In the play Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, a character by the name of Simon Stimson makes a very insightful statement about people and their lives. Simon is dead and buried, as well as several of the plays other characters when a newly-dead young woman named Emily joins their ranks and begins to realize the triviality and ignorance of her existence, as well as that of every living person.
The dead are discussing this insignificance and unawareness of the living when Simon comments with disgust on how much living persons waste their life, asserting, To spend and waste time as though you had a million years. In this statement, Simon is referring to the degree of which people take their lives for granted. People are often so busy and so consumed by relatively minor matters that they never stopped to realize how truly special everything is. They go about their days following strict schedules and routines, always rushing about to meet their many obligations, and never take the time to simply cherish even the small things.
Most people wake up in the morning, rush about to leave for school or their jobs, work or learn all day, only to come home and have yet more obligations to take care of, never once taking time out to stop and enjoy things for themselves. Simon is referring to the daily routines and events the consume peoples lives as a waste of time, for they do not realize how genuinely short their lives are. Simon is upset with people for never taking time to admire the beauty that surrounds their lives, never cherishing the time they have with others, and even being ignorant of lifes small pleasures, such as fresh clothes and hot baths. People live their lives working towards something they think will always be attainable, setting their eyes on the future, living for the future, rushing for the future, and ignoring the present. With Our Town, Thornton Wilder is attempting to show us these faults and trying to persuade us to live in and for the present and to cherish every day that we live and breathe.
With the people of Grovers Corners representing this daily ignorance and triviality, the lives of the people who surround me are no exception. Take, for instance, my father, who on most days awakes early to leave for his job, works all day and comes home only to drive my siblings and I around, run errands, go to his side jobs, or fix the house, help us with our homework, stay on top of both our social lives, our moral growth, and our educational careers. Some nights my father will sit down and watch some television for maybe an hour or two, while most he simply doing everything but something for himself. On rare occasions is my father allowed to stop and enjoy life, and savor the moment.
Honestly, I would really like to know when the last time was that my father found time to simply admire his and my mothers garden without actually having to tend it. And yet another example is my mother, who does not even have to worry about her job most of the time, for she works once to twice a week, and yet I am sure she has never stopped to admire the earth and its beauty or cherished a time she has spent with her children, except if we are on vacation or at Christmas time. Throughout her days, my mother spends her time worrying about the aesthetics of our house, the world’s current events, her social life, as well as just about every other persons, and our family’s day-to-day situations. Most of the time I come home from school, I get not a hello from my mother but an immediate question like, Why isnt your room clean? or a reminder that the lawn needs to be cut. My mother rushes about her days and never stops to admire anything or cherish the little time on earth that she may have with the people around her.
It is this preoccupation with unimportant and trivial day-to-day matters that Thornton Wilder is highlighting and condemning in Our Town. He is attempting to display, with Simons comment, the apparent frivolity of people when dealing with the time they have each day. People are ignorant of the preciousness of their time, and tend to spend it on things that do not matter. People also tend to live in and for the future.
Wilder is also condemning this and attempting to persuade us to live in and for the present, for we do no know when our precious time will expire.
