Post by Hiba Rashid on Sept 2, 2015 3:05:51 GMT
One of the first lines that stood out to me in “The Third Night” was when the child tells the man “Wait, I’ll be heavy soon” (p.28). This gives an implication to what the child may symbolize and reminded me of a commonly used idiom, “To be a burden/weight on one’s shoulders.” Throughout the story, I imagined the child as a weight on the man’s shoulders - something that he must be responsible for. When he is finding his way through the forest, that weight becomes heavier which could imply the growth of that responsibility as he inches closer to the end. It is not until the end of the story when we find out what exactly he is responsible for.
When interpreting the quote from page 29, I view the child not only as a responsibility but also a sin that the man committed in his past. He must carry the responsibility of this sin in his present and further into his future.
A discussion question that I would like to propose is: What is the significance of the author stating that the man committed the murder exactly one hundred years ago?
In an online version of this short story, I found that the “god of stone” was alternately interpreted as “stone statue of Bodhisattva.” This shows that the story may have been influenced by Buddhist values. Considering the tendency towards Buddhism, I interpreted the main themes of this story as karma and rebirth. Since the murder occurred one hundred years ago, I thought of the sin as one committed not in the man’s current life, but in a previous one. So, in this story, he may be in a “next life” still facing the karma of his hundred year old sin.
When interpreting the quote from page 29, I view the child not only as a responsibility but also a sin that the man committed in his past. He must carry the responsibility of this sin in his present and further into his future.
A discussion question that I would like to propose is: What is the significance of the author stating that the man committed the murder exactly one hundred years ago?
In an online version of this short story, I found that the “god of stone” was alternately interpreted as “stone statue of Bodhisattva.” This shows that the story may have been influenced by Buddhist values. Considering the tendency towards Buddhism, I interpreted the main themes of this story as karma and rebirth. Since the murder occurred one hundred years ago, I thought of the sin as one committed not in the man’s current life, but in a previous one. So, in this story, he may be in a “next life” still facing the karma of his hundred year old sin.