Nonfiction - Page 3

Zsombor Górán

Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie was written about the idea that everything will be good someday. I expected that they would reach this, but in the end they are still in the same situation .

Most of the characters don’t like the way their life is going, so they have something to distract them from reality. Tom goes to the movies every night because he is not satisfied with his job. He has no choice but to work to provide food for the family. When his mother doesn’t believe that he is going to the movies, he makes up a ridiculous lie because he really has nothing better do. He says, ”I’m going to opium dens! Yes, opium dens, dens of vice and criminals’ hangouts, Mother. I’ve joined the Hogan Gang, I’m a hired assassin, I carry a tommy gun in a violin case! I run a string of cat houses in the Valley! They call me Killer, Killer Wingfield, I’m leading a double-life, a simple, honest warehouse worker by day, by night a dynamic czar of the underworld, Mother.”

Amanda loves to tell stories about the past and fantasize about the days of her youth. She has no hope of living a life like the past but she still thinks about it a lot. A good example is when she is telling her favourite story about the gentleman callers : “One Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain, your mother received seventeen! gentlemen callers! Why, sometimes there weren’t chairs enough to accommodate them all.”

Laura just wants to exist in her own world and play with her glass collection and listen to music. She tries to have a future and fails  because she is shy. In addition, she thinks she is crippled, but her mother tries to dispel these thoughts: “Nonsense! Laura, I’ve told you never, never to use that word. Why, you’re not crippled, you just have a little defect – hardly noticeable, even! When people have some slight disadvantage like that, they cultivate other things to make up for it – develop charm – and vivacity and – charm! That’s all you have to do!”

In conclusion, we can see the characters of The Glass Menagerie trying to forget about their life, some successfully, like Laura, some not so much, like Tom. They try not to think of their depressing life because, in the words of T. S. Eliot, “Human kind / Cannot bear very much reality.”

Jázmin Juhász

“Human kind / Cannot bear very much reality.”

—T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets

This quote applies to all three main characters of Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie as they all try to avoid reality in one way or another.

Firstly, let’s look at Amanda, who used to be a rich southern girl living in a nice house, where young men would line up in hopes of getting her hand in marriage. Even though now she is a single mother with two adult children and an absent husband, she still clings to her old life. We can see that she keeps bringing up stories like this: “One Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain, your mother received seventeen! gentlemen callers! Why, sometimes there weren’t chairs enough to accommodate them all.” Not only does she live in the past, not only does she refuse to acknowledge that the world is changing, but she also sweeps her problems under the carpet. A good example is when she is not able to admit that Laura is in fact disabled: “Nonsense! Laura, I’ve told you never, never to use that word. Why, you’re not crippled, you just have a little defect – hardly noticeable, even!”

While Amanda sees life through rose-coloured glasses everything is worse in Laura’s eyes and this quote demonstrates it perfectly. “And everybody was seated before I came in. I had to walk in front of all those people. My seat was in the back row. I had to go clumping all the way up the aisle with everyone watching I” She felt insecure about the way she walked, even though nobody ever made fun of her (as far as we know). Her career was also restrained by her mental issues: “Her hands shook so that she couldn’t hit the right keys! The first time we gave a speed-test, she broke down completely – was sick at the stomach and almost had to be carried into the wash-room!” Everything new and slightly challenging frightens her, hence she escapes reality by doing the same old things every single day. Playing with glass animals and listening to the same records are the only things she finds comfort in.

Lastly let’s talk about Tom, who is an explorer, a poet at heart but is stuck in a tedious and low-paying job. Excitement is what he yearns for. The only way he can experience any kind of adventure is through movies. He goes to the cinema so often that even his mother doesn’t believe him: “I don’t believe that you go every night to the movies. Nobody goes to the movies night after night. Nobody in their right mind goes to the movies as often as you pretend to. People don’t go to the movies at nearly midnight, and movies don’t let out at two a.m.”

All three of the main characters are trying to ignore reality but in very variable ways. Many people today are becoming increasingly like them by using escapism to endure the real world.

Sára Timár

In the play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, we learn how uneasy reality is for the characters and the period they live in. The quote “Human kind / Cannot bear very much reality,” from T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, relates to every character in a particular way. Amanda Wingfield, the mother, who in my opinion lives in daydreams but still in a moral way, organises things which might not have anything to do with others’ reality, just hers that she wants to live in, that she wants to encourage in others or that she finds ethical. She is kind of stuck in the reality of her teenage life. She wants to plan her daughter’s future, Laura’s. But Laura expects nothing to come true of all these things her mother wants. “I want you to stay fresh and pretty—for gentleman callers!” and then Laura answers “I am not expecting any gentleman callers.” Amanda also finds it hard to live in peace with her son, Tom. They fight, because they always have distinct opinions. When Tom says “I’m getting a cigarette,” Amanda says “You smoke too much”. 

Laura, the sister in the family, finds it hard to bear reality. She drops out of school because she can’t deal with it, she wants different things from her mother, and she would rather something monotonous every day just to get away from reality. A quote from Amanda: “From half past seven till after five every day you mean to tell me you walked around in the park, because you wanted to make me think that you were still going to Rubicam’s Business College?” And when she actually realises that she might have a gentleman caller, whom she  knew from school, and that it is really happening, she gets physically sick.

It seems like every character has their own activities and habits of escaping reality, Tom goes to the movies—but too frequently, every day. Even his mother makes an argument out of this habit of Tom’s, because she doesn’t believe that Tom goes to the movies this often. “I don’t believe that you go every night to the movies. Nobody goes to the movies night after night. Nobody in their right minds goes to the movies as often as you pretend to.”

In the end, the play suggests that people find reality hard and boring, which it is in some ways, in fact, many ways. The characters try to have something different in their lives, because reality remains the same and if we all thought in the same way, there would be no creativity in life.

Nóra Solti

It was midsummer; my family had been planning a holiday domestically for months, and now the time had come. We had planned to travel to Pécs, because three years earlier, we went there and enjoyed it, so we wanted to experience it again. We had great memories, so we thought that it would be a good idea to spend one week of our summer break there. It was a little bit suspicious that we needed to leave really early in the morning, but me and my sister were too tired to worry about these things. We had been travelling for a long time when I asked my parents where we were, and they said, almost there. A few minutes later we stopped at a gas station; while we were there, I checked our location, and we were in the middle of Slovenia. I was totally shocked, wondering why we were here and why we didn’t notice it earlier. When everybody was back in the car, I asked why we were in Slovenia. My parents said that we had come here just to take a look at Lake Bled. I believed them because it made sense. Hours went by, and I checked our location again and realized that we were in Italy. I asked them again, and they finally told us the truth: that we were going back to Amalfi after last year, because my mother had fallen in love with that place. We booked a room in a smaller city, and then my sister found it interesting that we were literally in the same place as our best friends. We arrived at a campsite, and during the check-in our parents acted strange. They were too happy about things. After a long time, I suddenly looked up and saw my friends with their family in front of us. I couldn’t believe it, so my mouth stayed open. I was also a little bit sad, because we needed to leave the next day and go back to Pécs, to our original destination. After the confusing emotions, the adults explained everything to us: that we had gone there for one week and only to Italy. I was on cloud nine when everything came together. This was the biggest surprise in my whole life. Afterward i can say that I went through the best holiday that i have ever been on, because i was with the people i love in a beautiful country at a great time.

Zoárd Varga

It was a tough week for all the ninth graders. Every class was exhausted after the Kati week, but they still had to be strong for the final day. That day the students and teachers would vote to decide which of the four classes was deserving the first place.

Like all the other classes, the Class 9.B was nervous about the day. Even though they had prepared for this since the second week of school, they had their doubts about winning. What if their dance fell apart? What if they failed the quiz contest? They pondered these possibilities. Even though they thought they would surely fail, they were going to give it their best shot.

But the time for doubts was over. It was time for action. The quiz contest had started, and it was time for everyone to shine. The first few rounds weren’t all that promising. They were getting third and second places, but it wasn’t going to be enough for first place. However, they slowly started their upward climb through the leaderboard. It started looking like they would win, but in the last two rounds they failed to get enough points; thus they barely scored second place.

However, they still had the dance show to hopefully turn the tide of the race. They were prepared to do their best. Some were nervous, unsure whether the dance they had prepared was good enough for winning. But in the end they were reassured that even if they were to lose, everyone would still get cake.

Anyway, it was time for the show. And soon, it was their turn to perform.

After the longest five minutes ever, they finished their performance. Everyone was excited, because they felt they had done an excellent job on stage. After the other classes had finished their performance, it was time for the vote. Everyone waited nervously as people voted for their favorite class. Soon they announced the winners.

To everyone’s surprise, the Class 9.B  won first place. The class was over the moon. They hadn’t thought they would win, but they did. Everyone celebrated this great achievement.

I, for myself, would never in a million years have thought we would win, but we did. And the best part is, we got to eat cake.

Márk Gál

Freedom: its meaning is complex: It could mean that a person doesn’t depend on another. The others cannot tell you what you have to do and what is allowed or not. Or it can mean that we are able to do something (for instance, physically). If people lack freedom, their lives are much harder and mainly filled with suffering. But sometimes too much freedom can cause as much trouble as the lack of it.

Lack of freedom: a simple example of the problem that arises when there are too many rules: dictatorship. Very hard to not break the rules because they forbid too many things; they are not fair, there are too many of them, etc. I also hate depending on other people, because I like to be self-sufficient and resent being restricted unjustly, even if I hate that/those restricted person/people/things.

Issues with too much freedom: If there are too many rules, we know it’s really bad, but sometimes the opposite can cause more and larger problems. There are many examples of this: If there weren’t physical rules like gravity, there would be total chaos in the Universe. If there weren’t laws, then there would be anarchy all over the Earth. A game without rules becomes very boring, hardly playable, and a lot of questions remain unanswered. If we cannot control a thing, it makes trouble.

I think the best is if freedom is balanced with rules; thus, we have to find equilibrium. For example: the earth temperature is optimal because it’s not too cold or hot. We need a well organised world so there is enough freedom for good people (those who want to help others, etc. or at least don’t want hurt anyone) to realize their dreams and enough restrictions to prevent troublemakers (those who want make trouble for others, love suffering of other people etc.) from completing destructive acts or moving on to even more harmful ones.

I hope there will be a world where this happens, but to some extent this is happening now.

Léna Varga

I was getting ready on a Friday evening to go out with my friends. I did my make up and listened to some music, then got dressed  as usual, as I did every day. I was wearing shorts and a pink t-shirt. I packed my bag and was so happy to finally go out with my friends. We agreed that we would meet in front of our favorite restaurant, which is near my house.

When I got  out of the house, I saw a strange man in the distance. I didn’t care about it, so I locked the door and started walking toward the restaurant. I saw the man pick up his pace. I was a little bit confused, but I thought maybe he was just running late. Then I looked back to see where he was. I saw that he was really close to me. I was scared. He came up to me and asked me where I was going. I didn’t know what to say, but I knew that I shouldn’t tell him the truth. I said that I was going to the mall, and I started walking faster. I noticed that he started slowing down, so I finally felt comfortable. I called my friend for comfort till I got there. When I arrived, I didn’t tell them what had happened. I didn’t think that it was a big deal. We went inside the restaurant, ordered some food, and gossiped  about what had been going on in our lives recently. We talked for about four hours; soon it was 9 p.m. It was getting dark, so we decided that we should go home. We paid the bill and said our goodbyes. One of my friends lives near my house, so we walked together half of the way home. She said that she was going to talk with me on the phone while I got home, but I said no. It was really dark on the street because our street is poorly lit. I saw that someone was walking far away. He was getting closer, and I noticed that he was the man who had come up to me before. I was shocked, scared, and didn’t know what to do. I was getting closer to my house, but I knew that I shouldn’t go home. So I stopped, pretending that I couldn’t find something in my bag. He was getting closer and closer, and then I noticed that he was in front of me. He said that I looked really good and asked me if I lived in this area. I said no; I was just at my grandmother’s house for the weekend. He started complimenting me and saying weird things to me. He also started touching me. I immediately grabbed his arm and pushed him away. I started running as fast as I could. I didn’t stop running until I got home.

While I was searching for my keys, I looked back to see if he was following me,but I didn’t see him. I got into the house, ran up to my room, closed the door, and started crying. Everything was a mess in my mind. I didn’t know what to do or what I should have done. I just cried as hard as I could; what had just happened five minutes ago replayed in my mind. I wish I didn’t have to experience this every time i went out.

I long for the feeling that when I go out, I can feel comfortable because men won’t compliment me. I won’t need to bring a “pepper spray” with me when I go out at night or even in the morning. That will be my freedom.

Erika Szántó

The stigmatization of neurodivergent people is still prevalent in this current age. This is highly surprising considering the fact that approximately 15-20% of the world’s population is neurodiverse. So why are we like this? Why don’t we know more?

Let’s take a look at Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), for example. Even to this day, diagnostic criteria is often based on outdated findings that cannot accurately show how autism actually works. Most of the research surrounding autism was based on how it presents in young boys, even though it is nearly as common in girls as well, and can display entirely differently in adults. Because of this, the older you are, the more difficult it is for you to get diagnosed properly, especially if you are female. To make things worse, if you have the diagnosis, you can be discriminated against on the job market and probably won’t even be able to access proper accommodations.

ASD is often demonized by a certain popular autism support group, a “charity” that overshadows other charities that actually help people on the spectrum. A surprisingly large amount of people still believe in the repeatedly discredited study that says vaccines cause autism, and would rather have their children possibly become seriously ill just to “evade” that threat. The portrayal of autistic people in the media is likewise inaccurate, often infantilizing or even making fun of autistic traits. Furthermore, people are starting to use “autistic” as an insult because they’re learning that it’s offensive to say “retarded” now, so they just target a smaller group.

It is in human nature to exclude difference and cherish similarity. Perhaps this is causing so many issues in modern society.

Kaya Tunçer

In our day and age, global interaction and ease of communication are at their all-time peak, and it is plausible that they will only increase. However, one might come to realize that there is no shortage of half-truths and unnecessary information in the minds of the people, occupying the space that could be better used to combat the struggles humanity faces. This could be linked to the bloating of the main network of communication on Earth, the Internet.

Of course, it could be argued that people have the freedom to think and care about whatever they wish. As much as people believing in things that aren’t correct or caring about insignificant things may harm our society, attempts at changing their minds would prove futile. Then, what about those who—seemingly—care about the well-being of society?

This piece will focus mainly on Western society for convenience.

Occupy Wall Street

In September 2011, a crowd of people gathered in Wall Street to protest the social and economic inequality, greed, corruption perpetuated by big corporations and their unnecessary political influence.

These gatherings did reach some success, as one of the major goals, increasing minimum wage to 15 dollars, was reached. Even if not on a federal level, many states did increase the minimum wage.

Still, in 2022, it would be considered childish by many to believe that the world’s corporations don’t have a massive, unprecedented and unacceptable amount of power. Then why isn’t this discussion still being had now, at least not on the scale of 10 years ago?

The Death of George Floyd

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was killed in police custody. We all know the massive wildfire of protests, looting, outcry and socio-political debate born from the spark of his death.

The people who followed the events following his death would also be familiar with the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act; a legislation aimed at avoiding a similar situation in the future, combating police misconduct, racial-religious bias/profiling and the usage of excessive force in policing which passed the Senate and was integrated into the Government, right?

In fact, the act never passed. It was blocked in 2020 as it could not get enough votes in the Senate, and when it was reintroduced in February 24th, 2021, it still failed to pass and collapsed in September 2021, preventing any kind of meaningful police reform.

Surprisingly (or not), most people who are aware of the events regarding George Floyd’s death don’t know about these particular events.  

Keeping in mind that the whole reason any kind of investigation and legal action against the murderer of George Floyd happened in the first place was because of public outcry and the fact that by 2021, conversation on George Floyd had died down, it is reasonable to assume that the public’s lost attention on the topic contributed to the failure of the passage of the bill.

The Russian Invasion of Ukraine

In the beginning of 2022, the Russo-Ukrainian War escalated, and Russia launched an invasion on Ukraine. The invasion has lasted for 7 months and still continues.

Thousands of civilians, children and soldiers alike have been killed, tortured, maimed; there has been tremendous economic loss since the beginning of the invasion and there is no indication that it will end any time soon.

Media coverage of the atrocities committed was very high near the beginning of the invasion, but it seems the world’s attention towards the ongoing incident has diminished.

The Common Denominator

In the three given examples, each problem has failed to be resolved. Quite simply, this is because the general population has stopped caring or has completely forgotten about it.

Society has forgotten about these problems, and in doing so, has condemned and deemed “worthless” those affected by them.

 Why Does This Happen?

The logical conclusion is that this is linked to the influence of social media and the characteristics of its average user.

The overwhelming majority of users on social media suffer from having short attention spans and craving acceptance, praise and attention from others. This leads to people resorting to virtue signaling and focusing mostly on top trends and controversies. As people lose attention and interest in a topic, a cascading effect occurs, which ultimately leads to the complete abandonment of the issue. In other words, the rate at which trends and subjects lose attention is augmented. 

These “symptoms,” paired with social media’s hold on society, result in what we see has happened with the three events above.

All in all, social media’s massive influence on societal issues and commentary, paired with its user base which is unfit to wield it, results in massive consequences, with seemingly no simple solution.

If not solved with haste, this unapparent, self-manifesting and dangerous problem could have serious consequences in the future, even if we pretend it hasn’t already affected who knows how many things for the worst.

The most terrifying thought concerning this societal phenomenon, though, is the fact that this is not a plot or a conspiracy by any group or person. It is a simple result of that which humanity has set up for itself. There is no one to blame, no one to bargain with and no one to seek a solution from.

Dorina Dian

Freedom can mean different things to different people; we can approach the concept from the whole universe through a planet to a society made up of individuals. We might think that in the universe the planets and stars and everything is free, but in reality, gravity controls everything, and they very much depend on each other, or else the whole system would collapse in an instant. Nature and societies work the same way. So what if a society doesn’t depend on another? We can say it’s free. What if a human being doesn’t depend on others? Then they are free.

But in human life, everything we do or say has an effect on those around us, because that’s how the system works: We communicate and work and evolve together so we can go ahead. We are brought up and controlled by our parents so we can evolve, we are controlled by our teachers to evolve, then we are controlled by employers and companies so we can be helpful to society. So basically limitless freedom could never be reached, or as I have mentioned, the system would collapse. We can never be utterly free in our lives BUT we can experience small fractions of it as we go on our paths.

So how does freedom work within the borders of our society? Equality before the law is freedom, religious equality before the law is freedom, because, according to such law, we are not oppressed or controlled by others. Obviously this is not entirely true, but if in some cases we are allowed to choose, that definitely constitutes freedom. For us teenagers it is compulsory to go to school, and by that time in our lives when we are so close to maturity, it becomes more and more obvious that we are controlled and we don’t want to be. But what is hanging out with friends from school, what is reading or watching films or listening to music? For us, those could be called freedom. For adults, freedom could be much more because they are able to do so many things that we can’t, including traveling or buying things. To be able to do these kinds of things is freedom. So we fight for it all our lives. We learn and work so we can move out and start our own individual lives, with our own house and own friends and money. So we could be independent, so we could be free.

But what if we forget society and all the alarming factors that cause dependence and just look at the big picture? Because freedom could be anywhere at any moment. A girl sitting on a plane and looking out the window at the clouds could feel freedom. Birds flying high in the sky can feel freedom. Antelopes running in Africa are free. Whales hunting in the sea are free. Atoms in the air are free. Shooting stars in the sky are free.  Freedom can be captured in moments, tiny or big, it all depends on how you live them. When you are happy you can feel it, and you can be happy any time.

Freedom is a hard concept to describe because it means different things to different people. But what is for sure? It’s worth fighting for it because life would be meaningless without fighting for things. Reading a book after a long day at school feels better than just reading a book. Hanging out with friends is more exciting when you have worked so hard all week, and swimming in the sea on holiday after a long year is just the best thing ever. Everything is made of freedom, we just have to find it.