short stories with tragic endings

Fuck you I won't do what you tell me

To form thoughts of pure and true wisdom requires an absence of socially-constructed preconceived notions and the ridding of vanity towards one's own ideals and believes. Unfortunately however, it is not possible to escape the propaganda that lives everywhere and is constantly trying to penetrate the minds of everyone. Lies on the television screens, in the political speeches, and within the lesson plans of schools – the agenda of the great sickness governing our world. The idea so powerful that it, itself, has even evolved from an abstract idea to an actual, physical collective consciousness; government.

Few people ever speak out against the man. When this happens, those people who rise against are thought of as a terrorist and are considered a traitor. There is not another perfect example than the tale of Antigone to show verbatim the absurdity of a centralized government; poisoned by destiny and enslaved to an idea. Sophocles writes the crime scene where Antigone is grieving the loss of her brother, crying over the unburied body. This is a crime because the king has enlisted death upon anyone who morns or attempts the bury the body. Antigone does both (Sophocles).

Jean Cocteau's illustration of Antigone and Creon shows the moment of her death being demanded. He is not a liar and cannot go back on his law explicitly forbidding anyone of honoring this one deceased man, even his own family cannot shed a tear. Without feeling her brother's death as just, Antigone refuses to adhere to the totalitarian law and is caught doing so. In this image by Cocteau, Antigone stares her accuser in the eye – one on one, human to human (Cocteau). Similar to the situation of staring at a police officer while being forced to explain why you failed to completely stop at a sign, or how an eighth grader would stare in the eyes of a bully. That overwhelming feeling of red while anger filters trough. The battle of right and wrong, and what is moral and legal. Antigone cannot fight back, so she lies down and sends the pain below.

Martin Luther King, Jr. faces this same wrath while locked up in the Birmingham Jail, but King is different. He fully understands how he must go about facing America head on – even though he knows without a doubt that his cause is pure and just, the ideals of his time period are those of extreme racism and prejudice. In his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" Martin describes it all like a movie reel – his unjust imprisonment, and yet the courts and police men all still restrain him. Unethical or not, it is the law and they are doing their job (King).

The song "Help I'm Alive" by Metric puts the tragic truth to a jingle. Emily Haines sing of being eaten alive; how she needs help because she is alive in a world that wants her dead (Haines). In an absurd way this is the honest truth. We are all being chased by the man and his machine - adherence to the rules and procedures required by the command of the authority that is government. This song, like the previous texts, shows the sole struggle between good and evil, right and wrong. Through-out life each person faces condemnation for having conflicting ideas, and if they try to justify, it only makes it worse – prison or death.

It is funny how we are told our life will become one of two things if we do not obey. If we break a law or disrupt the "peace" we are subject to arrest, being restrained by another human and forcefully thrown into an eight-foot by eight-foot cell. Regardless which side of morality the laws fall on it is up to the people, each and every individual, either shut-up and obey or be a human being and fight for what is right. This is exactly how Hitler was able to wipe out millions of humans; the Gestapo were merely doing their job.