`The 2 PG Critical Analysis - Ends of Our Tethers` Alasdair Gray

The Lazy Man 's Dream

Around retirement age , ordinary mortals would like to relax and feel satisfied about their lives . They are not thirty any longer , trying to reach one peak after another . Regardless of whether they attain their goals or not , the fact remains that the mind of man has the power to either satisfy or depress him for the rest of his life . In point of fact , Alasdair Gray 's Ends of Our Tethers : 13 Sorry Stories is imparting this message , loud and clear : satisfaction with life rests in the mind

br alone . Humans can use their vast imagination to create and achieve goals . When old age strikes and energy is reduced , however , it is possible for the human mind to remain satisfied with the leftovers

In Job 's Skin Game , one of the `sorry stories ' of Gray , the narrator is fixated on his skin and his scabs . He loses the position he had previously held , but eventually finds himself in a better position in life . Undoubtedly , such stories teach wisdom to the reader . All the same , such wisdom is available in abundance . The story about the cloud and its silver lining is an old story after all . What is not immediately apparent to the reader is the fact that Gray is graying himself . The writer has managed to find satisfaction in his life . So he informs the reader about different thinking patterns that old people must have once they have stopped dreaming about the peaks of their thirties . Gray informs the reader that old people also dwell on sex In fact , the older generation may imagine anything other than youth

For old readers , the 13 Sorry Stories are a confirmation of their sanity . For young readers , it is a way to find the wisdom that is lost through the deaths of grandparents that told them stories . Then again the old people of the `sorry stories ' often satisfy themselves with thoughts that young people also nurture . Miss Kinaid 's Autumn concludes with the narrator stating that she had not felt so happy at home for years (Gray ' Young people that have given up on fighting the uncomfortable conditions in their lives may also imagine such thoughts Similarly , Sinkings describes disappointments in life that young depressed people may dwell on as much as the old , depressed people would . Aiblins serves to offer more wisdom to the young readers . It is , in part , a mystical `sorry story ' one of those wise stories that grandchildren were most likely to remember long after their grandparents ' deaths

All in all , the 13 Sorry Stories bring to home the simple fact that whatever a human being makes of his or her life , it all starts in the mind . Perhaps the narrator in Miss Kinaid 's Autumn was telling a lie when she said that she had not felt so happy at home for years (Gray ' After all , the satisfaction or dissatisfaction she had experienced at home had all existed in her own mind . Even chemical...