Wednesday, September 17, 2014
What You Are and What You're Not
It is hard to live a truly honest life, though most people would prefer to ignore that fact. We all want to think we are loving, caring people who do more for others than ourselves, but we are humans, and it is not in our nature to protect and give things to others before ourselves. We all have images that we try to hold ourselves to and some of us reach too far. For example, in All the Pretty Horses Blevins tries to be more mature and brave than he really is so that he can prove himself to John Grady and Rawlins. In Araby the narrator only sees the outside of the girl he "loves." We do not always have an honest image of ourselves or others because we manipulate things, so they are what we desire them to be.
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I couldn't agree more with what you've said. One of the biggest questions in my mind is if we truly help one another out of selfless intent and good will, or is it perhaps just an elaborate construction of an image that others would find to be popular. I suppose it's all a mystery until one truly determines for himself where his true obligations lie: to themselves, or to the building up of others.
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