Some of you have started to do some good responses to these two stories. Just a reminder: We're not so much interested in summaries of the stories. We'll all read the stories so that's not too helpful. What we're more interested in is what the stories do, what they imply, how successful they are at creating a problem and then resolving that problem, how well they create characters who live and breathe and make us believe in this.
One thing I'm really interested in: We focused on introductions last week. How about discussing conclusions this week? How successful are these two stories at wrapping things up? One of the signs of a satisfying movie is that we continue to imagine the characters living and breathing after the credits begin to roll, that we're still thinking about them as we leave the theater and look for our car or catch the train. What do you think happens after the last words in these stories?
I'd also like you to think about how peripheral characters work in these stories to help us understand the main characters--or to complicate them. What purpose do Valery or Laurene serve in "The Big Cat"? What purpose does the "window friend" or the dead husband serve in "Moving On"?
I think these are both extremely effective conclusions. They both do things I like. "Moving On" takes us to the next frame of the story, moves us out of the shelter and takes us into the narrator's new life. We are left w/ the ambiguous kind of sad new life she's found herself in and then it becomes devastating to discover that her successful resolution will arrive when she completely forgets her first husband who was her "true love."
ReplyDelete"Big Cat" does something a little different. For most of the story, we think we're reading a pretty simple story about two people who love each other, who fall out of love, who remain in ea other's lives b/c of their daughter. And then suddenly we're confronted--along w/ the narrator--w/ the fact that the wife doesn't really love the husband (or at least he thinks she doesn't which is pretty much the same thing). It's devastating in a way different from the other story.
In the big cat the purpose of Valery somewhat as the comedic relief in some ways and in friendly role giving advice to the main character whenever she can. While the dead husband in moving on serves as a anchor of the past that the main character tries to escape by marrying her second husband but keeps returning not willing to let go.
ReplyDeleteThe conclusion of "Moving On" did an OK job of making me feel a little satisfied about the characters next step.She is still very sad about the loss of her husband but is forced by society to basically suck it up and move on.This is definitely not a society that believes in one true love or one love one life. Being married myself I thought it really sucked that she wasn't giving the time to grieve. But all in all the conclusion did do a good job of resolving the conflict and leaving me in a place that I believe she will be ok. But i can't say it left me completely feeling good about her situation.
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