The Hanging Stranger - Bilingual quotes that celebrate the beauty of language, showcasing meaningful expressions in two unique perspectives.

The Hanging Stranger - Bilingual quotes that celebrate the beauty of language, showcasing meaningful expressions in two unique perspectives.

"The Hanging Stranger," a short story by Philip K. Dick, explores themes of societal alienation and the nature of reality. The narrative begins with the protagonist, a man named Ed, who encounters a shocking sight in his town—a corpse hanging from a lamppost. This gruesome discovery unsettles him, but what troubles him more is the lack of reaction from the townspeople, who go about their daily routines as if nothing is amiss. This bizarre indifference raises questions about conformity and the nature of societal norms.

As Ed grapples with his growing sense of isolation, he experiences paranoia and begins to suspect that something is fundamentally wrong. His fixation on the hanging body leads him to uncover a horrifying truth about his community. The story delves into the idea that collective denial can mask deeper issues, turning ordinary individuals into unwitting participants in a sinister reality. Ed’s journey illustrates the struggle between individual perception and social acceptance, highlighting how quickly people can normalize the abnormal.

The haunting conclusion leaves readers questioning their own reality and the potential for losing one's humanity in the face of societal pressures. "The Hanging Stranger" serves as a stark reminder of the ease with which people can overlook the chilling signs of moral and ethical decay, making it a compelling commentary on human nature and collective psychology. Dick’s unsettling tale encourages critical reflection on the importance of awareness and dissent in the pursuit of truth.

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Taffy. He thinks about taffy. He thinks it would take his teeth out now, but he would eat it anyhow, if it meant eating it with her.
by Mitch Albom
All our human endeavours are like that, she reflected, and it is only because we are too ignorant to realize it, or are too forgetful to remember it, that we have the confidence to build something that is meant to last.
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In fact, none of us knows how he ever managed to get his LLB in the first place. Maybe they're putting law degrees in cornflakes boxes these days.
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Look, if you say that science will eventually prove there is no God, on that I must differ. No matter how small they take it back, to a tadpole, to an atom, there is always something they can't explain, something that created it all at the end of the search. And no matter how far they try to go the other way – to extend life, play around with the genes, clone this, clone that, live to one hundred and fifty – at some point, life is over. And then what happens? When the life comes to an end? I shrugged. You see? He leaned back. He smiled. When you come to the end, that's where God begins.
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You say you should have died instead of me. But during my time on earth, people died instead of me, too. It happens every day. When lightning strikes a minute after you are gone, or an airplane crashes that you might have been on. When your colleague falls ill and you do not. We think such things are random. But there is a balance to it all. One withers, another grows. Birth and death are part of a whole.
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we get so many lives between birth and death. A life to be a child. A life to come of age. A life to wander, to settle, to fall in love, to parent, to test our promise, to realize our mortality-and, in some lucky cases, to do something after that realization.
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Where there's bluster, thinks Luisa, there's duplicity
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