses in human condition. For example, being too much hospitable, disloyal, pride fullness and disrespectful. This characteristic is precariousness in human conditions.
This story emphasized two characters named Philip Latak and Sam Christie. Philip Latak is an Ifugao who worked in manila. He is a friend of Sam Christie. Sam Christie is an American and a friend of Philip Latak. One day, Philp Latak accompanied Sam Christie in going to Baguio. . Sam Christie is a tourist who wants to visit Mt. Province. When they got at the said place, Sam Christie was amused by the view of Rice Terraces. At their arrival Philip Latak felt a bit embarrassment for his friend knew where he came from. When Philip Latak was regard by his family as deserter his grandfather still welcomed him. In the other side, Sam Christie wanted to buy a statue of an Ifugao God as a souvenir but none of the Ifugao wants to sell their Gods. Philip Latak offered Sam Christie to steal his grandfather God to shoe his gratitude to Sam. On the next day Philip Latak’s grandfather died because he discovered that his gods was stolen. After the consequence Philip Latak decided to stay in the mountain to pay everything. The characters in the story shows a lot of precariousness in human condition especially Philip Latak.
Philip Latak shows a lot of characteristic that mirrored most of the Filipinos people. For example, being too much gratitude, pride fullness, disloyal and disrespectful which makes people weak. Philip Latak stole his grandfather statue to pay gratitude to Sam Christie. It is true that he is the one who killed his grandfather. He did not respect their beliefs, cultures and relatives. He considers himself as a city boy. He forgot his own culture he did not want to return in his mountain life. He became disloyal in his own family and able to steal the god of his grandfather. This kind of character will bring no good to a person life. This story was inspired in colonialism in Filipino people colonized by same country which brought another culture. In fact a lot of Filipino’s thought that other culture is better than their own. It is the result of colonialism called colonial mentality. Just like the character of Philip Latak, he thought that his own culture is inferior compared is to escape from the life of the mountain. He even felt shy with his own cultures. Philip Latak also thought that the life in the city is much easier compared to the mountain.
Other character that shows precariousness is Philip Latak’s family especially his grandfather. His grandfather easily trust him never doubt that Philip would betray him. This story shows a lot of characteristics whish give danger to a person’s life. This story also thought the readers to be proud for their own culture.
ReplyDeleteThe story emphasized about the friendship of Sam Cristie and Philip Latak. Their friendship was truly proved when Philip Latak stole the Totem of his grandfather for Sam. Some critic said that the characterization of the character symbolizes about colonization. For example, the name of Philip symbolizes Philippines whereas Sam Cristie symbolizes foreign people also represents Christianity.
(Fall of the house of Usher)
ReplyDelete“Fall of the House of Usher” is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe that Published in 1839. This story shows more than one weakness of human characters which become a sort of precariousness. For example, human isolation and illness will be considered as weakness. This story presented a person who wants to escape from his fault. To escape he called someone to accompany him with his problem. One of the characters in the story has a mental deficiency which pushed him to made bad things.
The characters in the story are; the narrator, Roderick Usher and Madeline. Roderick Usher has a mental illness, his twin sister named Madeline with a cataleptic disease. In the first part of the story, Roderick Usher invited his unnamed friend into his house. When his friend arrived, he introduced his twin sister who was ill. One day, Roderick Usher asked his friend to help him burry Madeline inside the house. They buried Madeline temporarily inside the house alive. After how many days had passed, Roderick Usher and his friend felt some strange. One night, Roderick Usher cannot sleep well; when his friend came into his room he looked so scared. His friend read a story to calm him. As the story goes on the tension became stranger that whatever his friend was reading Roderick Usher felt it. Roderick Usher felt that the event in the story is really happening into his room. At the end, Roderick Usher saw Madeline and his friend ran away. As Usher’s friend was running away the house is falling. The story seems so scary but it is not the main message of the story instead the message is all about the precariousness of human condition. The precariousness was shown by the character’s personality in the story.
One of the characters was named Roderick Usher. He is a man with mental illness. He has a weak personality just like being a coward and having a mental illness. Mental illness is a very weak condition of human health. Having this illness a man cannot think and do well. A man with this illness is very pitiable, his judgments is not so accurate. For example, according to the story Roderick Usher buried his living twin sister inside their house. A man with this disease is very dangerous. He can be able to kill his own family without his consciousness. Another Roderick Usher’s weakness is being a coward. He was scared of what he did and he want to escape from the consequences of his deeds. He even called his friend to accompany him. He wanted to clean his conscience by trapping someone to be blamed. A lot of people in the society shared this kind of Roderick Usher’s personality. They are claiming themselves clean but the truth is they are not. The story emphasized that being a coward will cause a person’s downfall. Roderick Usher fell by his own hand. He scared of things so much which made him fall together with their house.
. Roderick Usher is also isolated. It is stated in the story that Usher's family never had put forth and that the family lay in direct line family. Maybe Usher's family practiced the implication of incest. They live for a long time in dark rooms of the house according to the story. It shows that is not good to be isolated, people should socialize to someone. Being incest can cause illness such as abnormalities for their children's health. It also caused a madness to individuals which dangerous in human condition.
ReplyDeleteAnother character in the story that shows human precariousness is Usher’s friend or the narrator of the story. He is the man who went hastily by Roderick Usher’s call and he also trusts his friend easily. Sometimes being too trustful can be someone’s weakness that will brought him into danger. The narrator looked like a fool because of being too trustful and loyal. He was blind about Roderick Usher’s plan. He even helps Roderick Usher’s foolishness of burying Madeline alive. Having a mental disease is very dangerous. Another is being a coward can also make a person fall.
Conclusion
Therefore, these five stories show a lot of precariousness of human condition through character's characterization. These characterizations serve as a weakness of individuals which mirrored reality. The examples of human weakness are; being revengeful, insensitive, too much aggressive, jealous to someone's success, immature, too much trustful and mad. These characteristics will lead to a person's downfall.
References
Analysis of 'Popular Mechanics' by Raymond Carver. (2015, May 20). Retrieved from
http://shortstories.about.com/od/ContemporaryStories/fl/Analysis-of-Popular-Mechanics-by- Raymond-Carver.htm
Goulumian, M. (2013, November 7). "Popular Mechanics" by Raymond Carver Style, Tone, and
Irony. Retrieved from http://kirkmanenglish.wikidot.com/forum/t-721790/popular-mechanics-by-raymond-carver-style-tone-and-irony
Lazar, M. (No Date). James Joyce’s “A Little Cloud” and Chandler’s Tears of Remorse. Retrieved
from http://jsse.revues.org/577
“Popular Mechanics” by Raymond Carver. (2014, August 27). Retrieved from
https://emilyclineenglish.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/popular-mechanics-by-raymond-carver/
The God Stealer: Filipino Identity in Fiction. (2007, December 15). Retrieved from
http://ithmlit102.blogspot.com/2007/12/god-stealer-filipino-identity-in.html
http://www.enotes.com/topics/little-cloud/in-depth
http://www.gradesaver.com/poes-short-stories/study-guide/summary-the-cask-of-amontillado
http://www.shmoop.com/fall-of-house-of-usher/literary-devices.html
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/poestories/section11.rhtml
The Precariousness of Human Condition in Selected 5 Short Stories
ReplyDeleteMary Bhel B. Ibias
AB-ENGLISH 3
Introduction
The condition of the human uses an action that allow them to react on what they had to react. There are different kinds of human condition in the story, and by the use of fiction it can help them to analyse the people precarious and how they can deal with it. The life of the people can be studied where the characters and the way of life can be progress. This is reflected in five short stories with the precariousness human condition. The Popular Mechanics, God Stealer, Rashomon, A Clean, and Well- Lighted Place, and
OUTLINE
I. Popular Mechanics
A.) Introduction of the couple’s conflict over the baby
B.) The plot of the story where the fighting takes place
II. God Stealer
A.) Introduction of the characters relevance situation
B.) The plot of the story and its consequences to its actions
a.) patriotism of Philips Ifugao
b.) the loss of the god
c.)The death of Philip's grandfather
d.) the struggle between the two friends
C.) The precariousness of the uncertain things
a.) the unconscious decisions and actions of Philip
b.) the regression of Philip
c.) the big change of his life
III. Rashomon
A.) Introduction of the uncertain conditions of the servant and the old lady
B.) The plot of the hardest situations
a.) the servant inside the abandoned house
b.) the old lady's working
c.) stealing the kimono
C.) The reasons of bad human choices
IV. A Clean, and Well- Lighted Place
A.) The precariousness of tempered younger waiter to the old man
a.) a sudden urge to do his desired action
b.) the closing of the cafes
c.) the poor old man conditions
V. Fall of the house of Usher
I. Popular Mechanics
The personality of the person can be noticed based on their actions. The conflict over the baby has something to do with the relationship of the parents who had already fighting. The separation of the couple can affect the child conditions especially when they hurt the baby.
In the popular mechanics short story written by Raymond Carver, human is precarious on the fight that leads to a physical struggle match over the baby. The man and woman with an unnamed characters, were a married couple who are separating and fighting over on who should get the baby. The lack of communication, separation and struggle between the opposing characters as fight leads to a physical tugging match over the baby’s presence. In the beginning of the story it starts inside the room whereby the man is packing his clothes. Then suddenly the woman came inside the room and said that she was glad he’s leaving. Then she saw the baby’s picture and pick it up as she wiped her eyes. It seems that the woman was teary eyed because she wiped her tears and got out. He looked around the bedroom before turning off the light and that matters turning from bad to a worse situation of the couple inside that little house. Then he went to the living room. The woman stood in the doorway of the kitchen while holding the baby. The man said that he wanted the baby but the woman didn’t agree. He came near to her and trying to grab the baby on her grip. The baby innocence is not considered anymore because their minds are focus with their personal struggle. She tried to hold the baby over the corner but he reach her and tightened his hands on the baby as they shouted to each other. Anger can be written all over their faces and the flowerpot behind them fall down and the baby was red-faced screaming. As the couple both angry and shouting while grabbing the baby on each other arms then her reaction are very repulsive as she scream as her hands on the baby came loose. Then she grabbed the baby’s other arm but he would not let go. He felt the baby slipping out of his hands and pulled back very hard. In this manner the issue was decided.
Base on their actions they had already a conflict and they haven't talk about it. They just acting as if they are the enemy to each other. The woman are much more shouting at the man that was actually so annoying and their language is harsh. Their fight is meaningless and they shows undesirable manners. But there is no consideration to both couple because they were so eager just to get the baby without even care if they actually hurt the baby, both of them keep denying the fact that they hurt the baby. All the progress is precarious, and the solution did not occur because they haven’t confronted each other on whether they might have a heart to heart talk to fix their problem. Both the characters that simply stay on the same emotion anger and aggressive with no settlement occurs that even no good things will happen to them and only their bad situation will only occurs. But in the end no one gets the baby. A tragic ending that almost becoming predictable with words like forced, hurting, screaming, fisted, break, pushed, knock down and etc. A tenuous situation can make the person lack of understanding to other people.
ReplyDeleteIn the story of Popular Mechanics there are things that is hard to evaluate to the settlement of their problems. The baby who is actually part of the conflict in the story were force to pull by the man and a woman who suddenly become so aggressive. There is no good in fighting and no one gets the benefits of the baby because they just turn themselves into a monster, a terrifying monster who were so desperate just to get what they wants. No good result will come unto them just like the thing happen to the baby who were ripped apart or maybe dead by now.
II. God Stealer
The things of human lost has a pave way of struggles, when the action takes a greater part there could be a possibilities that a sudden action can gives a greater impact to other people. According to Joes Claveria, he stated that “a man can lose his soul when he is corrupted an easy life”. The life has change because the soul was gone from its original body.
Second, that man is precarious about his decision-making in the God stealer by Francisco Sionil Jose. Philip Latak is a native Ifugao that named Ip-pig, and who has converted to Christianity. He has spent the last few years working with Sam Christie. Philip decided to go home on his land to visit his sick grandfather and join the tribe. Sam also wanted to go with him and experience their different traditions on their tribe and also to see the god of an Ifugao because Sam Christie has an interested in the gods of different culture. As a result they both went to the Philippines. They arrive at the place where the tribe welcome them.
On the night there is a tribulation in their places where there is a welcome party on Philip's homecoming. His grandfather don’t like Sam, it shows that when Philip was invited to his father's house including Sam, it seems that his father didn't give a warm welcome to Sam. It is because his father dont like foreign people because they can take everything including his son Philip. That is the reason why his father want to prevent him from getting close to the foreigner. So the ritual of Philips grandfather started when he pour the blood of the pig on the statue while reciting the prayer. Sam was bored during that time so he decided to sleep in the room. On that night something happen when Philip has gotten inside the room drunken with a stolen god on his hand that is soak with blood because he wanted to repay Sam kindness. Sam was shock when he saw the god of Philip's grandfather without a doubt. Sam was worried on what could be the next thing to happen because of Philip unconscious action was not right.
Philip woke up in the morning when he received news that his father is dying and went his house. Sam find out that his father died because the loss of his god. That precariousness of men when he lost the things that he treasure the most can drive them crazy on finding it. The sudden loss of god can affect the condition of his grandfather. Philip decision of stealing the god of his grandfather is a precarious of men when he has lost his way in the state of unconscious. His uncertain decision is rejected on his own conscience and thinking that he made a mistake. Philip didn't expect that his grandfather would had died. This time he regretted of stealing the god and blaming his friend Sam for having the interest in the gods of the Ifugao, and that he made a wrong decision upon his unconscious condition.
ReplyDeleteThere are things in life that whatever we do it can create a big impact to life. It is like a bomb that can affect to people personality. You don't know what could be the possible effect in stealing someone’s valuable things. In case that it happens it won't turn back the time and losing it can lead to a great plague. The precariousness of an unwanted things to do is hard to control especially when someone has something to have from others, it can force yourself to get it even though it has off limits. That could be the reason you hurt or kill someone unexpectedly. The reason why the man was horrible in making decisions simply because it is like a psychological attributes that is part in human mind and reflexes. To act in a way can make satisfaction towards the incident where Sam has interested in gods. This time Philip Latak has respond to repay Sam kindness by stealing the statue. The thing that is valuable is lost including the grandfather of Philip. The feelings of losing is a feeling for sadness, madness, or even gone mad. These impacts when seeing the emotions to other people can includes in caring for what could be the next thing to happen. The precariousness of stealing someone’s valuable items is a great terror to every personal issues. Latak loosing temperance and manner can be a bad habit of rapid exclusions.
Sometimes we need to accept the fact that certain things will never go back to its certain condition. The condition will never change especially when it is already done. The precarious of such thing to people were actually part of life. It includes people and they have no idea what certain things will do.
III. Rashomon
Third, that man is precarious about the choices in Rashomon by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. The unnamed servant who lost his job on the temple where he currently lives. He wears a kimono as he walk alone from nowhere. He was hungry and has lost his way, suddenly the heavy rain poured until he was fully wet. He felt the cold breeze on his body and he doesn't any have a place to stay from the rain. While he was walking in the rain he saw the Rashomon gate and by the looks it is a creepy house with a dark aura to be felt. By the appearance of the house it looks like an abandoned place. He decided to go inside the house for a place to stay.
There is light on the upper part of the house he went there and when he open the door he look so devastated. There were many dead bodies that are found in the room in different direction. There was also an old lady who were actually doing something to the dead woman. He was curious so he went near to that old lady and telling her that what she was doing was wrong but the old lady answered him that she really need the hair for living without it she would not live. She said that she know the dead woman before she died. The old lady told him that the woman was actually selling dried fish to many people. But the truth is, it is not a fish but rather a snake that sliced into thin layer so that it wouldn't be noticed. The woman lied to everyone and she’s doing the bad thing. Thinking that it is not a good thing to do and the reason was invalid. Then the servant suddenly kick the old lady and stole her clothes while leave her naked on that room. Base on his action he has lost his conscience he didn’t even bother to care for the old lady's condition. The precarious of servant is like living in hell. He don't have any choice but to steal the clothes for he was wet and suffer in cold. Someday he has a decision where he can steal in order for him to survive.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Stephen Prince analysis, the heroism and desire for restoration of the story embodied to struggle with a dark opposite. When he ask something about the will the world be changed because people themselves are weak and easily corrupted. Haunted by the human to bad deeds such as lie and deceive. The characters make a hell out of the world and make truth a difficult thing to find. This is truly a hellish vision the world dissolves into nothingness as the illusions of the ego like shadows on a shifting landscape. Like the dark portrait for Kurosawa. The story is a convincing solution to the moral and epistemological dilemmas that Kurosawa has so powerfully portrayed in real life’s situation nowadays.
In all his life he will be a person of disappointment and making a sins to the eyes of other people. To be physically ill and psychological responsive can be able to turn into negative attributes. Hunger can drive people to lose his way that drives them to do bad things. A lot of things to be part of and ones it he will be, he will cannot escape him from doing things in a great terror. Cannot even realize his bad to worst situation where he don't have any choice. Everyone knows what is right and what is wrong and doing could be so difficult to adjust.
Someday there are things that you must do in order for you to keep living in this world. To the choices we made for the situation where we are hungry and don’t have anything. No money, no fame, no home, and no job for living. In choosing between the two, either for doing good things when hungry can make the person forget on he/she must do. Bad things are the bad deeds that can make everyone so confuse to the things to do and cannot be understand. The precarious of human condition will turn into madness and cannot take under control. The loss of hope can risk everything in which cannot even do the thing in the right position. That is why stealing, lying, and bad habits will occur and it can take as a challenge of anyone's to do things for living. Everything is hard to evaluate in thinking that there were many things that is hard to understand in terms of hardships and sufferings.
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of things to learn in precariousness of human conditions there are times that we just need to go to a place where we can fulfil the needs and cannot have it on the self. A lot of things can be done but no exact way in trouble it seems that no care will had. Behind the sufferings of the person they were force to do such things and take the risk by taking actions without a doubt. What the person decision can make that person uncertain things conditions come. Due to its lacking situations a lot of negative things will come because of their own precariousness. The only that comes in the mind of the servant are the things that they can only do without a control.
IV. A Clean, and Well- Lighted Place
That man is precarious to its tempered situation in A Clean, Well- Lighted Place by Ernest Miller Hemingway. The old man were sitting on the cafe while waiting for his order to come. He takes order from the waiter, a wine that can satisfy himself. The old man was spending his time of a cafe for a many times. To relax and fell the light of the cafe is his habit. The younger waiter was already angry because he thinks that he was always takes order by the old man. He was furious and losing his temper on the hoary old man for he wanted to go home on his wife. He wanted to close the cafe and let the old man go out, even though it is not yet their curfew hours. But the older waiter refuse for the young waiter to closed the cafe. His heart sank to what the old man condition. But the young waiter who keeps complaining has a stone heart on old man, by the use of an unpleasant words the old man was hurt and ill. He also shouted to the old man to stop ordering because they are going too closed. He actually pushed the old man to get out in the cafe. So the old man only accepts what the waiter did to him without complaining.
A lot of things are meaningless when it comes to the point that the situation became where the old man was standing and cannot understand by the young waiter. Only the older waiter could understand him because they are almost the same age and old enough to understand such things on their own. The young waiter represents his precariousness of his attitude towards the old man. His unpleasant attitude is a thing that can affect other person. Expressing the anger, irritation, furiousness, and shouting are the things that gives impact on the story. The condition of the young waiter where his wife was already waiting for him in their house, and was having the desire to be with her and still craving for it to happen. He was already a bit of unconscious on her wife’s wants and he tend to forget his job. He can't even concentrate to serve the old man when he supposedly pour the wine on the old man’s on purpose. To remind the old man that he was already in a bad mood and he doesn't want to serve the poor old man. Even though his co-worker older waiter give him a good advice by telling the tragic story of the old man still he didn't listen to it. In the end they both go home with different way.
ReplyDeleteThe Epiphany or the realization of the difference between two places can be compared to what it contains. The precariousness of the unpleasant mood of young waiter can be seen by the old man. The story has a thing that can make a person wondered. Then the characterization between the old man and the old waiter is the same.it can reflects to what other feels because there are a lot of studies that can widen the ideas of the reader. The sufficiency of the human consumption to its valuable or invaluable conditions has the difference between young and old person. The person's life is all the same where they can experience of being old.
V. Fall of the house of Usher
The fall of the House of Usher is a short story that is written in first-person point of view. The fall of the Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, is the precarious of fear by its supernatural thing. Much of this stage has to do with the house itself, rather than Usher or his sister.
An unnamed narrator arrives at the House of Usher, in a very creepy mansion owned by his friend Roderick Usher. For many years Usher still stay on the house and he has been sick lately, because of a disease of the mind, he ask for help from his friend who is actually the narrator in the story. The narrator spends some time admiring the spooky Usher edifice. The narrator explains that Roderick and his sister are the last of the Usher bloodline, and that the family is famous for its dedication to the arts such as music, painting, literature, etc.
The narrator was describing the house's atmosphere that looks like a terror house or a horror house. Another thing was the mysterious and deadly illness of Usher that is hard to describe and the suspense actions gives a great impact to the narrator to be afraid of the ghost of Madeline. The internal conflict of Usher was his bad condition, his illness can be a problem and it is hard to prevent and cannot be cured forever. The collapsing of the house together with Usher can be his plague where he cannot escape from it. The precarious of human condition can make Usher to follow his family's faith by having a relationship with their own blood. She even has an affair to his sister Madeline. The faith of the house which cause destruction to Usher's life has killed him. While the narrator has a precarious of unexpected things that can make him afraid of the supernatural being like the example of sudden Madeline existence at the side of Usher.
ReplyDeleteRoderick indeed appears to be a sick man. According to the site of shmop.com, Usher suffers from a hyper-sensitivity to light, sound, taste, and tactile sensations; he feels that he will die of the fear he feels. Madeline also, suffers from catalepsy and soon she will die, and part of it to the belief that his creepy house has the perception of things that is hard to imagine. The narrator tries to help him to get Usher thinking for his own death by giving him time to do his interest of arts that Roderick loves, like the literature and music. It doesn’t seem to help him fully recover and still his illness continue to grow deeply through his mind. As Roderick predicted, Madeline soon dies. All we know is that Roderick tells the narrator she’s dead, and that she appears to be dead because of her catalepsy, she might just look like she’s dead. At Roderick’s request, the narrator helps him to get her body in one of the vaults underneath the mansion. While doing those things, the narrator discovers that the two of them were twins and that they shared some sort of supernatural.
About a week later, on a dark and stormy night, the narrator and Usher find themselves unable to sleep. They decide to pass away the scary night by reading a story book. As the narrator reads the word aloud, all the sounds from the fictional story can be heard resounding from below the mansion. It doesn’t take long for Usher to freak out; he jumps up and declares that they buried Madeline alive and that now she is coming back. Sure enough, the doors blow open and there stands a trembling, bloody Madeline. She throws herself at Usher, who falls to the floor and, after "violent" agony, dies along with his sister. The narrator flees; outside he watches the House of Usher crack in two and sink into the dark, dank pool that lies before it.
The terror that arises from the complexity of character forces can shape human destiny of life. The horrifying events can result complicated circumstance. The reasons of the House of Usher falls to ruin was because of evil existence to human world that been at work in the House of Usher family for generations until now. Roderick Usher's illness comes from his family evil trait. Usher refers evil infecting in the house as the Haunted Palace. The narrator implies that there has been marriage between relatives of the Usher race. Madeline Usher was a tenderly beloved sister Usher companion for long years. The isolation of Roderick and Madeline Usher lock themselves inside their own mansion without any progress of the outside word and it seems that no one knows what happen to them any. The Usher family can describe as the failing mansion itself. Roger and Madeline suffer from mental illness and is characterized by anxiety, depression, and other symptoms.
In the past, a victim of catalepsy was sometimes called dead by a doctor unfamiliar with the condition. On Madeline case she is still alive and not dead when her brother and the narrator entomb her the truth was she is just in a state of catalepsy. When she awakens she enters to Usher chamber, and falls on his side while the narrator look in terror and afraid to face her which resulted for him to run. She and her brother then die together. Besides Roger and Madeline, the narrator himself may suffer from mental instability, given his reaction to the depressing scene that he describes in the opening paragraphs. If he is insane, all of the events he describes could be viewed as manifestations of his sick mind–illusions, imaginations, dreams, hallucinations of things.
ReplyDeleteThe effect of horror, can oppress the morbidity and anxious anticipation of terrifying events in the story. When the narrator describes the story it seems that it is filled with mystery. A lot of things that is hard to believe from his story. He looks like a crazy type of person who imagine things.
References:
Beebe, Maurice. "The Universe of Roderick Usher" as collected in Poe: A Collection of Critical Essays, Robert Regan, ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1967. p. 123.
Crowther, Bosley. (1951). Rashomon. New York Times Company. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=EE05E7DF1730A42CA44A4CC2B7799D8E6896
Cummings, Michael J. (2005 ). Retreived from http://cummingstudyguides.net/Guides2/Usher.html
Claveria, Joey. A Marxist Criticism of The God Stealer by Francisco Sionil Jose. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/9147216/A_Marxist_Criticism_of_The_God_Stealer_by_Francisco_Sionil_Jose
Evans, Walter (1977). "'The Fall of the House of Usher' and Poe's Theory of the Tale". Studies in Short Fiction 14 (2): 137–144. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris and Sheila Fitzgerald. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1988. 403–5.
Perry, Dennis; Sederholm, Carl (2009). Poe, "The House of Usher," and the American Gothic. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 9–10.
Popular Mechanics- Raymond Carver. (2013). Retrieved from http://sittingbee.com/popular-mechanics-raymond-carver/
Popular Mechanics by Raymond Carver. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.collegetermpapers.com/TermPapers/Poetry/Popular_mechanics_by_Raymond_Carver.html
Prince, Stephen. (2012). The Rashomon effects. Retrieved from https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/195-the-rashomon-effect
Raymond Carvers Popular Mechanics. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/raymond-carvers-popular-mechanics-what-symbolism-487142
What is the theme of "Popular Mechanics" by Raymond Carver? (2015). Retrieved from http://www.ask.com/art-literature/theme-popular-mechanics-raymond-carver-59e5ce64c222412
The Precariousness of Human Condition as
ReplyDeleteReflected in Five Selected Stories
Vanessa C. Pamawos
ASENGLISH-3 (TTH 7:00-8:00)
Introduction
Dangerous, instability, changeability, inconsistency, insecurity and uncertainty, these words describe the inherently natural behavior of human as they interact within themselves, to other people and to their society (Thesaurus, 2016). These behavior is so natural and usual behavior that each person possess. People tend to act different, not consistent and not certain in his or her decisions and action in his/her life. In our daily life, we cannot easily predict or know the behavior of a person. There are some who at first appears to be an angel, doing good deeds. But, later on that someone will become as far from being what he/she is before. There are some people who is inconsistent and uncertain on his or her decisions in life and some people change internally within themselves. These instabilities and inconsistencies of human behavior are present and would be seen in our world today, with your friends, family and even within yourself. However these inconsistencies of behavior are not judge and understand directly. In this manner, the role of literature is really significant in analyzing and describing these inconsistencies. These inconsistencies are describe by knowing the personalities of the characters in the story, and how this character act and behave. Rashomon, Dead Stars, The God Stealer, The Fall of the Usher and The Cask of Amontillado, these are the five selected stories. The characters in this five stories will be described according to the way they act, behave, think, make decisions and the way they handle the problems and circumstances that comes in their way.
The precariousness of human character is shown if there are internal or external changes within him/her. In Ryunosuke Akutagawa's Rashomon, the internal changes of the main character is clearly shown. The servant is a lower class man and who is recently fired from his job. The servant is contemplating whether to do what is right and will starve to death or do evil in order for him to survive. He is really thinking deeply of what he will going to choose.
ReplyDeleteThe servant is supposed to be a respected and honorable person because he is a samurai. However, as the story goes, the servant suddenly change internally after meeting up with the old woman. When the servant encounters the old woman who is stealing hairs from the body of the dead woman, he feels disgusted and furious to the old woman. Because for the servant, stealing hair from the dead person is immorally wrong. He is determined to choose the righteous way even if it means starvation or death. However, the old woman also explains to the servant she is stealing hairs from the dead body in order to earn money, for the old woman to survive. Moreover, the old woman also told the servant that the dead woman is also a cheater. She is a cheater because she sells a meat of a snake to many people, claiming it to be a dried fish. This suggests that the old woman and the dead woman will do anything even if it is bad to survive. The old woman says that stealing hair to the dead person is not totally wrong. The old woman is forced to this even if doing so is immoral and gross. Knowing the old woman's side, the servant of the samurai realizes that people are doing this to stay alive. Then, the servant chooses to become a thief just like her in order to stay alive. So the servant cannot blame the old woman why he become a thief. So, he immediately steals the beautiful kimono of the old woman, leaving her naked.
In this scenario, one can conclude that people tend to do bad things in order to survive. This suggests that there are valid reasons why a person behaves dangerously inconsistent and unsteady. In the story of Rashomon, because of poverty and economical problem, people are force to do bad deeds because they do not have a choice. The servant of the samurai is precarious in the sense that he changes from a well-disciplined and respected person into a thief. He is considered a threat in the society because of he is a thief. The precariousness of the servant is his inconsistency and the internal change happens within himself.
If an honorable and well-disciplined man shows precariousness of human condition by choosing the path of unrighteousness - turning into a thief, then in Dead Stars by Paz Marquez Benitez, the feelings of the main character bewildered his major decisions in life. In the story of Dead stars, Alfredo Salas, the main character shows a precarious condition because of his inconsistency and instability of his feelings towards Esperanza.
ReplyDeleteAlfredo Salazar is still a bachelor even if he is already over 30 years old. He is in love with Esperanza and they are engaged for four long years. However, his love for his fiancée, Esperanza suddenly disappeared and find himself attracted to Julia Salas. Julia is his neighbor and who is new in their town. This employs that Alfredo Salazar doubts and is confused for his feelings for Esperanza. One can say that Alfredo Salazar shows uncertainly and inconsistency of his major decision of marrying Esperanza. Also, he is uncertain and inconsistent of his feelings for Esperanza after meeting Julia Salas. Alfredo Salazar developed feelings for the pretty young woman, Julia Salas, leading him to confusion. Because of his growing feelings for Julia Salas, he become confused whether to do something he should do ( to marry Esperanza) or to do something he want to do ( to be with Julia Salas). The unstable feelings of Alfredo Salazar puzzled his major decision in life, which is to marry Esperanza. This means that because of the instability of his feelings for his fiancée confuses him whether to marry her to be with Julia. It also affects Esperanza and Julia Salas. They will both get hurt because of Alfredo Salazar. Esperanza is hurt after knowing that Alfredo has something special feelings for Julia. This is evident in the lines that Esperanza said to Alfredo.
“If you mean you want to take back your word, if you are tired of why don't you tell me you are tired of me?” she burst out in a storm of weeping that left him completely shamed and unnerved ( Benitez, n.d.).
Also Alfredo Salazar does not only hurt Esperanza but he also hurt Julia Salas. It is not clearly stated in the story but the pain is evident in her reaction when she finds out about the engagement of Alfredo Salazar. It is evident in her lines that Julia Salas said to Alfredo Salazar.
I should offered congratulations long before, but you know mere visitors are slow about getting news (Benitez, n.d.).
There is a bit of sarcasm in her words. There is a hint of pain in this line after hearing that Alfredo Salazar will be marrying soon without telling her. In this scenario, one can conclude that the inconsistency and instability of the feelings of a person will puzzle his / her major decisions in life. This means that unstable feelings can affect his major decision in life. Alfredo Salazar shows precarious condition because he let himself love other woman even if he already has a fiancé. His feelings are inconsistent and changeable that can hurt someone, like Esperanza. Alfredo Salazar is a threat to the feelings of woman because he has the ability to hurt Esperanza, whom he make her wait for four years to marry her. He is considered dangerous because he can hurt the feelings of a person emotionally. At this point one can say that the precariousness of Alfredo Salazar is shown when he is inconsistent with his feelings that would puzzle his decision in life.
If Alfredo Salazar, an over 30 years old bachelor experienced precarious conditions and that leads him into confusion that puzzled his major decision, then in the story of the God stealer, the instability on the beliefs and custom of Philip Latak(the main character) leads him to abandon his own culture. Philip Latak was once devoted Ifugao to his own cultural identity, beliefs and custom.
ReplyDeleteIt was said in the story that Igorots, like Ilocanos have a sense of inferiority no matter how urbanized they are. But except for Philip Latak, who is proud of his cultural identity, his being Ifugao."(Philippine Literature, 2010).
This lines suggest that Philip was once have a strong sentimental affection to his cultural identity. But his devotion to his culture eventually changes when he started to work in the city. He no longer gives importance and concern to his culture instead he make himself Christian. He no longer respects the Ifugao beliefs and ideas. Making himself a Christian employs that Philip Latak shows instability and inconsistency of his beliefs and custom. It is also an act of abandoning his culture by making himself a Christian. Moreover, Phillip Latak has a best friend named Sam Christie, who also his co-worker. Sam Christie goes to Baguio city together with Philip Latak because he wanted to see the rice terraces. Aside from that goes, Sam Christie wants to purchase an original figurine of Ifugao God as his souvenir. But the figurine is not for sale because it is important for the Ifugao. Philip Latak really wants to help his bestfriend because he wants to return that favor to his friend. The precariousness of Philip Latak is clearly shown in his instability and inconsistency of his beliefs and culture and when he stole the figurine of the Ifugao God. Philip Latak stole it even if the figurine is owned by his grandfather. He really wants to help his friend because he owes him a lot, especially to his job. This is the reason why he stole the figurine.
At this point of the story, the inconsistency of the main character, who was once a devoted Ifugao, prevails. The main character is inconsistent because at first he has strong affection to his own beliefs and costums. But later on, he no longer respects his own culture when he stole the ifugao figurine. In this scenario, one can conclude that the devotion of person will change to the point that he/she will abandon his own culture for other people. The main character is forced to steal the figurine because he wants to do a favor for his friend in return. Philip Latak become precarious when he stole the ifugao figurine of his grandfather. Moreover the way that Philip Latak behaves is dangerous. He is considered dangerous because he becamed a thief for his friend. He considered a traitor because he betrays his fellow Ifugao people.
If the human precariousness of Philip Latak in the story The God Stealer leads him to abandon his own culture by means of stealing the Ifugao figurine, then in the story The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe shows the precariousness of the main character by burying his twin sister alive. Roderick and Madeline are the last of Usher blood line and when Roderick that his sister soon will die. Because of her suffering from catalepsy, his character changes into an immoral person because he buries his own sister alive. This suggests that he kills his own twin sister. He killed Madeline because he really appears to be dead when Roderick looks at her. She appears to be dead because of her catalepsy. Moreover, Usher invites his boyhood friend who is unnamed in the story. The reason why Roderick invited his friend that he want to prove that did not kill his sister, that the disease (catalepsy) is the one who killed her sister. In the story, Roderick Usher has also an illness. He is not well because he suffers physical, emotional and mental illness. But the illness of Roderick Usher is more on mental illness. This suggest that he knows that Madeline is still alive when they burry it under the vaults of his house. That is why the mind of Roderick and Madeline is connected even if Madeline is already dead, he still feels the presence of Madeline. In addition, Usher become precarious because his parents raise them in isolated place.
ReplyDeleteMadeline, the twin sister of Roderick can be considered precarious because she is a danger to Usher and to his unnamed friend. The reason for that is her soul seeks for revenge because she is buried alive. When she dies, her soul is not at peace. In the story, Madeline has the power to scare and threaten Usher and the narrator. It is evident in the scene when Madeline suddenly appears in the door and goes towards Usher and drags him down.
At this point of the story, one can say that human will do something immoral because of his illness and wrong predictions. Also, the soul of a person who seeks revenge will hunt the person who commits sin to him/her.
From a precarious man Philip Latak in The God Stealer there is also Montresor, who did something bad to take revenge on his friend in the Cask of Amontillado. In all the characters in the five stories, he is the the most precarious of them all because he was revengeful to the point that he will kill his own friend without regret and hesitations. His insecurities, his pride, and his willingness to take revenge push him to kill his own friend, Fortunato.
ReplyDeleteIn story of Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe shows that Montressor is insecure to Fortunato. Because,Fortunato is a virtuoso. Fortunato is skillful for anything that is why Montressor patiently waited for the right time to kill Fortunato. He is insecure to Fortunato because Montressor is poor and inferior compared to Fortunato. Because of this Montressor is really jealous because Fortunato is richer and skillful in wine compared to him. Another reason why he killed Fortunato is that his friend Fortunato, insults him many times as indicated in the story.
The insensitive Fortunato insults the over sensitive Montressor.That is why he wants Fortunato to pay for all his insults to him. In addition, Montressor is also a prideful person. He does not want to feel inferior towards Fortunato. He wants to be superior to everyone because he does not want to be insulted from anybody. Because insulting him will step down his pride. He does not want anyone to step down his pride because he really values his pride more than his friend. His pride pushes him to plot a revenge to Fortunato. He plan to kill his so called friend because he is full of pride. Montressor is precarious because he is a revengeful person. Revengeful person is dangerous. He is really willing to do anything to the point of killing someone which is immoral in order for him to take revenge. Eventually he kills Fortunato and he considered it as a "perfect crime". It is just very subtle reasons to kill Fortunato but then Montressor is unstoppable of killing him. That is why the perfect crime happens and the killer did it without hesitation left in his mind. The way Montressor behaves is not safe, he is indeed dangerous to the people in their society.
Also, Montressor is a dangerous person because he is a great pretender. He is wearing the mask of an angel behind his true identity -an evil. He pretends to be a friend of someone but later on, he will just betray and stab his friend in his back very hard. Montressor shows precariousness of human condition when he kills Fortunato for his own selfish pride.
Conclusion
Indeed, the five selected short stories show precariousness of human condition. These stories reveal important human experiences that explains why a person behaves in a certain way. The fictional character in these stories are like real people because they also experience inconsistency and instability of his or her decision and changes that would define their personality. People could not blame the changes happened in a certain person. These changes has certain reasons why it happened. As the servant of the samurai turns into a thief, Alfredo lost his feelings to his fiancee and get attracted to other woman, Philip Latak who stole his grandfather's Ifugao figurine, Roderick Usher bury his own sister alive and Montressor killed his friend Fortunato, the precariousness in human condition has shown, described and presented in all aspects of life and even in fictional people.
References:
ReplyDeleteAkutagawa. (2015). Rashomon and Other Stories. Retrieved
http://www.jonescollegeprep.org/ourpages/auto/2015/5/6/54761847/rashomon%20stories.pdf.
Benitez, P. (N.D.). Dead Stars. Retrieved from http://www.sushidog.com/bpss/stories/stars.htm
Poe, E. (1846). The Cask of Amontillado. Retrieved from
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/poe/cask.html
Precariousness. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/precariousness
The Fall of the House of Usher. (2015). Retrieved from
http://www.eapoe.org/works/tales/usherf.htm
The God Stealer ( Franciso Sionil Jose ). (2010). Retrieved from
http://gabrielslibrary.blogspot.com/2010/04/god-stealer-fransico-sionil-jose.html?m=1
Ampinos, Aiza G.
ReplyDeleteASENGL3
UNDERSTANDING FICTION
The Precariousness of Human Condition
Introduction
Precarious is an adjective word that means; depending on the will or pleasure of another; dependent on uncertain premises; dependent on chance circumstances or unknown conditions, or uncertain developments characterized by a lack of security or stability that threatens with danger (Meriam-Webster's dictionary). Precariousness on the hand is a state of being precarious, means uncertain, unstable or insecure. Man in nature are born precarious. He has the characteristics of being unstable as there is no consistency in his human mind One factor that distinguishes his precariousness is his emotion. The shifting of his emotion from one state to another proves the unstability of his being. However in every circumstances, there is always one factor that causes it's changes and that what we are about to found out in this paper. In this paper, I would like to tackle the precariousness of human condition based on the five selected short stories that were already presented in our understanding fiction class. The five stories are the Cask of Amontillado, Roshomon, popular mechanics, Servant Girl, and the Clean Well lighted Place. This study is conducted through content analysis of each stories.
I. The Cask of Amontillado
Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado is a well written piece. It tackles about the retalliation of the underestimated one. Montresor, Fortunato's friend for a long time who was always hurt of his jokes that reaches his ear as an insults killed Fortunato on purpose by lacking him in the vault. The story is obviously focused on revenge. In the story, the will to avenge his hurted ego triggers the descission made by the main character of the story.
The precariousness of human condition is evident in Poe's work, The Cask of Amontillado. Montressor on the beginning of the story holds his patient as Fortunato continues to throw insults at him and his family. He hids hatred in his heart that he promised himself that he would seek revenge one day. The emotion of Montressor shifts from being patient to madness and it was triggered by the action of his friend Fortunato. For how many years he endured the pain as Fortunato had insulted him, there comes a time for his most awaited revenge. As we read between the line presented in the story, one could tell that Fortunato planted a bomb on Montressor heart that he, Fortunato happened to has a capacity to make it explode. Triggered by so much envy and hatred, Montressor finally grasp the opportunity to end Fortunato's life. Being human, it becomes inevitable for Montressor to envy and hate even in his friend Fortunato because of her character as a human. From being patient, to envy, to hatred, this shifting of Fortunato's emotion are somehow because of the certain situation he is into. At the beginning of the play, it was presented there that Montressor already has a plan of killing fortunato. The situation of the story actuate the main character to show different emotion in a short span of time. The story ended when Montressor accomplished his revenge successfully. The end does not shown that Montressor felt guilty on killing his friend rather it was as if the thorn was being pulled in him.
II. Roshomon
ReplyDeleteRoshomon is a story about a servant searching for a place to shelter in a dark winter night. When he arrived at the Roshomon which is a tall gate, he saw an old woman in where the dead bodies lie. The old woman in there was pulling a dead bodies hair. When the servant reprimanded her, she confessed that she was pulling a hair of the dead to make a wig.
The main character of the story Roshomon which is the servant of the samurai shows the precariousness of human condition. At the beginning of the story, the servant is characterized as loyal servant to his master, the samurai. But this positive character turns into a negative one as he struggles to find ways to survive. The unstability of his human mind was triggered by the situation he is in. His will to survive is the primary factor that proves his procariousnes. He got carried away by the certain circumstances of life which is one factor that shows precariousness of human condition. Human can live either an host or parasite. As an host he can be the stronger, or dominant member of a commensal or symbiotic pair. He can live independently, without depending to certain someone or being. And as a parasite, he lives depending on what is being provided by him. If the one his is depending would vanish, he too surely perish. However, being a host defines dominantly on human's nature. In the case of of the characters of the story, which is the servant and the old woman it was their necessity that triggered their emotion to shift. At first, as mention above, the servant only wanted to go back to his master but unfortunately, the situation did not permit it to happen. Instead he discover himself at the Roshomon where there are so much corpse to be found. The situation provides the reason of the twist and turn of the emotion of the servant's character. While in the case of the old woman, the will to survive pushed her to go at the Roshomon and pulled the hair of the dead. It was stated in the story that the old woman formerly selling a dried snake fooling the buying that it was a dried fish. The old woman was caught that it why she finds another work that would provide for her consumption.
III. Popular mechanics
ReplyDeleteThe story happens in one setting only. When the two couple argue about who should have the baby, their child. Since no one was willing to gave up, they play tag of war of the baby. And since no one was willing to let go, they end up hurting the baby. The story ends up on unspecified ending to whom was the baby given.
Man in nature are born selfish. How much good a person is, there would always comes a time that he would only think what makes him happy or what would satisfy him. In the case of the story popular mechanics, the two character husband and wife are both has a behaviour of being selfish. At first, the wife wanted the husband to go. The husband wanted to leave with the baby but the wife did not approved. She wanted the child for herself. Unfortunately, the husband wanted the child on his own too. Two persistent individual willing to have the baby.
IV. Servant Girl
ReplyDeleteServant Girl is a story of a girl named Rosa who was described as timid young lady. Rosa works for her cruel, abusive mistress. She was always being told to washed laundry and there s he met Sancho who took a liking on her. Some girls that were also laundering always teases her to Sancho as he shows interest at her. But s he doesn't like Sancho for she fells in love with a cochero whom she called angel but revealed in the end that it wasn't his name but it's Pedro.
Rosa in the story shows the precariousness of human condition as reflected on his feeling towards Sancho and Pedro. When she meet Sancho, she doesn't feel something towards him. She remains empassive even if Sancho wanted to gain her attention. However the shifts of emotion happens when Rosa was being teased by the girls. It is one factor that affect the precariousness of her condition as a human. On the other hand, when it comes to her abusive mistress, she has this feeling of fear that eas supported in one paragraph of the story which is "Her mistress’ voice came to her, calling impatiently, and she tried to hurry. When she arrived, the woman asked her what had kept her so long, and without waiting for an answer she ranted on, saying she had heard the women joking in the bathhouse, and she knew what had kept the girl so long. Her anger mounting with every angry word she said, she finally swung out an arm, and before she quite knew what she was doing, she slapped Rosa’s face." Her fear is evident just looking at this line. Her emotion shifts from anger to fear. But as the story goes on, because Rosa is human she doesn't escape the inevitability of her human condition. Rosa also felt love and hope when she meet the cochero whom she called angel but it didn't last long. Rosa assumes that one day the cocheto would passed by her mistress' house but it didn't happen. Her hopes slowly fade not until she was being reprimanded by her mistess when she ordered her to buy wine when she encountered Sancho. He hurt her making the wine pour all into the ground which make her went home without it. On her way she thinks of the possibity of what her mistress might do to her. Mixed emotions are hard to tell, wether worried, wondering, afraid. Because she doesn't know if she will be believe or forgiven if she tells the truth.
Rosa shows precariousness of human condition as her emotion shifts from one state to the other. Just like any other stories they are also triggered by some factors. In case of Rosa, first,it was Sancho who got an interest to her whom she did not like. Second, it's her abusive mistress who always mistreated her. Hurting her physically and emotionaly. The beating of her mistress made her decide never to come back on her place again. But she did came back because of her "Angel", Pedro. She even willing to forget what her mistress done to her. This sudden change of heart of Rosa only proves the unstability of human condition.
V. A Clean Well Lighted Place
ReplyDeleteA clean well lighted place is a short story about an old man spending her liesure time at a bar. The young boy who works in that bar wanted the old man to go home already as it was already late but the man refused to as he still want to stay in that bar. The young man says to the other crew of the bar that old man are nasty and that be doesn't want to grow old for for him, when you got old you already became useless.
The precariousness of human condition that was being shown in the story A Clean Well Lighted Place can be both seen in the character of the old man and the young man. The old man wanted to stay in that place as he wanted to relax. He always told the people that that was left in the bar because he liked it there. However he also told the crew of the bar about growing old.
Conclusion
Man in nature cannot escape the precariousness of his being. Wether he like it or not, he can't hide the fact that his condition changes from time to time. However, the shifting of his emotion depends on various circumstances. In the five stories that been duscussed shows tha different factors that affect the shifting of the state of emotion from one state to another. It could be the intellectual self or a certain phenomenon.
Glycel L. Tanginan
ReplyDeleteAB-English3
TTh 7:00-8:30 AM
“The Precariousness of Human Condition in the Selected 5 Short Stories”
“Walang forever”, that is what most of the people believe into nowadays. The food you would fond of right now would not last because the changes of your health. The age you had right now will be changed next year. The song you are listening now would end 3 minutes later.
If today is the 3rd of January, tomorrow surely is the 4th. If in the past week it was 2015, then now it is a new year of 2016. If yesterday you had a very sweet relationship, today might end a bitter one. Just like anything in this world, man’s condition is uncertain. There hasn’t a forever because we can’t just stay where we are, we want to explore and change. That is the meaning of being a human. Human condition has no guarantee and so it is precarious in various respect. This is reflected in five selected short stories.
Silent Snow, Secret Snow, a boy named Paul Hasleman is precarious in daydreaming about snow. Paul Hasleman, who finds it increasingly difficult to pay attention to his classwork, and grows more distant from his family. He is, instead, becoming more and more entranced by daydreaming about snow. This began when he was lying in bed one morning, awaiting the approach of the postman. Aiken divides “Silent Snow, Secret Snow” into four distinct sections. In section I, the story introduces Paul Hasleman, age twelve, a student in Mrs. Buell’s sixth-grade classroom. Paul is distracted, however, by his intense memory of an event that occurred several days before. He thinks about the globe that figures in the day’s geography lesson and hears Deirdre, the girl who sits in front of him, awkwardly answer a question about the definition of the term “equator.” A few days earlier, Paul had the impression that snow had fallen; the sound of the postman’s feet on the cobblestones outside his house suddenly sounded muffled. When he got up and looked out, however, the cobblestones were bare and there was no snow.
Yet in his own mind, Paul is mysteriously aware of a “secret snow” that signals his growing sense of detachment from the real world. Paul recalls that the sound of the postman’s footsteps grow less and less distinct each day, and are audible only as the postman draws closer and closer to the Hasleman’s house. Paul speculates about the necessity of keeping this strange knowledge from others and rehearses a family conversation over dinner as if he were practicing a play. Meanwhile, in the classroom, Mrs. Buell talks about the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century search to discover the Northwest Passage. When Paul rouses himself sufficiently to successfully answer a question about Henry Hudson, Deirdre turns in her chair to smile at him with “approval and admiration.” At last the bell rings for dismissal. In Part II, Paul is on his way home from school. He thinks about the secret snow and how difficult it is to drag himself out of bed each morning when all he wants to do is stay in bed. For Paul, the world grows increasingly more alien, incomprehensible, and repulsive. For example, he takes inventory of the items in a dirty gutter, and stares at tracks left by a dog in the sidewalk when the cement was freshly poured. He then arrives at his own house and is troubled by the thought that it is the sixth house from the corner, when he had all along supposed it to be the seventh. The house seems strange as he comes inside from the street. In Part III, after supper, Paul’s parents grow concerned about their son and call in a doctor to examine him. Paul regards the examination as an inquisition, and becomes emphatically defensive. During the exam, Paul hears the secret snow. The pressure of the doctor’s questions forces Paul to admit that his recent state of distraction stems from constantly thinking about the snow. His parents react negatively, and Paul fails to understand the full impact of his revelation. In Part IV, Paul rushes to his bedroom. The whiteness of the snow has become overwhelming. He now views his mother as a “cruel disturbance,” a hostile intruder as she tries to help him. He rejects her defiantly as he finally slips away. Unable to hear the expected footfalls, the boy imagines that they have been muffled by newly fallen snow, and is surprised when he looks out the window and discovers that there is no snow on the ground. Paul's increasing distance and indifference to the world around him alarms his parents. He has to struggle to get dressed and converse with others, because of the allure of his daydream about snow. They eventually call in a physician, who makes a house call to examine Paul. After revealing that he likes to think about snow, Paul tears himself away from the meeting with the physician and retires to his room. When his mother pursues him, he tells her "Go away... I hate you!", and is lost in the dream world of the snow. Sanity is defined as the ability to function in
ReplyDeletethe everyday world and interact with people. Conversely, insanity is measured by the degree to which one is unfamiliar with everyday occurrences and the inability to communicate with others. Deirdre’s eagerness to answer Mrs. Buell’s geography question is evidence of her sanity. The globe that figures in Mrs. Buell’s geography lesson is a symbol for the real and everyday world in which people, as they mature, become increasingly interactive. In contrast, Paul’s desire to avoid reality and seek refuge in the sheltering snow is indicative of his increasing behavioral abnormality. Paul believes that he cannot adequately describe the ethereal loveliness of his new world. Moreover, he worries that any attempt to describe it would bode ill for him. “Would it be safe to explain?” he asks himself. “Would it be absurd? Would it merely mean that he would get into some obscure kind of trouble?” So he keeps quiet about his inner snowstorm until his mother, father, and family doctor prod him to talk about it. By that time, he has already crossed the threshold into mental illness. Paul perceives the real world as ugly, dreary, and broken compared to his new world of pristine snow. Consequently, it becomes a struggle for him to confront reality. He was trying to escape from the reality of dirty and mundane world. Most of the people need an escape from reality once in awhile but Paul’s way of doing it had led him into mental illness. While some may not be able to jump on the next plane to an island-getaway, some also can escape from reality mentally just like Paul. Because every mind is different, it may take some trial and error to find out how you best are able to mentally escape reality. Truly escaping reality using your mind takes practice, but can be a great way to feel reinvigorated and able to handle anything that life may throw at you but the worst thing is that it can make you mentally insane. The way we experience life events during our early years permanently modifies our brains and determines the things that can make us happy. Paul Hasleman, age twelve and presumably in the sixth grade, lives in an American town, probably in New England. Prior to the onset of his madness, Paul was an ordinary boy, good at geometry, and excited about geography. At first he is considered introspective, but it is soon clear that he is detached from reality; this alienation is metaphorically represented in this story as the secret snow. As the disturbance takes over, Paul feels terribly lonely. As his sickness triumphs, Paul becomes distinctly paranoid regarding the “gross intelligences” that surround him. He only vaguely understands the pain that he is causing others. It seems that a valid interpretation of “Silent Snow, Secret Snow” can neither avoid purely psychological issues, the theme of child-parent conflict, for example nor justifiably ignore the realistic tragedy of a twelve-year-old boy’s world demolished by madness.
ReplyDeleteThe second short story is Rashomon by Akutagawa Ryunosuke which takes place at the gate called Rashomon in Kyoto. The servant is precarious in his honesty and morality. Before an incident happened, the servant was honest to his own self and as well as to others. As a servant of a samurai master, he should be honest and have a clean heart and mind. Morality is the distinction between right and wrong. It is the determination of what should be done and what should not be done. Morals deal with behaviors as well as motives. There is a great deal of discussion on what the source of morals is and whether or not they are objective. Biblically, morals are derived from God's character and revealed to us through the Scriptures. He was uncertain when he had encountered the old woman. The servant had served a samurai for a few years; however, due to the decline of Kyoto, was dismissed. The devastated city had no time to repair the rusting gate. It had become a dark place where unidentified corpses were abandoned. A servant that had gotten dismissed by his master sits on the steps in the pouring rain wondering if he should become a thief to make a living. He sees a fire by the top of the stairs so he sneaks up and looks. There is an old woman pulling hair out of the corpses. By the sight of this, he cannot hold in his anger, he pulls out his sword and pushes the old woman on the ground. She told him, making wigs with the hair was keeping her alive. After a little thinking, he pulls off her kimono and runs off deciding that he had to steal to eat. He abandons her naked on the stairs and disappears into the night. The servant shows his strength and social class with his sword and physical power. The character’s action questions the reader about the relationship between human nature and inner self. The dichotomy of morality and immorality are correlated through the characters. The servant had decided not to steal before entering Rashomon holding up his morality, however after the hag’s speech about selling hair to survive, he changes. His morality disappears, as he reaches out for her kimono, sending him into the lower class equal to the hag. The hag is almost like a devil. The servant himself is transformed into one through their interaction. Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing. This script portrays such human beings, the kind who cannot survive without lies to make them feel they are better people than they really are. It even shows this sinful need for flattering falsehood going beyond the grave even the character who dies cannot give up his lies when he speaks to the living through a medium. Egoism is a sin the human being carries with him from birth; it is the most difficult to redeem. A desperate servant trying to decide whether to become a thief in order to survive, can't make up
ReplyDeletehis mind. Then he finds a woman stealing hairs from the dead in order to survive. Her rationalization of what's she's doing becomes the occasion for him deciding to become like her. The major character who is the servant. He changes in the course of the story. The story is built around his ethical dilemma of whether or not to stay honest and die or become a thief in order to live. His debate is resolved in his encounter with the old woman. He decides to become a thief and steals from her in order to survive. The old woman stealing hairs provides the rationale for stealing: everyone does it; there is no other way to survive. The servant resolves his moral struggle by giving up any morality. He simply is the next in the line of those who violate others in order to keep themselves alive. The irony of the incident is that the woman's justification for stealing from the dead, becomes his rationalization for stealing from her. A brutal world without human values. If the only value is survival, then there is no morality only the struggle of all against all. The servant becomes like the woman who is like the woman she steals from. The servant will survive until he meets someone who does to him what he did to her.
ReplyDeleteThe third story is Popular Mechanics. "Popular Mechanics" by Raymond Carver depicts a story of a married couple during a dispute. As the husband begins to pack his belongings and leave his wife, he demands to take full custody of their baby. A physical fight breaks out as both parents take control of the baby's arms and begin to pull it, similar to a "tug-of-war" game. Both the man and the woman is precarious in solving their problem. The man and the woman are suddenly not fighting about their loveable baby, but they act like they are children and are fighting about a doll. They forget that the baby can get hurt and mentally hurt also. I think that is why the main title is Popular Mechanics, because the little baby become a mechanical thing that they both want so bad. Raymond Carver writes his stories in a very minimalistic way. The settings in the beginning of the story determines the remainder part of the story. Minimialism is a way to write fiction. Minimialism has a slogan that says less is more. The use of adjectives decides the atmosphere in the story and the characters inner feelings and moods, so even though we, as readers, do not get a description of the personas feeling we know how they feel and why they act like they do because of the setting in the story. In minimalism there is no personal emotions or feelings as the same in Popular Mechanics, where there is no description of the characters feelings. The story was originally published under the name "Popular Mechanics" but was later renamed "Little Things." The story begins with the man packing up to leave when he
and the wife get into an argument over who is going to keep the baby. The reason for their separation is not clear, but it is not amicable. The husband and wife display a lack of communication during their argument, which quickly devolves into a physical struggle. The final line, "In this manner, the issue was decided" is ambiguous but suggests that either the baby's arm is broken or the baby is ripped apart by the parents' struggle to keep him. The irony of the last sentence is that neither parent gets the baby, even though they were each so desperate to have him. The story foreshadows what happens to the baby when the flowerpot in the kitchen falls and breaks due to the struggle. Their way of solving their problem is not helping them. The baby is much more affected with it.
ReplyDeleteThe fourth short story that shows precariousness in human conditions is “Servant Girl” by Estrella D. Alfon. The main character Rosa who is the servant girl is precarious in fighting for her right. She was almost there when she tried to leave the mistress but at the end, she still went back to the mistress. Estrella Alfon's Servant Girl talks about Rosa, an abused maid who longs for freedom, happiness and love. She was being maltreated by her mistress and was hoping that one day she would be able to be freed from all the abuse she was experiencing. Then one day, while she was out, carrying a basin on her head with her mistress' clothes, she accidentally slipped and fell causing for her ankle to swell. A man in his tartanilla stopped and helped her with her basin. After the incident, Rosa felt happy and somewhat in love with the cochero. Imagining him wanting him to see her and wanting him to hear her voice. She would sing aloud when her mistress was in an up mood so she would not be scolded and she would imagine how the cochero, even though he cannot see her, he would long for her voice. She would also imagine him passing her mistress' house while she was inside and so that was the reason why she could not see him. She pitied those who would mock her for she believed that she had an 'Angel' that took care of her when she was in distress. Then one day, she encounters a cochero who was recklessly riding his tarantilla. Due to her anger, she threw a stone and the cochero got angry. He threatened Rosa that he would bring her to the municipio but then she realized who it was. It was 'Angel' who was infront of her. She kept calling him Angel but he kept saying that that was not his name. He did not recognize Rosa until she mentioned the first time they encountered each other. After this incident, she then realized how much she was just imagining 'their love' and that all of it was not real. And that 'Angel', now his real name 'Pedro' did not think of anything when
he helped Rosa when she was injured. And so Rosa went back to her mistress' house and continued on with her job. In this story, we can say that it can be related to so many real-life situations of those who are in the same position as Rosa. It tells us the sad reality of some of the people working under others who have a higher societal class than them. The abuses that one experiences is caused by the superior thinking of their 'masters'. Estrella Alfon's work shares the story of Rosa and her experiences being a maid under someone who abuses her. It captures the emotional roller coaster than she has; from the crying to the joy of having an 'Angel' then coming back to the state of mind of who she really is and what she is doing. The use of 'Angel' as Pedro's name before Rosa knew, symbolized even though it was just for a brief moment, the longing for happiness and freedom of Rosa. The way she imagined Angel seemed like he was also loning for her and that he was looking for a way to see and be with her again. Estrella Alfon was able to show how desperate Rosa felt in order to feel happiness. The thoughts and illusions that she was having was a simple way to get away from all the hardships that she was encountering day in and day out. It was a way for her to tell herself that she has it better among other people for they did not have an Angel that took care of them when they were in need. It was a reason for her to be happy. But then, at the end of the Estrella's story, it shows how her imagination took her to a place in her mind that did not exist. The sad truth that Angel or Pedro did not think of anything of his kind gesture to this woman brought her back to reality that what she was just imagining was just an illusion for her to get away from the abuses that she was experiencing inside her mistress' house. Estrella Alfon shows another sad side of a person is the same condition as Rosa. In reality, it can be said that there are people who, unfortunately, can relate to Rosa's experiences. The writer was able to show and share all the thoughts and emotions of Rosa throughout the entire story. This work o Estrella Alfon will surely bring you to a realization that even though it is hard to say, the reality is there is really cases like this all over the country and the world. This work will definitely get us reflecting on how we treat others. This story for me is somewhat synonymous to real life for it really portrays the things that a typical naughty mistress should do. The servant should also fight for her right. Being a servant doesn’t mean that she will let the mistress abuse her. The servant shows precariousness in fighting for her right as person. She was maltreated but still she wants to work for the mistress. Maybe she was not good servant but it is not right that the mistress will treat her like a slave.
ReplyDeleteThe fifth story is entitled "Dead Stars by Paz Marquez Benitez. Alfredo is precarious in his emotion. “Yes it’s sad to belong to someone else when the right one comes along.” This song was running in my head while I was reading the story Dead Stars. Reading the story brought me mixed emotions: anger, sadness, excitement, confusion, etc. etc. I was not sure if I’ll feel sorry for Esperanza or Julia. However, in the end, I felt sorry, for, none other than the main character of the story, Alfredo. Alfredo, at his 30’s had not yet married but engaged to Esperanza for 3 years. However, Esperanza patiently waited for Alfredo to set the table. Alfredo met Julia Salaz just before he and Esperanza would get marry. He felt as if he would be much happier beside Julia. To make the long story short, he found himself caught up in the middle of a rock and hard place. He found himself falling in-love with Julia. However, Julia found out that he would be soon married to Esperanza. On the other hand, Esperanza felt the coldness of Alfredo. She knew why Alfredo was acting such way and told him that she is not blind to see what he was up to lately. He ended up marrying Esperanza still, as Julia already said goodbye to him and went back to her hometown. Paz Marquez had shown the readers about how human can be so irrational and irresponsible at times. He had a good picture of how we can be careless at choosing relationships. We choose a person so quickly without analyzing if we really love them and will be happy with them for the rest of our lives. Then we see that time is running so fast and we are being left behind. Colors of the past will fade and we could not do anything to repaint it. We will wish that we could bring back our youth but we realize that we only have one life to spend. I imagined myself as Esperanza, as I have been in a long relationship just like her. I admire how Paz had described her character. It’s as if I could see myself in her shoes. I wonder if I were her… Would I do the same? Probably yes, but if I could see that the man I’ll be marrying is not going to be happy with me, I’ll set him free. Paz’s short story showed some Filipino traits like marrying at a certain age. In the first part of the story, his sister and father was talking about Alfredo who has not married yet at his age of 30. It’s as if he should be bothered a lot if he’s not yet marrying at his age. In the Philippines, as I could see, a lot of people marry at a young age. A Filipino or Filipina should marry and have children before turning 30 years old. While in western countries, 30 is the start of their best years, just like what the movie “13 going on 30” had shown. It does not matter if they still don’t have fiancé at the age of 30. It doesn’t bother them a lot if they have not married yet. It also showed also some Filipino traditions like celebration of the Holy week. Paz showed how families spend time together in the church. The story was written in
ReplyDeletethe year 1925, when people less accepted broken engagement, marriages and families. In my opinion, the reason why Alfredo did not choose to go after Julia was because it was unacceptable at his time. In the 20th century, Filipinos have already learned to accept broken marriages or engagements; and I think if Paz had written this story in the 20th century, he would have written a different ending, and perhaps with a different title.I was wondering why the title is Dead Stars. In the end, I realized its significance. It was entitled as such to symbolize memories of our youth. ‘Dead Stars’ means memories of the past flying in our heaven of thoughts. We sometimes look at them for a while and realize that it has already passed away… already dead. We could not bring back the real shine to normal. It is a story of "what if as a married man again meets the woman he fell in love with many years earlier while engaged to his wife. The story is basically a compilation of the complicated circumstances that every man has to go through in life. Alfredo was once in love with Esperanza, no doubt, but there comes a time when love fades, and the only thing holding you together is the vow you gave your fiancée, that which you cannot take back. Why can't you take it back? It is because you are afraid of what will be the reaction of the people around you, especially during the time of the story. What's visibly wrong about this is that most often than not, men refuse to listen to their own yearnings and simply submit to further dehumanization. Love here, though perhaps genuine to a point, for Alfredo, is seemingly weak and purposive. Weak, because it is eventually overcome by propriety, and purposive because it was merely a tool to justify his desire to go against society; that for once he will not be a puppet, but the master of his own fate. In the story, Alfredo falls drastically in love with Julia even as he is engaged to Esperanza, but in the end forgoes the idea. He kept on holding on to that glimmer of "what could have been" throughout the years of his marriage to Esperanza, but upon meeting Julia again, he realizes that what he thought was there, had now gone for more than one reason. First, it is possible to say that after what society has done to him (dehumanized him), he found at peace in his place, and sought no more that illusive dream of yesterday. He understood, after meeting her again, that it was nostalgia that was taking hold of his heart, and not the "love" that he once felt for her. It is said in the story that he is not unhappy with his marriage, but a part of him always slips away from the world in order to dream of another life that could have blossomed, had he chose Julia over Esperanza. On the other hand, it is possible that there was no real love to speak of, but a desire for something else. He desired youth. Although relatively young, he desired the qualities that the youthful possessed: vigor, passion, vitality. These are a
ReplyDeletefew things that he lacked as a person and to find these in Julia gave him a sense of completeness. It was a welcomed changed in his life, and he wanted to hold on to it for as long as he could, since even if he couldn't be like Julia, he is comforted by the thought that he was able to meet someone who is different from everybody else, and that she could have been his wife. He is noted to be of a cool and calm demeanor, which is why it seems out of character if he suddenly bursts with energy. Dead stars symbolize things that are present but are left unspoken of. The love between Alfredo and Julia seemed real, but look closer and one can state that it was hardly mutual, and that it was impossible to last. Esperanza's devotion to Alfredo also resembles love, but since she believes in the "regenerative virtue of institution" more than true love, it is safe to say that she is in the relationship, because of moral obligation. So what one thought as real (or present) is now nothing but an illusion. It serves as a literary time machine for readers as it enables them to understand how courtship, marriage and fidelity were viewed through the early 1900 standards. It renders a sound comparison between the past and the present, the existing modern culture and the fading, almost obsolete tradition. Although the comparison and contrast provides a good critical foundation, another highly significant aspect of this short story involves the main character, Alfredo Salazar, which, always applies to whatever era, hence the focus of this paper. His confusion, weakness and unreasonableness are innate flaws of humans. Perhaps one of the many reasons why this work is timeless is that readers never fail to see a part of them in Alfredo Salazar’s character, making the short story a rich source of serious ruminations on society, love and humanity. People oftentimes give high regard to the society in which they belong. They try to adhere to the norms, traditions and culture of their society, though sometimes the conformity would require them to sacrifice a part of themselves – an opinion, an emotion or a decision. However, there are cases wherein the established norms and rules of society are the ones which should prevail. In Dead Stars, the main character, Alfredo Salazar, was torn between making two important decisions – to marry or not to marry. But just like other dilemmas, the crossroad in which he found himself in was not to be solved without harming anyone. He was engaged to Esperanza, his fiancée of four years. Theirs was undoubtedly a love that was true. But for some reasons, apparently on Alfredo’s part, a change of heart has taken place. He has fallen for Julia Salas, the sister-in-law of the judge whom his father had a meeting with. After spending several afternoons and conversations, he found himself slowly getting attached to her that he started losing concern for Esperanza. In the end, however, he married his fiancée and though
ReplyDeletetheir marriage was not an unhappy one, he still could not take the possibilities of a future with Julia off his mind. Until one day, their paths crossed again and he realized one painful truth that led him to liberation at last. Human emotions are very intricate and delicate both at its lowest and highest. And so is love. When Alfredo was still passionately attached to Esperanza, he was overwhelmed. Taking the conversation of Alfredo’s sister, Carmen, and his father, Don Julian into consideration, readers can deliberately conclude that he was indeed in love. The excerpt was a good manifestation of how change in men occurs. But since change is men’s “wine and bread” according to Angela Manalang-Gloria, it is as essential as living itself, and therefore the most important things to be considered after the transition are the causes, the way one deals with change and the consequences. Alfredo was aware of the cause of his change. Another significant reason as to his emotional wanderings could be the length of time n which he was engaged o Esperanza. As what Don Julian had philosophize, couples who were engaged for so long become too comfortable and familiar with each other that the spark of love that was felt at the time the romance was just starting to blossom would expectantly cool down – that it “argues a certain placidity of temperament – or of affection – on the part of either, or both”. Another factor to be considered was the contrast of Alfredo and Julia’s personalities. Alfredo was “calm and placid” while Julia was lively and full of vitality. The difference between them must have excited him as he saw in her the things he lacked. However, though aware he was of the possible reasons why he, as well as men, or even humans in general, succumb to acts or thoughts of subtle infidelity, his attitude towards what is moral and not becomes shadowed in the attempts to justify his own behavior. Stances about the argument he had with Esperanza regarding the latter’s anger toward Calixta’s cohabitation with the man she’s not married to, may vary. But again, one’s act was expected to adhere with what is the established morality in a certain society. Because of what seemed as a liberal notion, Alfredo was trapped in a situation where he has to defend himself and in the process, what was manifested was his greed. Alfredo shows precariousness. He was uncertain of his feelings for both Julia and Esperanza.
ReplyDeleteThese five selected stories; Silent Snow, Secret Snow, Rashomon, Popular Mechanics, Servant Girl, and Dead Stars reflects precariousness in human conditions. The main characters were uncertain of their emotions and thinking. They are like weather; they changes and they are not constant in decision-making. The most painful suffering is the uncertainty of what the present suffering might bring a person. Because there’s no guarantee, human condition is always precarious in different angles: about the end of the world, identity, emotion, survival, and circumstances. All these uncertainties may be present in life, but man has to realize he should not be shaken. R. I. Fitzhenry declared, “Uncertainty and mystery are energies of life. Don’t let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity.” Man may want to quest for certainty yet it blocks the search for meaning. He has to know that uncertainty is the very condition to impel him to unfold his powers. If your situation is precarious, you are not in complete control of events and might fail in what you are doing at any moment. Precariousness in human conditions always exist. In our everyday lives, we usually changes our mind. Nothing is permanent in this world. Everything is just temporary. Even our decision changes from time to time and we also regrets the most. We are just human. We are not perfect. We are weak.We were sometimes deceived by our own feelings and that is the reason why there are things in life that we made uncertain. We commit mistakes. We, people, the human condition is precarious.
ReplyDeleteReferences:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.com.ph/search?q=silent+snow%2C+secret+snow&oq=silent+snow%2C+secret+snow&aqs=chrome..69i57.18669j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8#q=silent+snow%2C+secret+snow+plot+outline
http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-2695500028/silent-snow-secret-snow.html
http://www.enotes.com/topics/silent-snow/themes
http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides8/Silent.html
http://www.2knowmyself.com/how_people_escape_from_reality
https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=insanity&oq=insanity&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.5323j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8#q=insanity+definition
https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=precariousness+in+human+conditions&oq=precariousness+in+human+conditions&aqs=chrome..69i57.48554j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8#q=rashomon+story+analysis
https://www.markedbyteachers.com/customer/account/create/
https://www.google.com.ph/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=popular+mechanics+raymond+carver+characters&start=10
http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-2695500028/silent-snow-secret-snow.html
http://www.ask.com/art-literature/theme-popular-mechanics-raymond-carver-59e5ce64c222412
http://estrellaalfon.blogspot.com/2013/03/critique-servant-girl.html
https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=maltreatment+in+servants&oq=maltreatment+in+servants&aqs=chrome..69i57.14798j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8
https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=dead+stars+summary&oq=dead&aqs=chrome.0.0j69i57j69i59j0l3.5856j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8
The five short stories used in this paper are: The Fall of House of Usher, God Stealer, Rashomon, Servant Girl and Popular Mechanics. This stories are chosen for the instances shown in the story are happening in reality, with this we can then clearly see and identify the different human conditions that has a great precarious towards the family, self and society that the readers may reflect. On the further section of this paper, it discusses the background, summary of the story and the precariousness of human condition as reflected on the selected short stories. This paper will discuss also the disadvantages of the human characteristics portrayed by the characters in the different short stories and how it may affect the society and to the people around us. The character traits in the selected short stories are the major instrument to identify human condition's precariousness. Both minor and major characters are being used in this paper to wrap up all the main or salient point of determining the precariousness.
ReplyDeleteUpon reflecting on each story's themes, moral lessons and character portrayal we can easily then determine the precariousness present and has been reflected in the storh in regards with the human conditio s. This paper will not just also analyze the characters portrayal but it also involves the different circumstances happening in real life situation to make things cleare and elaborately been explained for further clarrifications on the said claim.
The Fall of the House of Usher
This story was written by Edgar Allan Poe and published in the year 1839. This story is about the narrator's friend named Roderick Usher who he visited the house since Roderick sent him a letter requesting him to come over at their house since he is suffering a physical and emotional ill. The narrator found their house creepy both outside and inside and even found cracks on yhe house's walls. When Madeline died, Roderick's twin sister because of Catalepsy a very strange disease, they both burry the girl temporarily on the tomb below the house not realizing that Madeline is still alive because according to Roderick he's afraid the doctor might use the body of her sister for a study. One night, Roderick and the narrator can't sleep that's why they just chosed to read a medieval story instead and let the night pass away and then suddenly they both heard a noise and Madeline was revealed on a door wearing a white blooded rob, because of fear Roderick died and the narrator run off away upon escaping, the house of Usher cracked and crumbled up on the ground.
God Stealer
ReplyDelete"God Stealer" was written by a Filipino National Artist F. Sionil José and published in the year 1959. The story is about Philip Latak an Ifugao who already forgot where did he came from and already considered himself as a city boy and his officemate and friend Sam Cristie an American, the two are heading to Baguio since Sam wants to buy an Ifugao God. When they arrive Latak's grandfather was glad that Latak came home that is why he wants to throw a party for his grandson, however, the two friends didn't found any Ifugao people who are willing to sell theirs. That is why during the party which is planned by Philip's grandfather as a welcome to him he stole the God of his grandfather just to give it to Sam as a sign of gratitude and the reason why the old man died knowing that the God was gone. For the trouble he made, Philip decided to stay in Ifugao and not to go back in Manila anymore because he felt guilty and decided to carve another God again as a replacement.
Rashomon
Is a masterwork of Akira Kurosawa published in the year 1950. The story was nga between a servant and an old woman on a miserable gate of Rashomon. The servant was recently fired and currently thinking whether to become a thief or starve to death. When the servant go upstairs he saw the old woman getting hair from the dead body because according to the old woman she steals hair to survive from starvation, because of this the servant brutally robs the old woman's robe and then run off and disappear into the night.
Servant Girl
A story written by Estrella Alfon. In the story, Rosa the servant girl has a drunkard mistress and has a bad temper and hits her hard. One day, Rosa was walking after washing the linens but got scared by dogs the reason why she fall and got strained. A Cochero helped her and send her home the reason why he start admiring the cochero and named it as "angel". One evening, Rosa's mistress asked her to buy a wine, Sancho the man who had a crush on her insists to walk
her home and Rosa got perveted by him that is why Rosa punched Sancho and Sancho hit her as well. When she got home, the mistress got furious because of the broken bottle of wine and hits Rosa hard the reason why Rosa run off from the house and while walking a horse come closer to her and the driver perveted her, for for that she throw a stone to the driver. The driver got furious and ask her why she did that, she recognized the guy and that was Angel she realized something. At the end of the story Pedro, the guy named angel sent Rosa home and she still end up being a servant girl.
Popular Mechanics
A story written by Raymond Carver. The story starts with a husband packing things inside a room, when his wife saw the picture of their baby she get it. Later on, the couple then engaged on a huge argument regarding where the baby would be put the custody, both of them wants the baby and don't wanf to give to another. The husband wants the baby but the wife won't let him have it. The husband got furious and both the husband and wife grab the baby like its as if they're playing a tag-off-war and the baby fell not identified if what then happen next.
II.
ReplyDeleteIn the story of Edgar Allan Poe entitled The Fall of House of Usher, the character who portrayed a sudden precariousness are the Usher Siblings; Roderick and Madeline. The two both possesses a trait that eventually lead them to their fall. Specifically, Madeline the twin sister of the main character has this strange disease called catalepsy which made her twin brother the main character Roderick to freak out. For this, she has this sudden precariousness for making the people around her become hysteric because of her condition. Example of this situation is when she was burried alive and has been assumed by the narrator and Roderick that she was dead and has rose into life or even assumed as a ghost, that made Roderick scared and the cause of Roderick's death. As for Roderick Usher, he is such a hysteric, fearful and stupid or dumb kind of a person. Knowing what happened to his sister he didn't actually think what are the symptoms of his sister's disease enable for him not to get hysterical every time it occurs. The cause of his hysterical, fearfulness and dumbness are his death and the fall of their house. If we manage to analyze and reflect this traits portrayed by the character to human conditions in our society and reality, the kind of chaos happened inside the story will also happen in the reality. The story reflected such precariousness of human having this kind of traits specifically Roderick's traits acting in terms of sudden accidents or emergencies, if humans do have traits as what Roderick possesses those people can't help anything in an instance instead he or she will just make things worst as shown in the story itself. Accordingly, during emergency time we should not panick, freak out or what for us to think clearly and for us to know what would be the right thing to do without disturbing or making such thing to fail. Emergencies most especially
that kind of Madeline's case which involves death and life maybe will ofcourse make you panick, hysteric or unable to know what will do, this kind of reaction will absolutely lead into a precariousness since you can't be able to do anything to help an emergency and maybe because of this as mentioned earlier you'll just make everything worst.
Secondly, in the story God Stealer, from the title itself it actually talks about a thief, and ofcourse thieves are dangerous which means stealer do really has a precarious traits. However, with this story, its not just about stealing but also accepting and loving who you really are or in other
words, its also about being contented of what you have. This story reflected a precarious towards human condition because the character of Latak or rather the main character is uncontented and has the ability to hurt the ones he love for his career or for his earthly cravings. It is not safe because first it can make the people around you hurt and even hate you, second you will definitely served well by the thing called 'karma' and lastly the people you love might gone because of this inappropriate attitude. Another main reason why the story reflect a sudden precariousness is because when Latak stole the God of his own grandfather. If we try to reflect, Latak can betray his own family how much more to other people? He can do every thing even if it takes a loved one to die for the sake of his desires and dreams which eventually at the end of the day, he was served by a karma and that is to feel guilty upon the death of his loving grandfather. Well, some people who has this great dreams in life do everything in a proper way just to fullfil the particular success, but stealing or making a bad move to get the thing or to fullfil the dreams you desire has this great danger not just to yourself but also to the people around who loves you so much and that has been shown
ReplyDeletein this story. Danger or negative effects such as ruining your name that will eventually cause other people to not to respect you anymore, you will then recieve a lot of hurtful words and judgments against you because of what you just did which is stealing and you can't help but to let them since you're really guilty for doing so and this would then have a psychological effect within yourself or to someone who commit such thing. The person might isolate himself, starts to bs violent to those people who will bully or say hurtful words to him or maybe if he or she can't accept such already he or she might commit suicide and that is very dangerous not just to himself but also with the society. The precariousness of being such an uncontented person may or may not have a complete danger in the world or reality, but as what reflected in the story the fall of the character was also caused by this trait and possibly such trait will also maybe existing today and can be the reason also of anyones fall.
The same case on the story Rashomon, it is also about being a thief but in the God Stealer's case it contains a twist involving the family, the race and dreams. In Rashomon, it shows desperation that triggers a person to do such crime. Again, this is not safe in a human condition for again stealing is a crime even if you just did that for survival. To the fact that it is not really a proper or
good thing it’s not really safe to do so. Truly, that poverty really has this factor of motivating a particular person to steal as what the main character portrayed in the story, we can conclude that within our society not all those people who steal does not make such things for fun or for buying illegal drugs but they do this to survive from starvation. However, even if the intention is good it is still not safe for it can harm other people as what the main character did to the old woman and it can make the freedom of the person who did this thing banished for he or she will always hide to run away from the crime he or she committed.
ReplyDeleteAnother precariousness condition of human reflected in the story is on how the minor characters made other people being fool. On a particular scene or part of the story, while the old woman was currently getting a hair from a woman's corpse she told the servant that the woman used to sell a dried snake's flesh and lies to the buyers that that was a fish but the truth is, its really not. What the woman did before is really not safe for maybe this things she sell might harm his buyer's health. Desperateness too was also portrayed by the woman to survive from starvation just like the servant and again this is not safe since your making the lives of others at risk because of such desperateness which eventually made a person think only for themselves and not with other people just to survive which is kind of unfair and shows a lack of sense of humanity.
In the Servant Girl story, the precariousness of human condition shown in the story are the oppression of the mistress to the servant named as Rosa and how the two man namely Sancho and Pedro perveted or showed a lack of respect to the main character. Its really not safe and inappropriate how the mistress hit Rosa hard because of such shallow reasons, one example is when Rosa got home with a broken bottle of wine. She hits Rosa without knowing the servant's side why the bottle was broken and such. The mistress showed an inhuman act because of the violence, human's condition as shown here in the story's seen are very unfair, why? Since it shows that there would be an edge between rich and poor and it shows how pathetic the situation of the oppressed people and how violent and rude those people who gains a power. It somehow represent those people who doesn't care of what other might feel if they dis this, if they do that, those people who don't give a damn and only think only about themselves. This is a not safe trait and dangerous because he or she can make the one she or he's oppresing unto become depress and maybe can affect psychologically and inner struggle for instance. Another portrayal which shows a precariousness to this story is between the two man named Sancho and Pedro, of course
The Precariousness of human condition as reflected in five short stories
ReplyDeleteHershey Rose N. Unson
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A human has its own individual character as he or she interacts with other people and towards the society. Precarious, dangerous and uncertain are one to describe the human condition that naturally humans act differently. It is clearly about the fundamental issues of human existence on how they live their lives, on how their lives affect by their society and on how nature rarely affects their lives. Naturally speaking, humans act differently because of dealing different situations that may lead into a positive or negative. Human condition is uncertain; he or she does not know when and where his or her life ends up. As what Martin Luther King, Jr. said that “All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.” This means that what makes possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty without knowing what comes next. Human condition is precarious for it has no guarantee at all as reflected in the five short stories that I will be tackling.
being a pervert is such a huge danger most especially in regards to woman in general just like Rosa. Pervert people can destroy someone's dignity and even respect. This shows an unsafe conditions for the pervertness might lead into a very bad move that will eventually destroy someone's life maybe.
ReplyDeleteSeeing this kind of people in the society today, mostly those people who loves to pervert or show no respect to a girl are those people who has capabilities of harming a woman such as drug addicts and/or those people who already has an history of doing this so. This is a condition of a human kind that is very dangerous for if may lead to a sudden crime and importantly it can maybe affect someone's life emotionally and psychologically.
Lastly, in the story Popular Mechanics, inside the story the society was not involve but the family was. The story shows that human precariousness can not only be seen and experienced through the society but it can also be seen inside the home or family. The human precariousness as reflected in the story is on the possesiveness of one kind that will actually lead to sudden accidents, its not saying that because of too much possesiveness is not good, its just that even if you are so you still got to do a proper process in acting so or act in a proper way of possessing something. The husband and wife inside this story was reflected as having a precariousness towards their child its because of how they involved the baby with their fight, if your going to read the story you will actually percept that the baby was totally hurt upon making him or her as a rope, like in a tag-off-war. Its really not safe knowing thaf this parents had the capabilities of hurting their baby because they let theirselves immerse on the angriness they felt among each other. This sudden precariousness was considered, for there are such negative effects they can cause towards their baby. First, the baby maybe at the end of the story died or even sent to the hospital because of the injuries acquired during their fight and maybe, it may affect the relationship of the baby towards them like for instance the baby suffered a trauma because of what they did. The wife in the story shows a warfreak kind of a woman, if we observe in the society if this kind of conflict happens they act calm even if they're not for the sake of their children for most of the mothers knows how to act calmly to avoid such violent and improper situations and to avoid such huge quarel issues and also to make all things good and end up peacefully. However, the mother or wife in this story didn't actually know how to act calmly and peacefully in front of her baby, in fact she didn't care if what would then her baby would feel
First, in “A clean well lighted place’’, man is precarious about nothingness and loneliness. An old man, an older waiter and younger waiter doesn’t have a name in the story. An old man comes every night in a well lighted café and drinks brandy until past closing time. A younger waiter always eager to return home for his wife is waiting for him. He doesn’t seem to care that others can’t say the same and doesn’t recognize that the café is a refuge for those who are lonely. The younger waiter is immature and says rude things to the old man because he wants to close the café early. He seems unaware that he won’t be young forever or that he may need a place to find solace later in life too.
ReplyDeleteThe old man tries to commit suicide because of despair but the younger waiter said that there is absolutely no reason to commit suicide if one has money. For the younger waiter, money solves all problems, but for old man nothingness is beyond the younger waiter’s understanding. Nothing or nothingness. This is exactly what the story is about. Nothingness and the steps we take against it. When confronting a world that is meaningless, you cannot reject it directly just likes cancelling a call or breaking up with your girlfriends or boyfriends, it means that it is clearly a subject matter of the feelings of man’s condition of nothingness. The intention of this particular old man is clean and that he likes to drink brandy in a clean, well-lighted place does leave with dignity. This is not much, this aged scrap of human dignity in the face of the human condition of nothingness, sometimes it is all that we have.
We can clearly see that nothingness is the reason that the old man comes to the cafe every night and drinks until he is drunk. He doesn’t want to sleep until morning when it is still light. The story emphasizes the old man and the older waiter’s lives because the older waiter knows the nothingness of the old man. The older waiter knows all about despair and fear that the old man experience.
What is important in the story is not only the condition of nothingness in the world but the way that the old man and the old waiter feel and respond to this nothingness. Just like light, it is an attempt to hold off the darkness, not permanently but as late as possible. The old man's essential loneliness is less intolerable in light, where there is dignity. The danger of being alone, in darkness, in nothingness, is suicide.
At this point, we can clearly see differences between the old waiter and the young waiter especially in their antithetical attitudes toward the old man. The young waiter refuses to serve the old man another drink because he wants to get home to his wife, and, in contrast, the old waiter is resentful of the young waiter's behavior. The old waiter knows what it is like to have to go home in the dark. He himself will not go home to sleep until daybreak when he will not have to fall asleep in the nothingness of darkness.
Left alone, the old waiter is isolated with his knowledge that all is nothing. He is standing at a dirty, unpolished bar. He cannot achieve even the dignity that the old man at the cafe possessed he knows that he will not sleep. Perhaps he has insomnia, but we know better. The old waiter cannot sleep because he is afraid of the darkness, afraid of nothingness.
upon witnessing such inappropriate scene even if she might think that the baby will still not understand.
ReplyDeletePsychologically speaking, due to this kind of conflict the baby can have a gap towards his parents and this will eventually lead to a misleading future of the baby. The precarious traits shown to this story has really the major effect on the baby.
III.
This five stories presented in this paper merely shows some of the unsafe traits of a mankind that are present in our society. This story shows the effects of each characters precariousness within our own home or outside the walls of our home. It even shows some emotional, physical and psychological disadavantages of each negative characteristics reflected in the characters of each story. The story based on the precariousness of human condition discussed above tells that the story was not just created fictionally but it was created to present a trait of a mankind which has an effect both socially, physically, psychologically and emotionally. The character's presented are coward and ill (The Fall of House of Usher); theif, uncontented and desperate (God Stealer and Rashomon); Oppressed, violent and unrespectful (Servant Girl); and warfreak (Popular Mechanics). Obviously, this traits are really not safe for again as mentioned earlier it has negative effects on the society and even within oneself.
Such human precariousness reflected on the five short stories selected may have an effect that depends on a person's own perception but most of the time it really has a negative effects. Being a warfreak, coward, having a strange disease, being desperate and being unrespectful may not affect and create a dangerous perceptions to others but some people mostly are somehow affected most especially for those people who has a sensitive feelings and minds that can may affect them psychologically to be exact. Though it may not have an effects within the society, but this not just affect someone but it can also affect emotionally and physically the person who does this things for the society might do something harmful against him or her, like for example, judging and saying hurtful words
Second, that man is precarious about identity portrayed in the “God stealer” by F. Sionil Jose. Philip Latak known as Ip-pig is working and living in Manila for his own good. He has a boss and a friend named Sam Christie, an American. Sam Christie wants a souvenir after seeing the place of Philip which is the God. In this sense, we Filipinos are very hospitable that we will do everything just to impress others without knowing that we are also offending other people.
ReplyDeletePhilip, in order for him to impress Sam Christie, he stole the God of his grandfather just to give it to Sam Christie believing that it would be his way of showing his gratitude to Sam and also for giving him a rise at work not considering the consequences of stealing the God of his grandfather. The next day, his grandfather dies after knowing that his God was stolen. Because of what happened to his grandfather, he informs Sam that he will not going back to manila. Philip became miserable that he cannot bring back the life of his grandfather. He realize his full and final separation from the place he lives in before.
The story shows two people with different origin, one from Philippines and the other from America. Philip comes from the Ifugao culture which is one of the oldest intact cultures in Asia. Philip became less sentimental with his cultural identity, beliefs and customs because his will is to impress and get a high rank with his work, he is struggling about his own than his cultural identity. He forgets the place where he became and molds him as a person.
Identity holds no warranty for people with different mixture like Filipinos and Americans who are the character of the story. Hence, many Filipinos are uncertain about their identity. Thus, whichever identity Philip takes, he has no assurance that he can bring back his grandfather.
Third, that human is precarious about impermanence in the short story “The haunted house” by Virginia Woolf. There are only two character in the story which is the Ghost couple who are both flat and static. The story takes place in a house where two ghost, a couple where used to live. The Couple- Ghosts think that the present living occupants of their former house have already found the buried treasure that they are looking for. In these sense, we can see that the Ghosts- Couple misses the time when they are still alive and reminiscing the thing they were used to do with.
The ghosts- couple are still searching for their treasure and they are wondering whether is in the garden realizing that the treasure was not found by the house’s present occupants the ghosts are relieved that it is safe, and such treasure is really theirs.
The ghosts-couple compares their moment that lives in their house. That their moments are more cherished the couple who are present occupants in their house. Those moments are the best and opposite compares to the present couple that the happy thought and love that the ghosts shared with each other.
This story is haunting yet beautiful the beginning starts off with a ghostly couple “That is looking for something, something that it is belong to them when they were alive. It has an irony that those who are belonging to you before won’t last for you are just living in this world impermanent.
Things are not always as they appear. They are not permanent but rather they are impermanent. Finally the ghosts kwon that the treasure is really safe and theirs and such treasure is not tangible thing, but intangible, found in the light in the heart.
against him or her. Human precariousness as again reflected in the story shows how people can act rudely and cruelly to other people, it shows how huge are the possibilities they can do harm and negatively affect other peoples lives and confidence among themselves. It shows how can a person affect someone's relationship towards his or her own family or how can a family member hurt his or her co-family member. Generally, earch human comditions truly has a precarious effect that was shown upon analysing and upon reflecting on each five short stories selected. It explains that in every kimd of situation there will always be a precarious act and traits in each human that will lead or cause a sudden fall or conflict to our environment and society.
ReplyDeleteAs a whole, the reflected human conditions doesn't just affect the people around ans the environment but also within ourselves and inner struggle. If we think more deeply, in just one precarious consitions reflected in each story, it truly has an effect fo each and every human kind physically and emotionally.
This five stories selected made an absolute details and themes in determining such precarious and living the readers mind something to reflect about by showing a negative traits of a human through the character's portrayal and how does this traits affect everything around us.
As mentioned in the introduction, using real life situations to make things understandable is a great help upon reflecting from the precarious presented. As what have been observed this is really happening in our society today anyway so its not really that hard to reflect on it. With the help of determining such precariousness will help us know that this kind of things are existing and made us realize that such things do really has a big effects even if that was small or
even big. It definitely shows that in each one of us we can always had a not safe capabilities or traits that will really have a major effect to someone that will somehow made us realize and teach us that we should avoid to do such harma and always think and reflect before commiting or doing it so to avoid such conflict that can distort our image or personality our relationship to others and basically our living as a human. This study did show such precariousness will lead to such fall that actually the cause of not fullfiling such dreams, end up being the same as usual, suffer even harder and/or end up being disappointed as well. This made show us to realize and
even warn us to the sudden disadvantages of such precarious even if we think that the things we did are good enough.
ReplyDeleteThis paper presented the precarious behaviour of humankind as present in our society today base on the five stories selected in which those five stories merely showed most of the circumstances happening in our world today. As what explanation and reflection was presented on the first parts of this paper, it also made us conclude that the story is not just made for us to learn moral lessons but also to see beyond human's behaviour disadvantages that made us felt pity while reading the said story's since mostly of the main character of the story did made the readers felt pity because they had this pathetic situations encountered.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
AP Literature Blog. August 2014. Popular Mechanics. Retrieved from https://emilyclineenglish.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/popular-mechanics-by-raymond-carver
Edgar Allan Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” (reprint), The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe (1850), 1:291-309.Retrieved from http://www.eapoe.org/wor k s/tales/usherf.htm
Rashomon Essay. Retrieved from http://www.megaessays.com/ viewpaper/1069.html
Philippine Literature: The God Stealer (Fransico Sionil Jose). Retrieved from http://gabrielslibrary.blogspot.com/2010/04/god-stealer-fransico-sionil-jose.html?m=1
SERVANT GIRL by Estrella D. Alfon. Retrieved from http://www.sushidog.com/ bpss/stories/servant.htm
Fourth, that human is precarious about vengeance in the story Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe. The story is the narrator’s account of his ability to carry out a chilling plot of revenge against his offender.
ReplyDeleteAt the start of the story, Montresor describes how he has stilted annoyance towards Fortunato because of the “Thousand Injuries” however, when he is already offended Motresor wants vengeance. Towards his friend Fortunato
Montresor takes advantage of tipsy Fortunato to his enormous house where there is no one else in light of the fact that he let his orderlies have the night off. He promise with a taste of Amontillado to Fortunato. When the two men reach the last underground part, Montresor enchain Fortunato to the wall builds a new one to seal him in and leave him alive to death loftiness is a destructive force by showing the cruelties go in order to take revenge.
We can reflect to ourselves the importance of thinking about love actions, as for Montresor he didn’t, we would realize that violence is hover a good way to solve our problem. When we want to act with violence then we think that it is uncertain but we should also stop and think again, reflect on the cruelty of violence in the past and in the present, and we should always remind ourselves that there are better ways to solve one conflict.
Lastly, that human is precarious about forbidden love in the dead stars by Paz Marquez Benitez. The story is about the betrayal of self- feelings and the loss of a feeling to someone. Alfredo Salazar, who is the protagonist of the story, was betrothed to Esperanza, whom he loves so much in his youth and he promise to marry her.
Alfredo speaks to men who are confounded and narrow minded who have been locked in to a young lady for quite a while and being undecided when to wed his fiancée. After around four years of engagement they were going to get hitched. He concedes the way that he was especially more satisfied with Julia than with Esperanza. Furthermore, it additionally difficult for Alfredo to hurt his fiancée in the event that he will break his guarantee as Esperanza is sat tight him for so long. Alfredo realized that he was giving Julia something he was not allowed to give the affection. He thought that it was simple being with Julia, so natural that he could overlook his stresses over how the world would say to him when they thought about his fiancée Esperanza. The affection in the middle of Alfredo and Julia appeared to be genuine, however look closer and one can express that it was not really shared that it is difficult to keep going. Esperanza's dedication to Alfredo looks like adoration. Be that as it may, the short story of affection here, however maybe bona fide to a point, for Alfredo, is apparently feeble and purposive.
Frail, in light of the fact that it is in the end defeat the nature of fitting in with ordinarily acknowledged guidelines of conduct or good. Purposive, in light of the fact that it was only an instrument to legitimize his craving to go against to society. in the story, Alfredo experiences passionate feelings for Julia regardless of the possibility that he is as of now drawn in to Esperanza, however at last swears off the thought. he continued clutching "imagine a scenario where he didn't wed Esperanza and consider the possibility that he disregards the general public?" during the time of his marriage to Esperanza, however after meeting Julia once more, he understands that what he believed arrived, had now gone quite recently like dead stars that will be in the long run a dark gap.
In the wake of meeting her once more, he comprehended that it was wistfulness that was grabbing hold of his heart, and not love that he once felt for her. it is said in the story that he is not content with his marriage, but rather a piece of him generally disappears from the world keeping in mind the end goal to long for another life that could have on the off chance that he had picked julia over Esperanza.
Since there is no guarantee, human condition is dependably tricky in distinctive edges, about the loneliness and nothingness, identity, impermanence, vengeance and forbidden love. All these instabilities might be available in life, yet human needs to figure it out he ought not be shaken. R. I. Fitzhenry declared, “uncertainty and mystery are energies of life. Don’t let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity.’’ Man might need to journey for conviction yet it hinders the quest for importance. He needs to realize that vulnerability is the very condition to instigate him to unravel his powers.
ReplyDeleteLife indeed is a continuous battle. The human condition is dependably assailed with details, of hazards, of instabilities. The above different five short stories reflects unavoidable condition that mankind needs to confront. There will dependably be individuals who might proceed to play against fate, regardless of the trickiness of life.
Chantal Dominique Pahunang
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The assumption that precarity is fundamental to human existence has often been transmuted into a will to precariousness as an authentic condition for being human. (Simon During 2015) Hannah Arendt in her Human Condition and refers to processes of thinking, willing and judging. It’s an evidence of precariousness of a character or for a human is that there are changes within him, internally and externally.
In Joseph Conrad, when the main character Arsat has been in deep conflict within himself by the situation he encountered. The story goes like this. There is a white European sailor and his crew arrives at Arsat’s outpost on the edge of a lagoon in the Malayan archipelago, to find that his friend’s wife is dying of fever. The two men fall into reminiscence, and Arsat recounts how he came to form the relationship with his woman.He abducts her from her family with his brother’s help. His bother taunts him for not being more defiant, but Arsat knows that he will be killed if caught. Nevertheless, Arsat greatly admires his brother’s courage and strength. When they are pursued by the local Rajah’s men, Arsat’s brother holds them at bay with a gun whilst Arsat and the woman escape. But when all his shots are fired the pursuing men catch the brother and kill him. At this point in the narrative Arsat’s wife dies. The white man offers to take Arsat away on the ship, but he chooses to stay by the lagoon.
The themes of the story are remorse, stagnation and selfishness. Remorse when he regret for abandoning his brother to the rajah's men. Stagnation when Arsat’s guilt has been poisoned their opportunity for a contented life. Selfishness when Arsat runs off with Diamelen without even to come to the aid of his brother. There are two contentions to support this claim. First, when Arsat realized that he made the wrong decision, that he chose romantic love over brotherly love. Second, when Arsat realized that life is uncertain and death is everywhere. In the first contention, in chapter 10 in the story
“He paused and seemed to listen to them dying away very far- beyond help and beyond recall. Then he said quietly “Tuan, I love my brother”.
In the second contention, it was stated in the Chapter 11.
“Now, I can see nothing-see nothing. There is no light and no peace in this world, but there is death-death for many. We were sons of the same mother and I left him in the midst of the enemies, but I am going back now”
In this line, we can see that death is always around. Tuan believed that with Diamelen, they can conquer everything even death. It was all wrong. Love is really deceitful. People should always keep in mind to balance it with logic and emotions most especially if families are involved. We should think and feel if what is the right thing to do and what is not. Procrastination, the opposite of decision, is a common enemy which practically every man must conquer.
Chantal Dominique Pahunang
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Sometimes we find ourselves faced with difficult choices. In a life filled with choice after choice after choice, we're bound to make a few mistakes. Life can sometimes feel like a big game of trial and error, and often you don't have any idea what the best choice might be the people are responsible for their actions even if we are in the state that we only have to choose one from two great things. Think it wise and forecast the ramifications ahead of the decision. A bad decision is one in which you override your senses and choose an option that, at some level, you know you should not. Understand that there will be consequences to any decision. Sometimes these can be unpredictable and unexpected. The universe has its own plans, as they say. After such events it’s easy to say that you would have made a different decision. It's not easy to make mistakes and it's certainly harder to make mistakes when you knew the whole time that you were making them, but, by focusing on the present and on being positive, it's possible to overcome. If you want to move forward from wherever you've found yourself, again you have to take responsibility for your choices and actions. Keep in mind that this is not a time to think of excuses for why it happened; this is a time to understand why it happened so you can avoid making similar decisions in the future. If your decision hurt anyone else, the best thing you can do is apologize and explain. When you've made a bad decision, it can be tempting to dwell on that but, believe me, that's a waste of time. The most productive thing you can do to move forward from your choice is to focus on what's happening now. We do have different perception and how we live our life. As for me, I always practice dispassion and detachment in relation to the story. Some people dispassionately do battles in life with wicked outer elements while courageously facing inner enemies so he can be able to detach from them. Maybe in this power of detachment and dispassion enables one to face life’s challenges with calm and grace.In the eyes of other people reflect pain and disillusionment. They have beaten for life; they have so many broken dreams and only death awaits. Maybe from detachment can be one way of strengthening their spirit. The mistake they made was in preparing themselves for the harsh lessons their Creator set for them on life’s path. And also, going with the flow is not about giving up self-effort, but rather about accepting reality. It is about recognizing when it is time for action and when it is time to sit it out. After you have done all that is humanly possible during a period of crisis and the situation is still beyond your ability to remedy. Therefore, you should anchor yourself with spirit of endurance.
Chantal Dominique Pahunang
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The short story "The Cask of Amontillado," by Edgar Allan Poe has often been considered to be one of the world's most perfect short stories. The theme for this story is about revenge. It’s when he was in deep rage to kill someone. The path to wealth is not to chase money for its own sake, but to understand and develop our own intrinsic talents and inclinations.Sometimes, it will rob your enthusiasm and creative brilliance if you don’t do a good deed. The goes like this, the narrator in this story vows revenge upon a man named Fortunato. He takes advantage of Fortunato's ego and lures him down into the recesses of an underground vault to taste a rare wine, a cask of Amontillado. The main character was Montressor, he was the one who abled to manipulate this other man and murdered it, and He started with a confusing sentence. He says, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.” This sentence is written in elaborate style, marks the speaker as a formal, educated man and meant to be from a respectable family. By the sentence itself, it actually means that Fortunato has been insulting Montressor and Montressor itself have took it personally and vowed for revenge. Perhaps Fortunato insulted him because of wine knowledge. It got to be so offensive. Montressor wants revenge with impunity. Impunity means without punishment. He want kill Fortunato in a way that it will not cause the police to come and arrest him. He also thinks that he is the redresser; he’s the one who’s going to bring justice to this situation. We can really outlook Montresor simply as an unreasonable, cold-blooded murderer. He presents us with only a vague understanding of his motivations, and his pretense of good will and careful manipulation of Fortunato indicates the care with which he has planned Fortunato's death. Fortunato does not realize the extent of his danger at the first place until he has been chained to the granite, and even then he remains too drunk to completely comprehend what has taken place for some time.
Chantal Dominique Pahunang
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Montressor says” at length I would be avenged”. He didn’t want to take risk himself, he plays it cool and waited until an opportunity presents. So he lured him into his catacombs. One of his strategies is to play with Fortunato’s vanity in wine knowledge. There are two contentions to support this claim. First, when Montressor imagined insults such magnitude that causes him to do horrible revenge deeds. Second, when use honorable strategy in order to achieve his unforgivable deeds.
The speaker has revealed that in the end that it happened fifty years ago. Maybe Montressor have said felt conscience for so long or he just wanted the audience to know that he had his sweetest revenge without being found out. In life, we shouldn’t be afraid of criticisms instead we should take it as a gift. It’s an opportunity for as to learn and change. We cannot escape from the judgments of other people, it comes naturally. But from whatever things we say, whatever things to do, we should acknowledge that it’s all our responsibility. Making bad deeds won’t make us even safer in this cruel world.
Comparison begins with competition.When we lose our first race, we realize that someone else is faster than us. Montressor has been in this state already. If you compete and don’t win on a regular basis, you can develop the mindset that you will never achieve what you want.You become accustomed to disappointment. Disappointment can also materialize personal relationships.If you have experienced much disappointment in your life, this will eventually cause you to mistrust both others and yourself.You become cynical about it. Let’s be honest, when you imagine taking revenge on someone, nine times out of 10 you’re thinking about doing something illegal. Not smart. While you think it may feel good to get even, that feeling will so fade when they’re slapping the cuffs on your wrists. And if you mess around and take it too far, the loss of your freedom won’t be the biggest issue. Causing irreversible bodily harm or even taking a life would be hell on your conscious. People hurt people. That’s the way of the world. It’s nothing new. There’s no shame in getting hurt. It happens to all of us. There is however, shame in intentionally trying to hurt someone else. It’s childish.while your former flame may have intentionally or unintentionally hurt you along the way. Once you’ve taken your revenge you might feel a moment of contentment, but in the long run the pain hasn’t gone anywhere.
This is also a good time for self- inquiry. When a man’s spirit keeps on demanding greater satisfaction for his conduct.He is in a state of uncertainty, confusion and sometimes pain and anger. He is overwhelmed by his own new discovery of a multitude of enemies within himself in the form of his own character defects: greed, anger, self-doubt, self-limitation, jealousy, envy, fear, shame, hatred, small mindedness, delusion, desire, hypocrisy and pretension.He has discovered that his own mind is the root of high and low, honor and insult, joy and sorrow. While at the same time his foes are many and his capacity to overcome these is meager. Usually at this stage, within himself he is going through a powerful transofmation for either good or for the bad.
Chantal Dominique Pahunang
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Self-knowledge is essential to self-growth. Again, we must first understand motives for our own actions in order to understand others.The world is not so simple that we can just make and follow rules about what is right and wrong. We have to seek an understanding of ourselves so that we will know what we ought to do in any given situation. So back to the main character is in the battle of matter of material success. The circumstances will not change until his knowledge and understanding take on a living form within him. In conclusion, sometimes people with big egos who think that they are above average have a strong fear of failure.The greater the personal ego, the greater the sense of loss can be should be untinkable.This is a loss of status in the eyes of others, who will suddenly perceive that the egotistical person is not as powerful as they previously thought. So Montressor has a great personal ego.
The Legend of Sleeping Hollow by Washington Irving is a creepy story. It uses imagination and the supernatural to make it a romantic piece of American literature that is still adapted by television today.The story starts off with this guy named Ichabod coming from Connecticut to Sleepy Hollow, NY to teach. The only skill he has is teaching. He moves around from neighborhood to neighborhood tutoring kids and staying in people's houses. He keeps all of his belongings in a big handkerchief. Then he gets a student named Katrina Van Tassel. Her family is very rich. Ichabod wants to marry her so he can get to her family's money. He has one big problem, because she has a boyfriend (Brom Bones). Brom Bones knows Ichabod is hitting on his woman so he plays a lot of pranks on Ichabod. Then Ichabod is invited to a party at Katrina's house. He goes there to try and get Katrina. Ichabod gets to dance with her and Brom Bones gets really jealous. After the party, Ichabod finds out that the only reason she danced with him was to make Brom Bones jealous.
Ichabod gets mad and rides away. When he is riding, the headless horseman rides up to him and throws his head at Ichabod. The next day the people find Ichabod's horse but can't find Ichabod. They spread rumors about him. Some say he is dead, some say he is afraid to come back to Sleepy Hollow. Whenever Brom Bones hear people talk about the headless horseman and Ichabod, he smiles. There are two contentions to support this claim. First, when Brom Bones smiles when he hears the story about Ichabod Crane and the headless horseman.Second when Ichabod looks down on the people of the town. He thinks he is much smarter, because he comes from Connecticut. So, it makes it hard to feel sorry for him. In the first contention, it was stated in Chapter 10 that, “This story was matched by Brom Bones, who made light of the Galloping Hessian as an errant jockey. He affirmed that, on returning one night from a neighboring village, he had been overtaken by this midnight trooper; that he had offered to race with him for a bowl of punch, and should have won it, too”
Chantal Dominique Pahunang
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In the second contention, Chapter 3 It was stated that, “He was, moreover, esteemed by the women as a man of great erudition, for he had read several books quite through, and was a perfect master of Cotton Mather's 'History of New England Witchcraft “. We are not perfect beings, but still behind these imperfections we absolutely want to go beyond limits. Sometimes, when we are eager to have something, we tend to take risk even if it will cost our time, money. With these investments, we don’t overlook the upcoming events and get disappointed instead. In the first contention, we can say that we can’t escape from people who love to see us suffer just for their own benefit. In the second contention, even if we think that we have everything. There is also a part of us that can weaken our thoughts and living.
I cans see Ichabod was being bullied too.In life, bullying leaves a lot of wounds and scars in the victim. Fear is seriously the most destructive of emotions.Fear wears so many different masks and comes in so many forms.In our conscious awareness, fear is a vague but constantly nagging uneasiness.It is the biggest barrier for us to overcome in order to experience and fulfill our true potential. If your fears feel overwhelming, the distress from the fear can interfere with your ability to function and you may experience intense anxiety or nervousness. Reflect on your fears and notice how much they affect your life. Fear is an adaptive function that prolongs our lives.The story also wants us to foresee about breaking the bondage of fear of success and fear of failure. Each one of us is driven to a certain extent by fear- fear to rise, fear to fall, fear that we will remain in the same place. Every time we accomplish something and move ahead, we have to exchange the known conditions of our life for uncertainty and unfamiliarity. Before we can succeed, we must clearly understand that success means change and the risk of failure.
I have a hard time thinking if who’s the arrogant one. But arrogant people assume that they will succeed at a given task. They have had success before.Its natural for them to think that success will continue to come their way. Arrogant people are disliked because they believed that they have a divine right to continued success.
That Evening Sun by William Faulkner.It was first appeared in the March 1931 issue of American Mercury. It emphasizes the differences between the past and the present. It is a dark portrait of white Southerners' indifference to the crippling fears of one of their black employees. It is also an exploration of terror, vengeance, and solitude. This story has become one of Faulkner's best known and most popular stories.
"The Precariousness of Human Condition as Reflected in Five Select Short Stories"
ReplyDeleteHuman condition according to Learn.lexiconic.net, “it's about the fundamental issues of human existence”. In other words, it is any thing concerning the human nature and existence, from characteristics, events and situations or how we live our lives. While, precarious is an adjective which means not safe, strong, or steady. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2016). It is synonymous to ‘dangerous’. The Precarious of human condition depends on the person involve. In the selected five stories (Servant Girl, The Cask of Amontillado, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, Popular Mechanics, and A Little Cloud), the precariousness of human condition is reflected in the different people or characters and different situations.
The first story, “Servant Girl” by Estrella Alfon is about the servant who’s verbally and sometimes physically abused by her, obnoxious but kind at times, mistress. Her name is Rosa, and she always wants to go to the public bathhouse, to laugh and gossip with the other women there. When she got into an accident in the street, she met a cochero who treated her injury and bleached the linens. After that incident with the cochero, Rosa started to dream about him, being infatuated with what she named him “Angel”. But then she eventually realize that all those things about Angel were just her mind inventing things to comfort her in her everyday life as a servant, just some wishful thinking.
In this story, the precariousness is reflected by the main character Rosa. She was a servant, and her only companion in the house is her mistress. It will be expected that, being a bit timid or just shy, she didn’t have any experience and knowledge in interacting with the opposite gender. When she took a liking with the cochero who helped her, she then assumed that the cochero have the mutual feelings with her. She expected too much on something she doesn’t really know about. She was being naïve and a bit irrational when she left her mistress’ house at the middle of the night. It was a precarious expectation she has, it was dangerous how she trusted some stranger and it was dangerous that she was walking in the streets at night. What if the cochero, or well known as Pedro, isn’t a nice person as she thought he is? There might something bad that could have happened to her just because she was depending on uncertain premises. This is one of example of the precariousness of human condition. When a person don’t have the knowledge or experience on something, something bad could happen to that individual.
The theme are conveyed by this story is fear, innocence and inequality.Faulkner's story reveals the tragic irony in the situation: Nancy's husband wants to kill her for her adulterous act despite the fact that she only slept with a white man because she was poor and needed money. Quentin is lamenting the change in society and the innocence that he may have lost since he was a child or that he is suggesting that like Jefferson, he too has changed and may not necessarily react, today, as he did as a nine year old when it came to Nancy’s plight. Quentin and his sibling’s inability to grasp the significance of what may happen Nancy is noticeable several times in the story. The theme inequality in the story, there are always inequality in life.When Mr Stovall beats up Nancy, despite the incident being witnessed by a policeman, Mr Stovall is not arrested. Mr Stovall, who is possibly the father of Nancy’s child is not only white but deemed to be a pillar of the community and as such no action is taken against him. No action being taken against Mr Stovall is purely based on his job (banker and deacon) and the colour of his skin. There are two contentions to support this claim. First, when Nancy was afraid for the ramifications. Second, the mindset of the society is sometimes unethical
ReplyDeleteRacism comes out naturally, we can find inequality. Racism has a significant impact both on the individuals who experience it and the wider community. There’s one thing from this story wants to give in. During crisis, don’t let outsiders in on miseries. Because even the most sympathetic people would rather be in the company of a winner. To those who have contributed to and cased your crisis , do not give them the satisfaction of knowing that they have the power to hurt you. We have to let them know that our apparent crisis turned out to be a blessing in disguise. When drastic change and chaos occur in your life, a very effective antidote is inactivity. Except if we really need justice but for some small instances that we can’t avoid in our life. Doing nothing is easier said than done, especially when ones life has been turned upside down. It requires tremendous power of endurance and ability to act against every instinct of our nature, which continuously attempts to repair the situation. When you recognize the proper time to act, this newfound energy will aid you in realizing your desired result.
Some people thought that they are way better than the other, or they judge you for what they see but not what you feel. The story may also remind us we should live our life as if it were someone else’s. If you find your life unbearable, then imagine the life you are living is not yours and that it belongs to someone else. You will fear no criticism and agonize over no defeat. Knowing how to handle adversity is a valuable skill. It is all about the state of mind. Our negative experiences in life are essential elements for us fulfill our intended destiny. Unless we possess the power of endurance to live through the dark of the night, we will not see the glory of daybreak. The twin influences of blame and criticism gradually eat away at your natural confidence. They can come from a number of different sources. You presume that there must be something wrong with you, because frequently this exclusion comes without explanation or reason. The impact of loneliness causes you to reflect inwardly and presume that you are at fault, since others have clearly found reason not to include.
The second story, “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, is a story of Montresor, have been insulted by Fortunato, seeking revenge. He lured Fortunato by deceiving him about a cask of Amontillado. Fortunato, being fond of wine, went with him. Montresor brought him to the deepest part of his home, the catacombs. There he trapped Fortunato, putting a brick wall that Fortunato can’t get out of and left him for dead.
ReplyDeleteIn this story, the precariousness of human condition is reflected by both Montresor and Fortunato. Montresor was filled with so much negative emotions that he was blended in thinking rationally. Humans are different from other animals because humans have the ability to think rationally, but because we tend to depend on our emotions, a human will think irrationally, leaving human not far from common animals. To Montresor, the precariousness of human condition he reflected in the story is the emotionality of the humans. It affected his decision making. To Fortunato, he reflected the dangerous way of living of the most human being. About Fortunato, to my understanding, was a bit of a tactless person. He reflected most personalities or characters of human beings. Humans will make jokes and humours, but sometimes going overboard and becoming insensitive of other people, and because human’s emotion is heightened than the rational part, it is resulting of someone being hurt. If all humans could have think first before uttering words, there will be no word such as ‘revenge’. There’s also the precariousness of how he live his life, a happy-go-lucky kind of life Fortunato live.
In the third story, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway, the two waiters are waiting to close up their café for the night. They only have one customer left, an old man. He's a regular at the café, and the waiters seem to know all about him. Apparently, the old man attempted to hang himself the previous week, but was stopped mid-suicide by his niece. The older waiter and younger waiter argued about the possible cause. Throughout the night, the younger waiter keeps insulting the old man and in the last part refuses to give the old man another order, for a reason of wanting to go home already. It ended with the waiters closing because the old man paid already. The older waiter took his time in closing, thinking about people like the old man, just wanting to have a clean, well-lighted place to kill time alone.
Chantal Dominique Pahunang
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The short story A Haunted House by Virginia Woolf is a story about permanence of love, the difficulties of marriage, the inevitability of death. When looking at its title, the reader presupposes that this is going to be an obviously scary narrative. But the story is about the importance of love. It didn’t sound scary because of the use of narrative style and poetic devices.
To cut the story short, in the same the house ghosts search for their treasure, they roam the house, opening and closing doors and drawing curtains back. here the house is haunted not by the ghosts themselves, but by the memories they made there Although they try not to disturb the living couple, the latter can hear them now and then.The narration reveals that it is the rediscovery of the places in and around the house where the ghosts spent little moments expressing their love for each other. After an encounter with the ghost couple in their bedroom, the living couple realizes what the ghosts are seeking. It’s the treasure of love.
Love is what we live for and is truly the most important thing in our lives. The real mark of greatness is shown through love’s actions of kindness, compassion, helpfulness, and caring. You feel this in your heart. You’re on the right path and in your right place if you feel love in your heart and let it live there to motivate, guide, heal, and influence yourself and others. Through love we find our sense of belonging. It may not come through the form of family, but through others who are close to you and who you care about and who show up for you. . Exactly three things need to be remembered in a marriage if it is to be a mutual bond of sharing, caring, and loving throughout life: love, trust, and forgiveness.
We know a hundred number of couples in healthy, long-term marriages who still fight the urge to love stupidly.Everyone has an opinion on love, but there are so many contradictions. The truth can only be found in the bible. If only you have understand the words you’ve read, then probably you have a good idea of what love really is. Love in its genuine form requires a complete focus not just on the wants of the other person but also their mental, emotional,social, physical, and spiritual needs. However, some people are blinded to what really matters. They tend to forget what really is important in life. It’s not about money or any material things but the love for each other.
The precariousness of human condition is reflected by the old man and the younger waiter. The old man was a lonely man, which was obvious. When human beings are lonely, it is sided by the emotion of sadness. In most said in studies, when a person is sad or depressed, there will be a possibility of having a thought of suicides and acting on it. In the old man’s situation, he is one of those people who think that dying is the only solution to their problems. It is another example of precarious emotionality of human condition. Then, there’s the younger man. He was being insensitive to the feelings and situation of the old man. He was having a precarious mouth. Just like Fortunato in The Cask of Amontillado, the younger man was being tactless. The only upside in this story was the older waiter who understood the people like the old man.
ReplyDeleteThe fourth story, “Popular Mechanics” by Raymond Carver, is about a couple fighting. It started with the man packing his things in the bedroom, while the woman nagged about him leaving. When the man was about to leave, at that time the woman was carrying their baby, he wanted to take the baby with him. He took the baby from the woman, but the woman doesn’t want the man to take the baby with him, so she took the baby back, but the man won’t let go. They keep pulling the baby to their side, like playing a tag-of-war, while the baby cried loudly. The story ended in hanging cliff.
In this story, the precariousness of human condition was reflected by the couple. They were both filled with negative emotions, there’s some anger, sadness and pain, but it was portrayed by no specific character. Just the situation, just by reading it, those emotions was identified. The couple was having an unstable relationship, leading to the man wanting to leave. They have reflected the lack of stability in relationships, which occurs in most human relationship. Be it with a lover, a friend, a sibling, or a family. Without secureness or stability, the relationship is bound to crash down. Like what happened in the story. It is how they live their lives, it was dangerous and not only to them but also to their child. The obvious precariousness of the story, the way the couple handled the baby was dangerous. There could have happened with the baby, something bad, if the story was not left hanging. If the story was continued, the baby would be in harm, and then it will lead to both of the man and the woman blaming each other. It was a precarious emotions that they have, it resulted danger in the child’s life.
Chantal Dominique Pahunang
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Human beings will invest time and energy with those who can benefit them the most. Our culture is driven by our ego’s needs, which means that if we are important, we have a chance of being recognized as wonderful, great, or admirable. We can call it as greed The World English Dictionary defined that "greed is excessive consumption of or desire for food; gluttony; excessive desire, as for wealth or power." Greed has caused more damage to the relationships of families and friends. This source of greed truly demonstrates that our society, whom cherishes things more than people or relationships. Often we are so concerned with what makes us feel good that we forget what makes us great. Greed is definitely one of the seven deadliest and a human failing that few manage to escape and it has been the downfall of many. Sacrifice and love are only medicines that can cure it. The Qur’an says: Ignominy shall be their portion wherever they are, unless they (seize) a rope from God or a rope from people (3:112). This means that those nations can make progress when they begin to obey God’s commands or are backed by some powers, as is the case today. Otherwise, ignominy shall follow them. Regardless of their current status, when compared with their long history of ignominy, they still live in constant fear,insecurity, and uncertainty about their future. (Nursi 2002).
In general conclusion, these five stories have depicted most important life lessons that we should ponder. Whatever the source of our insight, it’s these moments that bring us to a deeper understanding of our world. The better understanding we have of life, the more we live in the truth. First, there are fearsome monsters out there, but if you stare into all their yellow eyes without blinking once, you can tame them and temper them and get home before supper gets cold. Second, No matter what your vice is knowledge, avarice be prepared to curb it or pay the price.Third, Think through the consequences of your actions. Most especially if you want to avenge something that would go beyond limits in moral law. The moral lesson we may derive is that Revenge is not always equal to the offense it portends to make right, particularly if the act of retribution is murder. Fourth, greediness blinded us to what really is important. Greed has caused more damage to the relationships of families and friends.Be kind,You have no idea what the other person is going through. This could be the worst day of their life. Take deep breaths and count to ten before you act or respond to them.Relieving the pressure on youself, you can cope up much better. And also, don’t be frightened to speak from the heart.If you feel passionately about your subject, let the audience feel the passion.Passion helps make a talk memorable because it increases the rate of knowledge.Some lessons are already mention at the end of every story.
The fifth and the last story, “A Little Cloud” by James Joyce, is about Little Chandler. Little Chandler's friend, Gallaher, left Dublin eight years ago for London, and has since made a successful career for himself as a journalist. But then Gallaher's coming back for a visit and wants to see Little Chandler. Little Chandler works as a copyist in Dublin, but as he thinks about Gallaher, his friend’s achievement, "he became sad." They met and chat, catching up with their lives. While their talking, Chandler was becoming jealous and sort of comparing himself to his friend. After they meet, in chandler’s house, he was left at home with his kid while his wife went out to get groceries. While the kid was sleeping, he keeps on thinking of ‘what ifs’. What if he was not married, what if he also left Dublin, what would his life would be. The little baby wakes up crying, and won't stop. Chandler's really impatient, and he yells "Stop!" at the child, who begins to scream and "sob convulsively". It was a bad timing, because right at the same moment, Annie comes home, and she got angry that she looks at Chandler with "hatred." She then took the child. Chandler then, felt so ashamed that he starts to cry like a baby.
ReplyDeleteIn this last story, the precarious human condition was reflected by the main character, Little Chandler. He was at first a simple family man in a simple town. But when he reunited with his old friend, he started to change. His character turned into the envious, doubtful and prideful person. He compared himself to his friend in the past and concluded that he should be in Gallaher’s place because he was smarter than him before. Then he doubted his decision in marrying his wife, having the life he has right now. The precariousness of the fast shift of his characteristics, the precariousness of his internal conflict and the precariousness of his emotions, those are the precariousness of human condition that Little Chandler poses. He thought that he had lost his aspiration of having a better life and that’s why his trapped in the life he currently lives.
Most of the characters in those five stories have a common denominator, they have been too dependent on their emotions. It causes them to decide the way they did, which lead them in pain or in danger. In conclusion, when a human being is emotional, it can lead to irrational thoughts. Those thoughts would affect the human’s decision making that could lead them to danger. The precariousness of human condition as reflected in five select short stories was the unbalanced way of thinking of human beings. Our human nature, human society and how humans should live their lives should be in balance. To not live life just playing but also working, to have our natural animal instincts and characteristics while also being civilized. With these, we could prevent the precariousness of human condition and could live our lives to the fullest.
Chantal Dominique Pahunang
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REFERENCES:
Michael J. Cummings. The Lagoon: A study guide. (2009) Retrieved from: http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides6/Lagoon.html.
CliffsNotes. Poe's Short Stories. Retrieved from http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/p/poes-short-stories/summary-and-analysis/the-cask-of-amontillado
Cliffsnotes.Faulkner's Short Stories. Retrieved from http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/f/faulkners-short-stories/summary-and-analysis-that-evening-sun/introduction
Eastoftheweb.The Legend of Sleeping Hollow. Retrieved from http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LegSle.shtml
Grade Saver.The Legend of Sleeping Hollow Summary. Retrieved from http://www.gradesaver.com/the-legend-of-sleepy-hollow/study-guide/summary
Rotten Tomatoes. A Haunted House. Retrieved from http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_haunted_house/
Ebooks. A Haunted House. Retrieved from https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91h/chapter1.html
Reference:
ReplyDeleteMerriam-Dictionary.com (2016)
Welch, C. (2015). What is the "human condition"?. Retrieved from http://learn.lexiconic.net/humancondition.htm
“Servant Girl” by Estrella Alfon
The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe
“A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway
“Popular Mechanics” by Raymond Carver
“A Little Cloud” by James Joyce