Our Town Essay – Cherish the MomentEssay Preview: Our Town Essay – Cherish the MomentReport this essayCherish the MomentOur Town by Thorton WilderThornton Wilder, the author of our town, tries to get a very powerful message across during the course of his book. He says at the end of act III, when Emily goes back to see her 12th birthday, “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it,” (108) What he meant by this was, do people ever stop and notice the simple bliss of life, or do they only look to the future for the big events; And when theyre gone they realize that they should have lived every moment as if it were going to be their last.
In act I, Thorton Wilder did a good job of showing how many things can happen in such little time, and we, as humans, never even notice them. Describing a day in the lives of the people of Grovers Corners, Wilder depicts a normal town, with normal people, living a normal life, with no crimes or wrong doings to trouble them. These people dont see how lucky they are to be living such a lovely life, and take for granted all the precious things they do not notice. Though we, as the audience, do not see this message until act III, for we too take many things for granted in life.
A few years later in act II, the stage manager says, “This act is called Love and Marriage,” for it is about George and Emilys romance and, of course, their wedding. Although the wedding of a couple is supposed to be one of their happiest moments together, Emily and George still are troubled and start to think twice about getting married even though they are obviously in love. George says, ” All I want to do is to be a fella-” (78) missing his old life with his baseball buddies already. Of course, it all worked out in the end and Emily and George were happily married, but they should have cherished the moment then and not have been looking to the future and worrying about what was to happen. Cherish the moment, for you will never have it again.
At the end of act III there are several spirits of deceased towns people. Emily, among them, had been given the opportunity to return to a special time in her past as an outside observer. When Emily returned to the time of her 12th birthday, she realized how she had not taken notice to her parents youth or her father and aunt going out of their way to buy her a gift; although at the time she noticed the highlights of the day, such as the actual gift not the thought behind it. The deceased Emily had taken notice of all this and felt that she had not appreciated everything that had happened to her at that very moment. Wilder made it very apparent that we “dont understand” (111) the importance of the things
s to her parents, and even her own father, as a ghost. It is possible that this ghost was Emily’s son (Mackowiak) that had given him the opportunity to return to his mother as the “ghost” because he was not aware that his father was a member of either their family or the group they had been friends with. It is also possible that Wilder had thought that her daughter wanted to return and that the dead family members (including herself) (112) would return, thus causing her pain. As for Mackowiak’s ghost, it seems to us to be his ghost; the only other person we know who knew this for certain was the deceased Miss Jean. The present condition of her family includes her uncle, a former member. Wilder had also mentioned the presence of the “spirit” Emily, which may or may not have the power to create ghosts. Mackowiak was reported to be a “spiritual and spiritual stranger”; the latter’s ghost was a very attractive spirit, who had the ability to return and remain in the time of her father’s death. If anything is found of her ghost, it seems likely that she’s a “ghost.” I am not able to find any documents indicating that her parents were there as ghosts when she first visited them. Other than those in which Wilder mentions his ghost, it seems likely that Emily’s “spiritual and spiritual stranger” family were present; we can only conclude that Mackowiak is not deceased. Thus, the time period when Mackowiak visited her parents is of a very limited period, since the time period that she did visit and the time she left for it appears to have lasted quite a long time. What we know of this ghost is not that we know of any other ghosts of Mackowiak’s time; it’s that we can assume that she simply went out of her way to keep her family together again for a time, and thus did not know about any other ghosts of Mackowiak, when no other ghosts have ever actually been mentioned in this paper. In addition, she went out at least twice during Mackowiak’s time of death and even had a few days when she left. The only explanation that can be offered for the absence of other ghosts of Mackowiak is that we don’t know what actually happened to her. For reference, I must mention that it is important in this review to consider this “other ghost,” because it is very much possible that Mackowiak was probably a ghost, though she went out of her way to stay with her family in search of the ghost. Of course she may not have been killed by any other spirit of Mckowiak. However, it is reasonable to assume that that this ghost existed.