While reading through "The Other Side of the Hedge", especially through the first scene with the race, I couldn't help but relate it to the conformity experienced by society today. Since we were children, we have been preparing for success. Kindergarten ready's society for elementary school. Elementary school readies us for middle school. Middle school prepares us for High School. High School is all about getting ready for college, and once we are in college, we are told that we are preparing for success in the workplace. A huge portion of our lives are spent preparing for success and we make success in the business world our main priority. We are in a "race" for success and that is what I imagine the first scene of this story being. However, death finds everyone. Everyone, no matter how successful, will die. Success cannot help anyone escape death. So I think that the image the writer is trying to portray is that people run a huge race that has no end, then once they are exhausted they die. The man was passed by many once he could go no more.
Another thing that I took note of was that the narrator was sorry for his brother because "He had wasted his breath on singing, and his strength on helping others." However, is that the mindset that we should have. Should we be so caught up in our race for success that we forget to cherish the little things like singing or helping out the less fortunate? I think as servants of Christ, we should all be more like the brother, who serves instead of losing himself in his success.
p.s. commented on Autumns "Let Me Outta Here"
Though you bring up a good point, I'm not so sure that the author is so entirely focused on the idea that you run the race and then you die. He is looking for something much deeper than that, examining the value of all that progress and growth in hopes that, when death comes, it is so much less compared to the life we have lived and our experiences on this Earth. Yes, good commentary on the brother.
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