The Theme Of Human Nature In Shakespeare's 'Fireweed'

It is in human nature to search for and come up with answers, even when there is not enough factual information to back it up. The opinions formed by using minimal details are often wrong, but once formed they are hard to overcome. These unfounded judgments can follow a person forever, or at least until the one who made the judgment bothers to get to know the subject of their uninformed opinion. Even though people are aware that initial impressions are often incorrect, it is nearly impossible to surpass human nature and wait for facts to reach a conclusion. When reading "Fireweed", I immediately noticed the theme of restless tragedy. Struggle and hardship appears to follow Baluta to America, even as he is haunted by his past. Greed influenced …show more content…
When he drives up to Tiffany's nice house in his beat up Camero, he instantly stands out. Seeing Baluta arrive the way he did, probably led Tiffany to believe that he was going to rob the place or harm her because there are not many explanations as to why an unfamiliar man would appear at her house in a beat-up car, especially if she forgot about hiring a carpenter. Tiffany appears afraid of him and uncertain whether she should allow Baluta into her nice home, but Baluta is aware of the judgment she is making and does his best to appear kind and sociable as she tentatively reaches he conclusion that he is a carpenter who can be trusted, if monitored. If Tiffany were to actually take the time and get to know Baluta and some of his past, Tiffany would probably feel sympathy for Baluta and feel terrible about her initial opinion of …show more content…
As a reader, I was given a decent amount of background at the beginning of the story about Baluta's life. It was easy for me to see that Baluta is constantly struggling with hardship and trying to overcome the tragedy of his past. I immediately sympathized with Baluta and wanted him to prevail, however, Tiffany was a different story. Like Baluta my first opinion of Tiffany was that she did not live in the real world and that she was quite pompous, but after some thinking I realized that I know nothing about Tiffany other than the fact that she has a nice house and wants her walls to match. Tiffany could be undergoing any number of problems and as a reader I am simply not made aware of them. Therefore, who am I to judge Tiffany, maybe the argument she has with Chet regarding paint has some other meaning behind