Mark Helprins Views on Life - Essay Example

Mark Helprin’s views on life With technology is moving more than with the pace of light, the human beings are clearly moving away from nature. They are losing their ability to understand the nature. They are not even bothered about their fellow creatures. The common belief is that this beautiful land, pristine climate, other creatures and whole the earth are for the men and women only. Human beings are least bothered about giving a humanitarian consideration to the world at large, which consists of animals, birds, minerals, metals and nature.

But when the man reaches the peak, he would realise the meaningless of this conquering. Then he will be a happiest to surrender before the fury of nature or its forces. When man lives in a period of competitiveness and conquering, he had no choice but to sail in the direction of the wind, though he has no passion towards it. Famous novelist and short story writer Mark Helprin in his short story ‘Sail Shining in White,’ telling a story of an accomplished sailor awaits a hurricane that is going to hit Florida.

He knows that this hurricane would destroy the whole island where his house situates. But he is least bothered about it and expecting to face wrath of the hurricane in its peak. The hero of “Sail Shining in White” is a retired businessman at the age of 82. He has made tremendous success in his carrier. At the same time he has accomplished as a renowned sailor, who won costly and remarkable achievements in the field. His family is also well settled He has good memories about his wife and friends.

In the story, the writer brilliantly outlines the hero’s achievements as a sailor, businessman and a family man. When the story occurs the man is fully satisfied in the physical life. He has also an extra sense to measure the fury of nature, which he gathered as a sailor Writer says that knowledge about nature is far beyond the technological prowess of the today’s mankind (Womankind). Though he knows the eventuality of a disaster he is not ready to flee away from the scene. The man in the story has completed a fine, good life, full of adventure and accomplishment and great love.

Now his thought is that it was time to end his life as he had lived for a long time. His friends and loved wife have gone. When hurricane builds to its destructive crescendo and the authorities evacuated the town, this old man remained in the shore. When the storm approaches he took his yacht and gone for his last sail. He received the storm voluntarily with a smile in his face. Through out the story Helprin narrating the meaningless of man’s aggressiveness to introduce new technologies. In the beginning he is hitting hard at the boasting technological superiority of the human society.

In a fine morning, when the old man goes out to see his favourite seen, he notices smell of the air. He had realized that a storm is coming, which is existed between the deserted costs of Antarctica and Cape Horn. He knew it before satellites and meteorologists. He knew of the storm at the instant of its birth in the Atlantic coast of Africa. He sensed the coming of a great storm because of air over the Gulf, the lights and waves themselves. His several sailing experience give him an extra sense to knew it.

His ability was described as sharks’ intuition. The writer clearly means that the old man knows nature and sea more than satellites and meteorologists. It is because of his knowledge of the nature, which gathered from sailing world around. Here writer reminds that nature has a particular rhythm and it could be learned only trying to know it closely and friendly. The old man has also acute displeasure to the today’s sailors, who are not respecting the ocean. He says that today boats, hubris in fibre glass, asked to be sunk in the wrath of waves, because they carried out upon the waters things that made a mockery of the fine line there between life and death.

Instead of holding what was essential, beautiful or quick, they were seagoing repositories of every kind of vinyl, plastic and sin. So they are not experiencing the real sense of sailing. He feels that today’s sailors have lost the craze of adventurism. So they could not know the movement of the storm and nature of the ocean. It was remarked in his talk with a ferry captain. The writer is also worried about the attitude of new world towards other creatures in the universe. The narration of fragmented maroon debris that signified a crab killed on the road was an example of his thought in that regard.

Mark Helprin is also worried of losing values in life. He says that with the development of technology, relations are loosening. The old man’s conversation with his daughter is a classic example of it. To show his protest he is not even ready to use phone or other communication systems in his house.Mark Helprin is right in pointing out losing ground values, love and humanity among the new generation. Being a man of twenty years old I am experiencing the same feeling. The growth of technology has changed all life.

Now nature is not much close to me. My attitude towards animals, birds and nature is peripheral. I can’t even talk to my family regularly. I can’t just know the about atmospheric changes with my own sense. I can’t even enjoy the music of rain, though I had come from a land where there is raining almost six months a year.