Artist of the Beautiful - (Reading Response)

     Artist of the Beautiful is a short story which emphasizes on beauty and what the word "beautiful" really means to each individual.
     We get two different perspectives from two very different characters in the story. One is Peter. He is a hardworking man who has toiled all his life to create and fix watches. So much that he has gone nearly blind from viewing the intricate detail of the tiny watches. He has come to detest his choice of career, saying that it is foolish, and it would indeed be a wonderful thing to be a blacksmith. His view of being a blacksmith is that it is a "wholesome thing to depend on main strength and reality, and to earn one's bread with (his own) bare and brawny arm ... did you ever hear of a blacksmith being a fool?" So clearly he thinks that it would be a beautiful thing to have the qualities of a blacksmith.
      Then we have Owen, a young fellow who has had a deep connection with nature and all that is beautiful in it, since he was just a little child. He sees beauty as something that is not utilitarian, but natural in every sense. He even became physically ill from seeing a steam engine, because it was so unnatural, and he just could not grasp it within his soul. His view of beautiful is something that God made with his very fingers, and created from his very soul. So, to do this he tries to recreate the beautiful...