Asia Carter

Hamilton Salsich

Grade 9

January 20, 2010

Any Questions:
An Inclass Essay About Questions.
1)Sometimes I wonder why certain things happen. 2) Like why did my dog die? 3) Why did my dad develop diabetes? 4) Some say I should search for the reason, but Rainer Maria Rilke in Letters to a Young Poet says live in the question and not care about the answer.   

TS) It is not bad to question the obstacles you run into in life. SD) Rainer Maria Rilke says that you should “have patience with everything unresolved in your heart”. CM) James Baldwin in Notes of a Native Son talks about how much he hated his father when his father was alive but now he regrets not knowing his father now that he is deceased. CM) If Rilke could have talked to Baldwin while Baldwin was growing up, he would explain that Baldwins father was just trying to protect him and build him into a strong man. SD) William Manchester would also benefit from Rilkes advice. CM) Manchester wrote in Okinawa:Bloodiest Battle of All that the war he fought in was one of the worst wars of all.  CM) Manchester wondered why such horrible things existed and Rilke would have answered “Dont search for the answers, which could not be given to you now”, meaning that somethings just don’t have an explanation. SD) Zora Neale Hurston in How it Feels to Be Colored Me would agree with Rilke when he says “Live the questions now.Perhaps [...] you will [...] live your way into the answer” CM) Mrs.Hurston talks about how she will not dwell on herself because she is colored but she will only see it as an opportunity to prove that there is more to a colored person then their skin. CM) They both feel that asking questions will only get you part way there but if you delve for the answers in your life then you will succeed. CS) Baldwin, Manchester, Hurston, and Rilke all have unanswered questions but Rilke says that is something that you should cherish because some of the answers are painful. 

1) “I would like to beg you” to understand the point of view that Rilke is coming from. 2) Life itself is an unanswered question. 3) Why look for the answers that will only hurt you? 4) Just stop, and think about what is happening now, not about why something else isn’t happening.