The Line Between Truth and Fiction

Milkman comes out of the cave empty-handed, and feels hunger that he has never felt before. This hunger is said to be, “real hunger, not the less than top full feeling.” By the less than top full feeling, Milkman refers to the hunger people may feel if they haven’t eaten in a while. It is clear that Milkman is feeling hunger because he hasn’t eaten as well as not being able to fulfill his desire to fill himself with gold. Because of this he feels delirious, which in turn makes him feel very empty and unhappy. It is unclear whether he is feeling this way just because of his physical hunger, as the quest to find the gold was long and strenuous causing him to be emotionally exhausted. This probably led him to feel even more “hungry” as he had to work hard for no reward. He mentions not enjoying the greasy food given to him by Mrs. Cooper, and how he was “disgusted” by them. Greasy food often helps in fattening people, which is symbolic to privilege that is given to people.   Th...

As an Asian going to Troy High school, it is hard not to feel the pressure to succeed that is placed on us by others. We are expected to excel, and when we don’t, we are looked down upon. And when we are looked down upon, it is not by people with different goals or even ethnicities; the people who look down upon us are our own “people,” as the Reverend would say in “Song of Solomon”. We divide ourselves into two categories, the smart and the not so smart, and we all strive to step over the boundary to be a part of the smart group because that it is what is “expected” of us. What is really confusing is what the requirements are to be a part of this “elite” group of people at school. Do you have to take a ton of AP classes? Do you need to have a perfect 4.0 gpa? Be one of the top chairs in symphony orchestra or band? Do you have to be a finalist in national or international competitions? Do you need to be the president of many clubs? How about all of them combined? Doing al...

Humans like to classify things. No matter how messy a person may seem, it is human instinct to stay organized, even our cells are organized. The one flaw in the human organization system is the fact that we also tend to place classes higher and lower than other classes. Scientifically speaking, the only difference between the different colored skins is the amount of melanin that is produced in the body. The amount of melanin in our bodies doesn’t affect how smart, athletic, or healthy we are. Melanin is simply produced in skin when it is exposed to sunlight. Segregating based on skin color makes the human race look dumb. They’re classifying people based on such a useless thing. At that time period, as we look back on it, the scholarly card should have been taken away from the higher-ups who assumed that this would be the best way to prove their superiority. It might have worked in their time period, yet looking back at slavery and segregation, almost everyone looks down on th...

The story of The Great Gatsby is a prime example of how greed can lead to one’s downfall. Gatsby was very fortunate, he was known as a perfect man, he lived the American dream, yet he still wanted more. He fought to possess the one person who he believed would complete his life, which ended up killing him. This leads to a question: why do people always strive for more than what they already have? Humans want to go faster, further, and just beyond their capabilities in general. And to an extent that is a good thing. It lets us push ourselves to reach our goals. However, many disasters could occur just as we think we have grasped that light in the distance, just as Gatsby had. Imagine sending a space rover to a faraway planet that, in theory, is supposed to contain life. This planet is only aligned at a closer distance to Earth once in every 200 years. The rover makes the year long journey to travel through space, and it has taken many years prior to the j...