Lyric Essay

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In the movies and TV shows we watch, the main characters often have two clear, contrasting choices. Do I chase the bad guy or save my friend? Should I break the law even if I am doing the right thing? Do I save my best friend or 50 strangers? The hero usually makes the right decision, which is why they are a "hero". However, in real life we have many choices over a long time that lead us to many consequences. In "Animal Farm" by George Orwell and "Saving Sourdi" by May-Lee Chai, Benjamin and Nea have many opportunities to do the right thing but choose not to, resulting in a significant loss in their lives. 

In “Saving Sourdi” Nea’s decisions are based on helping her sister. This includes attacking a man who is not treating Sourdi right and manipulating Duke to try to “save Sourdi” from Mr. Chhay. However, Sourdi doesn’t need Nea’s help. By being overprotective, Nea disregards Sourdi’s wishes  and acts out of a selfish desire to keep Sourdi to herself. This leads to instances where Nea risks getting “put in a foster home” (pg. 130). Instead of seeing the flaws in her actions, Nea doubles down, only seeing that “life was so unfair”. Since Nea doesn’t recognize the errors in her ways, she goes even further to keep her sister to herself, manipulating Duke to take her to Sourdi’s house. Sourdi is disappointed in Nea but this time it's more than a single forgiveness. Nea realizes that Sourdi had “grown up” and that Nea was “unworthy of her love”. It seems as though Nea finally had an epiphany about the error in her actions but now it may be too late. Sourdi has a family and Nea has made the same inconsiderate choice too many times. By arriving at her epiphany too late, Nea loses the chance to win Sourdi back. 

Similarly to Nea, Benjamin in “Animal Farm” makes the same choice over and over without considering what effects it can have on him. Benjamin never cared about the politics of Animal Farm, refusing to “meddle in such matters” (page 91). Since Benjamin is one of the few educated animals on Animal Farm, besides the pigs, his help to the other animals would be necessary to stop the pigs from gaining total control. However, Benjamin does not see what effect the pigs rule would have on him and chooses to abstain from trying to change the system. This effect becomes very real when Boxer becomes sick and is taken away to a glue boiler to be slaughtered. Boxer was the only animal that Benjamin was “devoted to” and with his death, Benjamin paid the price for his repeated choice to ignore the politics of the farm. Towards the end of the novel, Benjamin decides to “break his rule” and read the last Commandment. (page 134). However, at this point any help that Benjamin offers would have come too late; Boxer has already been killed by the mistakes that Benjamin has made. 

Both Nea and Benjamin fail to realize their mistakes and pay the price for it, Nea in the form of her sister moving on from her and Benjamin in the form of Boxer’s death. Both of them had multiple chances to make the right choice but failed to do so. They both also only came to the realization of the errors of their ways after they already paid the price. In this way, the authors make clear to the audience that an epiphany usually only comes after the negative consequences of a decision. This is in comparison to most books where the main character reaches an epiphany on his or her quest. In addition to Chai showing the audience the dangers of being overprotective and Orwell showing the dangers of communism, both show that when given multiple chances, don’t make the same mistake. 


Further reading:

http://martellcropprojections.com/saving-sourdi-summary/

http://site.iugaza.edu.ps/sbreem/files/2012/03/animalfarm.htm

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