To fully appreciate life as it happens is something that many people struggle to do. The play Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, is set in Grover’s Corners, a small town in New Hampshire. Two members of the town, George Gibbs and Emily Webb, grow up and get married. When Emily dies during childbirth, she experiences what happens after death, and meets other people she knew that have died. Emily has the opportunity to relive parts of her life, and decides to do so, even though the other people warn her not to. After doing so, she realizes many things she didn’t know about herself and other people. The residents of Grover’s Corners do not appreciate life to its fullest until it is too late, making them narrow-minded, and dying with regrets.
When one lets someone else control their decisions, they do not get to live their life, and often remain disappointed. Mrs. Gibbs tells Mrs. Webb about her life dream, to travel to Paris. However, her husband is not willing to go. She tells Mrs. Webb, “No, he said, it might make him discontented with Grover’s Corners to go traipsin’ about Europe… Every two years he makes a trip to the battlefields of the Civil War and that’s enough treat for anybody, he says” (20). In this scenario, Mrs. Gibbs gives in to her husband, who doesn’t seem to care about her desires. She does not get to live her own life. Her husband prevents her from being able to have new experiences that she has always dreamed of. Dr. Gibbs is afraid of the unknown, and does not even want to try something new, fearing that it might make him “discontented” with his present situation. This state of mind does not allow one to fully appreciate life. Without trying new things, one cannot know if they are living the best life t...
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...nt during life and regretful after death. To avoid this, it is important for them to get out of their present situation and try something new, to change their routine and to increase their mental horizon. If they find something better than their current life, they should take it. To appreciate life, one must be humble, and not conceited, which can hinder one’s judgment and alter one’s view of the people around them. Finally, they must observe and appreciate everything that is going on around them, including little moments of kindness and generosity from people. When this does not happen, it is very difficult to look back later and see how blind one was. While it is very difficult, if one is able to truly appreciate everything in their life and pursue their dreams, one may be able to die with no regrets, and not have been blind and ignorant during their life.
The Stage Manager is a man of many roles. Usually a stage manager is part of the non-acting staff and in complete charge of the bodily aspects of the production. In Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, the Stage Manager goes well beyond his usual function in a play and undertakes a large role as a performer. In Our Town the Stage Manager is a narrator, moderator, philosopher, and an actor. Through these roles the Stage Manager is able to communicate the theme of universality in the play. The main role of the Stage Manager is that of narrator and moderator. He keeps the play moving by capsule summations and subtle hints about the future. "I’ve married over two-hundred couples in my day. Do I believe in it? I don’t know? M….marries N….millions of them. The cottage, the go-cart, the Sunday-afternoon drives in the Ford, the first rheumatism, the grandchildren, the second rheumatism, the deathbed, the reading of the will-once in a thousand times it’s interesting"(699). Here the Stage Manager is giving insight about George and Emily’s future. He is hinting about their life and fate to come. "Goin’ to be a great engineer, Joe was. But the war broke out and he died in France. All that education for nothing" (673). The incidents discussed about are great events in George, Emily, and Joe’s lives. The Stage Manage emphasizes that the short things in these people’s lives are overlooked. There isn’t realization that it is the small parts of their lives that make a difference. His role as narrator differs from most narration. The Stage Manager’s narration shows casualness. The casualness connects the Stage Manager to the audience. "Presently the STAGE MANAGER, hat on and pipe in mouth…he has finished setting the stage and leaning against the right proscenium pillar watches the late arrivals in the audience."(671) The informality is evident since he smokes a pipe, wears a hat, and leans formally against the proscenium pillar. He also greets and dismisses the audience at the beginning and end of each act. The stage manager interrupts daily conversation on the street. The Stage Manager enters and leaves the dialog at will. He is also giving the foresight of death in the play. His informality in dress, manners, and speech, connects the theme, universality, of the production to the audience.
	Living is about making choices. The choices people make shape their lives for better or worse. Even the decision not to choose has its effects, often not wanted. But the individual who chooses to make positive choices and to act accordingly is more likely to see his or her life reflect his or her beliefs and desires. Usually the individual who chooses to take action is also willing to face the risks and obstacles that such choices involve.
Newly dead, Emily was able to look down on Grover’s Corners from a different perspective. From her new perspective, she realized that the lives of the living were much different than the lives of the dead. The stage manager explained “the dead don’t stay interested in us living people for very long. Gradually, gradually, they lose hold of the earth… and the ambitions they had… and the pleasures they had… and the things they suffered… and the people they loved…” (Wilder, 88). Since the dead were capable of looking over Grover’s Corners, they saw what the living could not. They did not stay interested in the living because it pained them to watch how ignorant they were. After enlightenment, the dead had no reason to hold onto their old lives. While looking down on Grover’s Corners, Emily was quickly able to tell that the live residents were living in a false reality, and asked the other dead “Live people don’t understand, do they?” (Wilder, 96). What the living did not understand was how lucky they were to be alive. They took everything for granted because they had no opportunity to look at their lives from a different perspective, as the dead had. After further examination, Emily concluded that “They’re sort of shut up in little boxes, aren’t they?” (Wilder, 96). Although Emily was not referring to the people of Grover’s
E. Cummings creates a critical and intolerant tone. He uses his work to criticize “most people” and how they blindly follow others. Cummings intolerance arises from others critical opinion of not normal people, whom the townspeople of the writing do not acknowledge. The uniqueness of both the main characters in the writing and Cummings is shown by the distinctiveness, inconsistency, and incorrectness of the writing. This tone directly relates to the theme and how anyone and noone are compassionate, caring people who actually recognize the value of life ,but are surrounded by townspeople who just stumble through life without a care or emotion. Cummings uses the seasons, bells, his unique composition and the repetition of “Women and men” and “anyone” to create and emphasize the unfortunate cycle of life. The use of the seasons in lines three,eleven, and thirty-four emphasise the passing of time and the unchanging ways of the townspeople. “Women and men”, in lines five and thirty-three,are used to remind us of Cummings definition of “most people” and how people tend to blend in and follow. The bells in lines two and twenty-four are used to indicate a change in the character 's, the first bell is before love and the second bell is rang before death.These significant life transitions show how love and death are final. life The character “anyone” introduces a person, unlike any others in the town, between him and his
We are born into this world with the realization that life is hard and that life is like a box of chocolates and it is hard to take it at face value. The majority of our time is spent trying to answer an endless stream of questions only to find the answers to be a complex path of even more questions. This film tells the story of Harold, a twenty year old lost in life and haunted by answerless questions. Harold is infatuated with death until he meets a good role model in Maude, an eighty year old woman that is obsessed with life and its avails. However, Maude does not answer all of Harold’s questions but she leads him to realize that there is a light at the end of everyone’s tunnel if you pursue it to utmost extremes by being whatever you want to be. Nevertheless, they are a highly unlikely match but they obviously help each other in many ways in the film.
Have you ever stopped to realize life for what it truly means? Every day we go about our lives taking things for granted without even realizing the value in every moment we are given. Playwright Thornton Wilder portrays this message in the play Our Town and he does it using unorthodox theatrical approaches. By using the Stage Manager to break the “fourth-wall”, Wilder is able to have a stronger impact on those who are listening. Wilder also creates not only a seemingly boring town, but also extremely bland lives of flat characters. By doing this, he is able to emphasize events such as marriage, birth, and death with characters Emily Webb and George Gibbs. Through them, Wilder intentionally shows how beautiful life itself is, especially the seemingly insignificant moments. He uses the technique of manipulating time by rushing through each act as well as including
Gratitude is one of the positive emotions shown from research and clinical trials to enhance the general well being of human beings. Gratitude is defined by Emmons (2004) as “a sense of thankfulness and joy in response to receiving a gift, whether the gift be a tangible benefit from a specific other or a moment of peaceful bliss evoked by natural beauty. Emmons and McCullough also see gratitude as an attitude, a habit, a personality trait and a way of handling difficult situations response (Emmons & Stern, 2013).
Many people take life for granted every day. Many of the characters in the stories we read often do this. In “The Necklace”, Mathilda does this by always thinking of herself and nobody else. My Left Foot shows how Christy Brown never takes his life for granted, and by doing this, it helped him overcome his disabilities. In the story Our Town not taking life for granted is one of the main themes, such as when Emily dies and George becomes very upset about it.
In conclusion, humankind is blessed with life as God created it. One must reflect on their actions throughout life because one will be judged by God in the next life, one must see the importance of gasping liberation, and one must have a loving and open heart when helping the poor. Life should be lived to its fullest because once time is lost, it cannot be regained; life needs to be appreciated.
Since childhood, we have been taught that the most precious thing in this world is life; therefore murder is the worst of all sins that one could commit. But when it comes to capital punishment, this moral, which has been taught to us since birth, becomes arbitrary. This is where we as humans have failed. Capital punishment is simply the taking of a human life sanctioned by the state. How is that any different from simply murdering someone? There is no reason for the death penalty to be an option, even in particularly heinous crimes, when the alternative of life in prison without parole is on the table.
As a young girl at 14, I used to reminisce about the future, how badly I wanted to grow up, to drive, to be popular in high school, go to college and land an amazing job, have a huge home, nice cars, and an extremely handsome husband. The older I got, the more I began to realize all of the things I once desired for were not what I truly wanted. I began to realize the value of happiness, adventure, and creating memories rather than the value of temporary popularity, material items, and physical appearances. What I realized was that when one is lying on their deathbed, because the only thing guaranteed in life is death, they will not think, “oh what a lovely car I drove” but rather, “I remember when I went on my first road trip with my friends.” As mentioned in “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom, Morrie emphasizes the idea, “once you learn how to die, you learn how to live,” meaning, remembering that one day we will all depart from this world, one will realize what it truly means to live. Another pointer that can essentially alter one’s vision of living life: to live simply, as discussed in “Where I Lived and What I Live For” by David Henry Thoreau. Although thinking about death is a harsh reality on a young teenager, it is rather helpful to wrap our heads around it at a young age. Why? because as one grows older, they will see more death. Living a simple life may seem boring to a young teenager, but as one grows older and their schedules become bustled with work, and responsibilities, they will wish that they could step back, and choose a simple lifestyle.
...s that we shouldnâˆ(tm)t dwell on the fact that we are going to die, but instead, ∜..fill your belly with good things; day and night, night and day, dance and be merry, feast and rejoice. Let your clothes be fresh, bathe yourself in water, cherish the little child that holds your hand, and make your wife happy in your embrace; for this too is the lot of man.âˆ
...s that one must accept the possibility of one's own death before he can truly appreciate what he has on earth, as the sobering awareness that one day, it will all be out of reach, prompts the urge to appreciate and value what one can have only for a limited period of time, and to use every moment of that time doing something that one will not regret when the bird sings its last note.
What does it mean to be happy? Happiness is a sensation that people want to have, and a lot of it. Above all else in the world, it’s what we seek and long for. Though this feeling can be found in many different places and at many different times, it isn’t easy to acquire. For some people, happiness might be found in exercise and sustaining good health. On the other hand, others can discover it when they go on vacation and relax. The idea here is that we each have our own things that make us happy.
An abundant life is a life that everyone has the ability to live. Every person regardless of his or her disabilities, race, culture, affect, or geological location is able to live an abundant life. The meaning of an abundant life put simply is to truly love oneself. If a person can truly live out these seven components, they truly love themselves, and therefore they are living an abundant life.