Dreams

Every single person has a dream that drives them to propel themselves forward in the battle called life. These dreams are the life-force and inspiration people need in order to make the most out of their daily lives. Sometimes these dreams would be as simple as wanting to marry into a good family, or to have three kids that are healthy. Sometimes these dreams are as dramatic as wanting to take over the world, or making a difference in somebody’s life. Whatever a person’s dream might be, it is something that is deeply personal, and it is a great source of motivation.
This brings to mind just how far a person would go in order to fulfill a dream. In the novel Kill Your Darlings (Blacker, 2000), Gregory Keays, the protagonist, stole a manuscript from a dead man in order to publish it under his name. Keays wanted to reclaim the glory he received with his first novel, but he cannot create another manuscript within the same wavelength. Sadly, the dead man’s novel was perfect, and Keays seized the moment and had it published under his own name. Meanwhile, in the novel Her Fearful Symmetry (Niffenegger, 2009) the lead heroine stole her own daughter’s body in order to live again. Both novels spoke of achieving dreams by trampling the lives and aspirations of other people.
At that point, is it worth it? Is achieving the dream enough of a justification to hurt and take away other people’s goals and ambitions? It is a classic tale of the end justifies the means, yet the line must be drawn at some point or another.
Dreams are created for the sole reason that they are the source of joy and escape from a reality a person can look upon to get enough strength to overcome problems. Yet achieving it means that there is nothing else the person can look forward to and work for. Dreams are supposed to keep a person in line, and to motivate a person to be the best that he can be. If dreams are fulfilled by killing the hope and dreams of other people, then it would become a curse.
The same happened with Her Fearful Symmetry (Niffenegger, 2009). Elspeth was a spirit who was on her flat and awaited her daughters to come to her. One of the daughters, the weaker of the twins, Valentina, wanted freedom from being the half of a twin. She witnessed Elspeth remove a cat’s soul and put it back on the cat’s lifeless body, and Valentina thought that if she could die for a moment, her twin will leave her alone and she will get her independence. When the time came for Valentina to be resurrected, Elspeth took Valentina’s body as her own. Soon Elspeth, in Valentina’s body, was able to conceive a child from her lover. Yet her lover left her, because he disgusted Elspeth for tricking Valentina and taking advantage of her own daughter.
Gregory of Kill Your Darlings (Blacker, 2000) also experienced a similar fate. He was killed on the launching of his book, and it was exposed how he took the limelight away from the dead man.
These two novels are proofs that when it comes to fulfilling dreams and ambitions, they should be a positive driving force in life and not something that would make a person do horrible things. Getting a dream realized should give a sense of completion and release, and not give an intangible cloud of despair and horror.
This is the essence of dreams. To drive us forward, and give us strength. Till the moment comes that a person’s dreams are achieved, he can only drift along life, going slowly forward until the end.