“Don’t compare your inside to someone else’s outside.”
Picture a woman, usually beautiful and very put together,
with mascara running down her perfectly made-up face. Her red lipstick was
wiped off, and she could feel the pang in her chest. Sobbing after another
fight with her husband, this woman grabbed the Christmas cookies and stack of
Christmas cards. She could practically smell the tears hit the fresh envelopes
as she saw perfect family after perfect family. Her shoulders shook when she
knew, just knew, that every family
must be happy except for hers. There could be no hurt in the families that
shopped at the grocery store together, she thought – especially this particular
family. They were a family of three that lived a few streets over. They were now smiling at her,
scoffing at her with their eyes, on the front of the Christmas card.
A few streets over, the man and woman from the card sat down
together to open up their stack. The one neatly placed on the top was from the
woman’s family introduced in the first paragraph. They smiled together as they
saw the pictures of their neighbors who seemed to be perfectly happy. Their
eyes grew a little dimmer as they read, however. The corner of their mouths and furrow of their brows would warn onlookers of sadness. as they read about the successes of
their neighbors’ kids. They were very happy for them, but it brought back the
ache they were experiencing in their own lives. Their only child was now eight,
and they had had three miscarriages. The wife was fighting numbness, and the
husband was trying to care for her and their little boy as best as he could. They
were getting by together, but it hurt.
Both of these families had their own sets of problems, but saw
each other as perfect. What goes on inside a person’s heart and home simply
cannot be seen from the outside. There is not one person who is not struggling
with something,
That is exactly the point that Edwin Arlington Robinson made
with his poem “Richard Cory”. Richard Cory was a gentleman, rich, and graceful.
He was admired and envied by all.
“In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place” (The American
Tradition in Literature 831).
Because the town held
him at a higher standard than a regular human, it appears that they struggled on their own
and barely spoke to him. They would never guess that anything was going on
inside Richard’s own heart. They only thought that they had problems. But
Richard had his own problems.
He killed himself from loneliness.
“Don’t compare your inside to someone else’s outside.”
Everyone on this Earth is struggling with something, no
matter the size. Let’s learn from Robinson’s story, reach out, and have
compassion on each other’s struggles… for we know what struggling means, too.
Wow! I loved how you wrote the examples of the two families! I have read this poem in other classes but I have never seen an explanation like this. You highlighted on the theme of loneliness and nothing is as it seems. I'd also like to add that this poem also focuses on the theme of money can't buy happiness. All the other people in the town had envied Richard Cory because he had money and thought money would make them happy. Unfortunately this was not the case because even though Richard Cory was very wealthy he was not happy at all.
ReplyDelete-Lilly Khoury
I love how you thoroughly explain what you're thinking in each story that you read! I too saw the theme of loneliness, and for the most part completely agree with what you have stated! Like Lilly said, the main thing I got out of this poem is that money cannot buy you happiness!
ReplyDeleteI loved the examples you wrote about the two families! I think that is very true, and a great way to put it. Honestly, you never know what someone has going on in their life and what causes someone to something like commit suicide. That was a perfect explanation of that. I do agree with the other comments about money can't buy happiness as well. Everyone thought Richard Cory was happy because he had money, and that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
ReplyDeleteWow that was an amazing blog! By using the examples at the beginning, it made me want to keep reading! They are very effective when you compare them to Richard Cory. From the outside, he looked happy and like he had everything good going for him. But really, he was miserable inside. Your quote that you put at the beginning of your blog is also very true! It helps me to not judge people so quickly.
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