*Author's Note*
The title speaks for itself. I chose the topic "Death is Essential for Life", or at least the one like it. Enjoy!
Death allows the natural order of life to continue. Should we all live to the end of the world, we would not be able to enjoy the true blessings given to us. Pain, joy, heaven, hell, love, hatred; all impossible. In order for life to have reason and purpose, death must be the last chapter in all our books. Even if the rest of us were all to die eventually, the one who would live forever would have to watch as all the ones he loved and all his friends die without him. He would not be able to grow old with his wife, rather than watch her age and wither away and stand over her grave as the same man he was when he married her.When Pi was in the boat, fishing for his very survival, he had to kill and force the fish he caught to give their life so that he may preserve his own. Death allows us all to live.
Only when you know your time here is limited do you live to your full potential. If you knew you would live forever, you would just sit on your porch for years on end, not doing anything to be human. If you didn't know whether you would be alive tomorrow, would you sit around and watch TV, or would you go skydiving and enjoying the thrill that is life? Life is like potato chips; they taste really good for a while, but eventually, they lose their taste. Death is the next food or drink. It's an escape from the now dull flavor. Once you reach the age where life starts to take things away, slowly and slowly, you begin to look towards the escape. The light at the end of the tunnel.
Even though we do not enjoy pain or fear, we all live through them. But that is what life is! There is no ecstasy without pain, there is no pain without ecstasy. These feelings are the very things that give life meaning. Pi lived through a hell few could imagine, but he is experiencing what life had in store for him. He was able to experience this because that is what life does to people. If you keep driving the car that you love more than anything in the world, eventually it becomes nothing more than a car. If you keep doing the job you love, it eventually becomes nothing more than a job. The Greeks seem right about life; there can be no joy without an equal measure of pain somewhere later. Many are afraid of this, for many have gone unpunished for all their sins. But that is what life is all about! Even if you have the worst childhood, the remainder of life should be enjoyable.
"Dream as if you will live forever, live as though you will die today." A famous quote by James Dean. The idea of life neatly packed into 14 little words. Many have the will to live their lives to the fullest, but many just don't want to. Those people do not realize the gift granted to them and may waste the greatest bounty man has ever known. Life is a spoil, but not one to be used in haste and vain. 'Tis a gift, a gift that keeps on giving and will never stop until the end. 'Tis a curse, a curse that will make hell a reality. 'Tis a blessing, something you can never fully grasp until your final moments. And in those final moments, you will answer the question: did you live your life?
You do a nice job here of tackling your ideas, and in the process cover a fair amount of ground. I would say thought that a significant shortcoming is the fact that there is no text evidence at all. Don't forget that when you write in response to a novel, it is terribly important to devise the perspective from which you will interpret the work, but also to show how you drew that from the text. Since there is no real reference to the text, that is simply missing.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mr. Johnson. I really like your idea development but my question through the whole piece is how does it relate to the book? If you were to put some text evidence in it, it would be more clear to me on how it relates to the book. I also really liked you analogies. I don't know if it's just me but I thought it really added to your paper. I really proves that you understood and added a twist that not many people add. It was really a good essay and I liked it a lot.
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