The Bonfire

The Bonfire Sept 10, 2015 3:29:42 GMT

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Post by Pedro J. Paez on Sept 10, 2015 3:29:42 GMT

The story opens with the bright and lively activity of a group of kids around 10 years old during the last few busy days of the year. As the sun sets it is as if the warmth of a fire beginning to fade and the twilight chill cast a shadow on their spoils that they gathered. They planned to burn their finding for that day however the bamboo would not spark. Their failure was interrupted by the Izu hill on fires and they turned their attention toward it. The harvest was over a sign of life dying leaving their spark for the next year to come. When the boys began to run away from their pile of spoils the cold wind brings warmth and joy to the eyes of the young boys as the pile catches flames. They leave and only dark and coldness surrounds the fire. A wanderer finds the fire and is overtaken by ecstatic excitement. The fire seem to light up a torch within him frozen by the cold of night. The fire also brought tears to the old man's eyes and felt a young boy at heart. He feels great gratitude toward whoever created this delightful fire. This tale represent two representation of the influence of fire. First, the boys are shown being energetic and full of passion almost as the unlit fire is providing energy telling them to give it their all. And they are rewarded with the fruit of their efforts with the emergence of fire. The second part describes the lonesome traveler who is in the middle of his endless drifting and he says, "How cold the night is." Here the fire depicts a warm special feeling in his soul or mind helping him forget the harsh reality he has been experiencing. The fire starts to die but he adds twigs in order to expand the fire's lifespan and pass the warmth fire to the next son. The end of this tale concludes with the boy's fire and the old man's footprints being swept away by the eternal waves meaning the bonfire symbolizes the forces of nature and life becoming one.

Discussion Questions: What is your interpretations of the bonfire? What do you think is the connection between the bonfire and the eternal waves?

The Bonfire Sept 10, 2015 23:21:20 GMT

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Post by Teng Lai Chang on Sept 10, 2015 23:21:20 GMT

My interpretation of fire is along the same line as yours where fire is a binary, in which fire is expressed in two similar, yet different ways for two different experiences and/or persons. The children are energetic and filled with passion upon seeing someone else's fire, which motivates them to light up their own fire, whereas the old man is grateful and appreciative of the fire, for it brings a nostalgic feeling and a motivation to live. Your interpretation of the ending where the forces of nature and life are becoming one, as a result of the eternal waves extinguishing the fire, is very interesting. I never thought about it that way as I interpreted the waves as eternal and everlasting, and thereby, the extinguished fire meant the end of life altogether. But now that I think about it, water may complement fire, (though that may be confusing and contradicting to say as common sense tells us water overpowers fire) for water ends the unstable, transient, and impermanent (mujo) life that the fire creates, which therefore, combines the two natural elements (fire and water) into one life.This quote illustrates how fire is unstable and impermanent: "To be in the lamplight fills me with nostalgia and makes me want to linger where the world feels simpler and therefore safer, though I know this is an illusion." -Marie Mutsuki Mockett (online source). In other words, the life that the fire speaks of is an illusion and a distortion of reality where one wants to stay in forever as it brings a false conception of safety and stability. Thus, this so called reality makes us desensitized to a secured life that if we do come to face obstacles, our mind actually becomes unstable. However, the extinguishment of the fire by the waves recreates a life that is much more stable as our minds are already exposed to challenges in the world and we become much more flexible, adaptive, and surmountable (symbols of water) to these changes in nature and life (however, this can be contradicting as well since the symbols of water are very subjective to change). By looking at the bonfire and waves in this complementary perspective, the eternal, unchanging waves do complement the impermanence of the fire.

Post by Pedro J. Paez on Sept 10, 2015 3:29:42 GMT

Post by Teng Lai Chang on Sept 10, 2015 23:21:20 GMT

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