LMAOOO found my 11th grade "The Parable of a Muddy Road reaction paper (with critique)" homework so I'm just gonna post it here since i might delete the original from my laptop
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Parable of a Muddy Road reaction paper
The parable of a muddy road is a short story about two monks who were travelling down a muddy road after a heavy rain and encounter a young woman wearing a silk kimono and is unable to cross a large puddle without getting herself dirty, and so without hesitation, Tanzan, one of the monks, picked her up and carried her cross and then setting her down safely on the other side. She thanked him and, and the monks continued on their way and after hours of walking in silence, Ekido, the other monk, spoke about his disapproval about what Tanzan did and how monks are not supposed to touch women. With this, Tanzan simply smiled and replied “I put her down hours ago. Why are you still carrying her?”
According to the paper, “this story illustrates the importance of letting go—whether it’s resentment, judgment, or attachment to rigid rules. Ekido clung to the act long after it was over, while Tanzan had moved on. The parable encourages us to free ourselves from unnecessary burdens and live in the present moment.”
My thoughts and opinion about this story and how the writer portrayed and illustrate a person who is capable of holding his disapproval after hours of it happening is that the author did a good job on writing a short scenario about holding in a judgment, disapproval or even anger about something after some time has passed, and in this scenario, hours has already passed by then.
Now, let me express my reaction to this short story or Parable,
When I was reading the story, I was in utter confusion, on why Ekido was angry after hours of silence. Why didn’t he say anything earlier when they were a few yards away or why he didn’t express his disapproval when Tanzan had just picked the young woman up from the ground and hasn’t yet started walking across? And why did it bother him so much, when Tanzan was only helping the young woman? These questions kept bugging me after I had finished reading the short story. Because why keep it in for so long? What was his reasoning for doing so? But since the story, or the copy that I along with my fellow classmates received, didn’t explain the reasoning, it just left me confused. But although I was confused, I still understood what the story was about and understood the lesson behind it.
But maybe the reason on why I was confused is because I was I had also held onto something longer than necessary, and that I was trying to understand Ekido’s point of view because I wanted to understand my own reasoning. Because based on my own personal experience, holding something in just feels like there’s something stuck on the tip of your tongue and you can’t seem to get it out or say it until the pressure builds up inside you until you can’t contain it anymore and just let it all out and it would feel like a bomb that had just exploded. Because all that pressure inside you that you had finally let out just kept going until everything and anything around you got caught in the cross fire and then when you finally calmed down, you see the effects and the aftermath of what you had just done and instantly regret it, because some of the things that you had said was either unnecessary or just outright wrong and hurtful to the point where the damages can’t be undone and the relationships can’t be fixed or can never be the same again, because the perspective of that person and the people around you and how they look at you has completely and utterly changed, usually for the worst. All because you had hold on to something insignificant or even outright petty, something so, so small yet it turned into something big and destructive.
What I think was the most important lesson from this parable, is that you shouldn’t hold onto something for so long, one way or another it’s going to come out and you need to be prepared for it and let it out and say it in a controlled or calm way or else. Because whether you like it or not, it’s going to come out. And when it does, it’s probably not in a way you want it to come out. This can be also applied in your daily life whether it’s about school, work, and relationships or even about something so insignificant or small, that you immediately pushed it aside or even disregard it completely.
For example, in a work place, there’s this mildly annoying co-worker that does the most mundane thing or say unnecessary things at the wrong moment, or even just he/she doing the most normal thing yet something about how he or she does it just seems to annoy you. But you didn’t say anything since it’s not really that big of a deal until it keeps happening and then just one day when you are having a bad day because of some chain of minor inconvenience that keeps happening to you all morning somehow builds up and suddenly, the mildly annoying thing that your co-worker does turns into full on annoyance to the point where you suddenly criticize them for it and then immediately regretting it afterwards.
Because you didn’t really mean any of the things you said, you were just annoyed and wasn’t thinking clearly at the time. Sure you were having a bad day, but then again, your co-worker didn’t deserve anything you had said because at the end of the day, he or she was just minding their own business when suddenly out of the blue their co-worker who previously didn’t have any issue with what or how they do things is suddenly annoyed and had just burst out on them without prior notice. Because how could they have known that you got annoyed at them? You have never said anything before! You should have said something before so that you wouldn’t have had to bust out on somebody undeserving of your outburst.
So at the end of the day, you need to learn how to either express yourself or to just let things go and stop dwelling on the past, to stop holding onto something that could potentially make other people think of you as some kind of immature child who can’t seem to let things go.
And with that, I agree with Tanzan’s actions. Because whether or not he’s a monk, he is still just an average human being helping somebody who is in need of help. And whether you are religious or have a specific belief in something, that shouldn’t be a reason on why you shouldn’t or won’t help another person or generally anyone. Because at the end of the day whether you believe in science or religion, you should always still help others. We are after all, just humans. Flesh and bones (blood?) and all.
“How does the parable challenge conventional beliefs or social norms?”
Well, that is a good question, actually, in just this short story or parable alone, there is quite some things that are a direct or indirect challenge to conventional beliefs or social norms.
Let’s start with this. In the first and second part of the story, the young woman is unable to cross a large puddle without getting herself and the silk kimono that she is wearing, dirty. So without hesitation, Tanzan picked her up and carried her across the mud before setting her down safely on the other side. She thanked him, and the two monks continued on their way. Do you see the problem and how this is indirectly and directly challenging conventional beliefs or social norms? Well let me answer that. Tanzan, without asking her if she is alright with being carried or even asked for permission, still picked her up without hesitation. Sure, the young woman thanked him. But that part indirectly challenge social norms and conventional beliefs. Because normally, Monks don’t go around carrying or even touching a woman, that goes against and challenges conventional beliefs. A random man shouldn’t go around and picking up random woman that they just meet on the road without her permission. That goes against social norms! (It wasn’t mentioned if the woman agreed to be picked up or not, nor did it show the conversation, if there was even any, that had said or even suggested that the young woman agreed to be carried. So by default, it happened without her permission.)
Because a monk, is not supposed to be grabbing a woman in such a way even though he has a pure intentions, to others, like Ekido, would also disagree with what he did. Simply because he is a monk.
While on the other hand, another reason is because he is a man. A man that without permission just without hesitation, picked up a random woman on the road. Even though the young woman thanked him, for a small brief of time, I assume that the woman had a moment where she was stunned and confused before being grateful.
So these first two parts of the story already challenge the conventional beliefs and social norms by being overall creepy since it also didn’t show that or if the monks and the young woman knew each other, or are acquainted in any way. While the remaining parts of the story shows that Ekido held back his words and held onto it until hours later when he finally was unable to contain himself while Tanzan was just brushing it off and has already moved on while Ekido was still holding on to it.
For a review critique.
The main theme or message of the parable is about holding onto something and the need to move on and leave the past on the past and stop focusing on it, and instead focus on the present, learn to let go so that you won’t have to carry such burdens from the past to the present and eventually to the future. And as I mentioned in the beginning of this paper, the writer did a good job on writing a short story about holding in a judgment, disapproval or even anger about something after some time has passed. It has been effectively conveyed because the writer kept it short, simple and easy to understand. Tanzen’s reply “I put her down hours ago. Why are you still carrying her?” implies that Tanzen has already moved on, while Ekido has not.
The simplicity of the story has a good impact on how the readers understand and comprehend the lesson being portrayed in the parable since it is easy to understand and the writer used a simple, straightforward yet still entertaining and fun way to illustrate the lesson that can be learned from the story. It’s easy going and short structure makes it fun and easy to read especially to some people or students who can’t stay focus while reading lengthy and difficult to understand stories that are sometimes even labelled as a “short story” by its authors. So by using a simple and easy to understand structure, the story has more impact since the people or students who are reading this has not been given a hard time trying to decipher or stay focus since it has no lengthy or difficult to read or understand parts.
In my own opinion, the philosophical or moral implications of the parable are like how I had already mention, are “I put her down hours ago. Why are you still carrying her?” for philosophical since he implied that even though he had already put her down hours ago and had already moved on, Ekido is still carrying her by not letting go and holding on to what had happened, thus explaining the meaning of “I put her down hours ago. Why are you still carrying her?” and the fact that Tanzan still helped even though he is a monk is the moral implication that no matter what or who you are, a fellow human would still help you even though they know they probably shouldn’t but none the less still helped because they are humans just like us with a sense of morality just like us.
“Do you think the story is relevant in modern society?”
To me, I don’t really think that the story is relevant to modern society, but the lesson it conveys definitely is. The reason on why I say this is because well, for starters, most people in the modern day society doesn’t really believe in anything religious or would understand the meaning and reason of the
“We monks are not supposed to touch women” since they wouldn’t or would not fully understand what monks are.
No, I don’t think that the lesson from the parable can be misinterpreted since the story has a simple and easy to understand writing style. If the lesson from the parable is misinterpreted by someone even with its simple writing style, I am immediately going to question and somewhat judge the person if they still ask what the parable and what its lesson is.
So thus, in conclusion, this parable not only illustrate the importance of letting something go whether its resentment, judgment, attachment and other things that causes us unnecessary burdens that we can potentially and would probably bring along into the future if we keep holding onto it. This parable encourage us to free ourselves from unnecessary burdens and live in the present can help us learn to let go and move on so that we won’t be hold down and be slowed down by the heavy chains of problems, resentment, judgment, attachment to rigid things that is keeping us as prisoners, a jail that only we can free ourselves from if only we can get the key, which is to learn to let go and not hold onto something that could burden us and keep us in our own prisoner for the future to come, and instead free ourselves and live in the moment that is called the present. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- shits so funny 'cuz the required word count was 700 and i just booked it and wrote 2369 words without ai and shit lmao
