The Story We Ought to Know (Essay Sample)

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The Story We Ought to Know
Every person is different from another. In this manner, every interpretation of a poem by a person can become very diverse to the other. Martha Collins illustrates in her poem; the existence of men as one that is monotonous and full of misfortunes and continue to live by instead of changing it for themselves. People continue to engage in a life that can be said to be boring, despite the obvious sense of emptiness that is evident in it. The poem by Martha Collins entitled "The Story We Know" can be understood in the manner; the dullness of the human life that repeats over and over again and without even trying to change a thing.
The poem starts off by saying that everything begins with a, Hello. It can be interpreted that no matter who or when you meet with someone, it always begins in introducing your own self to another and ends just the same way, with Goodbyes. This part of the poem shows that every conversation and meeting is the same, you begin it and you end it. Life itself starts off by saying our hellos then leaving with our farewells. What matters to people is that they met and mingled with other people and not even took a bother to truly know the other party.
The poem then takes on a depressing tone on the next stanza. Collins shows us how people do not even bother to look beyond their own existence. Humanity is so used to living like this that we do not turn the page or look below. We lead selfish lives that concentrate on the adoration of the self. Pretentions are present all through out human existence, we try to present luxurious things such as white wine; we fail to realize that life is as simple as saying Hello. Every single day is shaped by the things we do such as pretentious meals and other such related endeavors that even digs a deeper whole of emptiness.
Humanity have changed to something that only looks forward to material gains, even if it is achieved in the most undesirable ways, like having work on a Sunday evening. People get together with other people not because they want to meet but rather because they see something advantageous or profitable in the meeting. Rather than being able to know more people, dinners and work have become ways to create better opportunities for one’s own self-gain rather than truly understanding the other party; it then ends the same way, saying goodbye.
The next stanza shows that instead of enjoying the entirety of the event, what has become the matter of importance to people is the end of it all. Meeting people has become a conventional way of closing deals rather than building lasting relationships. Humanity has focused in the beginnings and in the endings, failing to put into consideration what might have been beautiful conversations.
People instinctively wake up into illusions that they are already living full and fulfilled lives. Looking out the window, gazing at a tall white pine covered with snow, it all boils down that humanity still only knows one ending to every story, goodbye. They do not realize that in their actions, such as the different hellos and goodbyes, manifest a life of a mannequin. A person has a life that is dictated not by what a person wants but what his work need. Having the inability to choose created the stigma of selfishness and being a man that is only dedicated only for his own.
The final stanza be equated into the totality of human life. We ...