Nihal Ali

ID no. 900 123 163

RJ1:"The second prize" By George Layton ,9th Feb,2013

'The greatest conflicts are not between two people,but between one person and himself',by Garth Brooks. In the second prize, George Layton draws a new definition to the concepts of self blame and inner struggle,these two dreaded traits that are automatically associated in the back of our heads with disgrace,human pain and failure. Through out the story,these two concepts beautifully flourish to be considered ,by myself at least,one of humanity's supreme luxuries as they turned out to be the main reasons that drove our little boy to maintain a correct sense of values at the very end.In the second prize, Layton introduces us to a boy who was stuck with an unappeased conscience after winning the second prize in 'The National road safety competition' for a drawing that he was given 'a bit of a hand ' in it from his neighbour,Mr Carpenter.The writer conveys his message in a very convincing and well supported approach.Firstly,the boy compared 'the prize giving ceremony' on different occasions to his uncle Matyy's funeral. It triggers my thoughts how this little boy mentally connected the physical death of his uncle with the moral death of his believes and conscience if he was to remain silent and accept the award.It is funny how, during these two occasions, he will get into trouble with his mother over actions committed by others.For example,in uncle Matty's funeral,he got into trouble because of 'Antie winnie's fault' of ruining his new suit.And in the prize giving ceremony,because of Mr Carpenter's participation in his drawing.Secondly,it is compelling how the writer reflected constantly the boy's mental turmoil on his physical state,This was clearly seen in lines such as ''I was sitting at the top of the stairs listening to my stomach churning'',and also in having to immediately go to the bathroom when they arrived at the town hall because of feeling 'Sick' whenever he thought about the 'Rotten' prize.At the very end,the sense of inner unrest and self questioning drove the boy to admit on stage that the drawing didn't belong to him.

The second prize is a very simple ,yet rich piece of writing. Layton succeeded in grasping the true essence of many divinely favoured human qualities, connecting them together and finally presenting them in a very kid friendly setting.when analyzing this story,many questions were raised,from which the most important was how integrity,self discipline,pride,unease and guilt are so closely related?. It riddled my mind how qualities that seemed to be from two opposite sides of the rainbow felt so connected and similar at a certain point?. I came to the conclusion that it's because their negatives provide the keys to their positives.I realised that it is okey to suffer. It is okey to tremendously blame yourself.It is okey to sometimes fail at disciplining yourself '.It is okey to disappoint those who invested their blood,sweat and tears in you.All these previously mentioned 'negative' traits should ,in fact, be singled out as humanity's most important values,because this is the only way Integrity and inner peace shall be reached.Bottom line is,any 'expensive' trait won't be achieved easily.You will have to experience the ups and downs of the process of bettering oneself first.It attracted me how Layton's story highlighted this complete journey.Firstly,the writer illustrated how much pride was invested in the little boy.This was clearly shown in how the mother kept bragging about her little boy,and also when the headmaster said 'This boy has brought great honour to the school'.As the amount of pride increased,the amount of guilt followed,making it harder and harder for the boy to confess.He was'praying like mad' and 'felt more sorry for himself'.At the very end,it was those stressing emotions that made him reach a very high level of discomfort and eventually forced him to tell the truth .Only then ,he said ,'I felt happier than I had done for weeks.'

Having integrity and self blame as one of the main concepts discussed in the second prize,I couldn't help but immediately recalling 'Frost/Nixon' the movie.It was a dramatic retelling of the post Watergate television interviews that took place between the British talk show host 'David Frost' and president 'Richard Nixon' .The Watergate scandal that the interview revolved around was a political scandal that took place in the United States when it was discovered that president Nixon was spying on his political opponents which resulted in his resignation on Aug.9th ,1974.It is interesting how these two forms of art seem similar to me.The main characters in both pieaces were about to win something they didn't deserve.For the little boy.it was the 2nd place in the National competition,and for Nixon,it was winnig the re-ellection campaign of 1972.Both at the end confessed their dishonesty.The boy refused the prize,and the president resigned.