Free Essay. "Yesterday's Whales"

"Yesterday Whales" is one of the most exciting stories from the book "Birds of a Lesser Paradise" by Megan Mayhew Bergman, written in March 2012. The story tells about a population-control activist who faces the ultimate conflict between her maternal desire and her commitment to the environment. The writer introduces her readers to a woman who has a boyfriend who never wants to bring children into a world he considers to be a ticking time bomb and sees no point in. Unfortunately, the woman gets pregnant thereby being forced to make her choice. The story, therefore, demonstrates what exactly happens when one's life deters from their values.

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Bergman generally explores how women are usually shaped by nature. Sometimes their relationship with the environment is beautiful but may sometimes turn brutal. The writer, therefore, concentrates on motherhood as the central theme. Bergman tries to explain that women, like any other creature, possess the ability to create and live a sustainable life. They can generally nurture and ferociously protect their young ones at any cost.

The author did a beautiful collection of features that usually link human experience with the surrounding and animal nature. Whale, used as an adjunct and as a metaphor, really assisted the telling of all of the touching scenes that comprised this lovely story. In some cases, the seeming missteps are usually borne out of bald and rotten circumstances, and sometimes with no good choices in the vicinity. In the story, a Lauren accidentally gets pregnant; therefore must choose between the absolute force of nature putting pressure on her to become a mother and her conviction as a population control activist. Mostly in situations like this where one is in a dilemma, something has to give; in these cases, it is usually the characters' ideals that can help in the decision making. She says, "We wanted the same thing, I think, earth less taxed by human presence. But giving up on life now, I felt, was like leaving the party early" (Bergman, 77).

These characters may ache with the consciousness that these paradises they are usually stuck and living in are not the ones they initially believed in. Thus, it is a seeming slap in the face of their sound intentions and their brilliant picture of what the world should look like. However, there are only quick facts mixed with an apparent desire to fantasize about sexual defects; therefore, I do not think the author was fair in her judgments. Bergman remarkably worked hard and eluded hitting false notes; in the story, her characters' real lives had to have contended. She tried to get the tale 'Yesterday's Whales" moral and right to what they were; she used a well-cadenced and emotive cleverness and still gave herself the creative space to fictionalize the tale. However, the reader does not get to know or to see much on other characters. Lauren's interaction with some characters, especially the mother, is generally limited.

Though there are important themes in this tale and that humans were ruining the planet, Malachi thinks that the human race should not be there, and people should stop having children; he believes the human race is destroying the planet. Sometimes people think about human population control in contemporary times; take an example of government intervention into human reproduction as was In the case of China (Rosende 3). China's one-child policy encourages Chinese citizens to control the birth rate and give birth only to one child per couple. In the United States, population control centers on negative population growth (Crist 150). An organization promoted the concept of 'the two-child family once lowered the rate of migration to encourage the conceptual system of the steady-state economy. Bergman's tale "Yesterday's whales" is so valid, and the narrator may understand something about themselves; however, the story does not tell the reader what happens in the end. The author does not provide possible solutions to the problem of population control; this is so disappointing since such predicament situations are experienced by a more significant number of ladies across the world.

Though "Yesterday's Whales" snapshot tales are different enough from each of the stories in the book, they ordinarily share some common themes. The stories major on the relation or conflict of instinct and reason, the conflict of nature and culture, and the conflict of personal interests. "Yesterday's Whales," tells about a character who let herself lead in her choices and what her doubts are; thus, some readers might consider it as repetition and overlapping when they read them together. One can easily predict how the story ends upon reading the other tales in the book, and some readers can, therefore, consider it boring.

Overly this story is tremendously enjoyable, well-written, and refreshingly candid. The main themes explored include animal protection, environmental issues, family, and elderly/aging parents. The writer uses whale as a metaphor; she says, "I pictured the mother whale, exhausted from labor, pushing her cub to the skin of water. The miracle of breath in the face of prediction life in the wake of whaling ships." (Bergman, 77) the whale, mirrors the isolation of the women. Lauren does not complete a happy life; she feels compelled to choose her mother and her pregnancy over her partner but not without a sense of deep depression. The author's writing is direct; she uses unique phrasing and an emotional tone. The story is intelligent and moving with wit, emotion, and insight into some impressive power that nature has over the human race. In other words, nature possesses some forces that are beyond social control. One can enjoy and recommend such a good story in the future.

Works Cited

Bergman, Megan Mayhew. "Birds of a Lesser Paradise." Scribner (2012): 75-130. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/Birds-Lesser-Paradise-Mayhew-Bergman/dp/1451643365

Crist, Eileen. "Decoupling the global population problem from immigration issues." The Ecological Citizen 2.2 (2019): 149-151. Retrieved from https://www.ecologicalcitizen.net/pdfs/v02n2-08.pdf

Rosende, Jazelyn Rivas. "Jade S. Sasser. On the infertile ground: Population control and women's rights in the era of climate change." (2019): 1-3. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13412-019-00554-z