Facing Reality
Facing Reality in the business world
Apr 20th
Facing Reality
Facing reality has been depicted in a variety of ways, sometimes the outcome of it is positive and some other times it can become negative or perhaps in a specific situation a mixture of both can occur. These situations can be good or bad depending on what position they are in. Facing reality is tough and these situations can be seen in the novel “After the First Death”, the film “the Sixth Sense”, short story “Aquifer” and the poem “Out Out”. All these text contains characters which faces a negative or a positive reality and all deal with it in their own unique way, even though not been successful in all circumstances.
In the novel “After the First Death” the characters are faced with many realities. These can be seen when Kate, who’s a teenage situation is put in the situation of a hijack. The reality she faces here is negative, unpleasant and horrible. She faces the fact that she is in a hostage situation and having to face that it’s not a dream and it’s happening to her. She is scared and the negative impact here is great. Mark Marchand, who was the leading general of the US army faces a negative reality because he has sent his only son to a mission where he knew that he would not be able to easily come back to. Even he knew this piece of information he continues without hesitation. When he had found out that he had done wrong he could have opted for life insurance cover to make sure the hijackers didnt get him, it was already too late for him and he had lost his son to the hijackers. Miro who was the young hijackers faces a negative and a positive reality. Negative when he is ordered to kill the driver, although he hesitated and thinks he is weak because of that, he also faces a positive reality when the mission is failed, he is able to escape and survives another day.
In the movie the Sixth Sense, Cole faces a negative reality because can see the dead and they are forcing him to carry out their wishes. Cole refuses to help them and as a punishment he is physically abused. He also faces a positive reality because with his unique ability he helps out a girl to reveal about the truth of her death to the father and lets the girl rest in peace. Malcolm faces a negative reality because he hadn’t realized his own death. When he does find out he faces the fact that he had died quite awhile and he had not known the whole time. He faces the reality that he could never be with his wife anymore, to be with and to care for her. He finds out the reason why his wife always ignore him and that she is always distant or angry at him. He also faces the reality he has to go because he has done all the things he had needed to do before going away to another life.
In the short story “Aquifer” the boy faces a negative reality. This is due to the fact that he saw Alan Mannering drown and he had not say a word to anyone. He did not inform the police and had just left him there to die. Even though it has been so long he still remembers the day and everything he sees reflects upon his death, something so simple like water shooting of the ground. He totally sees it differently and somehow relates it to his death. Alan Mannering faces a negative reality due to the fact that he was going to die and that the boy would not help him and that no one would ever find out where he was or whatever happened to him.
In the poem “Out Out” the boy faces a negative reality. He loses his arm to a chainsaw and believes that he would die. He loses his arm which means if he lived he would be a paraplegic for the rest of his life and won’t be able to do normal things like everyone else. The doctor in the story faces a negative reality because they boy had come to him and the doctor was unable to save him. Therefore he couldn’t be able to save another life. The sister of the boy faces a negative reality because she has to face that he will never be around anymore and that there was nothing she could do at the time of the accident makes her feel guilty. She also has to put up with his death and that she has to live on happily without him.
Reality has its effects on everyone, through negative where the situation is horrific for the character or positive when they have an advantage of some sort on their side. Either way their outcomes are always determined by their actions.
Facing Reality Robert Frost
Apr 16th
For most people facing reality is a very difficult experience, rather than accepting a situation most of the characters deny the truth. In the three texts the theme of facing reality is prominent in “After the First Death” by Robert Cormier, “The Sixth Sense” staring Bruce Willace and “Out, Out” by Robert Frost. In this essay some topics to be discussed will be the issue of not knowing if you’re going to live or die, not belonging to a country and seeing ghosts are some of the points that will be discovered in the essay.
Kate and the children
In the novel “After the First Death” Kate and the children are forced to face the reality if the were going to live or die. The same feelings of death would have been felt by the sister of the girl who is poisoned by her mother who is suffering from Munchausen’s disease in the movie “The Sixth Sense”. Even thought Kate has absolutely no training with children, she fights on and attends to their needs. To survive Kate also uses her sexual appeal to try and seduce Miro. Kate also feels very scared and wets her pants in several situations an example of Kate acting distressed, scared and fearing of her life is when she uses the quote “your holding us hostage and you’ve made your demands, your going to hold us here until the demands are made”
Bens Farther
Bens farther is forced to feel the guilt of sending his only son into the terrorists without considering the fact that he could be killed easily, Ben and his farther also have to face the reality that they have never been close and Ben uses the quote “But how many times is a person aloud to die” referring to his relationship with his farther.
Miro
Miro has to face the reality that his only brother was killed not long ago when he was fighting in a war as a soldier. Miro also reveals that he has had a very difficult upbringing, his parents died at a young age and he and Miro and his older brother were forced to fend for them selves, they stayed in hostels and refugee camps where people stole their belongings and Miro was then forced into a life of steeling and terrorism just to survive, he also realises that he is he belongs to no country and feels very rejected by this. Miro has to confront the fact that he is a first time terrorist and he is very vulnerable to Kate who tries to seduce Miro.
Cole and Malcolm
In the movie “The Sixth Sense” Cole has to face the reality that he is different from every one else because he is haunted by ghosts everyday. Malcolm is sent to help Cole to understand the ghosts, even thought Malcolm is dead he doesn’t realize it until the end of the movie. The same feelings are felt by the boy who dies in “Out, Out” who has to face the reality that he is going to dies so young. Even though Cole doesn’t want to face the reality that he can see the ghosts he has to confront them and attend to the wants.
Coles Mother
Cole’s mother has to face the reality that her son is acting very strange and she always blames Cole for things that he doesn’t do like taking the bumble bee pendant when he doesn’t. She also finds it very strange that the curbed doors are always open when she returns to the kitchen. Cole’s mother also has to face the reality that she has been so mean and angry with Cole and in the end she realizes he can actually see ghosts because he tells his mother about the singing residual when she was young and Coles mother is dumbfounded by this.
The Sister and Brother
The sister of the boy in the poem “Out, Out” has to face the reality that she has killed her brother because she called “supper” and this distracted him and the chainsaw jumped and cut of his hand. The brother also has to face the reality that he started of sawing wood on such a peaceful day and then having the face the fact that he is going to die at such a young age and he feels as though he is to young to be doing a mans job. The same feelings of not knowing if your are going to make it to the next day would have been felt by Kate in “After the First Death”.
Overall all the characters face reality in different ways from Cole who has to face the reality of seeing ghosts when no other child does. To Kate who has to face the reality of wondering if she was going to survive to the next day and the girl in the poem “out, out” who has to face the reality of distracting her brother who is then killed. Thought in the end the characters all eventually fight their way out of the troublesome situations to be happy again.