Look At A Teacup (by Patricia Hampel)

The essay ‘Look At A Teacup’, written by Patricia Hampel, shows how a simple writing helps in finding out great events. It is about the history of writer’s mother in a delicate teacup. The two major themes of this essay are relationship between a mother and her daughter and a connection between the past generation and present generation. Both these things are represented by a teacup.

The writer’s mother was married in the year 1939, the beginning of the Second World War. The same year she bought the teacups as gifts that were later given to the daughter. Hampel sees a connection between herself and her mother. The teacup reminds her of her mother’s history because her mother bought it in 1939. Through the cup the mother transfers the culture and history of her time to the daughter. So, the cup is historical memory only. It was made in Czechoslovakia, which was taken over and destroyed by the armies of Adolf Hitler.

The essay associates and removes the objective description and subjective feeling of author and teacup. The author can express lots of feeling and ideas making the teacup as a medium. She tries to compare the falling of flower in the teacup as destruction of beauty due to falling bombs. There was also cultural and social degradation. The style of this essay is stream of consciousness. So, the reader feels somehow puzzled to track down the plot of the essay. She expresses all her feelings try to compete each other. So, some sentences are fragmented. Logically they do not follow each other. The writing is beautifully decorated but the meanings are deviated.

There is symbolic meaning of the things. ‘Falling flowers’ implies the degrading situation and ‘teacups’ were human rituals and arts. Certainly the essayist refers the fall and break of culture. ‘Falling bodies’ were dying people in the war and ‘beds’ have meaning of the battlefield where the falling bodies lay. ‘The falling of bombs onto women’ means the tragic fate of these women. They had the disturbed married life. Fates of women were accursed by the war and their destiny was darkened by the war and their destiny. ‘Falling countries’ refers to the degradation of humanity, peace, progress, brotherhood, culture, etc. of the countries involved in the war. This essay presents the reality of war and shows the real picture of the world caused by the destruction due to war.

A Worn Path (by Eudora Welty)

‘A Worn Path’ is a story about an old black woman named Phoenix, who is courageous and endangers her life to get the medicine for her grandson, who is suffering from extreme throat pain. Literally speaking, the story is the story of journey of old woman who walks towards the city on the cold winter day. She is taking a long trip to the city to visit the hospital and bring some medicine for her grandson. This is not the first time she is going to the city. She goes there frequently for the medicine. She loves her grandson so much that she faces many trouble and obstacle on the long trip.

This story is the live description of the journey of the old Negro woman. The writer presents live description of the real character so that the events of that story seem convincing. Phoenix comes up against several troubles between the valley and wagon track. She has to walk across thorny bushes and deep woods. She has to cross a river and even climb a steep hill. Her dress is caught and scratched by thorns. But, she frees herself with hard struggle. She has to creep and crawl under the barbed wire. She is even disturbed by the scarecrow, which she thinks to be a ghost. Later, she falls into a ditch when she tries to protect from the black dog. In spite of all these difficulties, she is successful to reach her destination.

It is quite strange to the reader that she keeps talking to herself because she is alone on the way. Also, she is very old and talking alone has because her habit. By talking to herself, she tries to forget hardships and troubles that come on her way. Monologues add a lot to the total portrait of her habits, nature and attitude. Through the monologue we can read her mind. From her monologue she seems weak, kind-hearted and loving woman. She is the woman who is afraid of even small things. But, she finds way to remove her obstacles. She is uneducated and knows very little about the outside world. She has lots of love for her grandson but despite of her weakness she is determined woman who frees all the challenges of the life. Her monologues add a lot to the total portrait of her.

Phoenix can be compared to the bird Phoenix in Egyptian mythology, which burns itself, changes into ashes and again recreates new life. In every obstacle, Phoenix seems to be losing hope such as burning of Phoenix bird into ashes. Later, when she gets victory over the obstacles, she seems to be regaining her hope such as recreation of life of Phoenix from ashes.

She is a very poor woman. When she sees the nickel dropped from a white man, she thinks she can do something with that money. Her poverty drives her to pick up that nickel. She does this theft jus for good reason. She wants to buy paper windmill for her grandson as a surprise gift on the occasion of Christmas Day.

At last, she is able to get success in her aim. In spite of her old age, she proves herself to be a courageous and determined woman. Being simple and uneducated lady also, she overpowers all the obstacles on her way due to her deep love for her grandson.

The Three Days Blow (by Ernest Hemingway)

“ The Three Days Blow” is a plot less story in a dramatic way. Two friends Nick and Bill meet at Bill’s cottage. The weather is shown violent. There is rain and storm. So, this is an ideal situation to stay inside home. They make fire, burn lots of logs and make themselves warm. They drink different alcohol and go on talking about different topics such as books, fishing, girlfriend, hunting, etc. without any plot, the story ends. The topics of the talk change suddenly from one subject to another. There is no third character. We know a lot about the subject, which go through their conversation only. Bill and Nick have no specific purpose of meetings or talking. The weather creates situation for them. This keeps them inside when they talk about different topics. Hemingway creates situation of drinking so that they can reveal their feelings. The scene moves forward excluding the opening exposition. He talks about the weather- rainfall, storm, wind, surf, etc. suddenly, he begins to have different sorts of drinks and talk about games of baseball. The topic of their talk shifts to books and writer. They slowly get drunk and talk about their habits. Then, they talk about nick’s girlfriend. This is the climax of the story. The theme of this scene lastly talks about hunting and go to.

When we read the drama, this scene opens one by one. The title of the story says something symbolically. Weather doesn’t remain same always. Even a single day we can experience the fluctuation of weather. This is the principle of nature. Weather is dynamic; it doesn’t remain constant all the time. Just like weather, mental conflict of tension of suffering is presented in several scenes or sequence of events. In the beginning scene, nick looks calm but with the movement of different scenes, his calm face changes.

The setting of this story goes to be open with a nice scene. Nick is presented in the beginning on the way. He is going up to the village. Natural presentation is also seen. There is an orchard and we see the blowing of air, breeze that is the first autumn storm. Nick picks up an apple and keeps it in his pocket. The two characters Nick and Bill are presented inside the house. They have their personal talk. The story begins with the scene of woods, lakes, kitchen, sitting room, dining room etc. In the beginning Nick is seen and the story ends with guns. They go down where Bill’s father was hunting. There are similar events between the whether and sequence of events of “The Three Days Blow”. There is conflict in the character Nick. He is getting confused about his girl friend Marjorie. He wants to meet her again but Bill makes him leave her. He wants to marry her although her mother is bad. So the conflicts are similar. There is union in both weather hand love of Nick with Marjorie. Weather becomes fair and love also becomes negotiable.

The story is dramatic because there are characters and dialogues and unity of time and place. There are two characters Nick and Bill who have continuous dialogues like in the drama. The setting of the story is also like a drama. There is internal and external scene. These scenes can be converted into the drama. They just talk about some little subject that is the subject matter of both drama and story. These story deals with love. Marjorie’s mother can be presented as an antagonist, Nick as a protagonist and Bill as an inciting force. So the story is dramatic.

The three-day blow and Nick’s mental condition are related. Marjorie’s business is fundamental subject of the story. Nick, though he is not enjoyed with her, is going to get married. Because of her mother, he breaks relation from Marjorie, his beloved. After different kinds of talks Bill and Nick’s conversations is concentrated. Marjorie’s business has broken his relation with her easily. So moment from Nick’s conflicts of love affairs, through suffering and separation to reconciliation ends. Thus Marjorie’s business is like a three day below that comes and disappears itself. Three-day blow comes, threatens and finally goes away. In the same way, conflict of love appears and disappears with despair and again with hope.

The Marjorie’s business is fundamental subject of this story. Nick, though he was not engaged with her, was going to get married. Because of her mother he broke relation from Marjorie, his beloved. His mother was very terrible. To marry her meant he would have married the whole family her mother.

Though the character Bill, the writer seems to be giving practical message. Nick seems to be emotional but Bill is practical. Nick is ready to accept Marjorie although her mother was bad. He really loves her and ready to accept her. His life can be compared with the storm. The moment when he met Marjorie and he left her due to unfavorable situation that moment is just like a violent storm, which doesn’t last for long time in the nature. Bill is practical. He says Nick to forget all the events related with Marjorie and lead his wife towards new direction. Human life is a mixture of sorrow and happiness. If any disastrous event comes in our life also, we should control our emotion and lead our life towards new phase and time happily. We should have capacity to adjust with all the fluctuations that come in our life.

The Poplar Field (by William Cowper)

Cowper is a romantic poet. Like his other literary works, this is also a romantic poem representing nature. He describes the difference in the environment and natural beauty before and after the poplar trees are fallen down. With example of poplar trees, the poet wants to show the real phase of human life according to rule of nature.

The poplars are cut down which used to grow along the Ouse River. The river doesn’t reflect the beautiful shadows of these trees. The musical environment has been ruined now. The leaves don’t blow the air and sing a song in happy mood. There are also no shades. These trees were once in the field but now they have become seats. Not only the environment has been ruined but there is also destruction of the blackbird’s habitat. The bird used to add charm in that beautiful environment by its different types of melodious songs. It has transferred its nest to the hazel trees to get shelter and shade.

The poet thinks that his days too are passing away fast and should be lying down like those poplars. He thinks that he will be in the tomb before such grove will grow again. Such scenes make him think deeply about human lives. He understands that trees are perishable like the woods. Such events inspire him to think about the perishable nature of human joys and our enjoyment is short when our lives are so short. Man is the most perishable thing in the world and will live shorter than now in the future.

The poem deals with the personal feeling according to the principle of romanticism. Romantic writers don’t write care the common interest so they express their personal emotions using singular pronoun ‘I’. So, in this poem we see the first person instead of others. Personal approach makes the expression stronger and powerful.

The poem compares the life cycle of poplar and the human life. Poplar grows up; it produces branches, leaves, etc. it makes shades and pillars. It lies down and perishes in the ground. Our lives also grow and perish. Human life is also similar to the natural life. However, the life of nature or tree passes through time. The human life is also the same. So, our enjoyment goes away from the life. As human life is not certain, we should live our life, every moment of life enjoying a lot and with great happiness. We cannot take these enjoyable moments with us after our death. We can take only the physical body, which we get from the nature. Our pleasures and enjoyments all die before our death.

The poem is remarkable for its celebration of the rural and its nostalgic tone. (Nostalgic poems are reminiscences of past life of a writer, is also part of autobiography). The poet recollects the scene of the poplar trees, which he used to enjoy the whispering sound of the tree columns. Winds used to play and sing in the leaves. Rivers reflect the image of the trees beautifully. Birds have shifted to other places. Melody has disappeared. Now he has no pleasures in these poplar trees. After 12 years he sees the field and feels everything dead by depletion.

The poet has given indirect suggestion to the readers to protect the natural vegetation. He warns us that if we won’t protect the green forests now only, we will die before age. We should understand that we are living in this world just due to nature. We are just the products of nature and one day we have to surrender ourselves in the lap of nature. The poet has written this poem in defense of natural conservation because he thinks that we get some important human aspects from the trees. The poplars represent the forest. When we preserve the trees we can get shades and pillars for houses. Birds live there and they sing some melodious songs, which make our lives joyful. The poet compares the tree with human life and says our lives are more perishable than the trees. We are destroyed by the nature. So we should defend the nature.

The Nightmare Life Without Fuel (by Isaac Asimov)

“The Nightmare Life Without Fuel” is an essay, which depicts the life of this world in coming future when the fuel resources will have reduced from their source. The main thrust of this essay is: what is going to happen if we do not conserve the world’s natural resources. Asimov focuses on a specific problem that will arise by the lack of fuels. This whole world is run by different resources such as petrol, diesel, water, wood, etc. We cannot imagine this world without the use of fuel. In comparison to the past days, we are now facing the problem of scarcity of fuel resources. Earlier these resources were found in large quantity and life style was easier.

As the fuel resources were abundantly found, every sector was found running successfully and easily. Factories, industries, transportation, great organizations, etc. were in proper condition. People didn’t have problem of scarcity of fuel resources. But slowly and gradually population growth increased and brought bad consequences. Agricultural lands occupied by huge buildings and industries. Also, the number of vehicles also increased. Due to the maximum use of the resources, human life has been in discomfort. Human beings feel that their lives are really unsecured. They always have fear that they will lose work and food. They think that they are themselves responsible for causing scarcity of resources. As they are less conscious of their future, they suffer because of the destruction of the resources. Most of them claim that they will have new resources invented. Of course, new resources such as nuclear energy and solar power have been discovered but they are very dangerous and also expensive in use. People know that their pleasures are in danger and also their future is dark. Coming generations will suffer more than us.

Asimov focuses on the decreasing resources of fuel in the world. The life will be full of struggle without fuel resources. This world will slowly go dark, as less lighting bulbs will be there in the streets. Electrical appliances will be used less as there will also be scarcity of electricity. Even luxurious provisions and equipments will be impossible. More time will be taken to do simple work also as there won’t be any vehicle running in the streets. There will be difficulty in transportation and accumulation of required foodstuffs. Due to the shortage of food, people will die due to starvation and malnutrition. Due to lack of proper balanced diet, there will be problem in human brains. Child death rate will increase, as children will be deprived of proper nutritious and body building food. Specially, simple towns, suburbs will be affected much. These areas depend upon transportation for all kinds of things. They will be in danger of extinction. Every human activity will be minimized due to less light, heat, and less comfort.

Security forces will also be affected badly. Without the use of weapons, military forces will be purposeless. Their work will end because they can’t work without fuel. They use scientific weapons, which are operate with fuel and are very expensive. Only the technically strong countries will be able to exercise their military power if fuel is saved in time. Factory workers will be jobless as industries and factories will be closed. So, it will be very difficult for them to provide basic needs to their family also.

Only small benefits will be there due to lack of fuel. The environment will be fresh, cool and pure. Crime rates will decrease. People will understand the importance of nature and will go attached with it. People will be cooperative, as all of them will be facing same problem. They will keep themselves warm using sweaters and other thick clothes only.

The writer tries to warn us from the devastating situation of this world in the coming future. If we are not serious at present only, we have to suffer a lot in the future. We must t understand the importance of the nature and try to conserve it. The world is depending upon the trade and because of trade the environment is being neglected. People are living in the cities and the environment of the cities is polluted. Major population of world should be engaged to plant the trees to make a better world in future. We cannot use the solar easily and even if we use, it cannot naturally help us. But if we preserve the jungle, our environment and energy will be improved.

Unchopping a Tree (by W. S. Merwin)

In the essay “Unchopping a Tree”, the writer presents impossible example to convey deep meaning. Joining the chopped parts of trees refers to the new plantation of more trees in the open fields, which are full of stumps. Every part of trees refers to the every parts of the nature whether they are small or big. Each and every parts of nature is important. As we are also the creation of the nature, it is our duty to maintain the balance in the nature. We don’t have rights to destroy the nature. Actually we are not destroying the nature but we are destroying ourselves. Our lives totally depend upon the nature. Through the writer’s appeal to join the parts of the chopped trees, he wants to remind human beings about their important works to be done to conserve the greenery of the nature.

Unchopping a tree is impossible. It is only a kind of feeling but certainly it has meaning. The writer emphasizes on the preservation of the nature. The nature should be preserved and those persons who cur the trees must plant some more in replacement. When they save and plant the trees, it is unchopping a tree. The writer warns that it is easy to destroy but very hard to create. He further says that life of a tree and human life are the same so they should be preserved with equal emphasis. Not only the trees we should save but also should protect the habitats of some animals who live in trees.

The writer tries to persuade us how to work hard to bring the chopped tree into the original situation, which is not really possible. When a tree is felled down, there is no way to bring it into its original condition. But its place can be replaced with more trees, which we plant. Trees are also the important parts of the ecosystem as other living creatures. We should think of conservation of such trees instead of deforestation for the protection of the ecosystem.

Keeping Things Whole (by Mark Strand)

The poem Keeping Things Whole is taken from Selected Poems (1980). The poet pleads for wholeness against the usual fragmentation that goes on in life. The poet believes in whole part and not in partial. He knows the value of each and every part of nature to present nature as whole. He tries to know the value of each and every small and small constituents of nature to continue the wholeness of nature. The poet indirectly pleads human beings to fill the gaps in the nature if they separate the parts of nature. The poet indirectly pleads human beings to keep nature whole by conserving its every small parts in every small part in every nook and corner.

The poem deals with two separate things of anything, which are part and whole. The nature has small parts small parts. It is divided into the separate elements. He has lost himself in the field. He is losing himself everywhere. The poet parts the air forward but it becomes whole behind him. He only makes the air whole, not a part. But everything becomes whole itself. We see field, air, etc as a part not as a complete. Our lives are also parted but it is only illusion. If we try to make separate parts, that is only hollowness of concept.

The poet has presented himself in the field missing and parting in the air and he is whole not part in the bank drop. He wants to be whole, not part. He is not happy with himself because he is an intruder in the natural environment. He feels that he is fragmenting, disturbing and damaging the natural wholeness that is why air moves to fill the spaces occupied by his body while he walks. He becomes careful not to disturb the wholeness of things in the environment. This shows his concern to the protection of environment.

The poet suggests that if human being involves to encourage the existence of the nature, the nature also gives reaction. For example, if we cut down the forest, land erosion, flood, landslides occur. Then, men get knowledge from the nature that the nature itself is powerful rather from human beings. Even if man tries to challenge the existence of the nature, he can’t get victory over it. So, the poet becomes very much sensitive for the delicate balance of the nature. –

The last stanza suggests that we all move to make a whole, not part. The poet moves forward and he parts the air but it becomes whole again. So, what we think of being parted i.e; that is wrong. Everything in the world is whole.