Second Variety Analysis

The Second Variety
By, Philip K. Dick

"They were beginning to design weapons to use against each other"

This quote was the impactful last line of Philip Dick's short story, "The Second Variety". I chose this quote for the heavily implied consequence it touches on concerning the  differing groups and factions   exist and compose a society. In the context of the quote, the author is referring to the  robots who have evolved into their own species and the weapons they have begun to design against each other in a battle for superiority. However the implication can also speak greatly to not only the cold war, but war in general in the past and the present. This implication, which I believe the author is trying to coney to the reader is that  it seems as though  groups or factions who have fundamental differences, whether it be geographical location, history, religion, race, culture, and ideology have a tendency to engage in conflict and compete for superiority.

        In the case of the cold war, which provides the historical backdrop for this story, this tendency to engage in conflict and compete for superiority was showcased on many different fronts by the United Sates and Russia .  As an explanation to why the Americans created the machines in the first place, it is said,  " The Soviet Union had had great initial success, usual with the side that got the war going. Most of North America had been blasted off the map. Retaliation was quick in coming of course" . Then there instances where the reader heard the soviet union's side in which they engaged  in retaliation  such as drop chutist and bombs. However the all encompassing irony of the situation was that in the two countries' battle for dominance and superiority  they ended up destroying what they were working so hard to protect and possess- their land,  livelihoods, and way of life. This is displayed no better way in the story than through the fact that  Europe is in "a pile  of ash" and  Americans have had to vacate the United States for the moon. In fact, their is a pervading sense through the description of the setting and the tone of the story that all destruction and war has led to is more destruction and war. The picture painted by the "automatic retaliation disks spinning all over Russia, bacteria crystals, chain bombs, robots and the claws", is one of  of savage  violence and continuous bloodshed. It's as if in order to one up each other a more dangerous and catastrophic  weapon was designed by each side every time. Even more ironic is when Hendricks talks about which side is winning, for how can one even begin to talk about winning when the earth has been rendered uninhabitable and their has been a catastrophic loss of life.

        Whats even more interesting is the social structure and intelligence of the robots which have emerged out the conflict.  These robots have adapted so well that they can not only create their own artificial human body, but they also know how to prey on human weaknesses such a sympathy in order to fulfill their desires.  The reader see this through their creation of  the wounded solider and pitiful orphaned child. Also they have the capacity to work together  and betray each other, as seen in  Klaus and and Tasso. Yet the most striking and disturbing fact remained to be that  they had created weapons to destroy and have the upper-hand against each other. This behavior-so human like in quality  and there fore disturbing in its  display,  brought an interesting thought to mind. This thought was is it then a natural  and unavoidable course of action amongst  differing factions and states that their will always be conflict and a fight for superiority and dominance in the creation of world order. I say this because what the reader can assume the robots are trying to creating  is their own world order. However in order to accomplish this, they are plotting  and warring amongst themselves.

Most Dangerous Game Aanalysis

The Most Dangerous Game 

by Joel McCrea

Quote- ""Life is for the strong, to be lived by the strong, and, if needs be, taken by the strong. The weak of the world were put here to give the strong pleasure. I am strong. Why should I not use my gift? If I wish to hunt, why should I not? I hunt the scum of the earth: sailors from tramp ships--lassars, blacks, Chinese, whites, mongrels--a thoroughbred horse or hound is worth more than a score of them."

I chose this quote for the perfect way in which it summarizes one of the main ideas of the story. This idea is rooted  in the  consequences and assumptions one is susceptible  to when they adopt  a social darwinistic  type mentality towards their fellow man. In the short story both of the main characters hold the elitist and prejudice mindset that the higher in social standing one is above others, the more power that such person is allowed to hold and enforce against those of a lower standing. However what is so fascinating and  ingenious about this short story is that the author doesn't come right out and say that this type of mindset can be erroneous. Instead cleverly, the author teaches the reader  about the negative consequences  associated with such a world view  through the bizarre and terrifying story of Rainsford.  Rainsford is a man who simply  equates  the ownership of superficial  qualities, materialistic possessions, and social standing  to the ownership of complex principles such as morals and rightly utilized power. In fact, disturbingly in the story he divides the  people of world  into two classes- "the hunter and the hunted". When Rainsford washes up on an ominous island after being lost at sea, he comes in contact with a man who shares similar social darwinistic views on who should hold power and who shouldn't. In fact, Zaroff  at first seems to be the pinnacle of what Rainsford would describe as civilized and by all appearances  seems like a "gentleman". Yet  this is one of the erroneous  assumptions  one can make, for the reader comes to find out that Zaroff is as devoid of human morals as some of the animals he has hunted.  In the quote Zaroff states "Life is for the strong, to be lived by the strong, and, if needs be, taken by the strong". However what if the strong is morally bankrupt and evil? This then brings the reader to the conclusion when you claim that superficial  qualities, materialistic possessions, and social standing gives one the right to do as they please and abide by their own moral compass, you have to bear in mind that the person who has found themself on top and possess alot of power, may also possess inherently corrupt  principles.   A real world example of this would be all the atrocities and  injustices committed during colonialism times under the name of the white man's burden and greed. The story is also well crafted by the fact that the author gives us the perspective of Rainsford when he considers himself a predator ,  when he becomes pray, and then also when he potentially become a predator again that is even more dangerous than the one he was before. These character shifts are important because they highlight the dangers of human to human interactions in which one person or group has so much power and control over another person or group. 

An Occurrence On Owl Creek Bridge Analysis

An Occurrence On Owl Creek Bridge 

by Ambrose Bierce 

"The intervals of silence grew progressively longer; the delays became maddening. With their greater infrequency the sounds increased in strength and sharpness. They hurt his ear like the trust of a knife; he feared he would shriek. What he heard was the ticking of his watch." 

I decided to write about this quote from Bierce's short story due to way in which it highlights a key concepts expressed in the narrative.  One of these concepts concerns the pull of fantasy as apposed to reality in dire times of stress and impending mortality. In the quote, the main character is facing death by noose in a matter of minutes. In his state of desperation many  time arises to the fore front of his mind it its importance. Through its personification as something physically heavy and  arrestingly loud, the reader is able to grasp time's significance to the main character. However something  which stood out was Peyton's denial of reality up until and attachment to the ideal up until the very end. Peyton doesn't recognize the sound of this watch  as  his watch, instead he grants it an identity of more significance.  When the author introduces Peyton's character he is from the start a character clings to and pursues an "ideal existence".  This was best demonstrated through his desire to be a solider who becomes a great war hero.  Unsatisfied with his affluent lifestyle as a slave owner,"he chafed under the inglorious restraint, longing for the release of his energies, the larger life of the soldier, the opportunity for distinction". Using this naive, idealist mindset under which he is untouchable, infallible, and destined fro greatness, he is fooled by the union scout into  a misson against the  union soldiers.  However just as how his  naivety and idealist mindset leads him to undertake a foolhardy task, he also can't resist  holding on to his dream to be a hero even as he dies. Even as he swings from the noose he is building a fantasy world in which he has escaped his fate.  What's even more interesting is that in this daydream there is an internal struggle in which his mind seems to be telling him to let go and die a hero's death for his cause,  whilst in reality he has a great will and desire to live.  The reader sees this contradiction when he states that as he fell into the water he told his hands to ""Put it back, put it back!".  Yet the great irony of  the story lies in its title. Despite Peyton's efforts in reality and fantasy to amount to something great in this life,  all his death amounted to was " An Occurrence On Owl Creek Bridge".

God of Love analysis

God of Love
Directed by, Luke Matheny

"you can't control who you love. you cant control who loves you. you can't control ,when it happens, why it happens, you can't control any of that stuff."



When I watched "God of Love",  this piece of dialogue this  stood out in the way it spoke  to the central message  the movie was trying to convey to the audience.  Part of the message was that many things that happen in life are sometimes out of our control and subject wholly to randomness. The script uses the experience of falling in love and being in love as a prime example of such instances which are not completely in our control. The main character claims that he was deeply in love with kelly and that someway some how he needed to make her fall in love with him too. However the audience is also introduced to the fact  there is more of a natural inclination for there to be relationship between kelly and the best friend, than the main character.  But so obsessed is the in main character in  directing life to go the way he believes it should, that he at one point plans to stab kelly multiple times with the love dart until it works the way he believes it should. The key phrase in that sentence being the "directing life to go the way he believes it should". Another part of  the message I believe the film was trying to relay to the audience was that just like the main character one shouldn't become  rigidly consumed in fulfilling an ideal. This is because life can be full of many surprises, obstacles, and new beginnings. However if you refuse to open yourself up that unpredictability aspect of life, and instead  stay trapped in your beliefs,  you run the risk of becoming an unsatisfied  and narrow minded person. The main character of the story serves as a perfect example of this idea. If he had  stayed trapped in the mindset that he had to  make Kelly or some other girl permanently fall in love with him and refused to step outside himself he would have never discovered what a great match kelly and his friend made. Even more importantly he would have never  been open to his new found role in life and path to happiness.   With acceptance of what couldn't be came enlightenment of all that could.

Happy Endings Analysis

Happy Endings

By, Margret Atwood

Quote:

"That's about all that can be said for plots, which anyway are just one thing after another, a what and a what and a what. Now try How and Why." -Narrator

In this  short story I was given  one life description after another by the Author.  The seemingly  content  people in part A, are comfortable and in some ways living out an  "ideal" life cycle. However  there was still something missing. The upper middle class cookie cutter  lives they were living out gave off a feeling of being boring, easily forgotten, and lacking of emotion and passion one associates with a lives that have been lived to the fullest. The unsatisfactory air that Mary and John life stories give off in part A, are much like the narrators tone when describing them-matter a fact and emotionless.  At first when I pondered why this was, I thought i must be because there was no challenge or obstacles the couple faced and overcome that left the description of their marriage up until death so hollow.  Yet even  when the author moves on the less than desirable descriptions of people lives who do face obstacles, challenges, and conflict there is still a sense of unfulfillment when there end has arrived.  The reason I find the quote above to be so compelling is  that gives a extremely wise answer to my questions and pondering. It is not  necessarily the actions that take place in one's life  that claim primary importance .  For as Atwood would put it a life, like a plot  is "just one thing after another, a what and a what and a what". There fore since all life will come to an end  no matter which way you have lived it so far, what should rest heavily on a person's mind is the "how and why".  I believe Atwood was trying to persuade the reader to arise at question such as: how are you living your life and is this in anyway conductive to the attainment of true happiness and personal fulfillment? Or , why are  you living and what is your motivation and aim in this life so that you can die at peace with all you have done and experienced? These are all essential questions that it seems the charters in Atwood's story  never stopped to truly consider. I say this because in all of the life descriptions the characters seem to be searching for something that they usually believe they can find in another person. However in the end they end up disappointed because they never looked to themselves as a potential source of happiness and fulfillment. 

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas analysis

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

By Ursula Le Guin



"Their tears at the bitter injustice dry when they begin to perceive the terrible justice of reality, and to accept it".

This quote stood out to me not only due to the core truth it represented for the people of  Omelas but also for its applications in today's current world. The world of Omelas is one in which most accept and purposefully remain oblivious to the fact  that an innocent must supposedly  suffer for their happiness and livelihoods. In fact, one of the most shocking contrasts described in the short story by Le Guin is the picture of blissful happiness she paints of the townsfolk of Omelas as they attend a town clelbration and then the shocking scene of depravity and inhumanity she depicts as the environment of the child. Yet Le Guin claims  these citizens are not not inherently evil but rather possess, " the finest and fairest souls of all men everywhere". This then brought me to the thought of how could one ever claim to be so good, when you knowingly have knowledge of  such great evil  and choose to do nothing. For example, recently during a human rights seminar I participated in, I saw a picture of luxury high rise apartment located not more than twenty feet away from a slum area filled with people  living in makeshift tents made out of plastic, cardboard, and cloths. After I saw that picture the first thought that popped into my head was how could those people carry on with their affluent lifestyle, when literally right outside their window so many suffered.  I arise at the same realization after  reading Le Guin's story as I did when I saw that picture. This realization was remaining blissfully ignorant is  morally irresponsible and wrong . Yet still the situation is more complex than it may initially seem? For aren't there countless citizens in affluent countries aware that many starve to death and live  day to day in horrendous conditions. The number of those who act are disproportionate to the number of those who do not. Instead like the quote says its as if " Their tears at the bitter injustice dry when they begin to perceive the terrible justice of reality, and to accept it".  There is also the condition that when one chooses to act they in a way acknowledge that they have a moral responsibility to do so.  The weighty  word in that sentence being responsibility. For you can acknowledge  that the world can be extremely brutal at times and you can accept that this occurs often. Yet where do you go from there? Do you accept this fundamental truth and separate yourself form the issue by claiming that the situation has nothing to do with you or do you advocate and act in the name of preserving people's fundamental human rights? However Le Guin's adds an interesting twist  to this dilemma by claiming that all the citizens of Olema  are taught that if they help the child then joyous  life as the know will come to an end. The key phrase in the sentence being they have have been told . This threat  that they child's wellbeing holds against the people of Olemas is not a fact that has been proven but rather a beleif they hold dear. The situation reminds me of Nazi Germany. There was no solid proof that the Jewish people where responsible for all the terrible deeds the Nazi's claimed they where. However through  Nazi propaganda there was common belief that they were and because of this they deserved less than humane treatment. In fact, in Olemas past there could have been some perverse person who claimed in order for the citizen's happiness to be maintained a child must be sacrificed and before you know it this claim became a common truth. Then there are the people who choose to leave Olemas who I find to be the most interesting of all.  I say they are the most interesting because clearly by leaving Olemas they recognize   the wrongness in living happily supposedly  at the consequence of an  innocent child suffering  immensely. However by leaving are they silently protesting the inhuman treatment of the child or are they running away. i say this because none of them take the child with them when they leave.

Saint Marie Analysis

Saint Marie
By Louise Erdrich

" You have two choices. One, you can marry a no good Indian, bear his brats,  die like a dog. Or you can you can give yourself to God."- Sister Leopola pg. 48


I chose this quote because it serves as a telling indicator of a major driving force of the plot. This force is  Maire's inner and outer struggle with the consequences of  her identity. She is part white and part Native American in a time period in the American history when the latter of those identities was associated with immorality, being ostracized , and having a lifestyle  which was closely associated with the workings of the devil. The reader sees the undercurrents of racism and prejudice at work in that society  when Marie   describes the town she area she lives in as one in where " the Dark one had put in the thick bush, liquor, wild dogs, and indians".  However if the devil had a hand in establishing those so-deemed  unsavory parts the area, then God must have had a hand in creating the  church  which she describes as " Gleaming white. So white  the sun glanced off in dazzling display to set forms whirling behind your eyelids.The face of God you could hardly look at".  The church  at the top of the hill is seen as a pinnacle of virtue,  whose judgment even the  white townspeople fear and are aware of  when they put  up a storm blocker in front of the bar to block nun's view of drunks. Its as if having realized due to her biracial ethnicity she'd be forever viewed as lesser than, Marie decides that she she must find a method to not only raise her status to that of the white residents in town, but even beyond that to  the ever virtuous status of a saint. For a saint is one who even the seemingly most moral and virtuous, the nuns, must literally bow down to.  A quote that best display  this mindset, is when Marie  says things such as "I was going to up there to pray as much as they could. Because I don't have that  much Indian blood. And they never thought they'd have a girl from this reservation as a saint they'd have to kneel to". The person who Marie most deeply desires to prove her virtue and worth to is the sadistic and harshly racist nun called  Leopolda.  According to  Marie in the beginning of the story she is a nun whose outward devotion to Christianity is clearly defined through her appearance  and  whose condemnation of the devil is seen through her actions. What also drew Marie to her was Leoplada's insistence that the devil wanted her most of all presumably due to her so-called sullied lineage.  Marie describes herself as "the girl who thought the black hem of her garmet could help me rise". However the more  Marie uncovers   Sister Leoploda's evil and sadistic nature, so contradictory to  her role as a servant of the Lord, the more Marie comes to a new realization. This realization is that   " the real way to overcome Leopolda was this: I'd get to heaven first. And then when I saw her coming, I'd shut the gate. She'd be out. That is why besides the bowing and scraping I'd be dealt, I wanted to sit on the altar as a saint". Surprisingly however after Marie receives the status of a saint ,although it is extremely satisfying, she feels  pity for Leopolda. In fact instead of staying at the covent to bask in the glory of her sainthood and  triumph over Leopolda, Marie chooses to leave. She states that " blank dust was whirling through the light shaft. My skin was dust. Dust my lips. Dust the dirty spoons on the ends of my feet". Earlier in the passage Marie has a vision in which as punishment for her sins Sister Leopolda is eating glass which erodes her insides and transforms her into dust. The irony of situation at the end is Marie claims she herself is dust and is surrounded by dust after she becomes a saint under false pretenses. This figurative similarity between their two states can be explained by the fact that at the finish of the story they are both wolves in sheep clothing who deserve punishment for their sins. Rather than  arriving to sainthood through prayer and good deeds, Marie does so through attempted murder, deceit, and trampling on the spirit of Sister Leopolda. This is  quite similar to sister Leoploda , who has always guised her twisted ways under a religious cloak of devotion and virtue.  In the end Marie's actions  have brought physical and mental harm to her  in an effort to prove  to others she is a worthy human being. However it seems even being worshiped as a sacred being is not worth the loss of one's own principles and sense of self.

Sweat analysis

Sweat by, Zora  Neale Hurston

"He crept an inch or two toward her—all that he was able, and she saw his horribly swollen neck and his one open eye shining with hope. A surge of pity too strong to support bore her away from that eye that must, could not, fail to see the tubs. He would see the lamp. Orlando with its doctors was too far. She could scarcely reach the Chinaberry tree, where she waited in the growing heat while inside she knew the cold river was creeping up and up to extinguish that eye which must know by now that she knew." pg. 6

This is the quote  not only closes the novel, but also reveals to the reader the extent to which Sykes's unrelenting abuse and brutal torment has turned Delia against him. In the quote Sykes has fallen prey to his own instrument of torment for Delia and as he slowly and painfully dies  from the snake bites he literally  looks to Delia out of his one good eye to help. However a characteristic of this quote that makes it so interesting is that Delia points out that Sykes will be able to see the tubs and the lamp. The washing tubs can serve as symbolic representation of  years of continuous , toil, hardship, and sweat Delia has had to undertake and endure in order to support Sykes, herself, and the home they reside in. As Delia puts it every live long day all she does is "Sweat, sweat, sweat! Work and sweat, cry and sweat, pray and sweat!". However the one thing that brings Delia some source of solace and pride in her life is the little home she has built. According to Delia, "she had built it for her old days, and planted one by one the trees and flowers there. It was lovely to her, lovely". Then Sykes dares to come and defile this one source of loveliness in her life by keeping a huge hungry snake-Delia greatest fear,  and bringing his mistress into the home. Not to mentions he places the extremely hungry snake in Delia's laundry basket for her to find after she threatens to report his abuse to the authorities. After this incident takes place it's as if Delia has finally been pushed over the edge for in the passage it claims that  " with this, stalked through her a cold bloody rage, Hours of this. A period of introspection, a space of retrospection, then a mixture of both. Out of this an awful calm".  It was then as a reader that I postulate that Delia came to the realization that she wanted Sykes to die. There fore she doesn't put the lamp in a place Sykes could easily find it, nor does she warn Sykes they are out of matches. Rather with the knowledge that  the snake is loose in the house and that there are no lighting apparatuses for Sykes to use to see the snake coming, Delia lays await outside the house to watch and hear the terrible drama which is about to unfold. Repeatedly before being bit by the snake Sykes exclaims that the situation would have been okay if only he had a light for he knows how to handle snakes. This then bring me to the second part of the quote where Delia reasons that with with his one good eye he should not only be able to see the tubs, but also the lamp. Delia's reasoning leads me to believe that she possibly but the lamp which could have save Syke's life either in, on, or abound her washing tubs-a location where Sykes would have never thought to look for it. However as he is dying the tub and lamp serve as a message to him from Delia that the predicament he is in currently wasn't an accident, but rather retribution he had brought on himself. The situation is comparable to saying Delia put forth earlier in the short story-"whatever goes over the Devil's back, is got to come under his belly".