Pesty Problems

In bizarre situations, one of the most interesting pieces to look into is how different people react to the same situation. In the story, “Metamorphosis,” each character show has a completely different reaction to the fact that Gregor is truly a giant insect.
The most intriguing reaction is that of Gregor himself. Rather than having a typical reaction of “Oh my goodness, I am a giant bug!” he is more concerned about getting to work on time and the fact that his family needs his money. This is interesting because throughout the story, we do not often see Gregor contemplate why he has transformed into an insect. We also do not see him attempt to fix or understand the unusual situation of his recently acquired “insectly” disease. His calmness and acceptance of the situation without worries of how or why is surprising to the reader and creates a setting of a character’s understanding that seems unknown to the reader throughout the story. It is a creepy sight that the reader understands as we watch Gregor worry very little about his unsightly transformation, and the reader almost sees him as a personified insect rather than an actual giant insect. While Gregor reacts quite strangely, others react much more naturally to the abnormal situation.
The office manager who comes to see Gregor for his missing the early train reacts quite naturally to the situation, and the author sees how abnormal Gregor’s reaction truly is. The man from the office at first seems accusing toward Gregor for being in bed and for being late to work but once the door opens; as the man retreats from the giant insect he formerly knew as Gregor, we understand the intensity of the insect situation. If the business man had been more calm and collected about the situation, it would seem that in the society that the story takes place, such transformations are common. Through this man, the reader realizes that this metamorphosis has not occurred as a normality, as if in a different world, but it has occurred in the same world that we live in, making the transformation be an understandable tragedy. The office worker shows to the reader that while Gregor does not seem to realize the sad truth of his situation; he no longer has a normal life and is forever burdened.
Seeing two completely different reactions to the same situation gives the reader the ability to make different assumptions about the tragedy and hilarity of the insect situation. While typically giant pests would be a grand problem for a household, Gregor does no seem to realize the severity of his condition and carries on his days thinking more about other problems than his self. Typically this should seem selfless, but his avoidance of the problem makes him only seem to the reader like more or a lowly and buggy person. Comparing the two different people’s reactions to the same situation, the reader can identify that this problem of being a giant insect is indeed abnormal and should be disheartening to the only bread-winner of a family. This “illness” will keep the family from bringing in money as well as give an embarrassment of having a giant insect as a family member. This story is full of differing opinions on the same situation, one which seems so unlikely that it is almost hard for the reader to truly comprehend the emotional severity the change would have of Gregor’s emotions without adding a little of his or her own humor (581).

poety of the random sort

We live in deeds . . .
WE live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
And he whose heart beats quickest lives the longest:
Lives in one hour more than in years do some
Whose fat blood sleeps as it slips along their veins.
Life's but a means unto an end; that end,
Beginning, mean, and end to all things -- God.
The dead have all the glory of the world.

Philip James Bailey




Paper, Paint, and Crayons

Eighteen years, a thousand fears,
Yet countless joyful times.
A tiny baby smiles just once,
Her Daddy's heart it binds.

A toddler cries with tearful eyes,
That only Mom can dry.
The little girl so cute in pink
Decides what clothes she'll try.

Her favorite pastime soon becomes
All paper, paint, and crayons.
Some years go by, she's growing fast,
No longer holds our hands.

She struggles some along the way,
We hope she feels our love.
The strength she needs takes all she has,
She's all we're thinking of.

The sun breaks through, she finds her way,
The clouds begin to clear.
And every day that passes now,
Each one we hold so dear.

She'll leave us soon to spread her wings,
A dream or two to find.
We know her life's forever bound
To these roots she leaves behind.

We hope she knows how proud we are,
How deep our love resides.
How much we've learned along the way,
Seeing through our child's eyes.

The paper, paint, and crayons
Through graduation years,
Will always be our most precious ones,
Despite the thousand fears

Margaret Alliet



Sugar And Spice And Everything Nice
by JOY 14

I looked at her to see
mascara running down the sides of her face
Mixing with a lot of tears
Of frustration mostly

She glanced at me through tear glass eyes
Like a rain showered wind shield without window wipers
Stopping to take my hand
playing with my fingers
carefully fingering my rings

Then, something happened that surprised me
She smiled at me
A little smile
On her little face
What could I do but
Just smile back.

I took a tissue and wiped up the rain,
took her hand and walked with her to the playground
where she gladly played for hours on the swings

I sat and watched
perched
on slanted monkey bars
and knew better than to leave my makeup just laying around.

Goodbye Gramps
by Melissa
Today something happened that I thought never would.
I wish it could be undone, oh, if it only could.

I realize the memories I've made will be all there is.
My grandfather's memories, mine and his.

See, my grandfather passed away today and will never be back.
And now it's moments with him that I will sadly lack.

He won't be here to see me get my license or my car.
See me go to prom or graduate, because he is so far.

But I guess he's in a better place.
He resides in Heaven, and is surrounded by God's grace.

Now he can watch over me throughout the night and day.
And I can pretend that he's not really away.

He can stay with me in a place inside my heart.
And of me, he can still be a part.


Growing Up
© By Melissa S. Rawls

Life is so easy
when you are young.
When kisses heal boo-boos
and lullabies are sung.
It seemed that life could go on for years,
as long as the nightlight was there
to quiet our fears.
Why does growing up
have to be so hard?
When did the world become
bigger than our own back yard?
There is no more recess
to stop the stress of the school day.
There are no more falling stars
that can take our worries away.
Decisions are more complicated
now that we are grown,
why cant we go back
to when life was our own?

Tragic Relations

As we progress in our lives, we find that many things that have seemed sure and comfortable for us in our pasts have been proven to be lies and should only have been taken for face value. This much is true in the life of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy as shown by his family and friend’s reactions to his death.
The friendships of Ivan Ilych during his life seemed to have been long-lasting and typical, but as we read we see that these “friendships” are much less than close and numerous. Upon hearing of their so-called friend’s tragic death, rather than feeling pity and sorrow, his friends are first to feel that it is better he died than they, which seems a shallow feeling for people who had been his “friends” since childhood (18). Not only do they feel no depths of sympathy, but the friends also find it a monotonous and annoying task to see to going to the funeral and giving their condolences to the wife. It is as though the author is making a statement that the middle class only has exterior couth, on order to be looked upon as good people by those above them. The author shows that one of the great problems with society in this story is that people of this class only feel for others exteriorly, and are more concerned about their own lives than the lives of those who claim to be close to them. Even Ivan’s own wife is more concerned about her monetary gain from the death of her husband than the actual loss. The whole society seems to take no pity on others and simply concerns itself with individual affairs. This is portrayed as almost tragic in the story because we, as readers, see, through the wife’s eyes, the suffering and pain of Ivan Ilych but his pain is taken as a pain of her own rather than a pain of his. While, in a manner, it is Ivan Ilych that lived his life for others and contributed little to society, it is “terrible” that the end of his life meant only an annoyance to those who were supposedly close to him (55). The visual of friends being frustrated by the death of a life-long friend rather than troubled by the loss shows the reader how Ivan Ilych pushed away those nearest to him by conforming to society and adding nothing as well as makes a statement that human beings are innately selfish.
This story is one of terrible truths about the detachedness of society and the problems with conforming to what is expected of you and contributing nothing to the society around you. It is tragic that something as unfortunate as death can reveal the truths of false friendships and relationships. While these two interactions with those around you seem long-lasting and constant, friendships and relations change in an instant and sometimes things only as tragic as death can prove the truth of the relationship. While Ivan Ilych died before completely realizing the tragedy his life had become, the reader can see that his eminent coming to reality was one of complete change in not only lifestyle and heath but of the realization that both his family and friends did not hold him in as high a regard as he would have expected and hoped (559).