In Praise Of Margins Analysis

The purposelessness of life is what fills it with purpose. In his essay, “In Praise of Margins,” Ian Frazier defines the word “marginal” as the places or activities that “don’t sufficiently account for themselves in the economic world” (Frazier 7), usually being purposeless and occurring during one’s free time. Some places and activities in Frazier’s life that he now considers “marginal” are going to the woods and fishing. Being in “marginal” places and participating in “marginal” activities became embarrassing for Frazier and his friends as they grew into adults because they came to realize the lack of purpose in these places and activities without realizing that the purposelessness is what gives them significance. Frazier now believes that …show more content…
When I was younger, I was never really interested in participating in sports, despite my parents’ insistence. What really caught my eye and helped me pass the time were puzzles and brain teasers. My parents would begin to buy me countless puzzles (from jigsaw to sudoku) and brain teaser books for me to solve during my childhood after realizing I was not very interested in sports. However, I slowly began to lose interest in solving them since they began to be very repetitive and easy. When I grew older, the Rubik’s Cube was able to feed into my puzzle-solving needs. Once that also got too easy, I experimented with different types of Rubik’s Cube-type puzzles in order to pass the time. In retrospect, puzzle-solving guided me to the path I pursue at the moment. I am a mechanical engineering major and the problem-solving aspect has me fascinated. Math and science allow me to attempt to solve practical problems in real life, no matter how big or small. Without puzzles in my early life, I might not have had realized what I am really passionate about and what kind of life/career I wish to pursue as young as I