Acting on Impulse

Deceit seems to bud out of human nature. Too often people give into temptation or fail in keeping their word. Since the Christian view of the beginning of time, human beings have easily given into things that are tempted before them. Within the Garden of Eden, Eve showed her weakness to the devil by eating his forbidden fruit. Her actions foretold the actions of mankind to come. The three pieces, “This Is Just to Say,” “l(a,” and “Love Medicine,” each individually shows the weakness of mankind through temptation, breaking away, or just taking the easy way out.
In William Carlos Williams’ piece, “This Is Just to Say,” the speaker very simply states his actions. The speaker gave into temptation and ate plums that did not belong to him. His writing goes on to ask for forgiveness for his act and inform the other that the plums were, in fact, delicious. The speaker’s actions are very stereotypical of human behavior. There are times that people forget about others and only act for themselves. This is exactly what the speaker did; he saw the plums, he wanted them, so he indulged, and asked for forgiveness instead of permission—just as Eve did in the Garden of Eden.
Expanding upon Williams’ point of temptation and acting out, E.E. Cummings wrote a piece entitled “l(a.” A very bizarre piece of prose, “l(a” simply states that following the falling of a leaf there is loneliness. Leaves come from trees, and a tree has a trunk, branches, leaves, and roots. The leaves receive all of their nourishment by way of a connection to the whole. When a leaf falls, it breaks away from this connection and is then on its own. The actions of a leaf can be used to describe some actions of humans. Humans are all interconnected, each working to better themselves and others. If humans break these connections, then, more often than not, loneliness follows. These actions can be physical separations that we form—such as borders—or by acting for ourselves and not others. Acts in the form of giving into temptation follow this pattern.
Louise Erdrich plays with the concept of human deception within her piece, “Love Medicine.” In an effort to repay his grandmother for all she had given him, Lipsha Morrissey attempts to help the relationship between his grandparents. Lipsha hopes to revive their love through the creation of a love potion. Instead of following a conventional potion recipe, Lipsha feels that feeding his grandparents the hearts of two geese in love should do the trick. Already taking the easy way out, the character furthers this by not finding two geese in love, but rather feeding his grandparents the hearts of turkeys blessed by him with holy water. Unfortunately, though his grandmother eats one of the hearts, his grandfather chokes on his and ends up passing away. Although Lipsha does all he can to save his grandfather, it’s no use, and the cause of the man’s death is his blame. Morrissey’s initial intentions were of the best nature to rekindle his grandparents love and he created a plan, though he didn’t stick to it. His actions were made out of laziness and deceit as he was tempted to take the easy way out: leading him to regret his prior moves and miss his grandfather.
Since the beginning as time, as seen by Christians, man has always had temptation linger over him. Eve was tempted to eat the apple, and as shown in the former passages, man continues to be tempted in a multitude of ways. William Carlos Williams writes of the temptation to eat fruit that belongs to someone else, while E.E. Cummings writes more of how breaking yourself away from the whole can lead to loneliness. Louise Erdrich writes along the same theme that taking the easy way out may not benefit you in the end. Overall, man really needs to think of how his actions will affect himself, others, and the future. Acting on impulse just may not be the right thing to do.