Repetition: A Restraint or a Relief? Anonymous 10th Grade

Though every generation experiences a different variation of life that is specific to the time period within which they live, the overall human experience has been the same since ancient times. Human existence is a repetitive cycle, beginning with birth and ultimately ending with death. Despite the fact that birth and death are the only events that absolutely must happen to every individual, people tend to lead lives that are very similar from person to person. Many dream of branching away from what is considered normal, hoping to live life as a distinct individual rather than mindlessly going through the same repetitive cycle that their ancestors had likely experienced. However, very few people actually manage to break free of the typical pattern of human life and go on to achieve their ambitions. This is often caused by families, communities, or unwritten social rules that expect or even enforce sameness, though this can be overcome if a person perseveres and does not allow themselves to be beaten into submitting to a life of normality. In Our Town by Thornton Wilder, characters of a small town deal with the expectations of repetition in different ways. The vast majority of them, such as Mr. Webb, have allowed the repetitive...