Slave

SLAVE

Being a slave means not being the owner of yourself, this tale by Ambrose Bierce called Oil of dog talks about a man called Boffer Bings, which was born in a different family, his dad was a manufacturer of dog-oil, and his mom had a studio in which she disposed of unwelcomed babies. Since boyhood Boffer was trained in the family businesses, something that have repercussions in his life. Knowing that is doing something wrong he was very carefully with cops, and law in general. This fear is an important part of the text, this fear mixed together both of Boffer’s parents jobs. Boffer threw a baby’s corpse in the cauldron when the dead dogs were burning something that end up creating a new and better oil something his dad wanted a lot ago, what a big causality.

Causalities had been the creators of many inventions and advances, advances which may be a blessing or a misfortune, that only depends of the way the man uses it. The problem is that the man kind isn’t prepare for such big things because apparently their greed is bigger than their self, bigger that their moral. When the man acts based on its greed the uses given to the advances are the wrong ones, a mistake that shall have big consequences for the man and everyone who surrounds him.

The greed is one of the oldest impulses of mankind, that´s why the human history is plagued of injustice, death and misfortunes. Since the beginning until the end you may see how the greed creates inhumanity. It’s incredible how greed blinds people and make them destroy its environment. And knowing that a man’s only purpose is to finish with its people for own benefit is the bigger act of inhumanity, act that have been main character of human history. For example, currently scientific advances are used against enemies. Life had become a game in which instead of saving people the science is used to destroy them, the one who destroys its enemy first is the winner, something people forgot is that in this game there’s not a winner, because at the end everyone loses something.

The beginning of the game.

“She removed not only superfluous and unwelcome babes to order, but went out into the highways and byways, gathering in children of a larger growth, and even such adults as she could entice to the oilery.”

-Oil of Dog, Ambrose Bierce.

The game

The conversion of their neighbors into dog-oil became, in short, the one passion of their lives—an absorbing and overwhelming greed took possession of their souls and served them in place of a hope in Heaven—by which, also, they were inspired.”

Match point

“So enterprising had they now become that a public meeting was held and resolutions passed severely censuring them”

Greed does not have a nationality or prefer a specific country, because country limits are just imaginary lines created by the man, the greed is in everybody everywhere, the only difference is made when you decide if you want or not to live based on greed. In Colombia the greed is found in the politic area, politicians work for own benefit instead of working for the people which is what they are supposed to do, a big example f greed.

As a conclusion I may say that is true that when people act based on greed they end up not only affecting others but also affecting their-self guarding the tradition of mankind this way a change is not going to happen.

Sara Triana/Bogotá D.C/Marzo, 2o16

Oil of dog- Ambrose Bierce.