Lending a Helping Shoulder:

An Essay on a Novel and Poem about Helping Others

Jordan Crawford

English 9

Pine Point School

January 19 2012

           In life you have to take care of yourself, making sure that you keep on going straight in your journey.While keeping yourself on track is important you should never forget to help others along the path your journey takes you. In A Tale of Two Cities, two cities, London and Paris, don’t help each other out as neighboring countries should. “Shoulders” by Naomi Shihab Nye, is a poem about a man who is crossing the street with his son, it is pouring rain out but the man crosses for his son. This is a good example of how we all must help each other out and the consequences of not doing so.
           “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” those words are famously known from Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities, a book on how a city failed to help its people so they helped each other. Overall, the residents of the town had it rough but it didn’t stop them from enjoying the times they loved. When a wine cask breaks on the street everyone is happy and celebrates the good fortune as they drink from the broken husk of the cask. The babies amongst the crowd, whom cannot collect a drink for themselves, are given a drink from cloths that the woman had, so everyone could enjoy the wine.Some people in life change to helping people, such as Mr. Lorry did in a five year span of time when he began to care more about people as friends not customers.The Manette’s were separated for a remarkable 18 years and the stoic business man that Mr. Lorry used to be re-unites them and in the process discovers he has grown fond of them. Mr.Lorry was a man characterized by his trademark line, “Business, Business,” but at the end of the chapter he  had “moisture that was not of business, shining on his cheek,” showing that he was discovering it emotional to watch such a happy sight. On the whole, this historical novel revolves around giving people a shoulder to lean on.
            It is a nice thing, helping others, a simple thing that often elevates people; like in the poem “Shoulders” a man is carrying his son on his shoulder so he doesn’t have to touch the muddy ground. On a similar note ,the poem by Naomi Shihab Nye is very detailed and puts a vivid picture in my head of a man determined to get his son safely and dryly onto the other sidewalk. In life when you are helping someone, they are not marked with a sign, “Fragile handle with care,” you are expected to know when a person needs a boost so you automatically help them. This happened to me one day when my moms friend was talking with my mom and her two year old daughter wanted to go outside, but couldn’t leave the house without and older person; I glanced around the room and everyone else was busy so I decided that I could take the time to go outside with her, not a big feat but it was something that made the toddler happy. More than often, I see fathers carrying their children around a store like a mall and the men are strong but they carry the baby with care and gentleness reserved for children and fluffy animals, I always stop in wonder as the child is carried away on the mans broad shoulders.
           Anyone can change for the better, be it a stiff business men, or everyday people. When I help someone else, carry their burden on my shoulders for a while, I begin to see the world from their eyes, be it kneeling at a two and a half foot tall kitchen outside, or helping babies drink from a rag. The world is based off of helping people, be it for common ground or out of heart, it is how humans are. The poem states that, “We’re not going to be able to live in this world if we’re not willing to do what he is doing with one another.” That quote captures one of the meanings of life in one simple but beautiful sentence.