- George Gray
- A life not lived to potential
- Hobbled by fear of risk
- Worse—the knowledge that he has lived what he terms a “life without meaning”
- refers to it as “torture”
- Imagery and Irony
- Studies his grave’s inscription—inaction
- “chiseled” out by someone else
- could not even influence his own epitaph
- A boat’s “furled” sail is unable to catch even a breeze
- “[H]arbor” symbolic of a place sheltered from storm and wave
- How would he have defined “meaning” while still alive?
- Harry Wilmans
- A young man killed in his prime, never having the chance to reach his potential
- Inspired to enlist in the Spanish American War by a patriotic speech given by a
Sunday School superintendent too old himself to go to war
- Lives long enough to recognize life’s ugliness; never has the chance to see the
good
- Imagery and Irony
- This superintendent did not uphold the flag’s honor by enlisting himself!
- The final image of the flag upon his grave—this is what he followed; this is
what he gets
- Both sail and flag are moved by the wind
III. Reason for Selection
- They present the concept of risk and search for meaning approached from polar
opposite directions
- Gray—his inability to risk in order to find meaning
- the image of a becalmed boat “at rest,” at the same time floating atop
the turbulence of his “hunger” for meaning in his life
- Wilmans—his willingness to risk, albeit blindly, to uphold “the honor of the
flag”
- Is either one the “happier” in his death?
- How have we, how do we, how will we define, find, and determine what is
“meaningful” for our life?