Friday, May 7, 2010

The Mysterious Stranger

The Mysterious Stranger was quite the reading for me, and I understand why Dr. Williams chose it for the very end of the course. We developed our analytical skills and it was a good yet melancholy close to our readings. We all know what the piece is about, so the real question is, was the devil right?"It is true, that which I have revealed to you; there is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream - a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought - a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!"He vanished, and left me appalled; for I knew, and realized, that all he had said was true" ( Twain). The core of me wants to refute this and ignore it; it makes me want to say that through God or my religion, this does not apply to me. But as a scholar, I have to take this seriously. What if this world the devil speaks about with nothing but ourselves is true? Don't some people live just like this? I believe that there are some dark truths out there in the world, but through good company and good morals one can overcome the darkness.

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