Analysis Of The Lamp At Noon

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The nature of humans is to seek happiness, which may possibly result in chasing illusions rather than settling for harsh realities. In “The Lamp at Noon”, Sinclair Ross uses the wishes of the characters Paul and Ellen, as well as their difficult situation to contrast the concepts of dreams and realities. Specifically, Ross displays the gap between dreams and realities through Paul’s hope for the land to return and his ideal of being a successful farmer to explain that what outcomes may occur if one neglects reality and blindly pursues their dream. Paul wishes to stay on the farmland and believes that the land will be able to cultivate crops. However, Ellen persists that where they are living is a “desert” and reminds him of “the lamp lit at noon” (Ross …show more content…

Paul cannot face the reality that his family must relocate in order to live, despite the fact that he has been faced with the same outcome day after day. Although Ellen constantly pleads for change, Paul cannot shake the illusion he is presented with, and proves that hope can be a dangerous mechanism for keeping one distant from reality. Additionally, the lamp at noon represents the fact that the land is slowly eroding away and that there is an extreme amount of dust in the air, causing it to be difficult to see during the middle of the day. Like the environment, Paul is blindly chasing his dream and is unable to see the reality in front of him. His wishes to be with the land strongly oppose those of Ellen’s, who wants to move away from the reality she is faced with. Ellen’s chronic unhappiness demonstrates that Paul’s devoted hope for the land to miraculously be fertile again and his blindness towards his barren reality has caused him to disregard her feelings. Paul’s pride in being a farmer leads to the tragedy of his child’s

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