The rough draft of the outline is not due tomorrow. The students will take what they have written down and decide how they want to organize their pieces. We will look at examples in class tomorrow. We will explore the various ways students can arrange their essays to effectively communicate their message.
I felt like I needed to explain the themes in "The Bet" in a little more depth, so I took some time to write this. The main goal of reading the story was to see the effects of solitary on a man, but I also wanted students to explore the themes.
Themes in “The Bet”
Both the lawyer and the banker were arrogant in the
beginning of the story. They were young
and made rash decisions. The lawyer was
willing to throw away years of his life to prove another man wrong to win two
millions (what it is called in the story).
The banker was careless about his money believing he would always have
plenty. He also thought human life was
something you could play with.
Throughout the story, the banker was intrigued by the
behaviors of the lawyer in solitary, always believing that the lawyer was in it
for the money. But time was cruel to both men.
The banker lost his money, and the lawyer lost his sanity
and value for life.
I believe that the writer, Anton Chekhov, wanted us to
reflect on our lives. He wanted us to
compare our values to those of the banker and the lawyer.
Through the banker, we question our own values about
money. Money can be evil and cause us to
loose perspective on what is important in life.
The lawyer’s letter and act of not taking the money shows the banker
that his values were wrong.
Through the lawyer, we are given a perspective on wisdom and
the importance of human interactions. The 15 years left the lawyer a broken,
bitter man. The loneliness made him
crazy. Even though it might be argued
that he learned more about life than most people ever would through reading
books, the lesson he learned is not totally true.
Not taking the money was noble. Breaking the bet demonstrated the lawyer’s
commitment to his stance that money is evil.
His actions showed the banker that there is more to life than money and
possessions.
But the lawyer hasn’t experienced 15 years of life; he
experienced books. And while it is true
that life is frail and delusive, as well as fleeting, that is what makes life
so precious. The lawyer’s view of the
world was created out of his 15 years of solitude. His wisdom is only part of the truth about
life, but it is all he has.
So in the end, we see two characters that are broken by this
bet. They had to live through this
ordeal and suffer. We readers, on the
other hand, can learn from their experiences.
We can look up from the end of the story and see the world around us
with all the freedom we possess. We can
add their stories to our stories. Their
losses are our gains. We have added a
little more wisdom to our lives.
In short
Watch out for your own arrogance.
Solitude crushes people and they go crazy.
Money distorts our values.
The source of the wisdom determines the value of that
wisdom: perspective.
