To others, the world is a peaceful and quiet haven for everybody; some see it as a great wide somewhere still subject to explorations and discoveries; but to the unfortunate, it is nothing but a rat trap that closes in on everyone. Misfortune does not only take what is left to people but also makes them think ill of the world. It’s the sole reason that the rat trap peddler condemned the world as a huge rat trap with earthly pleasure as its obvious bait. So much as misfortune caused him hatred, prejudice and discrimination caused all these bad lucks. It is by these two that he was always tempted to steal, which always plunged him deeper in the world’s rat trap.
People knew that he was a thief and they had never given him a chance to change. He wasn’t treated as human but as a rat trapped in his own rat trap. Prejudice stains the finest of silks much less than the filthiest of rags. Life for the poor peddler was too bad that his every action led to a dreadful enclosure. Fatal solitude is the sentence of the society to him. He was left alone because of his rag clothing.
When he thought that nobody would ever accept him, Edla Willmansson came and saved him from another trap that her father, the ironmaster, was about to set upon the poor tramp. She was the only one who understood that the man needs heat and shelter for the cold Christmas Eve, which to him means death. The coldness of the condemning society was over-powered by the unequaled warmth offered by the girl’s kindness. Although he wasn’t the man that her father thought he was, Edla gave him the treatment he had always been dreaming of.
He was treated the same way as people treat people. He was even raised to a captain despite of being an uneducated man. The world he once thought as a huge rat trap was changed into a magnificent sanctuary by the humility of a girl. The prejudice and the discrimination of the people were wrapped by humility. Before he thought that life for him was unkind so he continued doing bad things to displease the society more. He never thought of changing until this young lady had actually peeped through his life like no other person would do.
She did not only give him heat and shelter for the night but also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change. He was reminded that he still was a human after all the adversities he had undergone. As discrimination and prejudice encloses to anyone, acceptance secures everybody. Edla accepted the peddler no matter who he really was – a virtue rare yet powerful enough to give him faith to humanity. By acceptance, he was raised to heavens. He could now forget who was before and live a new life away from the trap.
He now believed that he was not alone because somebody still care for him and that he needed not to steal in able to live. He should only have to possess a virtue that is to live life as honestly as he could. Faith fights temptation. As long as you believe you will never be pulled by any other force, which opposes your virtue. All human misfortunes come from a single source – temptation.
From the very first page of human history, temptation has always lured men towards damnation. Temptations, such as money, material things, and other earthly pleasures can always bring man to his own doom because these are nothing but temporary joy. This doom is nothing but the rat trap. The rat trap is actually not earth itself. The rat trap is only a thing that the society created in their minds. It’s not a consequence for everything you do but for an ill deed.
Life is but an adventure not a mere rat trap. We must do what we think we must do because our fate lies in our hands. We must not be afraid of the possible consequences of our actions because fear paralyzes us. There is more in life than what we fear of. Life should be as boundless as the universe. Our life shoaled be as limitless as the stars in the skies..