Jack Gantos: The Earliest Place In The World

Everyone is destined for death from the second he or she is born. It seems dark, but living people are so busy prospering in their life, they cannot completely comprehend the idea of their own passing. With death comes the mysterious transition from life to death, which though is fated is incomprehensible. In Something Rich and Strange by Ron Rash, the story focuses on this mystery and how different people go about comprehending it. The literary elements are used to support and clarify the central idea of the complicated and intricate story. Story elements of symbolism and point of view in Something Rich and Strange further enhance and point to the theme.

Many people do not have the chance to live out their dream; a sundry amount have to settle for more attainable goals. Future presidents became dentists and rock stars turn into nurses. There is a limited population who can walk up every morning completely satisfied with their life path; McTeague is one of the lucky few. He is a man who took the remnants of his deceased mother’s wealth and pursued his dream. Some might fantasize of bigger homes or fancier cars, but McTeague dreamed of a little dental parlor. His dream of starting up a business can seem rather small, but McTeague is content with his one shop. The narrator however disapproves of McTeague’s ambitions and belittles the protagonist through choice of structure and condescending

He also smokes pot because he enjoys the feeling of it. He keeps a bag in his locker and eventually convinces the rest of “the breakfast club” to smoke too with the

First of all, life should be taken how it is and not how one would want it to be. For example, in the book “The Glass Castle,” Rex Walls is a man who is everything except fatuous; in addition, he promises his children, Jeannette, Lori, and Brian, a castle made entirely of glass making of it their ideal dream.Thus, he supposedly was saving up money for the castle and the children start digging the foundation.

By biological logic, we human beings will face death sooner or later in our life and death has its very own ways to approach us - a sudden deadly strike, a critical sickness, a tragic accident, a prolonged endurance of brutal treatment, or just an aging biological end. To deal with the prospect of death come different passive or active reactions; some may be scared and anxious to see death, some try to run away from it, and some by their own choice make death come faster. But Viktor Frankl, through his work Man’s Search for Meaning, and Bryan Doyle; in his essay “His Last Game” show us choices to confront the death, bring it to our deepest feelings, meaningful satisfaction. To me, the spirit of the prisoners at deadly concentration camps, Frankl’s Logotherapy theory of “. . . striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man.” (99), as well as the calmness of Doyle’s brother on his last ride, like an awaken bell, remind us of how precious life is, how we should find the significance in every act of living, determine to live a meaningful life at any circumstances; hence, when death comes, we can accept it without anxiety nor regrets.

The opening of the graves and emergence of the dead symbolize the liberation of repressed desires and subconscious thoughts. Societal repression has given way to the unfiltered expression of one’s true

Over the course of human events, men and women of all ages fought and worked relentlessly to better their lives and their families' lives as well. Despite the arduous efforts, each and every one of those people ended up or will end up exactly the same: buried six feet under the ground. Life and death are the largest eventualities to happen to humans as a whole, yet most sentient beings, particularly humans, are afraid of death, due mainly to the natural fear of the unknown. "Numbers" by Mary Cornish seems to beg the question of what does it mean to truly be alive. Being alive is to expand horizons and to feel what life has to offer or simply to be happy, but in layman's terms, life is more than just being born, surviving and finally dying.

His dreams of college and desire to write became a living image for Jack Gantos. All he wanted to do was become a successful writer and pursue his dreams, he didn’t expect to make mistakes that would ruin his desire to write and dreams of going to college. Jack had made many mistakes in the memoir “Hole in My Life” however, he didn’t let that toxic environment ruin his goals and desire to become a writer one day. Although many people may not agree, I believe that it is likely for one to make mistakes, but harder for one to redeem from them. Redemption is necessary in order for mistakes to be interesting.

Upon everyone’s reunification in heaven they realize that the one thing that paradise is missing is life. They decide that they need to be reborn in order to experience the beauty that is living. Through all of their struggles, they have experienced a myriad of emotions. They have hated life, and yearned for death. Now they look forward towards life with a changed and renewed outlook.

Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman are both American men in pursuit of the American Dream which is, to acquire wealth, success, and prestige. This quest for money drives modern-day America, but behind our perpetual urge to consume and possess lays a grim motive. It is human awareness of mortality and the subsequent desire to prove we are special and somehow resistant to death that fuels the longing for wealth and possessions. The belief in money and materialism have come to be the primary goal for individuals during this time. Even though we know everyone will eventually die, we strive to attain enough money and objects so that we might be the exception, or at least,

Trying to make ends meet, he turns to selling drugs. By the time Jimmy finds love ones more and decides to settle down tragedy occurs. Trying to escaping from a drug bust at a friend’s house his attempts end up with a conviction for murder. Due to his illiteracy, Jimmy couldn’t read the false accusations he never committed.

Jeremy started to miss a lot of school because he believed it was a waste of time. Have you ever heard the phrase “time is money”? Well that’s exactly where Jeremy’s mindset was. From selling gum he went to pencils. From pencils it went to his urine until he couldn’t provide what the market was asking for, if you know what I mean. Of course with these selling habits, drugs were the next step in Jeremy’s life as an entrepreneur. Over time like any irresponsible child would do, he got caught. Busted by the only other people you do not want to get caught by besides the police; your parents. From this point on Jeremy calmed his habits and started spending his time differently. Jeremy had such a fond relationship with marijuana he decided he wanted to grow some himself. He wanted to test how his first plant would grow so he poked a little hole in the ground behind the shed near his house and dropped the tiny seed in. Two days passed and not a single sign of life. The following day he went back and checked the spot, where he had

You’ve probably heard the old saying. “Only two things in life are certain: death and taxes” It’s true: at some point, we all will die. Although you may think death is an unpleasant subject, it is something that everybody must cope with. People are different all over the world, but death is one thing that everyone has in common. ( Stair, choosing a career in mortuary science and the funeral industry 6)

Death is a subject we tend to shy away from, but why? It’s a natural occurrence that happens all the time, and it’s something we cannot avoid. At least once in our lives we will attend a funeral, but how many times will we visit the diseased once they are gone? A cemetery is a burial ground where those who have passed away lay to rest for the rest of eternity, and it gives their loved ones a place to go and visit them.

Some people don't realize how simple, yet complicated life is, that the point of it is not to ‘lose or win or become successful', but to die knowing that you have lived your life to the maximum and get the satisfaction from that. That you have created and destroyed, that you lived and the sun shone on you, and most importantly, that you left a footprint behind you.