A story is a way to say something that can't be said any other way.
The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success.
The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?