Illuminating Sorrow - Essay Example

? Illuminating Sorrow Sorrow is a virtually intolerable sadness (Manser, Martin & Jessica, 585). In fact, frequently people perceive it as an alternative word for grief. For instance, if a close friend or parent relocates to another country, one might feel unhappy. If, on the other hand, the whole family including parents get involved in an accident, one ought to feel sorrow and the loss of everything, including the family and other mementos an individual can never replace. The aim is to interpret a total of three stories so as to ascertain sorrow. The above literature seeks to justify aspects of sorrow from literal works. From the findings, the literature will outline viable strategies that will help an individual to be able to overcome sorrow. Sorrow depicts the feeling that one succumbs to after a serious catastrophe befalls that solitary thing that one holds and treasures dearly. The idea of losing something that one treasures causes one too much pain. Sorrow causes immense psychological and mental torture, and at some point, it can lead one to commit suicide. Moreover, sorrow can help one to understand himself better, for instance, when an individual successfully overcomes a situation that rather causes tribulation. Recently, to the Africans, It was yet another upsetting setback to the black Africa’s most incapable from the world’s most influential black American; comparable to his 2009 African tour, when the present president of the US visited a previous European slave workshop in Ghana during his lately concluded Africa tour of 2013. US President Barack Obama again asserted that the redundant trans-Atlantic slave trade was the solitary historical black African slavery commendable of his attention. Besides, whether it is scoring a low grade in English class, departing home to go for further studies, or losing a treasured person, we all expect to experience sorrow. Sorrow is a discomfort or anguish of the mind caused by forfeiture or hard luck. It is a part of life that everyone regardless of age must acquire techniques to handle the above situation. People deal with sorrow in different ways. Certain individuals do not avert misfortunes but instead choose face them with courage and determination. Conversely, others opt to lay down and wait for help from other sources. Owing to the above justification, this paper seeks to evaluate aspects of sorrow in stories like; “A Rose for Emily”, “The Things They Carried “and “The Lady with the Dog” In the story “A Rose for Emily" by the author William Faulkner (Brooks 47); the story is captivating and enjoyable to read (Moore, 132). However, the book pinpoints sorrow deeds in its broad spectrum. It shows how sorrow can lead one into mental torture, stress and even cause an individual to commit murder. The book has instances that expedite on the sorrowful life that Emily goes through her entire life. For instance, in section one; the narrator expedites upon the death of Mr. Grierson who is Emily’s father. Consequently, the death of Mr. Grierson subjected Emily into immense mental and psychological torture. Thus, Emily refused to accept the point that her father is dead and even preferred to stay with the corpse her father. Likewise, in section three, effects of sorrow appear eminently as Emily finds a lover with whom she loves wholeheartedly. However, in between something awful happens between the two thus forcing Emily to contemplate taking revenge upon his lover for she feels that the man is not going to marry her but instead he will abandon. Marriage is of great essence to Emily since she is at her late thirties. The narrator alludes about Emily’s sexuality illness whereby Emily falls in love with a constructor known as Homer. Homer gains popularity as he rides together with Emily. At a glance, the community acknowledges Homer as Emily’s date, but they feel like Emily will not consider him seriously. He is "a Northerner, a day laborer," A year later, Emily walks into a drug store and demands for drugs: “I want some poison.” The drug seller reluctantly declines to give Emily the drugs. This aspect further compromises her behavior and identity as she lives the community in suspense and dilemma as what could be the purpose of the drug. In section four, the writer illustrates fear in the community as they worry that Emily might use the poison to commit suicide. Since, her marriage does not show the likelihood of happening. The community recommends the Baptist minister to advice Emily in line with the matter. Emily discloses what happened and swears not to return. Consequently, discussions over the couple’s marriage hit the air. Homer returns to the house never to be seen again, and only the servant goes in and out. She declines to concede the tax bill. Emily finally dies at the age of seventy-four. In section five, the narrator ends the story by concluding on Emily’s burial. The women and her two cousins attend the burial. After some time, the community opens a sealed door that was closed for forty years. In there, they find a man’s suit and Homer’s body which has already decayed on the bed and Emily’s a long strand gray hair on the pillow. Inference from the above story, sorrow runs from the top to bottom. It is due to sorrow that causes Emily to commit a murder against his lover. Besides, it has forced the community to meddle into Emily’s family affair to probe and analyze what Emily hides behind the closed gates that no one entirely enters. On the contrary, it is through sorrow that the writer has commendably developed an interesting but hurting story to read. In line with this, the story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien expedites on love, war and death issues that cause sorrow finally. Together, the above mentioned topics, correlate with each other to bring out sorrow (Matthews, Roy & Roy, 311). At first glance, “The Things They Carried” uses Tim O’Brien as the round character. The fictitious O’Brien receives his draft notification in the summertime of 1968 and facades an ethical predicament. He must resolve whether to do the apparent honorable thing and report for the battle, or whether he should conform to his sentient and either face detention or to go Canada. This course instilled an inordinate deal about the nature of bravery and himself. He justified that people who do valiant things obtain motivation only by embarrassment or shame. Sorrow aspects emanate from the fact that he fails to let out the truth and thus betraying himself. Incapable of standing against the heaviness of Country and God, O’Brien leaves for Vietnam and with him he carries a fresh sense of ignominy. Once there, he discovers a war situation where soldiers have all manner of arsenal, not a bit of which is as substantial as emotional baggage. The soldiers carry hate, fear, guilt, dreams, love, and denunciation. They encompass threatening, coercive and semantic words to make the battle seem less actual, thereby belittling their engrossment into the war. They both struggle with the intellect that they were thriving while their associates were numb. Most of all, as the soldiers marched from township to township, they conceded the query ‘what’s it all for?’ Consequently, the soldiers feel more remorseful as the war progresses. They feel heartened because of their dead friends. Moreover, it is through the suffering that sorrow causes O’Brien to focus on the past events. O’Brien comprehends the fact that the battle is now compact to stories. Stories put a gyration on the battle, to make the battle seem like less agonizing and less existent. The period pieces get at the veracity of war by sidestepping generalizations, surpassing the boundaries of the real events. Subsequently, story-truth can at times be more existent than the happening-truth, one can have a factual story that certainly never happened. A true storyline makes the stomach accept as true. The facet of the battle may be exaggerated; nonetheless the ethical essence still applies. Further, the consequences of the war affect the soldiers imminently, in the logic that, no one who participated in the Vietnam skirmish materialized without transformation. An ideal example is where Mark Fossie’s dearest girlfriend who came to visit him as an All-American high school girl from Cleveland. Consequently, the war consumed up her innocence. She now enjoys the menace of combat and the ecstasy of the expedition. In addition, reminiscence of assassination of a Viet Cong fighter still preoccupy O’Brien, a man whom he envisions to be an apprentice like himself, a colleague legion soldier. Likewise, Norman Bowker, manages to return home but is incapable to make the switch from a combatant to civilian. His involvements continue to isolate him from his kinfolks and friends. He devotes his day to driving about the lake in his home ground, fascinating over an instance where he was incapable to protect a dying comrade. In the end, he compels suicide. Further, in an effort, to reconcile preceding wounds and discover closure, O’Brien proceeds to battle field in Vietnam where his colleague Kiowa perished. Symbolically, O’Brien submerges himself in the ground and entombs Kiowa’s moccasins in the mud where he died. He perceives the end of the battle for the Vietnamese. Thus, this comforts him to sojourn the skirmish contained by him. He contemplates back on a resentment he conceded for a young physician by the name Jorgensen, and in what manner his endeavor to get even merely instigated more discomfort. He comprehends that occasionally the encumbrances of the departed are too substantial to carry about with us. However, a story can concisely reinstate that person back to natural life. More importantly, stories are a strategic technique for liberating these afflictions and dealing the indignant of the bygone. From the story “The Things They Carried” one can designate on the sorrowful moments that the soldiers undergo throughout their service. However, the story ends with light as through stories they manage to surpass sorrow. In line with the above rationale, the story “The Lady with the Dog” by Anton Chekhov further depicts sorrow in the life of married couples (Smith, Virginia & Ronald, 187). Since, it dwells on the story of a forty-year-old man by the Dmitri Gurov with a fresh married woman by the name Anna Sergeyevna where the two ended up having an affair, yet they have spouses. Dmitri Gurov works as a banker in Moscow. He has a wife and together they have a girl and two boys. However, he feels unhappy in his matrimony life and thus he is often disloyal and contemplates womankind to be of “a lower race”. While in holiday at Yalta, he meets a young woman walking along the seashore with her a dog, and undertakes to make her consociate. The lady, Anna Sergeyevna, is also in a holiday trip, while her hubby vestiges at home in an anonymous bucolic town. Almost immediately the two get engaged, and devote most of their holiday together hiking and driving to neighboring Oreanda. However, she supposes her companion to emanate to Yalta. The husband in the long run, sends for her to return home, claiming that something is wide of the mark with his eyes. Gurov sees the above woman off at the station. Effects of sorrow continue to haunt Gurov. Thus, he decides to go back to Moscow to his everyday routine, operational by day and drinking by night. Gurov anticipates to soon forgetting fledgling Anna but discovers that her memory continues to haunt him. On the subterfuge of leaving for St. Petersburg to undertake several businesses, he leaves her township to locate her. Learning the position of the Anna habitation from a guesthouse porter, he locates the house. Nonetheless, only to comprehend that it would be fruitless to interrupt. In despondency, he perceives that Anna has perhaps overlooked him, and she now embraces some other guy and thus he returns back to his guesthouse for a long siesta. Besides, Gurov suffers imminently when Anna bewilderingly runs out of his sight at the Geisha auditorium. Afterward Gurov pursues her through the auditorium. Thus, he antagonizes her, and she confesses that she has been thoughtful of him relentlessly. So as to avert losing Gurov, Anna makes vindications so as go to Moscow. Thus, she tells her husband that she is going to Moscow to see a specialist, which he "believes and does not believe". Gurov recognizes that for once in his lifetime he has in reality fallen in affection, and figures the way forward. While they discourse of finding a strategy, the story ends without a resolution. Conclusion From the aforementioned stories, sorrow is evident. The stories expound the causes, effects and remedies that the affected persons choose to undertake in order to curb effects of sorrow. For instance, Emily decides to murder his future husband and eventually commits suicide in order to avert losing his husband and getting married in the long run. In line with the above justification, sorrow transforms the soldiers into much worse conditions. However, Tim O’Brien faces the problem courageously and ends up solving the problem. Also, Gurov averts sorrow by following his heart to love Anna. Contrary, they hurt their spouses in the long run. Owing to the above reasoning, sorrow is a virtually intolerable sadness that an individual ought to seek viable strategies in order to forfend its effects as they prove fatal when one fails to deter them. Contrary, sorrow is good in the intellect that it helps an individual identify his or her strengths. Therefore, I recommend that people to designate upon solutions that are rather for the benefit or else opt for guidance from qualified councilors. Work Cited Manser, Martin H, and Jessica Feinstein. Heinemann English Dictionary. Oxford: Heinemann, 2001. Print. Matthews, Roy T, F D. W. Platt, and Roy T. Matthews. Readings in the Western Humanities. Mountain View, Calif: Mayfield Pub. Co, 1998. Print. Moore, John N. John Marsden: Darkness, Shadow, and Light. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2011. Internet resource. Smith, Virginia L, and Ronald Hingley. Anton Chekhov and the Lady with the Dog. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. Print. Read More