Help with English???

Question

Can someone please explain this story to me, it's really short:

http://www.bookofjoe.com/2004/09/degradation_thr.html I sort of understand it, but I have to explain this in front of my class and I don't want to get it wrong. Please help me!!!!

Thanks.

Answer 1

As long as you can defend your points, you'll be fine. Make a list of the main themes, symbols, and conflict in the story, and write down examples. You can't be wrong!

Answer 2

I have often advised people that if they do not choose a career path, life will choose one for them.  Ask any person in their twilight years what they wanted to be when they grew up and then compare it to what they actually did, and you will probably find a marked contrast.  Even for those who did indeed choose for themselves a career path and even if they did well at their choice, chances are, they will have left no mark upon the world.  For their efforts, they may be fortunate enough to receive at career's end, a gold plated watch with meaningless words inscribed.  Even the author will not remember what was written.  Most, will spend a lifetime at a job that took them all of a week or two to learn and from there, they simply ceased growing and learning.  Most, given opportunity would shy away from really crawling deep within themselves to see what's become of them, fearing that they may discover that upon graduation they simply died and that their bodies have not yet ceased moving.  They do not know themselves and they react to outside stimulus, react without thought.  They measure success about the amount of possessions they've amassed.  They believe they are truly living.  Some (myself included) are (was ) so wrapped up in their work that they lost their identity and their work became their identity.  For those of us in that category, we hit retirement and suddenly found ourselves completely lost.  We have to completely reinvent ourselves and only then (maybe) do we realize that who we were, and what we did was for naught.  Work is the evil that defines us.

As for me, only a few of my men still refer to me as "Doc."  Now I am simply "Dave."  No longer do I practice medicine.