-Henry & the Haitians (Ignorance is Strength)-

When Harry Gale Sr. died on April 20^th, his son, Henry was forced to become the CEO of their family business ; The Gale Foundation, a company based in Italy that sent emergency disaster help all over the world.  There were no specifications as to the role of Henry in the business in Harry’s will, just for him to “sit in the main office and stare out into the beautiful valleys of Italy.” And for eleven years, that’s exactly what Henry did; he woke up every day, put on his custom double breasted suit, chauffeured to work in his Mercedes, rode the elevator to the tippy top floor  and sat in his leather chair and watched the grape vineyards that surrounded the building.  He had quite a comfortable life.

Before, Henry was not a huge a fan of his father’s work, mostly because it looked boring, but while sitting in his office, Henry realized his father had the easiest job in the building. Other than the occasional signing of paperwork and nodding at pictures of improvement from disasters sites, Henry didn’t do much. All the work was done on the floors below him; the grimy gritty labor was below him. He just had to sit on top like a king to oversee the operation and he was paid handsomely for it.

It was not until Thomas, from Italia Magazine, came into Henry’s office asking for a photo shoot in the current country the company was working with, Haiti, that Henry left his office. He and Thomas both flew to Haiti that week to take pictures at the company’s Haitian building. Even before entering the building, Henry could sense something was not right. The structure stood tall and shiny covered in reflective glass windows, amongst the ruble that was left from the hurricane. Once inside, Henry noticed some shady men in raggedy clothes in the lobby but assumed they were just homeless people waiting to be sheltered. After the photo shoot, he walked around to explore the building and stumbled upon a journal in the main office where his father used to stay when he visited. The entries were accounts of the days of emergency help on the island. Charts of water and supplies lined the booklet. Most were stories of heroic rescues from Harry’s point of view and his thoughts and hopes for the company.

One entry stuck out to Henry, it read:

“Our ‘homeless men’ we have are doing great! Today they brought back 100 shillings and two gold coins. I had them beg all day because they didn’t bring me anything yesterday. But this will make up for it. It’ll be just fine.”

Then it hit him. Henry’s father had been cheating the poor Haitians, who had barely anything left after the hurricane, into giving the company money. The men in the lobby were hired by the company to go out every day and beg for money and the Haitians, with little money but big hearts, would give the men the last of their change. Then the men would scurry back to the offices and give the money to a company executive. That money would pile up and be used for holiday bonuses or company vacations. They had been doing this for years until the Haitians had nothing left. Henry could not believe what he had been a part of, what his father had been a part of and his father’s father and so on. He fled the country and the company the next day and started a new life in the Bronx.

-Train Ride-

Once on the train, I searched the floor for anything interesting; a gum wrapper, some trash and a gold pin. I picked it up and examined the details. It was a broche from a cheap pawn shop, I could tell because the sticker on the back was half ripped off reading “PINKI’S PAWN SHO”. Pinki’s was down the street from the parlor I used to work. I dropped the pin, nothing exciting. The train was in full motion now. We had entered a tunnel. The darkness through the windows was gruesome, so dark you could only see your reflection in the glass. I looked down again, trying to find something to keep me busy. I came upon some shoes, old man shoes. They were shiny black leather loafers but it was obvious they had been worn before. The laces choked the man’s foot. I could tell. His pants, on the other hand, were quite large for this frame and so was his coat. It was like he bought an entire suit a size too big, and was too lazy to ever return it. Or maybe it was a gift. I scanned this man’s attire all the way up until his face; I didn’t much care for that.

The petite woman beside me smirked at her Kindle. I leaned over to see what she was reading. The glowing screen read “The Misadventures of Arachna and Mr. Butler.” I continued reading, over her shoulder, about some evil witch and her butler who hatch a plan to kill their penny-pinching land owner. We got to page seventy before she noticed my heavy breathing over shoulder. She closed her Kindle.

-The Rime of the Ancient Mariner-

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is perfect evidence of Coleridge's wild and vivid imagination. He takes bits and pieces of mythology and symbolism and builds a story exploring both life and death. The power of supernatural forces over the ship and its crew helps to make the Mariner's own weakness clear. The supernatural is often related to weather and astrological events in this poem. After reading the poem, it is clear that Coleridge is fascinated by pirate life, life and death in a heavenly ground and godly images. The poem centers on death and paints an eerie dark image of death and life after death. When speaking about the boat and the sea, the poet uses passionate and enthusiastic words suggesting he finds beauty in these subjects.

 Throughout the poem, there is a real struggle, a struggle between reality and the supernatural.  The real aspects are simple; these include the physical things, in the start of the poem like:

-The details about wedding

 -The weather

-The position of the sun

-The hemisphere

-The Mariner's country

Further into the poem though, we see many unnatural references within the story like:

- The old mariner with his “glittering eye” and its hypnotic power

- The mysterious force that forces him to tell his story

-The albatross, a sacred bird with supernatural power

-The presence of strange creatures (spirits, angels, sea-monsters)

-The ship driven by mysterious forces

Though in the poem there is no explanation of supernatural events, only a rich and detailed visual description of the external world, often through the use of metaphors. The most significant metaphor, runs throughout the entire story, is that of the one between the Mariner's state of mind and the reality surrounding him.