English 1010
PO1
9/09/11
Analytical Essay
Peyton Wilson
English 1010
September 17, 2014
Analytical Essay
Heat on a Train
Personally I have always had this fear of seeming needy or maybe even desperate for attention. Everyone has this instinct or personal preference to keep their emotions to themselves. To me it is almost like I feel like I am getting in the way of other people or even bothering them. We are always told is better to get everything out and just let go of your emotions, however, as we all know it is so much easier to bottle everything up until we explode. This is what William Buckley Jr. is trying to say in “Why Don’t We Complain”. He goes into detail about how reserved we are about asking for help or about expressing our problems to people. There are very few people that will actually stand up for what they feel is right; however, we have far too many people that prefer to sit back and let other people control them. The parts of this essay I am analyzing are the problems we go through on a daily basis and how we deal with them. The first point I would like to look at is the movie theater example. It always takes that one person out of the entire group to take the lead when there is a problem with something. So what happens when nobody stands up and takes that role? Buckley illustrates that perfectly here, when he talks about people interrupting a movie or disturbing the peace. The man could barely see the movie when the picture was out of focus, but he did not say anything to anyone but his wife. People do not want to stand up in the middle of a movie and have all of the attention to them. We would rather sit through a movie and not enjoy it, than speak our minds and fix the problem. We instinctively try to avoid as much contact and confrontation as possible. Having the courage to be a leader can be one of the most difficult actions to take. Without great leaders in this world there is no telling what state this world would be living in. Throughout the entire essay he talks about how he gets nervous when he has to confront someone about a problem or when he has to express his emotions to someone. Many people have a problem opening up to people and sharing their feelings. He talked about the ski resort incident where he finally got the chance to complete his goal of stepping up and speaking his mind. He went to ask someone for a screwdriver and the man said that he could not help him because he had a heart attack and the doctor told him not to engage in physical activity. This event scarred him and made him hesitant to approach anyone for assistance on even the simplest of tasks. An excellent example of this is when people