By Anthony Duarte
When I was young people told me that the world would be filled of wonders and beauty. I would find a place in this bizarre world full of groups with different opinions and views on almost everything. I would find my place. I have lived long enough to say that the world has no place for a simple man like me. The entire planet is so divided its like as if I say one thing it could start a whole war.
Everyday walking along my streets I see a mix of homes that you see in those magazines or commercials that people would consider beautiful, and a mix of old homes that are weathered and ancient some might even consider haunted. I see posters of men in the front yards, showing off what kind of family lives in those homes and how they see the world. Maybe the children might not agree but at least you know what kind of person you’re talking to. When I look at TV I see men arguing over love, war, race and many other things that are so important yet they get so over looked. I believe in what is right, I believe that I can have a valid opinion, but the moment any words comes out of my mouth its nothing but hate or getting the wrong idea. Everyone only listens to what they want to hear just like little kids when they argue over who's the best superhero or who's the best princess. It is that simple spark that can cause the flames to erupted into a trail of destruction.
Everything in this mad world is on fire. At any moment we can just perish and there would be nothing but ash. What happened that lead up to this moment I hear you ask. Maybe it was the wars over land, people, and freedom, maybe it was the internet who had created a web and everyone fell in it trapping them in a series of opinions and hatred, or maybe its how people see and do things and no matter what it that thing is someone will get mad over it. All that can be brought out of this is that the entire world is killing itself because of people fighting over things like the safety of ones home to the small detail of how we should eat. This falls under the logic of what one would consider, the Domino Effect. I have come to the conclusion that its not just simply the Domino Effect. It is what one persons actions that is causing the flames to continue to live on.
Picture this, you sit down a table ready to eat. There are two napkins on the table; one on your left and one on your right. Which napkin would you take first, the one on your left or the one on your right. The answer is whoever takes the napkin first. This is how society works. Maybe I can even substitute society with the universe. If someone takes the right napkin first then everyone else would take the right napkin and if they ran out of right napkins everyone else would have to take the left one. One must determine the price of the land, the size of the train tracks, the value of money, the measurement of electricity and many other things. This is how society has been going on living.
Society follows this simple yet complicated way of thinking. When someone has the guts to mention something everyone else will follow cause that is what the persons first action. If someone has an opinion on it everyone else will have an opinion on it too. If one declares war on the other many more people will get involved in the war. That is how the world works, this is how the universe works and as a simple man trying to look for whats right and wrong I now see that no matter what I say or do no one will listen.
Everyone is burning alive in the words of men and women with money simply because they took that napkin first. I do not get myself involved in this silly war simply because I would rather sit back, watch the flames grow stronger, and more beautiful than be the fuel that helps the fire live longer and continue to scorching the world.
In the end, I am but a man who hopes for a brighter future when the world can recover from the scars of the war and hatred of the world. I am but a man who wishes he could do something to help the world from turning into nothing but black ash . I am but a simple man living in a burning world.
When I was writing this it was right after election day but a day before they announced the winner I was sick and tired of the political talk because I didn’t have a preference and people would look at me weird. I was just ranting at first but then I realized that what I was writing, what I believe, was the truth. I didn’t realize how much I wanted to say until I stopped and looked at it and at the moment I saw how much I wrote but not organize. Later I decided to have a main theme and was trying to be careful with what I said since it had somewhat of a sensitive topic but its really only sensitive to some. This really was just a rant before I turned it into a writing. It truly shows how such a simple thing can turn into something better than what you had expected.
In the writing, “A Simple Man in a Burning World”, the author starts by sharing some backstory. It’s not a lot to explain anything bur its enough to build up to the main message of the writing. In the very first paragraph it says, “When I was young, people told me that the world would be filled of wonders and beauty”, which starts the build up and then later in the paragraph it says, “I have lived long enough to say that the world has no place for a simple man like me”. Later on the next sentence is where they provide the main message of the writing. “The entire planet is do divided its like as if I say one thing it could start a whole war”, this is the main message of the entire writing.
The text organization is more cause and effect but it builds up to the cause. It begins with the effect first and later explains what was the cause. In paragraph 2 one of the sentences states, “...but the moment any words comes out of my mouth its nothing but hate or getting the wrong opinion”. This is one of the things that effect us today and only in paragraph 3 is where they begin to explain the cause, “What happened that lead up to this moment I hear you ask”. This is how they set up and build for the actual cause which is a paragraph itself. It then explains a bit more about the effect and ends with a small sign of hope, “...I am but a man who hopes for a brighter future when the world can recover from the scars of the war and hatred in the world”. Its not inspirational or encouraging, its just hopeful yet desperate message that everything will be the same again.
There was a lot of literary devices in this writing starting with imagery, “Everyday walking a long my streets I see a mix of homes that you see in those magazines or commercials that people would consider beautiful, and a mix of old homes that are weathered and ancient some might even consider haunted”. Another thing you can see here is metaphor and paragraph 4 is the entire metaphor for the writing. I won’t quote anything because if I did it would have to be the entire paragraph. There is also some simile like, “Everyone only listens to what they want to hear just like little kids when they argue over who's the best superhero or who's the best princesses”.The list of words I choice that describe the tone were scorching, perish, and divided. It does give off a negative tone to some but in the writing its more neutral. It gives a very inoffensive tone. There are a lot of things here that could offend someone if not careful but it seems that the author tries to not to offend anyone in this writing.
The purpose of this writing was to try to send a message. That message maybe that the world is so divided there is no way to speak your mind. The author wirtes, “Everyone only listens to what they want to hear just like little kids when they argue over whos the best superhero or whos the best princesses”. This shows how since the world is divided you can’t really speak their mind. Everyone has an opinion and if you say something your rather wrong or not heard. The writing truly reflects how the author feels of society and the way it currently is. It sounds like he has a lot to say but doesn’t really know who or where to share it, “I have lived long enough to say that the world has no place for a simple man like me”. The author probably feels out of place from the world and is trying to express it through this writing since he can’t really express how he feels to someone. The main theme that he went with was burning. Fire and burning were throughout almost the entire writing even towards the end which I believe was just one of many ways he was just trying to express himself through the reader, “At any moment we can just perish and there would be nothing but ash”. This is truly an opinion that had a lot to say about the society we live in today.
In the beginning you told the reader to not take things out of context which was an interesting way to approach that. I like how you added the politicians in here with out over doing the role they played in the story.
--Jorge Estrada