Things That Affect People’s Lives Mostly, Essay Example

Many stories, having different titles, have been written, but most of the time, themes of these stories are similar. I have read three stories by different authors that have the same themes of love, loss and abandonment. The three articles are Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman, Jerry’s View: Friend shared story of lost eye and abandonment and Abandoned at Birth (death of a twin). Blackbird house is a house at the outer reaches of Cape Cod and contains memories of the loss of parents and property by John Hadley and his family members. On the other hand, Jerry talks of a story about Rudy Bundas, who lost an eye and was abandoned by a mother. Abandoned at Birth talks about loss of one twin by a mother at birth, which becomes a big loss to the family. The only difference in these stories is the way the authors portray their messages to the readers.

One outstanding theme in these stories is bad memories. Some events in life are erased from the mind after some time, time but some just keep lingering for as long as the person lives. The Blackbird House story talks of sad events that occurred and these memories keep haunting the characters. Even with time, the memories in the house do not fade from the mind of the occupants. Rudy, on the other hand, does not forget what he went through when his mother left him for the US, when he was three. In abandoned at birth story, the parents of the twins keep the memories of the death of one twin, which made them put the blame on the other twin. Time, which is said to be a cure for bad memories, does not work for the characters in these stories.

Love proves to be another common theme in the three stories. Love is a beautiful thing that when experienced, brings happiness to people. Love can also be hurting when people we love most do not return the love back to us. Jerry’s view talks of a little boy, 3 years old whose mother left for US, leaving him alone with his brother and father. This is a small boy who is much in need of love from his mother. She is, however, unwilling to offer the love, thus leaving him alone. The father of the boy gets upset because of his love that is betrayed. The one eyed boy is left with the father, who tries to love him, but this love is terminated when the father gets wounded and dies.

In the first story, the Blackbird House, there are so many beautiful scenes about love. Coral Hudley loves his family so much, and the members of the family love her too. Violet is also in love with books and with a man who eventually abandons her. This goes on until the neighbors feel pity for her and begin to help. Vincent tries to save his father and brother because of the love he had for them, but in vain. He is left with a mark that always reminds him of the events that happened that day, even until he is twenty seven years old. Not even travelling could help erase the memories. Lysander, Vincent and Ruth Blackbird lose the desire for love because of the experiences they went through when they were young.

Consequently, love desire between Ruth and Lysander develops with time as they live together. Ruth came to live with Lysander when she was left homeless at the sea shore. She stayed there, cooking for Lysander, but not knowing that love was developing between them. Ruth lives with Lysander, taking care of him and herding his cows. On finding a note at the door dropped by Ruth who said she would like a red tree, Lysander woke up so early and left the house to get a tree for Ruth that had the same color as her shoes. This is an act of love towards Ruth that he had in his heart. He promised to give Ruth everything she needed.“He was gone for two weeks, and he never said exactly where he’d been. He admitted only that he’d been through Providence and on into Connecticut. What he didn’t say was that he would have gone farther still if it had been necessary. He had no time frame in mind of when he might return. He would have kept on even if snow had begun to fall, if the orchards had turned so white it would have been impossible to tell an apple tree from a plum, a grapevine from a trellis of wisteria” (Hoffman 19). This is an effort to please the one he loved. Lysander could do anything to make Ruth happy.

Ruth, on the other hand, was in love with Lysander but could not easily admit it. She cried when she found out that Lysander had died. When Lysander went away to look for the palms, Ruth missed him. She went to the chimney and put her hand in the ashes. She kept on imagining of the red things like the shoes she was wearing. Most of the characters in the Blackbird story experience love at least at one point of their life.

To be abandoned brings about pain, especially when it comes from somebody one loves so much. The theme of abandonment is evident in the three stories. The young twin, John, is abandoned by his parents who, despite his tender age, find it hard to offer him the attention he needs as a baby. He leads a life of loneliness, feeling as if he should give up his own life. He is not given a delicious meal, which is enjoyed by his parents. He feels he should have died, and his twin brother survive. On the other story of Jerry’s View, the one eyed boy of three years is abandoned by a mother at his needy age; “When they left me, I was scared and bewildered. Nobody came when I cried and called for them. I wandered around the street near our house in Salank, Hungary, crying, looking for somebody who knew me. I was in shock. I went next door to the neighbors. I hid in the closet and cried. I was about three– I didn’t know what happened.” (Jerry 12). The boy lives a desperate life with no family members to comfort him when his eye pains. He was only given help from neighbors who sympathized for him and took him to the hospital. If not for the love he got from friends and his father, his life could not have been the same. He lives a lonely life in need of a mother until he is mature enough to marry. This gives him the comfort he needs and does not need the mother to survive anymore.

Blackbird House unveils the way Coral is abandoned by his family through death. She lives a desperate life with everything in the surrounding reminding her of the good memories she had with the family. She could not accept the death of her family and does not want them to be buried. The remaining twin in the Abandoned at birth faces rejection from the family, regardless of his desire for love. He is left to crying most of the time and even seen as a nuisance by his sister, “And what of John? How did all this affect him? As a young baby he became aware of a distance between himself and his parents. They did not hold him and love him in the way that his needful baby heart desired. He cried a lot and only food seemed to comfort him. His sister soon grew impatient with his crying and looked on him as something of a nuisance” (Teresa 7). John felt responsible for everything that was happening to him. He lived a life of guiltiness.

Loss is another common theme in the three stories. In Blackbird House, Coral lost her husband and son in the sea, and this hurts her for so long. Vincent also lost his father and brother that he tried to save but did not succeed. Ruth lost almost everything, except the red shoes she wore, clothes and the cows, which always followed her whenever she went, “Hasn’t this woman any belongings? Lysander had called after them. Not a thing, they replied. Only the cows that follow her and the shoes on her feet” (Hoffman 16). This was a conversation between the two women, Susan Crosby and Easter West with Lysander. This is an indication that Ruth had nothing left, she had lost everything. Lysander lost his leg when he was thrown into the sea by a storm. The loss experienced by these characters affect them in life, and they lead lives they could not have liked. Larkin also lost his family in a house fire and ended up working for farmers. The other story, Jerry’s view, depict the boy, who losses his eye and the mother abandons him. The parents of the twins experience loss of their one twin, which affects their love on the remaining twin.

There is also the concept of changing lives in all the three stories. In the Blackbird House story, lives of the characters change after they lose essential things in their lives. Ruth’s life changes and she lives a life of poverty that she could not have lived. Coral and her son’s life change after they loss the other two members of their family. In Jerry’s view story, the one eyed boy’s life changes when his father dies. He turns out to be an artist. The third story of Abandoned at birth, depicts the changes in the twin’s life when he realizes the cause of rejection he has been experiencing as a child. He turns out to be a good father of twins and realizes that every person deserves love, “Eventually, fortunately John met a lovely girl who was able to see through the mistaken thinking and who gave John back his sense of identity. He realised that each person is a separate individual, worthy of love and attention in their own right” (Teresa 9). This gives John a view of what a good life is. He lives happily thereafter with his family.

Although different stories are written by different writers and are composed of varied characters, themes often remain unchanged. The themes in a story make it easy to understand and fascinating to read. Love, abandonment and change of lives are themes that attract many authors. Several stories have been written revolving around these three themes. Love gives people a sense of belonging and boosts a self esteem, abandonment creates loneliness in people’s lives while loss takes individuals to a state of disillusionment and despair. When these themes are combined in a story, they bring change of life. The three stories, depicted in this essay, have explicitly shown how the three themes can be blended together.

Works cited:

Hoffman, Alice. Blackbird House: A Novel (Ballantine Reader’s Circle). New York, NY: Ballantine Books. 2005. Print

Jerry Robinson. Jerry’s View: Friend shared story of lost eye and abandonment. Web. Retrieved on 23^rd April, 2012

Jerry’s View: Hard scrabble life; We survived it, Jerry Robinson. Web. Retrieved on 23rd April, 2012

Teresa. Abandoned at Birth (death of a twin). Web. Retrieved on 23^rd April, 2012