Under a watchful eye
Charlie from the story "The Young Man with the Carnation" is a famous writer whose fame created a vicious cycle of depression, lack of inspiration and faith. He feels personally lost; he is no longer his own person so that even his suicide would not be his. He is under hundreds of watchful eyes and his suicide would be a suicide of a world-famous author.
Irony of "Sorrow's Acre"
"Sorrow's Acre" is a story about a mother's persistence in effort to save her son. The main observer of the story, young relative of the landowner, criticizes his uncle in making such a cruel deal with the woman, urging him to stop her and forgive her son. The landowner answers and reveals the cruel irony of the situation. He answers that if he were to nullify their deal now, the mother's effort up until that point would be useless and it would seem as if he made light of her tragic situation. This would only result in the mother continuing mowing the field, but her efforts would be mocked and deemed useless, which would shatter her dignity. Despite the situation being cruel, the breakage of a deal with would ironically have even more dire consequences.
A fox and a man
In the story "Peter and Rosa," Peter dreams of being at the sea and leaving his life of books and papers. He feels that it is what lies in his nature, how God made him be. He contemplates how one shouldn't try to please one's neighbor, try to go against one's given nature. He comments on observing a fox and how a fox is exactly how a fox should be. If a fox had asked men how it should be, the fox would have been a poor thing. Despite it being a good message, there is a big difference between a fox and a man, and this shows immature thinking of a dreamer boy, who does not think of consequences while pursuing his passion, which only ends in tragedy.
