In the reading of “Two Sister”, the author Ama Ata Aidoo uses the insight of two sisters to identify the conflict between the past and the present society’s appearances. According to the reading, we noticed that there were differences and changes during the gap of ages between the two sisters. To be introduced, Connie is the elder sister who has traditional values with her identity as a woman who takes well care of a family and as a wife whom obedient to her husband named James. She is basically a standard wife that all people were expected to be in the past. Mercy is the younger sister whose values was followed the changes of society that willing to take advantages from the powerful men. In order words, Mercy prefers to have someone to contents her with materials instead of real love. For instance, “the new pair of black shoes”(p.995), “the handbag”(p.999), and “the estate house”(p.1002) that Mercy received from the governor Mensar-Arthur are the supporting evidences that indicates Mercy is a selfish and materialistic girl who only cares about her desire of luxury lifestyle. Her ignorance of her sister Connie’s preoccupation according to the traditional values shows the conflict between the point of view from Connie and the point of view from herself. Therefore, this conflict is not only the problem of the two sisters, but also the issue of the society value from the past and the present.

The situations and objects in Mercy’s daily life affected Mercy’s thought. In the beginning, when the bus passed through Mercy, she felt painful to wait for the next bus and wished for someone who has cars to pick her up everyday from work. At this time, her willingness of being admired implants in her mind. The appearance of “the new pair of black shoes” is the symbol of something happening to her. Because of wearing “the pair of shoes”, she experiences the joy that materials bring her and makes her feel valuable from men. In addition, when Mensar-Arthur came to pick her up with a nice car and appeased her with her satisfaction, she strongly feels herself deserve to have this kind life. Therefore, she has more confidence to admit this is what she dreams of. After she confirmed materials provide her fulfillment in her life, she never feel regret about what she have done. To show Mercy’s enjoyment, having relationship with another powerful man “Captain Ashey” is a proof to show her belief of women can have “happiness” without having a high paying job and high educational achievement. She also experience superiority over men because she is able to demand what she wants from a man.

A girl being materialistic is not only the responsibility of herself. It is also the responsibility of the society. In the article, only Mercy’s sister Connie is concern and criticize the performance of Mercy. The husband of Connie, James, plays the supportive role of Mercy’s actions. Also, the phenomenon of the society encourages Mercy to continue with the ways she gets fulfillment from. So that, Mercy does not realize her mistake that she had made.

The poem “It was essential” describes the pain that the author Ghalib suffered from the lost of his son, Arif. Based on the second definition in the poem, it informs us that Arif died from illness. In other words, Arif’s death was unexpected and unprepared. So that, his “father” Ghalib had a hard time to accept the fact of his misplacement.

In the first stanza, the two “you” (line 2, 4) were apparently indicating the adopted son, Arif. The repetitive phrase “a few more days” (line 3, 6) shows Ghalib requested to extend the life time to be with his son. In general, depending on the age, the son should not depart from life before the father. But, in fact, Arif passed away before his father because of illnesses.

In the third stanza, Ghalib expressed his unwillingness of Arif’s death. He described Arif’s arrival was “yesterday” (line 13), but his departure was “today” (line 14). These descriptions show the period of time that had been together was short. Even though Ghalib admitted that staying together is not good, he still wants his son Arif to return to him. When Ghalib was writing this stanza, I can imagine Ghalib was missing his son a lot because he complained the time was passing by very fast.

In the fourth stanza, it implies the relationship between Ghalib and Arif did not end by the separation of death. They had a promise that they will meet each other when the day of Allah call the living and the dead to judgement comes. And they both awaiting for that day to come. This shows us that their relationship was close and they cherished to have each other in life.

In the sixth stanza, Ghalib symbolized Arif as a “full moon” (line 33). Based on the fourth definition, the “full moon” is an image of beauty, happiness, and blessedness. So that, from my understanding, Arif brighten up Ghalib’s family’s life. Arif was the source of joys and happiness in the family. Therefore, Ghalib wanted to have Arif in the family like the full moon in the picture.

In the seventh and eighth stanza, Ghalib criticized the powerful God for taking Arif’s life away in an early time. He questioned the powerful God why couldn’t forgive His Death (Arif’s death) and let him (Arif) on earth. Because of Arif’s life was taken away, Ghalib thought the powerful God was not in his favor. Therefore, Ghalib experienced helpless in his life.

In the last stanza, Ghalib ironically indicated people who asked the reason of Ghalib’s living as fools. In other words, there were people expected him to be out of living. However, he commented his destiny was to wish for death because of losing all his love ones, he cannot bear the pain any longer.