On The Pleasure Of No Longer Being Very Young ( Paper 8 - Assignment )

On The Pleasure Of No Longer Being Very Young

- G.K. Chesterton

G.K. Chesterton’s essay, ‘On The Pleasure Of No Longer Being Very Young’  analyses the advantage of old age. With the help of humour, paradox and frequent allusions, getting old is a universal experience. This experience can tell us the relevance of traditions in the ever changing modern world. This essay was written after the great economic depression in the 1930s when the new industrial economies have completely collapsed and modern man had learnt a lesson of being too proud of his knowledge.

People look at the advantages of old age in a sentiment way. All old men are supposed to be happy and kind like Santa Clause and wise like the classical Greek figure, Nestor. So, young menudo not believe that old age is actually enjoyable but old age is the time to be openly adventurous and romantic. Old people know that they are not aware of many new things but they are happy in their ‘fool paradise’ as they can go on bearing new things.

The real advantages of old age appear to be “comic contradiction”. People feel that “Many things seem to be growing younger” as one becomes old. Young men think that traditions and customs are outdated and useless but old people with all their experience realise that traditions are not outdated, they are practically useful so they have continued to survive through centuries. The writer presents word play.

“Traditions are true and therefore alive, indeed a tradition is not even traditional except when it is alive.”

Proverbs are repeatedly used inly because they are practical. This is best understood in the old age. Old age is the ‘second childhood’ because in the old age on can understand the real meaning of everything.

Proverbs and the human history offers us practical wisdom but people fail to understand that wisdom. The economic depression represents the failure of modern industrial world. It could have been avoided if people remembered the old lessons given by many proverbs. It is always said that the luck tried money are all temporary. This has been proved by the downfall of emperors like Napoleon, Alexander and the great Roman but modern man does not learn anything from these examples. For the writer witnessing the economic depression is to ‘to see the dead proverbs come alive’.

It is not the fault of young people that they must understand the importance of old things. For the young people, old things are on a different level of understanding. Since old people have the experience of life they can better understand the real meaning of everything. It is an irony of life that :

“even as we are dying the whole world is coming to life.”

Another paradox is that “it is not the young people who realise the new world”. Young people cannot understand the  newness of new things because they have never experienced the old things. Old people have the experience of the old things; so they can better understand the difference between the old and the new. The writer gives an interesting analogy. We cannot feel the rotation of the earth because we have never experienced a situation when the earth did not rotate. If the earth stops its rotation starts moving in the opposite direction then only we will understand how it feels when the earth rotates.

Old people can also understand if a new thing is really new or a comeback of old things. If someone says that these days people don’t go to the church, so the village church would be replaced with a chemical factory, the oldest vilager would say that in his childhood even fewer people went to church. Similarly, young people say that the modern world does not believe in the supernatural. But earlier no educated villager believed in ghosts whereas a modern scientist like Sir Oliver Lodge, conducts research in parapsychology and paranormal activities.

This essay discusses the eternal conflict between the old and the new from a realistic and practical point of view. He presents a practical advantage of getting old. The tone is scholarly as the writer proves his arguments with classical, biblical, historical and literary allusions. He point out many funny details of common life. Paradox and word play bring gentle humour to the essay. Finally, this essay can be understood as a defence of the gravity and validity of the old.