Put Effort Into What You Want To Achieve by Vidhi

Over 3 billion people lead miserable lives and live in filthy conditions. For them, the days go by unknowingly, because they are living in such confusion. The character(s) in “Trash” by Andy Mulligan and “Life Through My Eyes” by Tupac Shakur both share the same difficulties. However, in “Trash” the characters are very determined to make a better life for themselves. Whereas, in “Life Through My Eyes”, it implies that the character is only relying on fate to help fix the circumstances. In both texts, we learn that we must work our very best, rather than relying on destiny in order to achieve what we want.

Throughout “Trash”, Mulligan provides how each character feels about situations. From this, he reveals their quality of life. He describes all the actions and thoughts of the character in great detail. Raphael, Gardo and Rat live in a dumpsite. They rarely get a meal that is filling enough for their age. Raphael, Gardo and Rat were rubbish boys and they picked “through the stuff the city threw away”. They spent their days picking up trash all over the dumpsite. They were surrounded by people who were confused and angry, because of where they lived. There were often unnecessary fights since the people there were very unsettled. These children were even exposed to murder, “An old man killed his wife - slit her throat and left her bleeding down the walls to the shack underneath” which suggests how unsafe and filthy the place they lived in was. The statement Raphael makes, describes how violent people get because of all the frustration in their minds. “Life Through My Eyes” is a poem that recites the thoughts of a pauper living on the streets. He feels imprisoned by his status. Since he lived on the streets, he too was exposed to “poverty, murder, violence”. He also states that “my heart will not exist”, until something changes his fate. This could be interpreted as to that he is a living ghost disguised as a human. By saying this, he is directly comparing himself to a ghost revealing that he is pale, lost and baffled.

In “Trash”, the 3 boys try their very best to get out of “Behala” and they perform such actions that could potentially get them arrested. In the end, Raphael, Gardo and Rat were able to escape from their past in Behala and live a peaceful life where they would “fish forever and live happy lives”. In order to achieve this, they would get into situations that were “bad, bloody and oh so dangerous”. There were times when they were mistreated only because of their status. And yet, they weren’t afraid to get caught, because they were completely determined to make their lives worth living. They had to work extremely hard so that they could wind up with what they wanted. They did not stop for anything, instead they kept going through all the hardship that came across them. However, the speaker in “Life Through My Eyes”, does not perform any sort of action that could get him out of his situation. He is also living in similar conditions as Raphael, Gardo and Rat. He rarely gets to have any peace and even when he does, he is not fully immersed in the moment. This is significant because, he always thinks about his status rather than doing something to fix the unlucky circumstances he has been placed in. The speaker does not say anything that assures the reader that he is trying to do something to fix his position in society. “Unless my destiny comes through”, makes the reader consider that he is only depending on chance and circumstance. Therefore, it can be believed that there is a very faint possibility of him getting a better life.

The style of writing and the language choice are very identical in both texts. This is relevant because, it plays a significant role in making the characters very realistic. The characters don’t use a lot of descriptive words to describe their surroundings. Both writers do this, to show that they are not fortunate enough to be attending a good school where they would receive important information that would help them in the future. The characters in both texts do not have the time and the privilege to have experienced this. Therefore, both writers use words that reveal their underprivileged life. Both writers also make the decision of making the character(s) narrate the story. This is a very effective technique because the reader is seeing the story through the characters eyes, rather than someone who is above watching the whole story. This allows the reader to visualise all the horrible situations they get into and the surroundings they live in.

On a conclusion, the character(s) in “Trash” by Andy Mulligan and “Life Through My Eyes” by Tupac Shakur both live similar lives and have to go through the same pain everyday. Both texts highlight the negativity of poverty and also raises awareness about the massive chunk of unfortunate people in the world. It also makes readers aware that we must work very hard to achieve what we want in life, rather than just depending on unreliable things like fate and destiny.

The Poem - Life Through My Eyes