Somnambulism Analysis

Ramifications of chasing traditional rewards in, “How Not to Get into College”, “Somnambulist”, and “Iced- Cream”
Albert Einstein once said, “Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value”. Implying that people tend to get blinded in the hunt of personal triumph in their lives that they forget what really is important to them. Similarly, in Alfie Kohn’s How “Not to Get into College”, Daniel Barwick’s “The So Called Iced Cream” and Heron Jones’s Somnambulist, the authors develop the message that people assume that chasing external rewards equals joy and satisfaction in their lives. However, their intentions ultimately lead to temporary happiness, long term problems mainly due to the fact that they expel the thought of intrinsic
First of all, in Alfie Kohn’s essay, the students in fear of the future, view grades as a resolution to their problems. For instance, in order to run away from their concerns students begin “asking teachers, ‘Do we need to know this?’ and grimly trying to squeeze out another few points on the G.P.A or the SAT; in the process [the students began] losing sleep, losing friends, losing perspective” (Paragraph, 7). Despite the fact that students are primarily motivated through the extrinsic rewards of grades, it only seems to create more distress in their lives. Secondly, in Barwick’s essay, Mr. Burns visions his long lost teddy bear as something that can provide him eternal happiness although even with the bear Mr. Burns is discontent with his life. For example, Mr. Burns is still unhappy even though “he was reunited with his precious teddy bear, Bobo” (Paragraph 3). Even though Mr. Burns thought the bear would bring happiness back into his life, Burns still was depressed with his life. Thirdly, in Heron Jones’s poem “Somnambulist”, workers are extrinsically motivated to earn promotions, thus voluntarily helping the bosses reach their goals, yet it only adds to the misery in the lives. For example, [when the workers] “awake, and sleep-walk to work. Dreamin’ another’s dream, so I silently curse, Cause the company’s only need for me/ Is to
First of all, in Kohn’s essay, after the students gained admission into colleges their mindset of pursing traditional rewards only continued as now they were now worried about finding jobs instead of improving grades. For instance, Kohn writes that, students in university would “scan the catalogue for college courses that promised easy A’s… They’d define themselves as pre-med, pre-law, pre- business… nose stuck into the future, ever more frantic…until, perhaps, they might wake up one night in a tastefully appointed bedroom to discover their lives were mostly gone” (Paragraph,8). Even with the acceptance into universities, students still are not satisfied with their lives, justifies chasing accolades as a repeating cycle. Secondly, in Barwick’s essay, pursing only the tangible reward becomes Mr. Burns’s long term problem while discarding anything else that comes in his way. For example, during the bowling game “winning the worthless bowling trophy is more important to him than the sweet, albeit momentary, pleasure of a group of jocular friends [brings to a person] and in the end everything turns out to bore him” (Paragraph, 4). Even though Mr. Burns has friends by his side he views external rewards as substitutes for love and friendship, ultimately leading him to a regretful and unfulfilled life. Thirdly, in Heron Jones’s “Somnambulist”, the workers believe it’s alright to be chasing