Risking it all for the things we long for... - A Compare/Contrast essay on Thomas Merton and Langston Hughes and their works regarding the Birmingham Bombings of 1963.

Risking it all for the things we long for...
The idealistic approach to achieving what is presented as unachievable goals, to a person, will only further the desire in one's soul to quest for this said "holy grail." The settings that follow in these poems are examples of what people, driven to the edge of social degradation, will risk in order to be free of their oppressors.
Thomas Merton was dealt a difficult life from early on. Beginning with his mother's death at six, his father's death at sixteen, and becoming the father of an illegitimate child at sixteen, the road was slated to be a…