To begin with, I would like to say that the story “Some are born to sweet delight” written by Nadine Gordimer and the poem “When the towers fell” by Galway Kinnell penetrate the readers with their gravity, compassion and feeling of death. In these two works the authors raise such important questions as terrorism, xenophobia, injustices to foreigners, methods that help to copy with trauma, etc.
For example, Nadine Gordimer, in her story “Some are born to sweet delight” uses different literary devices that keep the reader in suspense. One the one hand, Nadine Gordimer writes about typical love story among two young people, South African woman and a young fellow, an immigrant from Islamic country, but with each following line the reader understands that the story is not easy and shallow, but unpredictable.
Human relationships are in the spotlight of the story. The reader observes the growth of love, the increase of trust, and the difficulties which the pair has overcame. But suddenly all this idyll is broken because of the man’s terroristic act.
For Julie, Abdu is the so-called symbol of rebellion; for Abdu, Julie is his chance to avoid deportation. Everything is interconnected in this story. These characters complement each other.
Through some episodes which describe Julia’s attempts to help her beloved to get citizenship in South America, the author wants to prove the seamy world of immigrants: their hopelessness, humiliation, frustration and impotence. All these facts point out about the injustices to foreigners.
Other fragments from the story, such as visiting the house of Julie’s father and his guests’ conversations are told us about money and their power. Money is one of the symbols of the story “Some are born to sweet delight”.
But the crucial moment of the story is when Julie is on the board of the plane with the toy which contains bomb in the hand. The man who is suffering xenophobia gives the toy to her. And the end is predictable.
Nadine Gordimer with all her mastery and innovations has showed in this story that life can be destroyed in a moment.
The poem “When the towers fell” by Galway Kinnell is dedicated to disaster which occurred on the eleventh of September and which has left an incurable wound in the heart of each American. I must admit that when the author taught at New York University, the twin towers were the part of his view until that awful day. That is why he wrote the poem about that tragedy.
While reading this poem the feeling of fear and compassion is taken place. This poem is a picture of people, who are alive, but they are on the verge of death, and they can not do anything with it.
The theme of death’s inevitability is situated in most his poems and as we see, the poem “When the towers fell” is not an exception. This poem is rigorous and gloomy. The feeling of death is laid through all the lines of the poem. But, nevertheless, the author invokes to meet it through fear and anxiety.
In this poem the author uses such symbol as a fire, the symbol of destruction.
With all literary mastery Galway Kinnell depicts in his poem the importance of companionship. For example, when the victims were jumping from the tower and were holding their hands.
I can say that both authors could awakened in their readers the feeling of compassion, desire to live despite the fact that life could be unpredictable and severe.