Close Reading

"When someone you love dies, and you're not expecting it, you don't lose her all at once; you lose her in pieces over a long time-the way the mail stops coming, and her scent fades from the pillows and even from the clothes in her closet and drawers. Gradually, you accumulate the parts of her that are gone. Just when the day comes- when there's a particular missing part that overwhelms you with the feeling that she's gone, forever- there comes another day, and another specifically missing part" (Irving 139).

When Tabby dies at the baseball game, both Owen and John are both quite saddened. John lost his mother, the one person who knows who his father is,  and Owen lost a person who truly understood him and cared for him. This part in the book is when John realizes the pieces of his mother that he misses and the things that he will soon miss, the places and parts that remind him of her. He realizes how things will gradually change, and he will slowly see things that are missing about his everyday life.

Losing someone is a very gradual process. You first lose the being of the person. The actual body that can communicate and that can be there at your side. Their actual presence is no longer there with you, and this is the first initial thing that happens. The rest of the process will happen at different times. It will occur when you try and call their phone and all you get is a voice mail or a disconnected line. It will occur when you can no longer can smell their scent off their clothes or the memories start to fade away. Your routine no longer includes them in it, and you do not think about them everyday. Losing someone comes in steps and each time, it can be overwhelming and filled with sadness, pain and suffering.

Each day, or every so often, the idea that the person is gone will pop into your mind because something triggers it. And then, something else will trigger it another time, until all of those trigger points disappear. The person then becomes a memory, something that you can think about. And then there is a grave or a place you can visit to remind yourself of the person.

For John, he has to decide where to live. He needs to find the place where he can feel comfortable without the constant reminders that the most important person in his childhood is gone. He needs to be able to come to a place where he can go somewhere that does not remind him every few minutes of the tragedy that occurred. And eventually that will happen. Even though he will never forget his mother, he will forget about some of the things that remind him of her or the scent of the clothes she used to wear. He might forget about the clothes she used to make or the sound of her voice. But, he will always have some memories, even if parts of her begin to fade.

This is a point in the novel where John has to learn to grow up and accept what life has thrown at him. He will need to learn to live without his mother. He has to make important decisions without her, such as where he is to live, where he wants to go to school, and how much he wants Dan in his life. He has to learn to get through the day without feeling overwhelmed, lost on his way. It will take courage and strength, but he will be able to do it, just as he will be able to handle each small missing part of his mother in his life.

Close Reading 9/18

"Drives you crazy, doesn't it? When they’re writing about other things, they really mean sex, and when
they write about sex, they really mean something else. If they write about sex and mean strictly sex, we
have a word for that. Pornography"  (Foster 144).

In How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster dedicates two entire chapters just to sex. He talks about how when authors write about other things, they really mean sex, and when they talk about sex, they are really talking about other things. In both areas, there are certain symbols that are shown. These symbols are not always obvious and take some thinking. Obviously, this can be quite confusing. Why do writers not say what they mean? Why do they have to use a symbol for things that they can write?

As Foster then proceeds to explain, when a writer wants to talk about sex, there are only so many options to talk about the actual act. They do not have very man options. And many times, it is quite embarrassing or uncomfortable for the author to write about the act. So, the author will use other things, like tunnels, and trains, and bowls, to explain the act. And then it is up to the reader to figure it out. Many authors tend to use similar things so a pattern forms for when an author decides to talk about sex without really talking about it.

In addition, authors will also use sex as a way to show defiance or rebellion in many books. When an author is actually writing about sex, he does not want it to be taken just that way. He wants the reader to realize that he is writing about sex for some other reason. He wants the reader to see the real purpose behind him talking directly about the act. This can sometimes be better than actually telling the reader exactly what he means. Symbols offer the reader a challenge and the need to delve deep into a text. Sexual symbols can either mean sex or something entirely different, but it is up to the reader to determine what it means and how it relates to the overall work of literature.

And as Foster jokes at the end of this small piece of the chapter, when an author just writes about sex, it is pornography. He does this jokingly because a write almost never just talks about sex just to talk about it, unless it is E.L. James where there is an exception. There is always another meaning, and authors want that meaning to be found. Sex for the most part was always something sacred, and authors will use it for many different reasons, which the author has to figure out. But, sex is never just sex.

Close Reading- 9/11/2013

"Experimenting is what little boys do. What is tragic is that they have chosen to experiment with something you cannot experiment with. Unfortunately, there isn't ever going to be a safer form of suicide, to help save the teenagers of Micronesia. But there can be a safer form of suicide" (252)

This passage is explained very bluntly and is quite upsetting. It helps to tie together the end of the chapter about teenage suicide and the epidemic that it can be quite deadly. Gladwell specifically focuses on the passage about the little boys who decide to experiment with suicide. These little boys are curious as to what it feels like and and as to why so many other boys are doing it. But, as he states, you cannot just try suicide because trying it means death for many of those boys.

There is no safer form of suicide as Gladwell states. There is no alternative to their curiosity  If they are going to want to see what suicide is like, they are risking so much. And Gladwell states this in such a way that it is quite difficult to comprehend. These little boys are experimenting with death and there is nothing we can do. Because there is not a safer way for them to understand what suicide is like, we somehow have to comprehend that this is an alright thing for them to do. That it can be about social acceptance.

Gladwell makes sure in this short passage to include that this is all tragic and unfortunate, which it is, but no way of how to go about trying to prevent it. He explains previously in the rest of the chapter how the suicide epidemic started, but he never proposed some sort of help. He never offered some way that maybe someone could try and get these little boys to stop experimenting, to get them to do other things. He never tried to get some way to keep these kids distracted long enough so that they do not commit suicide, even though on the island, it seems to be a social ritual. These children need to be taught that suicide should not be taken as lightly as they take it. They need an explanation so that it does not happen as often.

In addition, Gladwell ties the two subjects together by including that there can be a safer form of smoking. Even though we cannot help those little boys right now, we can help find a way to make cigarettes less addictive and get people to smoke less. He tries to make the chapter end better by showing how even though one area cannot really be helped another one can. And even though smoking right away may seem less severe, it affects more people and can lead to death as well. If it is possible to help one area. It is better than not being able to help any area at all.

Overall, this short passage that Gladwell uses to conclude the case study relating smoking and suicide together, is full of sadness yet hope. Some epidemics are easier to be helped than others and in both cases, the epidemics need to be brought under control in order to help the people.