The Importance Of Open Mind In Poetry

Though time is a vital part of being able to truly see, it is useless if we aren’t also capable of keeping an open mind. For one to even have a change of heart in the first place, their thought’s must be open and accepting. From the get-go, Saki made it clear that Ulrich and Georg couldn’t have cared less for one another. They had nothing but pure and absolute hate for each other. It becomes evident that they never even hesitated to do anything other than think negatively about their counterpart when Georg says, “I never thought to have wanted to do other than hate you all my life...” (11). Yet, as they spend more time together, they closed perspectives are slowly forced open. Saki shows this change from Ulrich’s point of view. The reader …show more content…
He begins to sympathize and pity Georg and as he does this, he realizes that maybe he was wrong about Georg. He expresses this in his words: “I’ve changed my mind...Lying here tonight, thinking, I’ve come to think we’ve been rather fools” (10). The first line that Ulrich says to his neighbor that suggests he has had a changed of heart emphasizes the ‘think/mind’ idea three times. This accentuates the argument that an open mind is important in repairing what is …show more content…
We look down on people we think lesser than us; up to the people we think are better than us; but we only really respect the people we deem our equal. It is natural to classify others based on differences. We end up in an in-group and out-group mentality, focusing only on those small differences and never zooming out to look at all the universal similarities we share. Georg and Ulrich are born into this mentality. But, after spending real time with each other and having their minds opened, they were able to see the similarities they shared. Saki subtly sends his message of shared universal similarity by paralleling his two protagonists. First off, several of the description of the men’s situation match: “[Ulrich] had to wink drops of blood from his eyelashes...Georg...blinded with blood...across his eyes.”(8) and “both [of Ulrich] legs were pinned...[Georg] as helplessly pinioned down as himself”(8). Although the two don’t yet see that they are similar, Saki shows that regardless of whether or not we perceive our similarities, they still exist. He deliberately describes the two men with the same words. It isn’t as if Saki has never heard of a thesaurus before, but rather, he is pointing out the similarities between two seemingly different men. Sure, we may not all have blood in our eyes or our legs pinned under trees,