Our Town

I think one of the most profound moments in the play Our Town is at the wedding of George and Emily. It's when George says "Ma, I don't want to grow old. Why's everyone pushing me so?" and Emily says "Don't you remember that you used to say-all the time: that I was your little girl! There must be lots of places we can go to. I'll work for you, I could keep house.". It's at these moments that they try to stand against the passage of time, as we all inevitably do at some point in our lives, to stay where we are when time is pushing us forward. We can try to stay put, but it's only self harming and only a mental state. Thankfully George and Emily don't remain stalled for long, and while they are nervous and uncertain, it is nature that they follow this path, it's a path that time dictates.

Huckleberry Finn

And Jim said you musn't count the things you are going to cook for dinner, because that would bring bad luck. The same if you shake the tablecloth after sundown. And he said if a man owned a bee hive, and that man died, the bees must be told before sun-up next morning, or else the sees would all weaken down and quit work and die. 


If you have read Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, you know Huckleberry is a very superstitious man. As I read this, I wonder if Jim is the reason Huck is superstitious in the first place, or if he simply provokes it. In any case, Huck believes almost every word Jim says, and is learning all these bad luck theories from Jim. In some ways, I could be seen that this is part is Jim and Huck's father-son relationship, this passing down of beliefs.