Tejas Manohar
Mr. Wilson
English II Honors
23 September 2014
Insights of the “Grandfather”
	Ten years ago, my grandfather would take me every week to the zoo to watch the animals. Every day, I would pet the giraffes and see all of the different creatures in the world. Once I grew older, I asked my grandfather: “Appupa, why is the giraffe’s neck so long?” And he said: “Tejas, one day there will be a time where you realize that everything in the world has its purpose.” Two years later, he passed away due to a subdural hematoma of the meninges coupled with a cranial fracture. However, I will never forget the lessons he taught me that day.
	In his short story, “A Celebration of Grandfathers,” author Rudolfo A. Anaya shows why we must respect our elders and stand on the shoulders of giants. He demonstrates his passionate love for his grandfathers and his overwhelming will to celebrate his life. The passionate love between grandfathers represents the demonstration of superior judgement and intellect of the older generation of baby boomers. We must celebrate the enigmas by celebrating their life even after they had passed away. Anaya’s grandfather had taught him many important life lessons that have carried him through adulthood, just like Appupa did before his trauma.
	Anaya’s story of his grandfather is overwhelming and stimulates all five of the reader’s senses. It is a tragedy that ends in his grandfather’s fatal hamartia. Even though the grandfather is unable to move in his body, his children “nevertheless cared for by his sons and daughters and flocks of grandchildren” (243). As all others, “he was a man” and thus, “he died” like all others (Amaya 243). This story is both touching and relevant to the reader, as a majority of individuals have had a monumental figure in their life that is human and thus, as Anaya shows, must pass away. It allows us to further our knowledge and feel empathy for his state. His old age, while debilitating, gives him a greater outlook on how the world we live in today operates, and it also makes us see how the world of tomorrow will live for the life of the world to come.
	Back to my Appupa -- he was a great, brave man; this is something I know through my experiences with him as described above and just as Anaya describes his own. It is unfortunate that he died from that terrible head injury, one with an impact with everlasting effects. The neurosurgeon said that he suffered from a subdural hematoma, which is internal bleeding underneath the dura mater that fills up the arachnoid membrane though I cannot see how this happened so suddenly as he was so insightful and always exercised his brain; he had the reflexes of a tiger from the Euphrates river and the keenness of a snake from the Yellow River in China. I learned many lessons from his brain before the damage to the point of no return. Likewise, Anaya even shows that he “was to become a farmer” but instead “became a writer”, a statement that speaks volumes about intellectuality being valued over community-determined paths (Anaya 243). Working as a farmer just as my Appupa did, you are not using much of your brain regularly, as opposed to when you are doing analytical skills like research or even hackathons.
	Despite the old age of a grandfather, they are able to give us so much insight on how the life of the world will come. Life is a precious resource, and everyone wants to live forever. Anaya’s grandfather was very insightful in how the life of the world to come would end up in the 21st century. For example, he predicted the rise of the new generation in a different world figuratively by explaining that he will live his “last days in my valley” but Anaya “will live in a new time” culturally, intellectually, and in nearly all manners (Anaya 243). Such people are very insightful and helpful, and I wish my Appupa was still with me for this reason. All in all, the knowledge of the grandfathers and those who represent their intellect shall not perish from the earth and shall revitalize in following generations of the human race with an everlasting impact on our way of lifestyle in social, economic, and political endeavors.