LITERATURE I: FUTILITY

Something a little different this week, class. I’m going to tell you a story that is known the world over. Tell me if you can guess what this story is, and what it’s about?

Okay?

It’s the story of a giant of a man, with a large shapeless face. This giant of a man has spent a long time getting himself and his companion in trouble, because he has difficulty understanding things as other humans do. He cannot see things in anything other than their basic formats. Black and white you could say.

Now, these two men, they finally settled down somewhere fresh, and made a new start for themselves, dreaming about a future where they could live as they pleased, free from all worry. But that dream was harder to realise than they thought. The giant of a man with the shapeless face became broken inside his head, and made some mistakes. He did bad things, although there are those who said he was not bad at his core. His companion was one of those who defended him as long as he could, even though all around him were telling him to break free of it all and get away from him, before he was dragged down with the gentle giant.

One day, tears in his eyes, the companion knew that they had been right all along, and he should have done something sooner. Now there was no choice: the companion took his large friend to one side, and he put him down, saving himself and others from any more mistakes.

Did you get it yet, class?

“Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck? Yes. You’re quite right. This does sound like Steinbeck’s tale of two men, bound in fate and exploring the futility of dreams. The friendship of the two companions, George and Lennie, seems to keep the dream alive, but once that friendship is broken the futility kicks in.

But sorry, that is not the story I was telling, although the moral is similar. The story I was telling was the one of TAM and Jacen Novan, two allies who ended up locked in a bitter fight, against Novan’s will. It took a long time for Novan to realise what he had to do, but eventually he understood, and in the same way George had to put Lennie down, Novan had to make the same call.

He has lived each day since wondering if his choice was the right one – and he feels that sense of futility that George felt in the novel – but although the moral is similar, like I said, there is one difference.

Whilst George and Lennie’s dreams were futile, Novan’s dreams just seem it. What he had to do was a terrible thing, but there is life after TAM. There is hope. Let us dash his futility now and discuss how he can live off the fat of the land in the new OSW. And maybe even tend some rabbits.

Open your workbooks, class. Let us find a way to teach him how to get past this crisis.