The Survivors

My breath is coming out fast in little white puffs, like smoke signals. I cry out for help, but no one hears me. The water is so cold. There are life boats but none come to my rescue. Why? I can sense it now, death, it's coming slowly like a distance memory resurfacing. It's not as scary as I thought it would be. I only wish that it didn't happen this way. I know that if I could only get to those life boats i'll have a chance, but they're so far away. Warmth is starting to spread through me and I know i'm near the end. I want to try and fight it, to not give in, but i'm so tired. My eyes, which were once transfixed on the life boats, slowly close. Finally I give into the darkness. Death greets me like an old friend. The warmth spreads through my body and the last thing I see is the Titanic, the unsinkable ship sinking into the ocean and all those life boats floating away. I'm not angry at them. Nobody thinks sensibly when faced with death. These people in the boats have family's too and I am not angry at them for fighting to see them. It's just that I have nobody left.

Man or Murderer?

For Simon, forgiving the dying SS man became a turmoil inside himself. Throughout the entire confession Simon switches the title of the dying man. In the beginning, when he first started having compassion for him he was the "SS man". But, after he heard the horrors the man committed he became the "murderer." Simon's humanity tells him to forgive, but his past experiences tell him that is impossible. He feels like it is not his place to forgive this man. In the end, Simon comes to the decision to say nothing. Even afterwards, he cannot decide if this man was simply a "SS man" who was persuaded through propaganda and had no choice; or if he was a "murderer", cold and heartless who should never have the pleasure of peace, even in death. Four years later, the memories of the dying man still haunt Simon. He now has turned to others, asking what they would have done in his situation. When a situation presents itself we may expect to act one way, yet when the time comes we may be surprised how we actually react.

Who am I to forgive?

Do people truly deserve forgiveness? In all honesty I think that some people's actions are so horrific that forgiveness seems almost impossible. For example, would you want to forgive someone who for over 20 years kidnaps children and forces them to be soldiers or sex slaves? No. Yet, my beliefs and my morals tell me that no matter what, the crime is, everyone deserves forgiveness. Who am I to decide whether someone should be forgiven? What if that person finds shame in what they did and repented? Then should I still not forgive? I believe that no matter how repulsive his actions may be he should be forgiven. After all, we all do things we regret, and if we were in a similar scenario we would want to be forgiven too.

Broken Glass

She stares into her broken mirror
At all those broken pieces
And all those rough edges

Those tiny imperfections that only she can see
Yet the people who pass by
Never see a thing

No one ever helped her replace
Those broken pieces
Or smooth those rough edges

They all just passed by
Like the wind through the trees
Never stopping, never watching

So, she put her mirror on the wall
Leaving those broken pieces and
Those rough edges behind

And closed the door behind her
Because no one ever helped her
Replace those broken pieces
And smooth those rough edges

They just kept walking
Never wondering, never noticing
That the girl with the broken glass
Wasn’t there anymore

Curley’s Strive for Superiority

Tenacity has its downfalls. Curley, in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, should know this better than anyone. It becomes clear in the story that he acts the way he does for underlying reasons. Curley is small in stature, but sees himself larger in his own eyes. He wants to show power over others by using his wife as a possession. He strives for self respect from the one person that makes him feel so small and insecure, his father. Curley’s pugnacious character tends to make him strive for superiority.

Curly is short and uses snarky comments to hide his weakness. Sadly, Curley is “like a lot of little guys.” Curly uses his height as an excuse to get back at everyone that is bigger than him. He continually acts superior by mocking bigger guys such as Lennie. He is always trying to “[pick] scraps with big guys,” and he “hates big guys.” When Curly heard Lennie laughing at him, he began to pick a fight and put on a show to get the other guys to see him take on the big man. His short height makes him feel angry, as if he is a lower rank than others and not as good as anyone else.

Curley sees his wife as his toy and uses her as a trophy over other men. One example is how he tells everyone about his “glove full of Vaseline,” which he boasts keeps his hand soft for his wife. He doesn’t really love her but wants others to be jealous of his possession. Curley uses his beautiful wife to show others that he is better than them. She doesn’t “like Curley” though. She flirts with other men. This makes Curley feel very angry and threatens his sense of stature.

All Curley wants from his father is respect and for his father to be proud of him. Curley wears “high-heeled boots” just like his father wears. He wants to mirror his father’s image, and the respect the other men have for his father is intimidating to Curley. By mimicking his father, though, he fails and gets less respect than what he demands. In an attempt to be stern like his father, he yells at Lennie, “you answer when you’re spoken to.” He doesn’t want anyone to know that he is weak so he turns on Lennie and demands respect from the new guy. He uses his father’s position to gain power over the men and in turn gain his father’s respect.

Curley was intended to be a flat character without any depth, but at a closer look, he begins to emerge as a round character. He uses his height as an excuse to fight others and gain greater status. He thinks that he also needs valuable possessions, like his wife, in order to feel powerful and in command. Even after losing his wife, he spends his energy getting revenge on Lennie for taking away his property. Curley is a man that is struggling to please his father while still trying to satisfy his craving for superiority. Curley exhibits the little-man syndrome who tenaciously over-exaggerates himself to make up for his weaknesses.

Defying Main Street

The clouds hang lazily in the sky like little white cotton balls. It’s another slow day in Batesville, Arkansas. I walk into the middle of the street and look at Main Street painted before me. This place must have been the “place to be” in its younger years. Now I only see an insipid landscape. As I look at the gothic buildings, the cracked pavement, and the few elderly people meandering down the sidewalks, I feel stuck. It’s as if the buildings looming overhead will suddenly close in on me, and I will never be able to get out. The signs sticking out of the buildings laugh at me and tell me to get use to it, because I’m never going to leave. The cars parked along the road seem to symbolize each person that has given in and “parked their car” in their own little ruts. I walk back to my car lugubriously. As I settle in to the front seat, a wave of determination washes over me. Suddenly I glare at those signs through my windshield and make a promise to myself that I will never give in. I straighten my back and drive through Main Street, defying every sign that I pass. I don’t look back. I drive forward with the sun shining before me like beacon of hope.

Who were they?

On 9/11 there were 19 hijackers involved, and all affiliated with al-Qaeda. The hijackers were split into four teams, each led by a pilot-trained hijacker and three or four “muscle men” to help subdue passengers and crew. Mohamed Atta, Waleed al-Shehri, Wail al-Shehri, Abdulaziz al-Omari, and Satam al-Suqami were the hijackers for Flight 11, the plane that hit the 1st tower. Marwan al-Shehhi , Fayez Banihammad , Mohand al-Shehri, Hamza al-Ghamdi , and Ahmed al-Ghamdi were the hijackers for Flight 175, which hit the 2nd trade center. Hani Hanjour , Khalid al-Mihdhar, Majed Moqed, Nawaf al-Hazmi, and Salem al-Hazmi were the Flight 77 hijackers for the Pentagon. Ziad Jarrah, Ahmed al-Haznawi, Ahmed al-Nami, and Saeed al-Ghamdi were the Flight 93 hijackers in the plane that went down in Pennsylvania. So, why were these men chosen? Was it because of their ranking in al-Qaeda or because of their background? Maybe it was because they were respected jihadists? That’s why Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi were chosen. Bin Laden himself chose these two men because they were thought of as “respective jihadists” in the eyes of the al-Qaeda leaders. Either way these men were trained in every aspect, even by Americans. The pilots themselves took a flight training course in Florida! So, who are these men? And why were they chosen? The answer is not clear, but we do know that these men were in al-Qaeda and we can infer that all of these men had been involved in some type of terrorist attack before.