It is amazing how the man kept returning back to his dream as if he did not wake up. Whenever I have an enjoyable dream and wake up in the middle of it, I try so hard to continue dreaming where I left off, but instead, I end up dreaming something completely different or not dream at all; and all I want is to return back to the same dream because it portrays a life that can be near as impossible from reality. Based on my reflection about the theme between dream and reality, I have expressed a thought about it through a short poem: 

 In the theme of dreams versus reality, I was motivated to show my thoughts to reflect more on reality and what it brings us individually, as well as accepting the truth in life; a truth that a majority of people have trouble accepting is death, for example. In the short story of "The Night Face Up," the man is trying to escape death in both his dream and reality, but he faces it in a different aspect. I did not imply directly in the poem about death, but in the first stanza, I considered it as one of my fears - "There is nothing to be afraid of." 

The man in the short story has to face his reality in the Aztec world by running away to not be sacrificed to the gods. In my poem, "Through hardship and effort, I can accomplish what I want, but there is no time to waste," I was implying that in order to achieve something, one has to make choices and work hard to accomplish a goal before it is too late. Like the man who's goal was to hide before he was captured to face death until the war of the blossom ended, one has to face obstacles before achieving goals. After achieving those goals, one feels relieved after facing obstacles in the way through a significant amount of time; of course, it all depends on the time it takes to complete an achievement.  

“The Night Face Up” is full of illusions that play with readers' minds about what the man’s dream is and what his reality is. Nowadays, people in society have trouble determining what is real and what is not. It is interfering with the younger generation that is not looking upon for their future. I see it in a way that more individuals are losing interest to follow their dreams and just stick to reality as if there are no dreams that can be met realistically, or maybe that one does not want to work hard to actually achieve their goals. A majority of people do not want to face reality because it is full of obstacles that one needs to sacrifice for in order to achieve through life. One prefers to live in a perfect world; in our own mindset, perhaps, but the reality is just a life-long obstacle. On the other hand, there are people that do accept the truth and are able to separate reality from their dreams, but there are people that get inspired from their dreams to pursue their goals in life, as well as accepting the truth that reality brings upon by overcoming them through hardship.