What You Don't Know Can Hurt You

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Obscurity 2 Obscurity; What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You In the following three writings, there is a common “theme”, the point or idea the writings is conveying (DiYanni, 2007, pg. 90). The theme that I have chosen is obscurity; what you don’t know can hurt you. The three literary works I have chosen are as follows; “Waiting Table”, by Kraft Romph (pg. 1181), “Shiloh”, by Bobbie Ann Mason (pg. 67), and “A Rose for Emily, by William Faulkner (pg. 79). In each of these writings there are facts or information that one person has deliberately withheld from the other(s) s that if, or when, discovered would prove detrimental to all involved. Although the characters in these writings are fictional, their behavior, thoughts, and actions are real to life. Proving to us that lies or secrets, no matter how deep or how long they are buried, could at any time point surface. All of us at one time or another have heard or spoke this common quote “what you don’t know, won’t hurt you”. Or better yet, ignorance is bliss, but is it really? Does not knowing something really shield you from being hurt? Undoubtedly the answer to that question is “no” and thus, the title for the essay. In examining these literary works, different genres, a fine common thread runs through them all, obscurity; secrets, unknown actions, unspoken words, and unspoken thoughts. The first work, a poem, “Waiting Table”, takes place in a restaurant setting, a waitress describing how she waits so patiently to begin the game, the game of plucking flowers, brushing crumbs, and carrying Bloody Mary’s. Running back and forth through the two-way doors, all for people that remain ever so demanding, ever so Obscurity 3 Unappreciative (pg. 1181). Unbeknownst to them, she has constant thoughts of retaliation, anger, and violence. “The customer is always right, right? Time and time
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