Meaning of Life

Death, it is all around us. Death, it is complicated. It could happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere, just waiting for us around any corner. What is going to happen to us when we die? We, humans, tend to try not to think about it too much, but it is something inevitable, something we will all eventually come to. I believe that everyone fears it in one way or another, that this fear arises from the fear of the unknown, the unexplainable. Throughout history, we’ve often questioned if there is a life after death. Along the way, our religions and various philosophers offered beliefs and opinions to answer this commonly asked question. However, many of the answers contradict each other making it hard to figure out. Nothing offers more courage than the confidence that there is a better life for those who use the present to prepare for eternity. Although many can argue there is more afterlife, death isn’t mysterious at all. I believe that in death you become what you were before you were born; nothing. “The Moths,’ by Helena Maria Viramontes is common with death, imagery, magical realism, and symbolism.

The story, instead of focusing on the creatures in the title, is a coming of age story about a young girl who is rebellious against her family and seeks comfort with her grandmother. She is faced with the deterioration and death of her grandmother. We don’t encounter the moths until the end of this short story. In death, you become reborn or rather reincarnated. Rebirth is of a spiritual nature and is started when the moths carry her soul.Then the moths came. Small, gray ones that came from her soul and out through her mouth fluttering to light, circling the single dull light bulb of the bathroom. Dying is lonely and I wanted to go where the moths were, stay with her and plant chayote’s whose vines would crawl up her fingers and into the clouds; I wanted to rest my head on her chest with her stroking my hair, telling me about the moths that lay within the soul and slowly eat the spirit up. (Viramontes 560-561)Like the flow of the story “The Flowers,” by Alice Walker, life has such a beautiful beginning, a middle, and then leads into a dark ending, conveying that throughout life there is always going to be death. In this story, Myop realizes that she is not only looking at death but the cruel racial violence of a lynching. This is how this man met his end, with nothing and alone. The man in this story who clearly was in pain and suffering is no longer, he is nothing, he is no longer suffering.

After reading poems like ‘The man he killed’, by Thomas Hardy and seeing how little life matters in the time of war, how can you possibly think that there is anything after death? I know people want to believe there is something after life but if our body dies and our soul continues, do we just continue to suffer for what we have done or how we felt when we were still alive? This poem makes me feel a sense of sadness and empathy because this man, most likely a deeply affected soldier home from the war, kills someone that he doesn’t even know and finds that he doesn’t have a good reason for doing so other than that it is war and that is what you do in time of war. We see this in the third stanza. “I shot him dead because Because he was my foe, Just so: my foe of course he was; That’s clear enough; although (Hardy 814)Another great piece of literature that I had the pleasure of reading, that also made me think how we could possibly live on after death was “This Property is Condemned,” by Tennessee Williams. Ultimately, it’s a morality tale. It depicts the survival of the fittest, though it was never a fair fight. The characters of this story are the condemned property, compromised by life and circumstance.  The conversation the two kids are having seems natural, but the context of the conversation is unnerving. Death really couldn’t be worse than what this young girl’s life has been and what it will ultimately become.

Often a ghost is considered the soul or spirit of a dead person that can appear to the living and heaven is our afterlife, yet another theory of where we go or what we become when we pass. In ‘As the Crow Flies,’ by David Henry Hwang, a play that uses humor throughout, is in short, a play about a woman who needs to fight off ghosts and then, in the end, accepts death and is lead home, what I believe is what she is referring to as home.In “Death Knocks,” by Woody Allen, another humorous play, death represents many realities of death: there is no perfect time to die, death itself is never what we expect or what we picture it to be (which is why most of us are so afraid of death), and death is perceived differently by everyone. Really, how could we say what happens after death, if we can’t experience it ourselves and tell someone what we have encountered? What I will say is that we do have a life force. When our life force diminishes our body dies, but what is left after the body dies? I cannot say that we go to some other world, like an afterlife or heaven. Or that our spirit becomes something else and leaves us. Once our life force leaves, we don’t have control over what happens next. Is there any consciousness after death? I am going to have to say no. Our brains get separated from our thoughts, our life force, and then we become nothing.

Works Cited

1. Hardy, Thomas. ‘The Man He Killed .’ Ridl, Schakel and. Approaching Literature 3rd edition. 1902. 814-815.
2. Hwang, David Henry. ‘As the Crow Flies .’
3. Ridl, Schakel and. Approaching Literature 3rd Edition. 1986. 1073-1082.Lee, Li-Young. ‘Visions and Interceptions.’
4. Ridl, Schakel and. Approaching Literature 3rd Edition. 1986. 832-833.
5. Ridl, Peter Schakel and Jack. ‘Approaching Literature: Reading + Thinking + Writing. 3rd Edition.’
6. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s , 2012.
7. Viramontes, Helena Maria. ‘The Moths .’
8. Ridl, Schakel and. Approaching Literature 3rd Edition. 1985. 557-561.
9. Walker, Alice. ‘The Flowers .’ Ridl, Schakel and. Approaching Literature 3rd Edition. 1973. 20-21.
10. Williams, Tennessee. ‘This Property is Condemned .’ Ridl, Schakel and. Approaching Literature 3rd edition. 1946. 1083-1090.

Van’s life is described as “most simple and ordinary and therefore most terrible” (Tolstoy 42). So what would happen when death befalls him? What would be with his material pursuits in life? Rather, what would be without a spiritual pursuit in life? As death loomed larger, Van’s focus in life changed. He started to realize the flaws in his path of life. As time passed, he went from a being of self-concern to one of a spiritual concern. This concern eventually brought him to be gladdened by his death. Death is often said to be a reality.

Many people fear it, but in reality it is not a bad thing. When one examines the lifestyle, one realizes that man is placed on this earth for a relatively short period of time, n relation to the existence of the world thus far and its projected existence. It would not be correct to say that one is looking forward to death, but as mortal creatures, we must contemplate death and be prepared for it, whether it be our own death, or the death of a relative or friend. One may go further to suggest that fear of death is a social construct. It may also be very dependent on on?s religious beliefs.

I find it quite ironic that humans are so fixated on life which for many of us is a day to day struggle to survive “paycheck to paycheck”. When I was younger, I had a harsh lesson in death which taught me the meaning of life. Almost eleven years ago, my grandmother, who was very close with, passed away. She was very special to me because she lived very close to me and we saw each other at least twice a week. Most of my life she had lived about an hour away and only saw her once every few months, but during the last two years of her life, she lived five minutes away.

She was a grandmother figure because she did anything for her children and grandchildren and hosted many family gatherings. About a year and a half before she passed away, she was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. As a nouns child, I wasn’t told about this immediately. I remember being on a train from New York, back to Long Island, when my mother told me. It was a sunny day, which suddenly turned dark and gloomy after I heard this horrific news. I was sitting across from my mother as she told me. I remember asking “she will be gone? . It didn’t sink in immediately because I wasn’t ready to accept it. Remember thinking that she is still here so maybe she won’t die. What was even more striking was once I saw her after heard about this, nothing seem to have changed. She was still my grandmother, and acting like it also. I didn’t get lost in my emotions because life was the same. Cancer is an invisible malady. She looked the same last week, why suddenly is she dying? I didn’t fully accept it until the night when she passed away.

The doctors were unable to treat her and she had decided to live out her remaining days surrounded by family, in her home. Saw as she moved from a state of consciousness to a state of unconsciousness. The situation in the family turned to one of seriousness and sadness. They knew what was coming. Went into the den around eight o’clock on a Friday night. I sat down on the couch and couldn’t old back my emotions. I had seen my grandmother a minute before in the bedroom over and she was peacefully laying there. I remember wondering if she was aware of what was going on.

My mother came in and sat down next to me. My mother was upset since this was her mother, but as an adult she understood the outcome months ago and had accepted it. Reality sank in for me that Friday night. Was destroyed. I realized that she had a matter Of hours left. She had done so much for our family and felt that I could have never treated her as well as she treated me. My mother calmed me down and assured me that is everything is fine. She told me about the wonderful life my grandmother lived and the impact she had on her family, friends and community.

She assured me that if everyone would live such a life, the world would have no issues. I sat there and began to contemplate what I was being told. Realized that as she returns her soul to god, she will be greeted at the gates of heaven by angels welcoming her in. She will be back with her parents, brother and my grandfather who had passed away a year earlier. As reflect back on that train ride where I was told of her impending death, I ant remember how long this was before her death.

I suppose that the shock caused me to be overcome by other thoughts that I didn’t retain when I was told. Also don’t remember what happened after that train ride or where we were on the train when I was told. Remember being saddened upon hearing that she was dying, but as a child, death is a foreign concept. The idea that something is final and irreversible is unfathomable by children. Children are used to seeing changes in the world without understanding why they are happening, but as time passes, these changes revert back to their original Tate in many circumstances.

The phenomenon of death, which is irreversible, may be difficult to grasp when everything else lacks finality. My grandmother taught me the importance of family and proportioning in life. I witnessed as my family literally cared for her until her death which taught me a lesson in the importance of family. She taught me the importance of being a spiritual person by praying every day and making herself available whether it be day or night to help anybody in need. She taught me the importance of balancing spirituality with physicality so I will be prepared for death.

My interviewee, Karen, grew up in the Philippines and has recently just migrated to the United States. She is a 24-year old ESL teacher who admits to pondering over the meaning of life yearly when her birthday is nearing. She was then enthusiastic to sit down with me to answer my questions about the meaning of life.

For Karen, life does have an ultimate purpose or significance. She cites as proof of this belief the fact that bookstores and libraries currently carry a lot of books that help people find the meaning to their lives.

“There has got to be a purpose to our lives. Will authors of self-help and ‘find a purpose in life’ books be raking in a lot of money if people do not think that their life amounts to something? And that’s another thing, actually. People are always in search for a purpose in their lives. This clamor for life to actually mean something is, I think, the ultimate proof that people come packaged with significance in life,” Karen says

Being Catholic, Karen admits to always thinking that her life is meant to have purpose. She explains, “I have always attended Catholic schools where “religion”, specifically Catholic faith, is a constant in our list of subjects. Since pre-school days, my teachers would always emphasize the fact that I am meant to serve God. They always tell me, my classmates, that we should live our lives according to God’s will.”

Asked what God’s will is, she answers, “Exactly what it is, my teachers haven’t actually defined. They did tell me, though, that I need to always be good. I need to be kind to my fellow men. That everything I do should be in accordance to God’s law, which is of course comprised of what the Bible says, what the commandment says, etc. Basically, life’s purpose is to be good and do good so that I will be welcomed in heaven. And in way, I still believe that is the purpose in life. I cannot accept that I’ve been put here on Earth for nothing. Something better must be waiting for me at the end of the line.”

Karen confesses that even though she’s been reared in the Catholic upbringing, there was a time when she felt like serving God was not really her purpose in life. She says that although she believed in the existence of a higher being, she defied the fact that all the laws and commandments she’s been following are all dictated by human beings like her. “Who can say that what the Catholic Church outlined is really the ultimate truth? And that what they’re teaching is not made to serve their own purpose?

And that what they want is also what God wants? I got to think this way when I started taking Philosophy classes in the University. My teachers imparted in me the habit of not taking everything in stride, of questioning everything that is being handed out to me. I also had a class, advertising I think, where the teacher had a great influence on me. He taught us about self-actualization. He always insisted on us trying to make something for ourselves just because we want to be something and not because somebody told us to do. That was the point when I got to question what the Church told me: that everything I do is for His glory,” she quips.

But a few years after her University life, Karen admits that she started to soul-search and she realized that ever since she put God out of her life, her life started to feel meaningless. She explains, “There was this hollow part of me that neither friends nor a high-paying and glamorous job just cannot fulfill. I started to have this feeling that everything I’m doing is for no special reason. When I started to pray and go to Church again, I suddenly felt whole. That’s when I realized what was missing.”

Karen’s opinion regarding the meaning of life was highly-influenced by her faith. Though she came to a point when she asked about the things she has always believed in, she still made a turnaround and accepted what her faith has outlined for her.

Mikael Habtezion Mrs. Walker English 1B 5 July 2011 A Snowy Haven A neighborhood full of eyes watching with judgmental thoughts aimed at you. Gossip behind every corner, evaluating everything you do, avoiding any contact with someone so profligate. No one wishes to be in such a lonely and ostracized state. That’s why everyone strives to conceal each troublesome and embarrassing problem in their lives, appearing to the world as a worry-free, cheerful, and enthusiastic person.

In the short story “Hunters in the Snow” by Tobias Wolf this act of concealing a person’s inner and true self in order to avoid judgment occurs amongst the main characters. There are three men who go on a hunting trip: Kenney, Frank, and Tub. As they find themselves unable to find deer to hunt, Tub shoots Kenney in fear of being shot himself since Kenney was threatening to shoot him first. The hunters reason amongst themselves that they have to drive him to the hospital themselves, but on the way Tub and Frank stop to warm up at bars a few times.

In this story we learn that Tub claims to have problems with his glands, which is why he is overweight, and we get a clue that Frank is hiding something about his personal life in a conversation with Kenney. Throughout the story, these characters are always covered with white snow, even as the title suggests. Symbolically, white is a color of purity and innocence; throughout the story, Frank and Tub seem more innocent than their true selves would actually allow. Not until the end when they go into the bar to warm up and the snow “melts” off, are their genuine personalities and their secrets revealed.

In “Hunters in the Snow” Wolf cleverly uses snow as a metaphor to mask Frank and Tub’s . In this short story, Frank’s personal problems are secreted through the metaphor of snow. The reader knows that he has a family: a loving wife and kids. Throughout the story the author exposes nothing about Frank that would cause the reader to judge him in any way. However, one thing is brought up about a “certain babysitter” but not enough evidence is given in order to judge him yet (622). During the story, Frank was driving “with the now blowing in his face” (629). When Wolf says this, he elucidates to the observant reader that the snow is covering him. The white snow is brightening his outward appearance, and in turn, letting his inward appearance fade away. After their friend Kenney gets shot, they drive him to the hospital. They author displays them as good friends at this point. On the trip, Frank argues that they have to stop at a bar because “if [him] and Tub don’t get warmed up [they’re] going to freeze solid” (631). By saying this Wolf strengthens his metaphor as he puts more snow on him.

When they arrive at the bar Frank orders coffee and he “craddl[es] the steaming cup in his hands. His skin was bone white” (631). At this moment, Wolf is placing the false identity next to what reveals it. He places the door next to the key; this key will unlock the secrets which lay behind that door. Wolf displays how white Frank is and how innocent he looks, but also in a parallel manner he displays the steaming coffee, which can literally melt that snow away and figuratively “melt” his false identity away. Right after the melting begins to take place, Frank’s inner secrets become revealed.

Frank confides in Tub as he exposes that “[he] thinks [he’s] going to be leaving Nancy, [his wife]” (631). Tub tries to find a reason for this and becomes curious if Nancy has been having an affair. However, Wolf completely takes away Frank’s haven of innocence by elucidating that “Nancy hasn’t been running around…[Frank] has” even though “[s]he’s been damned good to [him] all these years” (632). By saying this, Frank’s refuge beneath the snow’s innocence is lost, and he becomes a target for judgment by the reader.

After warming up and letting the snow melt off, it is unveiled that Frank has lost the purity he once had in the reader’s eyes and has stooped to a lower level of respect. After he confesses himself to Tub, “[t]he snow fall lightened and the clouds began to roll back off the fields” (633). When this is stated, the metaphor of the snow as a refuge which hid Frank’s secrets begins to fade away since his secret is made known to the reader. Not only does Frank use snow to hide himself and appear to be innocent, but Tub does as well.

As his nickname suggests, Tub is overweight. When the three friends were hunting and took a break, everyone brought out their own fulfilling food, except for Tub. When they ate, “Tub put out one hardboiled egg and a stick of celery” and when his friends wondered how he can eat like this but still be gaining weight, Tub defended himself by saying, “’What am I supposed to do?… It’s my glands’” (623). However, earlier when he was getting picked up by Kenney and Frank to go hunting, “a sandwich fell out of his pocket” then “[h]e picked up his sandwiches and cookies” (621).

The reader is given an idea that something is fishy and it can be seen that there is more to the story than meets the eye, but we are not given enough information to judge Tub yet. When Frank and Tub were trying to help Kenney into the back of the truck after he was shot, Tub accidently dropped him. Frank became frustrated and declared, “You fat moron… You aren’t good for diddly” (629). After this incident, Wolf pushes the reader to sympathize with Tub in his time of being isulted and therefore Wolf cleverly makes the previously aroused suspicions disappear.

After they get Kenney in the truck, and they hit the road, “the snow was moving white wall in front of their lights; it swirled into the cab through the hole in the windshield and settled on them” (630). Wolf persists with his metaphor and shelters Tub’s inward identity and secrets with this white snow that displays purity. On their way to the hospital, Frank and Tub stop again to warm up. They used “an automatic hand dryer in the bathroom and they took turns standing in front of it…letting the jet of jot air breathe across their faces and chests” (633).

This becomes Tub’s threshold to letting his secrets out. Just like Frank, Tub’s snow and light begin to melt away and his personal and embarrassing problems become visible. Tub sits down with Frank and throws his shrouded problems into the open for disclosure. Tub admits that “’when [he] said that about [his] glands, that wasn’t true. The truth is [he] shovels it in’” (634). With this, Tub is completely relinquished of his ivory tower and his secret is revealed. Tub becomes a target for judgment, just like Frank, for the reader.

As the essay has illustrated, snow is used as a metaphor by Wolf in order to hide the true identities and inward secrets of Frank and Tub. When the snow melts off of these hunters, their skin is revealed and likewise their inner secrets come to the surface and become subject to judgment. Everyday people become subject to judgment by society for large mistakes such as having an affair to small ones such as stepping on someone’s toe. It is almost impossible not to be judged in some way by society, just as it is almost impossible not to judge others.

We tend to look at people as if we are better than them without even considering our own state of being. For example, a person shouldn’t accuse a neighbor of having a dirty floor, when their own carpet is soiled with three times the dirt. As time passes by hopefully we can look past the faults of our fellow human beings, and accept that we are humans and have our own faults and have no business taking the roll of “judge” when it is unnecessary. Then can we abide in a world without the fear of being our true self; then we can progressively work on our personal problems and strive to become more improved and upright people.