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Essay / Rovert Gray's Critique of Society in His Poems
While some discoveries allow an individual to further confirm their views about their world and themselves, others can lead to moral questioning or reevaluation evoked by his new perspective. These findings particularly gain value through their ability to facilitate change within their societies, as they shed light on aspects of these cultures that may require adjustment. In his poems Meatworks and Flames and Dangling Wire (FaDW), Robert Gray critiques the Western and consumer-driven trends of his world. He highlights how these attributes can influence the future, while openly criticizing their lack of moral integrity. Despite this, Gray seems to continue to accept these flaws, as he recognizes their inevitability and shares how he too is part of an ethically distant clockwork. Through his process of exploration and discovery, Gray encourages those who read his poems to remain insightful and take ownership of their own. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Through the findings, values and ideals can be questioned as their worth is reevaluated. Although this process of reevaluation allows an individual to take control of their perception of society, their ability to act on these beliefs may be obscured by necessity or insignificance. Gray explored how his worldview was altered due to his environmental repositioning in his poem FaDW, while emphasizing the materialistic and disposable nature of Western culture. While this poem insists that a hellish landscape "will be what it will be after men are gone", Gray seems to remain convinced that the fossils of his society will remain present, acting as a warning of the necessary fall and inevitable of industrialization. In the poem, Gray describes his city, representative of development and industrialism, as a "stake driven into the earth", later saying that the place was comparable to "hell". By alluding to the biblical concept of Judgment Day, a fiery fall for humanity, Gray forces the reader to understand how their own actions lead to this outcome. By describing the dump with “cars like skulls” and “tin cans,” Gray personalizes the scene and reiterates the connection between production and an industrial apocalypse. Despite this seemingly pessimistic approach to his world, Gray's views can be seen as reflective of a more tolerant ideal of coexistence. The idea that pain and death are an integral part of life is demonstrated through the Buddhist ideals evident in his poems. Although he seems skeptical of the morals of his society, he does not describe the end of these values as a bad thing in itself, but simply appreciates that they will end. In this way, Gray's own discoveries have affected him on a spiritual level, as he uses his own alternative ideal to pass judgment on the end of his society. By accepting the imperfect nature of the world, an individual's views about themselves and their world can be significantly changed. Through his discoveries about the inhumane acts behind the meat industry, Gray was able to re-evaluate his views and remain critical of these companies. Gray explored his renewed understanding of the people around him by saying that most of them "worked around the massacre", ambiguously suggesting that his colleagues also understood the atrocity of the Meatworks, and were in turn seeking to avoid this.