Four Levels of The Wretched Stone
The four levels part of the story Wretched Stone are given below:
- Rita Anne – Name of the ship
- Captain of the ship– Randall Ethan Hope
Literal Comprehension
The wretched Stone is a metaphorical story. In this story, Captain Ethan started their voyage named Rita Anne with his crew of sailors.
They were going with the help of a map. After some time they went to a strange island or place which was not shown on the map. Where, there were no type of animals, no fruits, and a bad smell is there.
On that island, they saw rock & they brought it into the ship which was two feet across. From the stone comes shining light.
All crews were attracted to that light & they sat in front of the stone ignoring their duties. After seeing the stone all crews were changed in Ape. Then, when the storm was coming the captain went support to the sailors, he was amazed because the ape did not understand whatever he said.
However, the captain was hopeful to rescue their sailors. After telling stories, playing music, and reading books the captain was successful in becoming the inhuman being that Ape.
Then he destroyed that stone and finally, they went to the Harbor town of Santa Pango where they would go home.
Interpretation
In this story, stone stands for TV and apes stand for modern non-creative people. The story has tried to show us that TV makes people passive & just like the hairy beasts.
It shows TV makes people careless about their duties & responsibilities. Also, it suggests we must be dutiful & punctual to achieve success as well as there can be other things to get entertainment like singing, reading, dancing, storytelling, etc.
Also, it shows the importance of education in the life of humans. Hence, metaphorically the writer trying to show that TV is good when used little but its excessiveness is not good.
Critical Thinking
Although this story is interesting to read, there are still some points to which I do not agree. Here, the writer seems one-sided. He does not talk about the positive aspects of TV.
- Is TV as useless as the writer has described?
- How can human beings become apes when they watch TV?
- Can we become careless & duty-free watching TV?
- Can we destroy our TV thinking that there are some disadvantages?
- Cannot we get good information, interesting & useful things from TV?
- Is it possible to believe that by singing, reading & storytelling apes became human beings?
Hence, I am not fully happy with this story.
Assimilation
Before reading this text as well as the story (The Wretched Stone) I used to watch TV as much as possible by ignoring my duties & taking entertainment from it.
But after reading this text I came to know that TV makes people dull and passive. So, I would not go watching TV all the time & I would choose only certain information, and programs & watch them.
Read Next: Four Levels of Great Scott! Gadzooks!