Paradox and Dreams

Paradox: “Our lives as we live them would not function without electricity, but it is a rare man or women who, when the power goes off, knows how to look for a burnt-out fuse and replace it.” 

 Interpretation: Our lives are surrounded with electricity; cars, computers, lights, fans, air conditioners, etc. We take it for granted, definitely. Just as Steinbeck states, “but it is a rare man or women who, when the power goes off, knows how to look for a burnt-out fuse and replace it.” He states that it is a very rare sight to see a man or women fixing their electricity, while knowing what they are doing. Anyone can try to fix something, but half the time, they break it even more. Again, we take electricity and all the perks for granted. When our power goes out, whom do we call? Not the Ghostbusters, we call the city, when it could be as simple as an old light bulb. 

Reflection: I can really connect to this in two ways. The first way is when our power went out, we had no clue why, because it wasn’t thunder storming and it wasn’t anything to do with the light bulbs. So we called my, (I don’t really know what to call her,) cousin’s mom and we had her drive to our house from Romeoville. It turned out that it was just the fuse box was burnt out. We depended so much on electricity, but we never know how to fix it. My second relation would be when I dropped my phone in the sink. I was freaking out because my mom and dad wasn’t home, so I didn’t know what to do. I decided to turn my phone on and off, and then it worked perfectly fine. The next day however, the home buttons and returns buttons weren’t working. I decided to look on Google what I should do. The only solution was to use rice water, but since it was too late to do it, it just said to get an app called Button Savior. I use my phone basically everyday, and I didn’t even know how to fix it or what I should do. P.S. now my buttons work:). 

Paradox: “We trample friends, relatives, and strangers who get in the way of our achieving it; and once we get it we show it on psychoanalysts to try to find out why we are unhappy, and finally- if we have enough of the gold- we contribute it back to the nation into the form of foundations and charities.” 

Interpretation: When we want something, we act like we desperately need it. We do whatever it takes to make it to what we want to achieve, whether or not we lose friends, and even family. Once we have what we wanted so eagerly, we use it to find out why our friends and family are so unhappy. The paradox Steinbeck tells us is practically talking about money. We want money so bad, we want to be rich so much; that we do anything it takes to get it. Then once we have it we try to buy our way into our friends’ and families’ feelings. Even when we became the richest of them all, we just think donating to a charity will solve all of the world’s problems. 

Reflection: I can most definitely relate to this easily. My entire family is made of athletes and musicians. Both my grandmas were on track, and volleyball, my grandpa was in the army, which you have to be in pretty good shape. My grandpa is a piano player, guitar player, and he sings. With my sister, she does whatever it takes to run. She literally had surgery in February, and she was running again in March. She does whatever she can to be back onto the top, whether it’s missing a graduation, a birthday party, or even running with shin splints. My brother does whatever he can to get his job as his number one priority, he misses birthday parties, Easter, Thanksgiving, any family get together, just to be able to get enough money to live, basically.