Owl Creek

This piece of writing was somewhat confusing toward the end. Reading through it, I thought that the man was actually going to make it through the experience and come home to his wife and kids; however when he approached his wife and she wasn't worried or anything, simply happy to see him, I started to wonder if he was really escaping his executioners. I think that the mad ticking of his watch presages the fact that the man begins to hallucinate.

My First Lie and How I Got Out Of It

But let us be judicious and let somebody else begin.

I like Mark Twain's way of thinking when he talks about the big lie that we as a nation " silently assert" to ignore. He claims that we should fight against this lie, but at the same time he says he is happy with this lie and wishes for it to remain. To me, this is part of the humor of this essay. At points he writes seriously, but then he adds in other ideas that contradict himself so much that it inspires humor. Even so, I think he touches on a good point. After reading this, it seems to me that humans sometimes ignore things they don't wish to confront in order to feel happy or good about themselves. We let those things that would be too hurtful to think about or too hard to do slip away from our attentions and fake that we understand everything in our lives. Is happiness just an illusion, painted by our minds to keep us sane in the face of the daunting troubles of our world? If everyone were to confront their ignored lies and do something about them, would the world be a better place or would everyone go crazy with the stress of doing what is right?