Scholastic Spotlight: Lenora Combs

Time Enough at Last Essay

Honorable Mention

Author: Lenora Combs

12th Grade

Educator: Richard Norton

Noonan

Through its numerous uses of irony, Lynn Venable’s short story “Time Enough At Last” is a perfect depiction of the outcome of focusing only on life’s negatives rather than appreciating what one has. Irony is a major concept in this piece and is portrayed on numerous occasions, from beginning to end. Evident in the character development, conflict, theme, and overall message, it plays a central role in nearly every other conceptual portion of the story. It is the irony that allows readers to sympathize with the main character whose plight can be very relatable. As the character searches for the opportunity to complete his biggest ambition, he does not take into account what he does have.

Henry Bemis was a man who wanted nothing more than to be able to sit down and read a book in piece. Never in his life had he been able to read a book, article, or other written form of entertainment all the way through. During his childhood, this was due to the fact that he needed glasses badly, but his parents did not realize this and thought him to be ‘mentally challenged,’ for lack of better words. “Nature had conspired against Henry by handing him a pair of hopelessly myopic eyes…For a while, when he was very young, his parents had thought him an idiot. When they realized it was his eyes, they got glasses for him. He was never quite able to catch up.” (Venable) When they finally figured out the real problem, he was already far behind other children his age and was never able to catch up. In his adulthood, Bemis’ wife, Agnes is domineering and somewhat cruel, tossing a paper her husband had been just sat down to read into the fireplace because she wanted him to get ready for guests. He feels as though his life is owned and divided between Agnes and his boss, Mr. Carsville, leaving him with no freedom or time of his own. It is because of this that Henry tries to sneak in some time to read whenever he can.

I align with this character, in part, because we share a love of books, and in a deeper sense, I am also able to sympathize with his struggles. Like Henry Bemis, I often feel as though I do not get to have much time to myself to do what I want. At this point in my life, my existence is divided between duties at home, at school, and other areas where I do not necessarily get to choose for myself. However, my freedom is not anywhere near being as limited as that of Mr. Bemis, for which I am grateful. This allows all readers to extend their sympathy toward this character because whatever their troubles in life, hopefully most of them do not have the extent of troubles Mr. Bemis has.

There are several conflicts in this work, as there tend to be in most. One such conflict is man versus man. The newspaper Bemis attempts to read in the bank vault has headlines warning about the possibility of a coming war with articles that talk about the new weapons. This conflict comes into play when the bomb goes off in the city, destroying it and killing a large portion of the population, as far as Bemis is aware. This conflict is not significant as it is only the positive turning point for Bemis rather than a tragedy. Another conflict is between Bemis and his wife and boss who prevent him from reading. The conflict of man versus nature is apparent in Bemis’ sightlessness without his glasses, which is significant at the story’s end. However, due to the outcome of his story and the events from beginning to end, the true conflict is more nearly man vs. fate, shown in Henry Bemis’ inability to read a book no matter what lengths he goes to.

 A large theme in “Time Enough at Last” is the concept of loneliness versus the desire for solitude. Henry Bemis wanted nothing more in life than to be able to have time alone to read a book. The bombing that occurred while he was trying to read in the bank vault granted this wish, leaving him as, presumably, the only survivor in the city. Bemis’ love of books saved his life as he had gone into the vault to try to read just as the bomb struck. His desire to read is what saved him from what could have been a quick death, but in the end it cause him to lose his ability to see. Not only can he no longer read at all, leaving him with enough time to read to his heart’s content and all the books he could possibly want for a long while, rendered completely useless to him because he could no longer see. His desire for solitude was granted but at the larger cost of his glasses making his solitude inert.

The large destruction of the bombing of the city was clearly a big deal to everyone else, since there did not appear to be any survivors, but it was most nearly a blessing for Mr. Bemis, giving him the freedom to read. The breaking of his glasses caused by a mere shift in the shelf he had been sitting on was small in comparison, however, it held far more significance to Henry Bemis as it took away his ability to read or to see. Whereas the bombing created a swift end to the lives of everyone else, Bemis will have to be the one to suffer through likely starvation, loneliness, and the knowledge that his life’s ambition had been in his grasp, only for it to slip completely out of reach.

            The central message of the story is to appreciate and make the best of what one does have while they have it, rather than focusing on only the negatives. Mr. Bemis had considered his life to be terrible and mundane without the excitement that reading brought. With the bomb’s dropping, he was finally given freedom to do with his time as he pleased. However, he took for granted the importance of his glasses. He had been so focused on how much time he had to do what he wanted that he had not even considered the dependence he had on two pieces of glass. With their breaking, he was left without the ability to read once again, but now he also without human companionship, which he had previously, believed to be a hindrance. In relation to this, the lesson could be that one should be very careful what they wish for. What we believe we want does not always turn out as we expect it to. The outcome may not be what we really want or need.

 I selected this reading largely because the lesson to be learned and the ironies presented Henry Bemis had put more value on the existence of books than he did on human life. When he woke up after the bomb went off he immediately began his search for the library rather than looking for his wife. “A sudden panic gripped Henry Bemis. What if they were all ruined, destroyed, every one of them? What if there wasn’t a single one left? Tears of helplessness welled up in his eyes as he painfully fought his way over and through the twisted fragments of the city.” Henry cries over the thought that all of the books may have been destroyed but not over the loss of human lives even after seeing his boss and co-workers dead.

 Irony plays a large role in the short story “Time Enough at Last”. Henry Bemis is desperate to read, but in the process, he loses sight of the real importance of life. He is more focused on materialistic possessions such as books that he wishes for rather than on the human relationships he does have. In trying to gain what he wishes he had, he ultimately loses that. Rather than going back to where he had started, he lost what he previously had as well.

Scholastic Spotlight:Tawnee Laducer

Prisoners of Culture

Honorable Mention

Author: Tawnee Laducer

9^th Grade

Educator: Caitlin Johnson

Belcourt

Racism. A word I thought I would never truly understand, because I’m not African-American. That ended up being true until I was fourteen, being called a “prairie nigger,” in a white-populated town, not too far from my own hometown. To this day, I still don’t understand why the students planned on saying that. Whether they wanted me to get angry or be embarrassed, I was definitely both. One, I was frustrated. I thought to myself, “They don’t even know me. Why would they say that?” Secondly, I was so embarrassed. I was embarrassed to be Native American. Why? I don’t know. I hadn’t done anything wrong. Shortly after this little experience, my English class started to read the incredible story of John Howard Griffin. An exquisite and brave Caucasian man who documented two months of his life traveling down to the deep South as a man who had went through many changes to have the opportunity to document his case in the early 60’s. Of course, the South was the worst place for Africans to be living and/ or visiting at this time. He talked about his experiences there, and that is what sparked my imagination to start writing about my own experiences. I didn’t realize how interested in the huge race issue I was until I started reading and discussing this book to my peers, family, teachers, or really anyone that would give me five minutes of their time.

To be honest, I never really had heard or even seen racism happening to the people next to or by me. I’ve seen it all over the Internet, but never face-to-face...until it actually happened to me. It came as a real big shock then. I was skeptical before. Ignorant, maybe. If a teacher would tell us that we would be doing a unit on racism in the 60s-70s, I would give the biggest sigh and be annoyed that I would constantly have to recover this topic every single year. Though I’d get through the lessons and discussions eventually, I was never seriously interested. Maybe when I experienced what I did, it opened my eyes are showed me that these things really do happen, and not just to the African-American people you see on Facebook, but also to the people in my community.

I guess my main purpose for this paper is just to spread the word that racism is real, and it probably will still be a huge issue twenty years from now. That is, unless we try to do something about it. I don’t know who will be reading this paper, but I hope that whoever it is, never has to experience it first hand, or is not personally giving it out to anyone. No one would ever need to feel self-conscious about their own skin color.

When most people hear the word “racism” they automatically think it’s about African-Americans. Yes, Africans are more prone to experience it, but that doesn’t mean that Native Americans, Latin Americans, Muslims, basically any race that isn’t white (minorities), don’t experience it as well. They do, and it is a very real, raw thing to go through. Now, I’m not blaming white people, because it’s definitely not all of them. Majority of the time though, white culture is the originator of the problem. For example, Donald Trump recently called Elizabeth Warren, the U.S. Senator of Massachusetts, “Pocahontas” because she claims to be of Native American descent. Trump called Warren that name using a degrading tone of voice. Pocahontas is actually a lady of Native American descent, who had been a crucial part to the white man being in North America. He belittled a whole race of people, when he knows next to nothing about them. Trump called her that name not once, but twice. One of the two times, he actually had the audacity to call her that in front of the Navajo code talkers. It might not even sound like that big of a deal to most people, but to someone that is Native American, it feels really ignominious. This is only one of the millions of treacherous facts about things that happen and are brushed off like it has no significant meaning to anyone that isn't Native, almost as if we aren’t really human.

I read on 7 Statistics That Will Change How You View Racism, that employers are more likely to not hire potential job applicants if the applicants have a “Black” name, which is a name that isn't considered to be appropriate for a white man. Isn’t that disappointing? Imagine not getting picked for your dream job based on your name, which you had no control over whatsoever. In Griffin’s book, every little detail about how he lived and got treated in the South all came down to one thing. What was that one thing you may ask? His skin color. Say, for example, you were to ask someone, of color, if they believed that the changes and laws and rights that were made for people of color, changed anything, I bet they would say no. Personally, I know I would say no. Yes, there have been things that have changed, in good ways, but there are also things that are still occurring today and no one is doing a single thing about it.

Did you ever hear of Cyntoia Brown? She's an African American girl whom was put into prison, because she killed someone. Now, you're probably thinking, how is that unfair? Well, she was sex- trafficked, and is now being punished for defending herself from one of the guys that had “purchased” her. This case actually happened around ten years ago, but is now being brought out into the light, because of all the fame her case has brought to social media recently. Kim Kardashian, for example, saw Brown’s case and she called her lawyers, because she knew that what the system was doing for her was wrong in so many ways. Rihanna also spoke on Brown’s half. Why? Because people know that it is so wrong and that our system, isn't being fair to a lady of color. If Cyntoia’s case doesn't change, she will be eligible for parole when she is sixty-nine years old! This happened to her around the age of fourteen. She was raped and drugged for countless of days. She finally got the courage to shoot the forty-three year old man who had “purchased her.” She somehow gets the blame? On the other hand, the man who had attained her was let off with no consequences. It is things like this that make us question our justice system.

It’s crazy reading about all these different people and cases about most white people not getting treated the same. A lot of time, the Caucasians are more susceptible to winning their case. Often, the Caucasians don’t see it as much more than having a strong point, but a lot of other people view it as ‘white privilege.’ This is why a lot of white people don’t necessarily experience racism or believe it to be a real occurrence in today’s society. Obviously, not every Caucasian has the same views or thoughts on racism, which is why we can’t categorize them all into having ‘white privilege’ or being a racist.

There is nothing individuals can do about racism by themselves, but if everyone works together, things could seriously change for the best. If you feel moved or inspired to do something about racism, and are asking yourself what you could do to take action, there are so many opportunities that will stand in your way. Whether the problem has something to do with you, or if it has to do with your fellow neighbor, family, friend, or even just someone you might pass by. Don’t be afraid to stick up for them. It’s a horrific thing for anyone to go through, whether they have been through it a million times or not, it still hurts them, I guarantee it. Growing up in a society with constant brawls and arguments all over the news about race, it starts to take an effect on you too. I grew up in this age. You don’t really get to form your own opinion about much of anything. You’re either categorized into the people who are considered to be “right” or the people who are “wrong.” It shouldn’t have to be a constant battle with people that are learning, growing, and experiencing all the same things as you, despite skin color. Like John Howard Griffin once wrote, “We shall remain prisoners of culture unless we become aware of the process and force ourselves to confront it and to reprogram it” (Griffin, 1960).

References

Griffin, John Howard. Black Like Me. New American Library, 1960.

“Seven Statistics That Will Change How You View Racism.” The Odyssey Online, 11 Nov.

2017.