Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: Mercutio

Dear Mercutio,
    You are a very loyal friend of Romeo, giving him the support he needs even when he might deny it, like with his issues concerning Rosaline. When he was having love problems you gave him your most honest, simple, and great advice: to treat love as it does you, and to understand that love originates from one's love to love, so that you must therefore be willing to move on from the love that brings you overwhelmingly negative feeling in order to love again. Not only that, but you lightened up the mood for him and everyone with your humor when things were getting uncomfortably deep. Serious and silly all in the best of places. Unfortunately, there is only one flaw in your logic due to taking on the Montague's culture being very close friends with Romeo, and that is hating the Capulets. Because it is in your nature to treat Capulet's harshly and Montagues more nicely, it shrouds your actual opinion of those from both houses. This is especially unfavorable for you because you end up dying after allowing yourself to get involved in that fatal quarrel with Tybalt of the Capulet's, in which you disregarded Romeo completely on dismissing such thoughts. Not something that a "loyal friend" would do (acting without communicating). All Romeo wanted was peace for the sake of his relationship with Juliet which patched up his love problems that you wanted to solve before, and maybe even to put an end to the logic that he was made to believe, but in the end it was all ruined because they both ended up dying after a series of events caused by you fighting Tybalt. If only you had taken the time to evaluate everything before taking action. Well, too bad.

Sincerely, Jason

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

The protagonist of the story The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield, presents a direct perspective of his life revealing his complex character. Through a more psychoanalytic lens, one can see that Holden suffers from depression likely evoked by the death of his younger brother, Allie. Holden also tends to have this pattern of behavior, calling others “phony”, wanting to leave the city for a better life, and failing his classes, which coincides with his depression. And the type of people who are the phoniest of them all to him are adults. Much of Holden’s depressing character is symbolized by the objects that he recalls in the story.

Firstly, the hunting hat Holden buys shows the childish side of his personality, which he isn’t too shy about. The curious hat symbolizes what makes him different from the adult phonies. Holden also is able to hold onto the hat throughout the story, also symbolizing how he clings onto the childhood memories he shared with Allie. Growing up seems to be one of Holden’s greatest fears, and his hat truly embodies his wish to hold onto his trivial and simplistic childhood which in some way protects him. However, Holden initially seemed a bit embarrassed to wear the hat, wanting to be accepted by society, and more specifically his peers. This sort of gives him these mixed feelings ending with the feeling of depression.

Secondly, the museum Holden visits just about every year, also contributes to his depression. What is featured in the museum had remained the same since his first visit. The only thing that does change inside the museum are the people. The museum symbolizes how he can’t live life frozen in time, and that he’ll eventually have to to grow up. He also comes to another conclusion when at the museum, and that is there is no time machine or miracle that can ever bring back Allie.

Lastly, the merry-go-round symbolizes the constant positive progression in life that never really occurs. Life is never always straightforward and in one direction like the merry-go-round. It also seems to show how much Holden refuses to transition from a child to an adult. The simple motion of it prevents Holden from setting foot onto a more difficult and complex life of an adult. Also, the merry-go-round being a beloved children’s toy, and Holden seeing the joy of childhood/adolescence with his sister on the ride for one last time makes him truly feel the joy of being happy. In that scene he finally feels happy because he lets go of his fears of dying and maturing to just experience something going on in his life. With that he also doesn’t feel the need to save others from losing their innocence as well. He then on doesn’t let his depression of losing Allie dominate his life, coming to the realization that maturing won’t only make him phony and bring more conflict, but bring him closer to others allowing him to better connect with society.

A Modern Utopia by H.G. Wells

     Every individual has his/her own ideals about everything and all these ideals, when formed into a single idea also creates a utopia in which that person may usually perceive as perfect for themself. A utopia is the state of being a perfect world in all points of reference of life in that world. What the common utopia is for everyone in the world now is constantly being debated, and is nowhere close to being found and accepted. But, there are ideals originating from those utopias that have been generally accepted by all. A Modern Utopia by H.G. Wells is an essay-story that presents the author's ideals surrounding his own utopia in which he finds achievable, consisted of the ideals from other utopists and philosophers in history until his time.

     Something that Wells tells readers about his utopia is that the small social issues are things bound to occur anywhere where there are people, and although his utopia has said conflict it is still a utopia. Wells' utopia also has some aspects in which helps to maintain its state of perfection, which is also another reason why social conflicts become such an insignificant factor in his utopia. His utopia is made to constantly be in a static or positively progressing state. This doesn't really account for any visitors from our world entering the story. Wells uses the characters from the story part of his writing piece, the Botanist and the Narrator, to draw in readers and to open up discussion about his ideals. When they enter a utopian society, can they not produce a conflict that can cause this utopia to no longer be a utopia? After having analyzed and observing the author's utopia, I have to say that even the slightest most insignificant thing as such can progress into something more greatly impactful. One of Murphy’s laws is that, as time progresses things are bound to worsen, which contradicts the whole concept of utopia.

     Then, H.G. Wells also mentions a major aspect of his utopia which one may find very debatable. Something that helps in maintaining his utopia is an openly secret society which has the power to keep the state intact. In other words it makes negative progression nonexistent allowing growth without it being unethical or dystopian. A powerful exclusive group separate from a state’s government with the ability to build up or break down that state, has always been very controversial in the real world. One of the first to have a similar idea was Plato. Instead of it being the Samurai as in Wells’ work; he called them the Guardians. Many have found such a thing as a possible necessity for a utopia, especially it coming from one of the first and most famous philosophers. In contrast, one of the first applications of the idea was the Freemasons who were responsible for the beginning of the United States (and few places around the world). After evil overcame the society and anti-freemasonry movements started, they slowly faded away from history losing any supplemental power they had in the country.

     Herbert George Wells also draws a reference to Thomas More's utopia. More's utopia does exhibit a utopia, but one in which he did not believe was achievable to any extent. Wells uses his works to try and prove his ideals in order to strengthen his utopia. Seeing that these two are very distinct men who have developed in very different places, times, and ways, it is quite obvious that they think differently. This is also why their ideals are very different, mostly tending to conflict with another. You can’t prove another utopia wrong, but you can present your own ideas as H.G. Wells did. There really is no limit to what one can do other than the limits that every individual creates for themselves.

     Utopia is something that is achievable, as shown in Wells’ utopia and many others. It all varies with what every person believes is utopia. Some may feel that utopia is a place where they get the most benefits while others believe it is a state which we know is there but we cannot achieve. No matter how you see it, everything hitherto surrounds the improvement of our world in the present.