Family

 Author's note- This is my final essay for our group novel- Life As We Knew It.  In this piece I describe the theme of the book.  I never come outright and just say it, but I hint multiple times as to what it is. 

Lead in- Once upon a time everybody died.  Do you love your family? Too bad, they're dead. Your friends? Them too.  Ha! And you thought you were so tough!? What are you doing, crying in the corner with your head in your hands? You sit there and feel sorry for yourself while everybody else is dead!  Why would you want to live when you life isn't even worth living? Open you eyes! What is a hollow life but a shell of death and despair? You want to live now?  You're crazy.

Sixteen year old Miranda is faced with one of the greatest tragedies mankind has and will ever face.  With death around every corner family is the only thing standing between life and death, or even worse, insanity. With earthquakes and tsunami's racking the earth in search of blood people are terrified.  Food is so scarce that people are cutting down to one meal every other day, but even though a little goes long way, it doesn't go forever.  People are so desperate to live that they have gone so low as  to eat a poor innocent pet cat! No one is safe, and, quite frankly,  no one even remembers  what safe means.

I think that in my novel, one of the main themes is survival and the will, not necessarily for yourself to survive, but for the others that you love to survive.  Family is always there for you.  They hold you and comfort you, and even though sometimes you just want to knock them senseless, you love them and you don't know what you would do without them.  I have a large loving family at home.  They accompany me when I want to be alone, the make me smile when all I want to do is cry.  Honestly, without them, I don't know where I'd be today, other than knowing that I surely wouldn't be where I am.  Not only the Physical factor of them not feeding me and all, but the quilt I would feel if they died would surely kill me too.  Especially if I was placed in the position of Miranda in my novel. 

Miranda's family stands by her and she loves them so much that I know without a doubt she would give their life so they could live.  Jonny, Matt (her brothers) and her mother would do the same.  Honestly, as sweet and touching as that is, it is definitely not very efficient. Do you see the problem yet? If they all die so the others could live then they'd all be dead and no one could live! Starving, Miranda's mother believes that if she gives up all her food her little kids could survive, but they can't! Not without a mother! If my mom just went and died without a second thought, my brothers and I would be, for lack of a better term, dead.  We can't live without a mother, no matter how  "Mature and responsible" we are.

Life and death are the immortal equalizers that turn our innocent sweet minds into dark gloomy pits of despair and worry.  Will I die soon?  Will other people I love die while I'm alive? Will I have to watch? These are the questions that no matter how many times you kick them out they will still manage to creep back into your head.  Sometimes, though, these terrible questions that we are too terrified to think about just happen to answer themselves.  And when they do- beware, you can hide from questions all your life but you can never hid from answers.  They find you, they always do.  Surviving might be tough, keeping sane, even harder, but coming through on the other side unscathed, that's impossible.  The will to live is what kills us.  The will for others to live, that's our only hope. 

Blind Men

Piscine Moliter Patel, Pi for short, has a problem. He's trapped on a dingy lifeboat with a four hundred fifty pound Bengal tiger, and the only cat chow to speak of within a 500 mile radius is Pi himself. After many weeks of constant worry and starvation, Pi's physique begins to go downhill. First it's his skin, then his eyes, and eventually, his mind.

While drifting aimlessly through the ocean, Pi hears something. It sounds like an elderly man, but who knows what the ocean could do to you. He turns. The sound of the ocean drifts away and the sweet song on the human voice melts Pi's bones. The man asks if Pi has any food; Pi replies that he doesn't and asks the man if he has any food, same results. Pi’s heart goes out to the man; here he is eating boots while Pi has fish literally jumping to feed him. The man starts to climb over to Pi's boat and trips, his hands coincidentally landing directly on top of Pi's neck, hissing, "Yes your heart is with me, as with your liver and your flesh," He cackles as his hands begin to tighten. Pi struggles to warn the man of the tiger slowly creeping up on them, but he doesn't notice. Suddenly the tiger pounces and the assailant is killed instantly while Pi is left without a scratch. What a strike of luck to find another man in another lifeboat stranded in the middle of the ocean. Or is it?

Although I do not believe that the blind man was real, I also do not think he is completely a figment of Pi's imagination. The author, I think, put this experience into the story to symbolize the leaving of Pi's id and him turning himself over completely to his primal instincts.

They say "the eyes are windows to the soul", and since Pi is blind, does that mean his old soul is abandoning him? I believe that the tiger represents Pi's soul, while the other castaway represents Pi's instincts, and the creature he is slowly becoming. Think about it: Pi was blind before the meeting, and he regained his sight after he defeated this evil being that was taking over him. Coincidence? I don't think so. Pi's id was represented in the vengeance of the tiger attacking the blind man and when the tiger won, he got his sight back.

In order to prove my conclusion I need to explain the actions of the blind man and the tiger that led me to such ideas. The blind man is a cannibal, and even if he wasn't one when he started his journey to insanity, he is now. Why? Only to survive. In the beginning Pi couldn't even kill a bug, and since desperate times call for desperate measures Pi decides that it would be in his best interest to man up and do it -- to survive. The tiger was once beautiful and all powerful; now he has grown weak and thin, and Pi tames this beast, just like he attempts to tame his mind. Strangling Pi, the blind man cannot see the tiger, just as he cannot see himself being beaten while he is in the lead. The tiger leaps and easily the evil man is dead. Sanity returns, and the pair continue on their journey like nothing has changed but something has changed, inside Pi's mind.

The tiger, Pi's moral self, has won.  Had the primal blind man won I am positive that Pi would not have survived.   Pi's mind, the only reason why he is holding on, is the difference between life and death.  The difference between life and death is the will to survive.  The will to survive will keep someone alive, but they will exist only as a blind animal and without the stability of a zookeeper an animal cannot live through itself. 

The Journey

See through the storm,

Find the light through the dark,

The journey is rough,

To win the prize you need luck,

So luck I will wish you,

Till the end of your days,

Someday you'll thank me,

Possibly,

Maybe.

You will need it I'm sure,

To get where you're going,

Your brain will give up but you'll keep going,

Never doubt love,

The love in your heart,

You will need it I'm sure,

To keep up on top.

Terrible monsters will block your path,

You will be frightened but never fall back,

Your heart will be open,

Your brain will be closed,

They cannot hurt you remember to know,

I'll hold your hand,

I'll hold it tight,

Never let go through day and by night. 

When you get there, you'll know,

Your heavy heart will feel light,

Your eyes will fall closed,

The stars will shine through the night

You might fall to the ground,

A joy in your soul,

For once in your life,

Your heart forever,

All right.

Would you Rather??

Authors Note:  This is a twist on those annoying little Would You Rather- cards.  I think that these two settings perfectly capture the human's ideal world.  We all want to take the easy way out.  Everyone wishes they had perfection.  Sometimes I do too, but when you read the last line- think about it.  The obvious choice is not always the right one.  Comment with your answer. 

The bus bounces over hills and valleys , scales mountains, floats over rivers, each mile another lost memory.  The clouds snake across the sky and the sun plays hide and seek with the earth.  One moment sunny and gorgeous, the next dark and revealing.  Town after town disappears back with the horizon.  City lights come to life in the night and fall asleep suddenly once the sun shows its face.  Some of the passengers constantly have their faces squished up against the windows, while others sleep like babies through everything and anything.  Lastly there are the bouncy exited people that can never seem to take in the fact that they are actually going somewhere.  They can’t help it when their smiley little mouths come unhinged  and their tongues loll out in awe.  They look like dogs but are much more interesting than the sleepy sweaty ones.   The cozy seats look so pleasant and soft.  The lights in the ceiling never falter like the sun sometimes does.  The bathroom is always open.  The driver is always pleasant.  No one shouts, no one disturbs on another.  People say  excuse me and thank you.  No one is ever hungry.  It is perfection.  Constant serenity.  Peace.  Simply nothing. 

The fight was just starting to heat up.  There were two older men, obviously intoxicated, swinging madly at one another, only managing to make contact every other punch.  People averted their eyes when they saw the men.  Parents pushed their curious little kids along the street pretending not to notice the chaos.  Homeless people on the corners cheered the men on and one scraggly old geezer had even tried to start a round of "Fight! Fight! Fight!" but the chant died out as soon as it started.  Eventually the scuffle broke apart when a nearby police officer decided it was time to put an end to the disturbing entertainment.  The men were dragged off kicking and screaming by the officer and the spectators began to disperse to their separate ways .  It was insecure.  It was violent, but it was surely something. 

Which do you choose?

Poverty

"This child, one of the many hungry in this small village hasn't eaten in days. " The image of a boy, probably around five years old flashes across the screen, his rib bones clearly exposed under the sickly skin stretched over his thin frame.  The speaker continues-

"To let this little one go to bed tonight without food in its stomach would break your heart.  Give today.  Call the number at the bottom of the screen and donate from your heart.  A dollar a day can save a life."  The boy disappears in a split second and a new commercial starts.  What do you do?  Fast forward through the scene, calling it a scam?  Do you ignore it?  Why should you care about some kid you've never met?  The few of us that pick up our phones and dial the number, do you question your actions later?  Do you wish you could call again and take it back? Be true to yourself, we all have our own evils, and whether that evil is as obvious as selfishness, or even being too lazy to pick up you phone and punch in the numbers, and we make up excuses to fool ourselves into thinking that you are doing the right thing.  So ask yourself-  would you pick up the phone and call that number and save a life, or do you fast forward and forget you ever saw anything?

The air was thick with dust and seemed to cling to every crevice and hole in the ground.  It was sweltering and at least half the village was down at the river, licking up the very essence of water and savoring it as mud squelching in between their toes.  The dry season was coming soon, the river had already dropped quite a few feet in the last few weeks and worry was creeping into the minds of everyone.  Killing off all the crops, the dry season was a nightmare.  Not a drop of rain falls for the long three months from July to September, and without this necessary ingredient for life, the human body can only survive little over a week, but the mind falls apart much quicker.  The crazy ones go quickly, forgetting to ration their intake and then ending up drinking their three months worth of water in less than a week.  Many mothers barely get by on a gallon a week, saving theirs for their children.  More than half the villagers die. The greatest prize to the survivor is that blessed rain from the heavens to signal the beginning of another year. 

Later that night many of the villagers began to bail the river.  It usually would take months for little over a hundred people to empty a river, but these people knew what was at stake and a little less than a week later, not a drop remains.  After they finished, all the water went all go to the village's water holding compartment which was basically a giant hole in the ground covered in thick waxy leaves that helped keep the thirsty ground from drinking up their water.  Once the drought started the holding compartment was open only once a week and each family would take only it's designated ration, none more, and certainly none less.  Depending on the amount of water stored up, the rations varied from year to year.  Some years it was as little as 2 gallons a week and on good years you could binge with a full 5 gallons a week! The will to live is the only thing that kept you alive during these months. 

The once noisy happy village falls into a desolate slump.  No one dare sweats, as wasting water was the worst possible thing you could do.  Screaming at full blast through the cloudless sky, the sun was relentless.  Not only did the days reach to temperatures of at least 125 degrees, but the thirsty sun seemed to be sucking every last molecule of liquid out of the empty ground. Children did not play.  Mothers did not talk and gossip in the town.  Fathers did not go out hunting.  No one dared leave their house.  The silence was deafening and it echoed throughout the village like an angry battle cry announcing the feeling in everyone's heart and shouting it to the world.  A foreigner would most likely name the once alive and well village a ghost town and go home.  Every day seemed to get worse and worse until the weak would ones lose it and keel over.  The tough ones would cry and even the kind ones would get bloodthirsty.  No matter how many times you blink and rub your eyes this nightmare never dies until you do. 

July passes, slowly but surely and the water  holding compartment is only half full.  The people begin to worry.  August is gone in the blink of an eye, and the compartment is almost empty.  The villagers are parched, their rations have been cut in half, but the water is disappearing much faster than it should.  The wise men hold a meeting to discuss this recent problem.  The elders are in a league of their own, separated from everyone else, by their want to keep their village alive.  They have lived longer than most, and have the greatest will to survive when the going gets tough.  They are looked up upon by their followers, and everyone's dream is o one day be an elder and rule their town to be strong when they no longer have the strength. The elders solve any problem you could ever have, and although sometimes you might not like it, it keeps you alive.  The animal water rations are cut.  Keeping animals alive during the dry season is extremely difficult, as they require water and food and care to produce necessary things like milk and eggs.  No one dares argue with the elders and the animals die.   September passes. 

Imagine the joy of not seeing a single drop of rain for over three months.  What would you do when you see your first rain?  Do you dance and sing?  Do you rub your eyes and blink, wondering if you are dead?  The villagers rush out of their houses and laugh and sing and play. Every emotion that they hadn't felt for the longest time rushes back and tears of happiness mix with the rain and fall to the ground, the dry dirt now a soppy muddy mess.  The children run and jump into the mud, covering themselves head to toe with the glorious slop. Fathers hang to the side, not as soft as the mothers and the kids, but everyone of them has a grin the size of Africa stretching across their face.  The world is right again and the once empty eyes of its people fill with joy.