Free Essay

Tunnel of Love

In:

Submitted By mailekkk
Words 306
Pages 2
Tunnel of Love

The water flows both ways through the tunnel of love, depending on which rusty lever I force! Like life, this tacky carnival ride with its soggy boats bobbing in a curving trough is not a circle but a figure-eight, or an eighty-eight, that doubles back and gives us second chances to be noble or to wet the seat of our pants. Where the streams cross, with my over-education I can steer the couples through the wide or the narrow entrances to tapered, covered corridors and either squeeze them together or wedge them apart, depending on their fitness for each other—and all for the minimum wage! Take this gentleman for example and his uncertain girlfriend. If I wobble their boat just slightly as they step into it and he steadies her by the shoulder and elbow, his small but certain gesture will beguile her. I could put myself in his place at that moment and she would want even me! On the other hand, if I collide two boats before the tunnel, I can sunder the pair that responds with annoyance—and at the same time cinch the two who share a laugh about it! The two I denounce will smell the mildew from the trapped water of an aging ride that should be condemned. For the two I affirm, ample to themselves, the tunnel and its weeping walls will fade away like other people’s problems. I should be paid what couples counselors get for my discernment! The uninspiring and the doomed I leave alone for the gears of the drive chain to propel toward their insipid certainties, but those I can, I help, to find one another or to flee. It would be selfish not to when the merest twitch of my fingertips is all that fate requires.

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

The Rocking Horse Winner Comparison to the Tunnel Essay

...In the two short stories The Rocking Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence and Through the Tunnel by Dorris Lessing, both stories can be seen as a rite of passage because the main characters Jerry and Paul, illustrate a theme of having to break free in their lives to have a test of achievement. Both boys father’s are somewhat absent in the stories. This made the main characters strive to make their lives better. Jerry’s goal was to swim through the tunnel which ultimately almost leads him to his death. For Paul, his goal leads him to an obsession for money which ended up killing him. Paul rides his rocking horse as if he is on a quest to seek a grand prize which ends up being luck. His winnings will free his mother which can be seen as a rite of passage. Paul’s obsession with winning money is what ended up killing him. He wanted to prove to his mother Hester, that he himself had luck with money compared to his father. As Paul says in his last word’s in the story, “I never told you, mother, that if I can ride my horse, and get there, then I'm absolutely sure - oh, absolutely! Mother, did I ever tell you? I am lucky.” Paul wants to change his mother into a loving mother rather than keeping her as a neglectful parent because she is a person who has a mindset of only material possessions are her only main focus in life. Throughout the story, Paul’s mother continuously pushes her idea that luck equals being rich and that money is the most important in her life. Hester has so much of a...

Words: 753 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

The Light

...Light Is this the light at the end of the tunnel? I wait like a lion waits for a prey to eat, when you look in my direction my feelings reach a peak. I sit in silence sadly staring waiting to see your face. SIGH, I wish you weren't such perfection. We fight and argue. I sit like a statue as you speak harsh words, you are a fire breathing dragon and I am a donkey. I act like I dont care and POOF! your gone, im now heartbroken singing my sad somber song. Is this the light at the end of the tunnel? You come right back, you make me laugh, you make me cry, I wish this was as easy as pie. Your like a mathematical equation, I want to figure you out, but your complication doesn't let me have concentration. A roller coaster is what our ''relationship'' is. Our love speaks a language that most people don't understand, it has its flaws, most beautiful things do, I wouldn't kick our relationship like a old pair of shoes for something new. Is this the light at the end of the tunnel? Waiting for you is similair to sleeping for 1,000 years expecting to not drool when you realize its time to wake up. My feelings are deeper then the ocean although, they cause various fights that make you want to leave and take a hike. When we agree, which is almost never I can't help but to hope that its not a joke. We agree to disagree. You are the barking dog and I am the aggrevating flea. I dislike when your around but, I can't help to miss you when I'm...

Words: 368 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Anthem Equality Analysis

...A person’s identity molds them as a person and gives them a sense of completion in knowing who they are. In the novel Anthem, Equality became a completely different person than at the beginning of the story where he would atone his mistakes and really care about the society. He, in return, wanted to change himself and the Collective to make it a better place. This ultimately shaped him as a person as many things he experiences make him the way he is. The things that influence him are the Golden One who gave him new feelings and emotions, his tunnel which created his independence and grew his intelligence, and his old school experiences which made him want to learn and teach him that he is smarter and much different than everyone else....

Words: 799 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Fireweed

...solve this, because she broke up whit the boyfriend, and find out that the boy is painting graffiti in a tunnel near the bus station, and the mother is completely broke. I am first going to make a characterization of the narrator, the second write about the main character´s relationship with his mother and finally the use of symbols. Main Part: The writer has a special way to write stories because this short story is very complicated and messy, she skips some parts, first is the narrator home, then out and sudden he is home again. The narrator is a I-narrator because we see it all from the narrator point, and we get not a chance to listen what the other people think, but the narrator tells what they said, but not their thoughts. The narrator and the main character is the same person. The narrator is a boy who love graffiti, and his parents are divorced or else his father is dead, we don´t get any info about that, however, the boys mom is working on shift and he is usually asleep when she gets home, but at the time she goes into the bedroom and start sleeping the boy is awake, fully awake, he endure her snoring, vibrating through the walls, the boy also think his mother is full of bullshit because that is was she used to be. But one night he could not take it anymore a sneak out of the bedroom through the window down to the streetlamps. He goes down to a tunnel and heir something there is running away from him. But suddenly he looks up at...

Words: 744 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Individualism In Ayn Rand's Anthem

...That being one of the rules because to the dystopian society, falling in love with another girl is prohibited. In the novel no one is allowed to show real feelings or even understand what the real feelings are. Crazy how someone can live a life the character is explained by the author to show that he is struggling by holding secrets in that isn’t ready yet to be released and his unknown feelings for the girl. The Giver is a very similar novel when it comes to emotions and practical purposes. Such as for example in The Giver, one child is not allowed to survive because of how close they’d feel for each other and wants practical pure decisions to be made. There is a boy and a girl in the novel who fall in love with each other and want to express their love, but it’s not allowed in the community. The Giver and Anthem are all very similar with a lot of the discrimination going on. In Anthem, they are also divided into categories in which it will show how they live the rest of their lives, but at the age of 18 they go to a place called “Time of the Mating” which has no exchanged feelings, instead it has just a process going on and after the process they leave...

Words: 878 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Tunnel Vision Suspense

...The next element that Shaw uses throughout her novels is suspenseful mood, which she uses to make the reader think about what the novel is about, and to keep the reader interested. According to an academic journal on gale databases written by Rebecca Hachmyer, “Readers will find themselves deep within Liza’s shell-shocked mind as she and her father enroll themselves in the witness protection program” (“Shaw, Susan: Tunnel Vision”). Shaw makes sure the readers stay interested in the novel by creating such suspense and mystery with Liza having to be on the run the whole time. This suspenseful mood is seen in Tunnel Vision. Liza states in the book, “Life felt so unreal. Mom was dead, someone had attacked me with a knife, and now we were living in Kansas” (Tunnel Vision 101)....

Words: 956 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

A Sinful Society In Ayn Rand's Anthem

...individualism does not correlate in a communist society that Equality lives in. However, he harms nobody within his society. Freedom and individualism should not be considered sins. Equality commits a sin when he discovers new ideas, commits multiple transgressions of preferences, and writes his actions down in his journal. Equality creates his own ideas and inventions and begins to realize how to become an individual within himself. He works alone in a tunnel he discovers for three hours each day and working alone defines a sin in their society. Ironically, with the name of Equality, he does not believe that everybody should be equal to one another. He believes this when he ponders, “The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who will seek them” (Rand, 52). Equality gathers items from the streets and other houses and takes them down to the secret tunnel continuously. He continues to do so due to the lack of yearning from all of his brothers to explore and discover. International discovered the tunnel with Equality but he did not want to return due to the consequences that would occur if they were caught. After he escapes the community and the Uncharted Forest, he discovers a house with his soon to be wife he calls the Golden One....

Words: 1100 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Risks Of Collectivism In Ayn Rand's Anthem

...personal relationships. This was so bad that people were afraid to speak what they thought. In the name of equality, there is an end of personal bonds. It is so serious that it dictates the intimate act of sex to once a year. Rand believes that relationships, which were developed under it, were plain and very unfulfilling. True relationships need a combination of ones ego. She finds fault with people supporting collectivism for supporting freedom and equality into something meaningless. When she realizes the power his ego possessed, Equality 7-2521, “I am neither foe nor friend to my brothers, but such as each of them shall deserve of me. Moreover, to earn my love, my brothers must do more than to have been born. I do not grant my love without reason, nor to any chance passer-by who may wish to claim it. I honor men with my love. But honor is a thing to be...

Words: 1687 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Laura Esquivel's Like Water For Chocolate

...independence. Tita De La Garza was born in the kitchen - both literally and symbolically. Soon after her birth, Tita’s father died, leaving her mother, Mama Elena, is shock which eventually made her breastmilk dry out. Nacha, the ranch cook, offered to take over the responsibility of being Tita’s main caretaker and basically the only mother figure in Tita’s life. Nacha was a loving woman who had lost her true love. Yet she still had it in her to take care of Tita and basically the whole De La Garza...

Words: 1031 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Tim O 'Brien's The Things They Carried'

...and a platoon leader named Lieutenant Jimmy Cross who was assigned to lead a group of soldiers on a combat mission in Vietnam. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross constantly daydreams about Martha, the woman he’s in love with. He blamed himself and felt guilty for one of the soldier’s (Ted Lavender) death due to his lack of attention and vigilance. The story talks about the experiences and the conditions that these soldiers endured in Vietnam. The setting, language and tone of the story suggest that the impact of war not only causes physical strain, but it also causes an emotional, psychological,...

Words: 1275 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Love Orange

...Love-orange In the text Love-Orange the main theme is love and losing, because she experience throughout the text, the way she loves her imaginary orange and losing people around her: “That summer I saw more clearly the worlds awaited. Is was filled with many deaths that seemed to tie all the strands of my life together and which bore some oblique relationship to both the orange and the doll” (P 2, L23 – 26), in this quote she realise that people around her die, the girl is well a known of her problems and insecurities and she sees the dead as a part of her life, she accept it, because there is only a defined amount of love to one person with she describes as a love - orange. Although the death takes a lot of people around her, she sees the funeral as a vacation, a time to come out of the house and a break from her own world. She is smart but childish at the same time, that can only mean that she is older than 10 years, I would say that she where a teenager, because her grandparents where still alive. The girl, that we do not know the name of, often hides under the bed when strangers come by her grand parents house, where she lives. Every time strangers come by, she would say these words to her dog: “A world outside” (P 1 L 8), the dog is a bit redundant in the text, but still an object that is used to support the fact that she is a bit more like other people. She is different, and she thinks she lives in a ‘inside’ world, that is one of the reasons why her grandmother...

Words: 707 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Personal Narrative: The Greek Gods

...When I looked at you I had thought about the Greek gods that were displayed in art museums. Every detail and every crease was chipped onto their Cold Stone bodies. Like the gladiators that fought in battles, I remembered how long and strong your legs were. Your veins glowing underneath your porcelain skin, the purple hues that appeared around your honey brown eyes. I was in love with those same colors; your bruises. I remembered you and I was driven - addicted to art museums because that’s where the statues stood; where you had belonged standing with the rest of them. Two years ago I wouldn’t have imagined myself sitting on a chair crying my eyes out, writing about a boy and our story. A story about a girl who learned how to love for the very...

Words: 1704 - Pages: 7

Free Essay

Love

...and related poetry, articles, and media. Poet Robert Creeley 1926–2005 POET’S REGION U.S., Mid-Atlantic SCHOOL / PERIOD Black Mountain Subjects Marriage & Companionship, Love, Men & Women, Living, Relationships, Realistic & Complicated Poetic Terms Free Verse More about this poem Biography Once known primarily for his association with the group called the “Black Mountain Poets,” at the time of his death in 2005, Robert Creeley was widely recognized as one of the most important and influential American poets of the twentieth century. His poetry is noted for both its concision and emotional power. Albert Mobilio, writing in the Voice Literary Supplement, observed: “Creeley has shaped his own audience. The much . . . Continue reading this biography back to topPoems by Robert Creeley A Prayer A Token A Wicker Basket After Frost Credo More poems by Robert Creeley (29 poems) For Love For No Clear Reason Gnomic Verses Helsinki Window I Know a Man Inside My Head One Day Self-Portrait Somewhere The Door The End The Language The Measure The Pattern The Pool The Rain The Rain The Rescue The Tunnel The Warning The Whip The Window The World Yesterdays back to topPoem Categorization SUBJECT Marriage & Companionship, Love, Men & Women,...

Words: 452 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

The Things They Carried

...The woman that Cross is in love with is named Martha. She's barely a junior from Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. Although he is madly in love with her, Martha doesn't return the feelings back for him. This one-sided love causes him to ponder and lose focus of what is really important, keeping himself and his troops alive and well. As he is lying in his foxhole, he looks at pictures of Martha; he can't help to feel, "More than anything, he wanted Martha to love him as he loved her…" As shown, he just wants to be with her and to share a love with her. Over and over again, he would think about her; sometimes in foxholes, sometimes while marching, even at times of danger. This lack of focus on the real dilemma, their situation in the war, will be a costly one. His love for Martha was unhealthy and almost obsessive. He still remembers clearly "touching that left knee" of Martha's. Even out in the field he still reminisces how her knee felt. During a mission to destroy some tunnels, Cross imagines the tunnel collapsing on him and Martha. He also wonders if she is still a virgin or not and wonders why her letter are signed "love". This distraction and incompetence of himself lead to the death of one of their fellow soldiers, Ted Lavender. He has been shot and killed, partly because of Cross' lack of focus on the situation. He keeps to himself as he blames the incident on only himself. Shockingly, as they were waiting for a chopper to take his body away, he digs a foxhole. While...

Words: 920 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Disobedience Ayn Ran Erich Fromm

...Erich Fromm was a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. In Fromm’s essay ”Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem,” he discusses and compares the impact of human obedience and disobedience to ones self and to human society. While discussing both obedience and disobedience, Fromm opens his essay with “For centuries, kings, priests, feudal lords, industrial bosses, and parents have insisted that obedience is a virtue and that disobedience is a vice.” Immediately after this statement, he gives strong points of views opposing the statement of disobedience being a vice. In the “Anthem,” Ayn Rand tells a story about a place in unspecified future period, where people no longer have their own individual rights, and collectivism is leading the entire society. It's a dystopian sci-fi novella set in the future when mankind has entered another dark age as a result of the evils of society. She introduces a boy named Equality 7-2521 who is disobedient to the Council of Vocations and experiences self-growth and freedom. Disobedience is an act of courage, necessary for the individual to fight against the unreasonable demands of authority. Fromm writes, “Human history began with an act of disobedience, and it is not unlikely that it will be, terminated by an act of obedience,” supporting his statement that obedience might as well “cause the end of human history.” He uses religious and mythological figures to demonstrate...

Words: 893 - Pages: 4