Andy Session's "The Shadow People" - Happiness can only be achieved through suffering

Andy Session's interesting poem, "The Shadow People," displays the author's desire to express his feelings and advice about how to live a benevolent and happy life. Intriguingly, this is accomplished through the process of illustrating the lifespan of a typical human being, for just as people come into this world the same way that they come out, the poem similarly follows such an intriguing pattern. Andy Sessions, additionally, is expressing to the reader the suffering one must undergo in order to finally achieve true gratification. All of this is done through the incredible symbolism and imagery present throughout the poem which is accompanied by the ambiguous "shadow" figures. Ultimately, Andy Session's "The Shadow People" proves to be a truly symbolical poem which represents life's experiences, how the simple pleasures in life stimulate satisfaction, and how true benevolence can only be achieved through preliminary suffering.

"The Shadow People" can be viewed as a short narrative, for it portrays the typical lifespan of a human being, going full circle from childbirth to death.

Caterpillar using a hookah. An illustration from A...

Andy Murray

week-end-pleasure

As Andy Sessions states "The Shadow People" in line one, he is expressing that as a child, we are ambiguous, unknown, and vague, much like a material shadow. Because shadows are easily overlooked and extremely malleable with an ambiguous conformation, they are usually left unnoticed. They can form whatever shape they may please, much like a child who has much potential to become anything he or she wants to. As Andy Sessions progresses towards the heart of the poem, he reaches the early adult stages of one's life, illustrating the hard work of school and employment one must endure while "working long days in the rice fields." From the ninth line on, the author begins to progress into the later, decrepit stages of one's life, for much like...