e would dispose of his good-luck pebble.
He is finally able to let go of Martha, as he stated it wont help Lavender as it is too late. But he can prevent it from happening to any others if he can finally let go of the baggage that plagued his mind more than his own squad.
On the morning after Ted Lavender died, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha’s letters. Then he burned the two photographs.
Jimmy realized that his obsession over Martha was toxic. It had no place in where he was and would only cause calamity for his men and himself.
They endured. They kept humping. They did not submit to the obvious alternative, which was simply to close the eyes and fall. So easy, really. Go limp and tumble to the ground and let the muscles unwind and not speak and not budge until your buddies picked you up and lifted you into the chopper that would roar and dip its nose and carry you off to the world.
Relates to the baggage in which each soldier carries, they still have to get through it nonetheless. They couldn't submit because they were too scared of being perceived as cowards.
They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die.
They had taken on the pain of someone who they felt weren't going to make it due to their way of thinking and or past. They wanted to help those who wanted the intangible, however this ends up only adding on to emotional baggage.
They used a hard vocabulary to contain the terrible softness. Greased they’d say. Offed, lit up, zapped while zipping. It wasn’t cruelty, just stage presence. They were actors. When someone died, it wasn’t quite dying, because in a curious way it seemed scripted
The symbolism between actors and soldiers here is extremely interesting. It may relate to the idea that the people who had died were destined to die either way like a script. This is a pessimistic statement as it shows how war is just that, death when you least expect it.
They were afraid of dying but they were even more afraid to show it.
Again, going back to my previous annotation. These soldiers are afraid of death, but can't even show it due to the expectations that are had of them. Which is why jokes and having other thoughts (such as Martha in Jimmy's case) is such a normality. They only have these feelings within their own heads.
They would touch their bodies, feeling shame, then quickly hiding it. They would force themselves to stand.
Another extremely important factor into why it is so hard to be a soldier other than the risk of death. They bottle up emotions of the people they once knew and who they once were.
He felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a conse-quence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war.
Death weighs heavy on Jimmy, he feels indirectly responsible for Lavender's death due to his obsession taking a hold of him. He is in conflict both physically and internally.
The teeth were broken. There was a swollen black bruise under his left eye.The cheekbone was gone. Oh shit, Rat Kiley said, the guy’s dead. The guy’s dead, he kept say-ing, which seemed profound—the guy’s dead. I mean really.
The reality of death is portrayed with this conversation.
He was just a kid at war, in love. He was twenty-four years old. He couldn’t help it.
This shows how young the soldiers being drafted were. They were just college students who wanted to live their lives they way they wanted. Not in a place where their lives could be ended in any moment.
Will your flashlight go dead? Do rats carry rabies? If you screamed, how far would the sound carry? Would your buddies hear it? Would they have the courage to drag you out? In some respects, though not many, the waiting was worse than the tunnel itself. Imagination was a killer.
Relates to anxiety, as he is constantly asking himself questions. As O'Brien states, imagination is a killer due to the mental strain and anxiety it's causing.
They all carried ghosts
Ghosts, represents the lives of who these people were before they had drafted into war. They haven't moved on and probably never will if they die in a manner where they aren't even able to think (such as Ted).
Rat Kiley carried brandy and M&M’s candy
Something to remind him of home.
Lee Strunk carried his slingshot; ammo, he claimed, would never be a problem.
He may mean that the slingshot and it's ammo was very light.
On ambush, or other night missions, they carried peculiar little odds and ends. Kiowa always took along his New Testament and a pair of moccasins for silence
Kiowa was very religious.
He would feel himself rising. Sun and waves and gentle winds, all love and lightness.
This is a juxtaposition to his current war-torn location in Vietnam. Many soldiers had to deal with the terrors of war and sometimes would just imagine themselves somewhere else with their loved ones.
e wrote, that had inspired her to pick up the pebble and to carry it in her breast pocket for several days, where it seemed weightless, and then to send it through the mail, by air, as a token of her truest feelings for him. Lieutenant Cross found this romantic
Cross seems to have found his romance with Martha, whether this is imagined or not. This brings him hope and motivation.
M-14s and CAR-15s and Swedish Ks and grease guns and captured AK-47s and Chi-Coms and RPGs and Simonov carbines and black market Uzis and .38-caliber Smith & Wesson handguns and 66 mm LAWs and shotguns and silencers and blackjacks and bayonets and C-4 plastic explosives.
This shows us the amount of weaponry used and these are weapon native to the U.S as well as to Vietnam.
M-60, M-16, and M-79
A series of weapons used by the U.S during the Vietnam War which includes the M60 being an automatic heavy LMG, the M16 being a 3-burst AR, and a M79 Grenade Launcher.
now Ted Lavender was dead because he loved her so much and could not stop thinking about her. When the dustoff arrived, they carried Lavender aboard. Afterward they burned Than Khe. They marched until dusk, then dug their holes
Once again, massive regret. He had no idea it would ever come to him indirectly taking a life of his own men.
He blamed himself.
His obsession though grounding, has lead to him blaming himself. This is even worse for someone in his position due to his mind being fixated on two things, war and love.
He remembered kissing her good night at the dorm door. Right then, he thought, he should’ve done something brave. He should’ve carried her up the stairs to her room and tied her to the bed and touched that left knee all night long. He should’ve risked it. Whenever he looked at the photographs, he thought of new things he should’ve done.
He's having regret on whether he should've taken his chance or not (no matter how unusual it seems). This may relate to the psychological phenomena in where we have regrets when we feel as if our lives are in danger. As the saying goes, "in your most fragile state you have flashbacks to every choice you've ever made." and in this case even the one's in which he'd never tell anyone.
Lieutenant Cross carried two photo-graphs of Martha.
Once again showing the need to have something physical which can remind you of home, a better life.
To carry something was to hump it, as when Lieutenant Jimmy Cross humped his love for Mar-tha up the hills and through the swamps. In its intransitive form, to hump meant to walk, or to march, but it implied burdens far beyond the intransitive.
Relating back to the idea of Martha, the idea of having someone waiting for you back at home helps drive you to keep on going. It helps you to have something to look forward too.
Norman Bowker carried a diary. Rat Kiley carried comic books. Kiowa, a devout Baptist, carried an illustrated New Testament that had been presented to him by his father, who taught Sunday school in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
These are all item's which relate back to their lives before they were forced into war. It grounds them and is something they can lean on after a hard day of fighting.
Until he was shot, Ted Lavender carried 6 or 7 ounces of premium dope, which for him was a necessity
War had taken a toll on the people who were fighting in it. This is seen by Ted carrying dope which is a form of drugs. This may have been his necessity due to his fear and drugs usually make you feel as if you're somewhere else, as they make you run away from your problems mentally.
Henry Dobbins, who was a big man, carried extra rations; he was especially fond of canned peaches in heavy syrup over pound cake. Dave Jensen, who practiced field hygiene, carried a toothbrush, dental floss, and several hotel-sized bars of soap he’d stolen on R&R in Sydney, Australia. Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried tranquilizers until he was shot in the head outside the village of Than Khe in mid-April.
This is a very in depth take on the people in this squad, we see how each of them have their own necessities of items in which they take into war. This shows that each person has a depth to them, even Ted Lavender who was apparently deceased due to gunfire.
Love was only a way of signing and did not mean what he sometimes pretended it meant.
He relates signing a letter with "love" as very different than his true feelings of romance towards Martha.
he was a virgin, he was almost sure.
Virginity is associated with purity, this will cause someone who is fighting in a war-torn country such as Vietnam to sought out for purity due to their current conditions.
More than anything, he wanted Martha to love him as he loved her, but the letters were mostly chatty, elusive on the matter of love.
Here we see how he wishes for her to love him which shows that this girl does not see Jimmy as a romantic partner yet.
He would sometimes taste the envelope flaps, knowing her tongue had been there.
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross has an extreme desire to be with this girl which is seen by his almost obsessives behavior towards her in general through her letters.
On my lasr full day, rhe sixth d:ry, che old man took tne out fishingon tlre Rainy River. The afiernoon was sunny and cold. A stiff^ \reezecame ir-r from the north, and I remember how the little fourteen-footboat made sharp rocking motions as we pushed ofl from the dock. Thecurrent was fast. All around us, I remember, there was a vastness to th
Rain usually wakes someone up when they're hit by it, so this is a representation of him waking up from his previous dreams of running away and finally actually taking action.
Inside were the four fifties and a two-wordnore rhar said EIr,4ERGENCY FUND'Ilne l-ltan Knew
Like explained above, his decision to run away was not viewed as a bad thing, it was justified and that is seen by Elroy's message to him. If he truly wanted to run, it wasn't something to be ashamed of.
My conscience told rne ro run, bursome irrational and powerful force was resistine like a weighr pr-rshingme toward the war. What it came down to, srupidly, was a sense ofsharne. Hot, scupicl sharn
Here we see how he becomes ashamed of trying to do the right thing, the war is unjust so how could him going to war be something good? He doesn't understand why people think so highly of men going to war only to fight for something they don't understand.
er, Elroy put down his maul and looked at rne for a long rime, his lipsdrawn as if framing a difficult question, br-rt rhen he shook his headand wenc back to work. Thc rnans sel{-control was antazin
Once again we see more characterization of Elroy, he is a very observant man along with being very patient.
n.1 all I wanted was to live the life I was borr-r ro - a main-stream lfe- I loved baseball and harnburgcrs and cherry Cokes - andnow I was offon the margins of exile,leaving my counrry forever,and itseemed so impossible and terrible and sad
As oppose to the beginning of the story when he didn't pay the war too much attention, only when he was part of it do we see how much he may have taken for granted. He never realized how much he never wanted to be taken away from his normal life and put into a dangerous one.
,I began sweating and couldn'r shutit ofl. I went through whole days feeling dizzy with sorrow. I couldn'tsleep; I couldn'r lie srill. At night I d ross around in bed, half awake,half dreaming, imagining how Id sneak down ro the beach and quietlypush one of the old man's boats our into the river and starr paddling myway toward Canada
He's anxious and going through a lot due to his actions still weighing on him. He only sees a perfect world for himself when he's dreaming, by taking a boat and paddling to Canada to avoid the war.
Those razor eyes. Nowand then hecl catch me staring out at the river, at the far shore, and Icould almosr hear rhe tumblers clicking in his head. Maybe I'm wrong,but I doubt it
Characterization of Elroy, he's someone that pays attention and can catch onto things quickly.
He nodded, led me our ro one of the cabins, and dropped akey in my hand. I rernember smiling ar him. I also remember wishing Ihadn't. The old man shook his head as if to tell rne ir wasn'r worrh rhebother.20 "Dinner ar five-thi rryi' he said."you ear fishi"'Anything," I said.Elroy grur-rred and said, "Illbet!'
Elroy may be a former veteran or someone who is wise enough to know that the Vietnam War is not only a dumb war, but also that war is not something one should be forced into.
cripple, rhe roof sagging roward Canada. Briefly, I rhoughr abour rurn-ing around, jusr giving up, buc rhen I gor our oi rhe car and walked upto the fronr porch.The man who opened the door rhar day is che hero of my life. Howdo I say rhis withour sounding sappyi Blurr ir our - rhe man saved,me. He ollered exactly what I needed, wirhour questions, withour anywords at all. He took me in. He was there ar rhe crirical cime - a silent,watchful Presence. Six days larer, when ir ended, I was r-rnable ro find aproper way ro rhank hirn, and I never have, and so, if norhing else, tfiisstory represents a small gesrure of gracicude twenty years overdu
He walked into Elroy Berdahl who guided him in a way that no one else has, by just telling him to do what he truly wants to do.
here was srill rhat leaking sensarion, somerh ingvery warln and preciousspilling out, and I was .ou.r"d wirh blood ;rnd hog-stink, ",ld for along while I just concentrated on holding myself rogetl-rer. I rernernbertaking a hor shower. I remernber packing a suitcase and carrying ir ourto the kitchen, standing very srill for a few rninures, looking carefullyat the familiar objects all around rne. The old chrome roasrer, rhe tele-phone, the pink and whire Forrnica on rhe kitchen counrers. The roomwas full of brighr sunshine. Everything sparkled. My hor_rse, I though
He decided to drive to Canada to avoid the war, and he is still in conflict with his decision.
schizophrenia. A moral split. I couldn't make upmy mind. Ifeared the war, yes, but I also feared exile. I was afraid ofwalking away from my own Iife, my friends and my family, my wholehistory, everything chat matcered to me. I feared losing the respecr ofmy parents. I feared the law. I feared ridicule and censur
His use of the disorder schizophrenia perfectly describes his dilemma. He cannot choose what choice to make because he's scared of both exile and never seeing his family again. He is stuck between two paths which both have negative outcomes if he chooses to run away to Canada.
Ar some point in mid-July I beuan thinking seriously about Canada. 1of}e border lay a few hundred miles norrh, an eight-hour drive. Bochmy conscience and my insri'crs were telling ffre -ro make a break forit, just rake off and run like hell and never srop
Just like many other drafted teenagers, he wanted to run off to Canada to avoid being put into war.
aimlessly around rown, feeling sorry fo, *y.eli rhinking about the warand the pig factory and how rny life seemed ro be collapring towardslaughter. I felr paralyzed. All around me the oprions seemed ro benarrowing, as if I were hurrling down a huse black funnel
He wants to drive off to Canada and forget about it all.
I felr isolared; I spent a lor of cime alone
He couldn't find anyone to talk to that he knew, because in his eyes he was the one being drafted while everyone else was staying in the comforts of the U.S
remember rhe rage in my sromach. Later ir burned down to asnroldering self-pity, rhen to numbness. Ar dinner rhat nighr my fatherasked what my plans were."Norhing," I said. " Wait
He didn't have a plan, he was in a surreal situation where he didn't know what else he could do to avoid the draft. So he just waited every passing day until he was sent out into war.
I was no soldier. I haced Boy Scouts. I hatedcamping out. I hated dirt and tents and mosquiroes. The sight of bloodmade me queasy, and I couldn'r tolerare authority, and I didn't knowa rifle from a slingsho
This just goes to show how unprepared these young boys who were drafted into the war actually were. They weren't hardened soldiers, even after basic military training. They were just young teens who were still attending college still learning how to live. In this case O'Brien is the opposite of what a soldier should be, which is a common trend when it comes to drafts.
remember a sound in my head. Itwasnt rhinking, jusr a silenr horv
He was shocked, it was something he felt was so far away coming to drag him in with it. This is his shock, disbelief as if something out of a horror movie had become reality.
felt no sense of anirnpending crisis in my life. Srupidly, wirh a kind of smug removal that Icant begin to farllom
Because he was so far away from the war itself he felt disconnected to it. Similar how a resident in the U.S felt compared to residents in places where proxy wars were fought. One cannot properly fathom it, while to the other it's all too real.
almosr enrirely an inrellectual acrivit
Was overall against it and was not in the war itself. It was more of thinking about it rather than actually taking any physical action towards it.
back in college I hadtaken a modesr srand against rhe war
He was not extremely against the war, it was just something that he was neutral towards. This may have been contributed to by his lack of understanding of the war.
Once people are dead, you canr makerhern undea
This is another example of something that is learned through war. In the safety of our homes we cannot comprehend death as well as soldiers in active war do, because they witness death almost everyday.
America was divided on these and a thousand orher issues, andthe debate had spilled out across the floor of the United Srares Senateand into the streers, and smarr men in pinsrripes could not agree oneven the rnosr fundamental rnacters of public policy. The only cerraincythat summer was moral confusion
The war was controversial due to it not even being our war in the first place. Combined with the lack of training U.S soldiers had in the Vietnam terrain.
Whar about domi-noes
Reference to the domino theory of communism, if one country becomes communist the rest will as well.
or law. The very facts were shrouded in uncerrainty: Was ir a civil war?A war of national liberarior-r or simple aggressioni Who started it, andwhen, and whyi What realLy happened ro rhe llSS Maddox onthat darknight in the Gulf of Tonkini Was Ho Chi Minh a Communisr stooge,or a nationalist savior, or both, or neitheri What abour the GenevaAccordsi What about SEATO and rhe Cold Wari
This an accurate representation of how much the younger soldiers in the war actually knew. They were fighting a war they knew nothing about.
that had been accumulat-ing inside me over the years. Courag
Courage seems to be phenomena that is inherited by ancestors in the eyes of the narrator.
aconfession. Even now I'll adrnit, the story makes me squirm, For morethan twenty years I've had to live wirh ir, feeling rhe shame, rrying ropuslr ft away, and so by this act of remembrance, by putting the factsdown on paper, I'm hoping to relieve at least some of the pressure on mydreams. Sdll, it's :r hard story to tell. All of us, I suppose, like to believethat
The narrator sees this is a confession, it's a way of helping his own mental state by writing this.
he saw him on his hands and knees as soon as she reached the door. He crept an inch or two toward her--all that he was able, and she saw his horribly swollen neck and his one open eye shining with hope. A surge of pity too strong to support bore her away from that eye that must, could not, fail to see the tubs. He would see the lamp. Orlando with its doctors was too far. She could scarcely reach the Chinaberry tree, where she waited in the growing heat while inside she knew the cold river was creeping up and up to extinguish that eye which must know by now that she knew.
Irony as Sykes dies while Delia leaves in pity, There was no saving the marriage as Sykes had done such horrible things to her.
"Oh, fuh de light! Ah thought he'd be too sick"--Sykes was muttering to himself when the whirr began again, closer, right underfoot this time. Long before this, Sykes' ability to think had been flattened down to primitive instinct and he leaped--onto the bed.
Sykes felt he controlled the world if no one stood up to him, since snakes cant talk he thought he had superiority over them, however that wasn't the case here.
. Then, moved by both horror and terror, she sprang back toward the door. There lay the snake in the basket! He moved sluggishly at first, but even as she turned round and round, jumped up and down in an insanity of fear, he began to stir vigorously. She saw him pouring his awful beauty from the basket upon the bed, then she seized the lamp and ran as fast as she could to the kitchen. The wind from the open doorblew out the light and the darkness added to her terror. S
Sykes dies from the snake bite because he was a coward which overall led to his death, by trying to kill Delia with the snake, he ended up killing himself.
88"Dat niggah wouldn't fetch nothin' heah tuh save his rotten neck, but he kin run thew whut Ah brings quick enough. Now he done toted off nigh on tuh haff uh box uh matches. He done had dat 'oman heah in mah house, too."
Further shows how the marriage is broken as Sykes has cheated on Delia while she was at church. This may represent how Sykes hates religion since it's ran by white people.
Yo' ole black hide don't look lak nothin' tuh me, but uh passle uh wrinkled up rubber, wid yo'big ole yeahs flappin' on each side lak uh paih uh buzzard wings. Don't think Ah'm gointuh be run 'way fum mah house neither. Ah'm goin' tuh de white folks bout you, mah young man, de very nex' time you lay yo' han's on me. Mah cup is done run ovah." Delia said this with no signsof fear and Sykes departed from the house, threatening her, but made not the slightest move to carry out any of them
Sykes' weakness is retaliation and being stood up too.
"Ah hates you, Sykes," she said calmly. "Ah hates you tuh de same degree dat Ah useter love yuh. Ah done took an' took till mah belly is full up tuh mah neck.
This brings up a lot of questions as to why has their relationship reached such a downward spiral?
One day as Delia came down the kitchen steps she saw his chalky-white fangs curved like scimitars hung in the wire meshes. This time she did not run away with averted eyes as usual.
Just like the marriage being dangerous and toxic there is an emphasis on how the rattlesnake is also extremely dangerous and toxic as Rakib stated. Further leading me to the snake represents Delia and Sykes' marriage.
Sho' you kin have dat lil' ole house soon's Ah kin git dat 'oman outa dere. Everything b'longstuh me an' you sho' kin have it. Ah sho' 'bominates uh skinny 'oman. Lawdy, you sho' is got oneportly shape on you! You kin git anything you wants. Dis is mah town an' you sho' kin have it.
Sykes has a view that everything is his however he puts in no work at all while Delia does everything that lets him keep the home in the first place.
"Syke! Syke, mah Gawd! You take dat rattlesnake 'way from heah! You gottuh. Oh, Jesus, have mussy!"
The rattlesnake may be a representation of the toxicity of Sykes towards Delia as we've seen the idea of a snake before in the past when Sykes had tried to scare her.
Too late nowto hope for love, even if it were not Bertha it would be someone else.
Delia understands that Skyes has other women as well.
"We oughter take Syke an' dat stray 'oman uh his'n down in Lake Howell swamp an' lay on de rawhide till they cain't say Lawd a' mussy.' He allus wuz uh ovahbearin' niggah, bu
The entire village seems to despise Sykes for his actions.
Git whutsoever yo' heart desires, Honey. Wait a minute, Joe. Give huh two bottles uh strawberry soda-water, uh quart uh parched ground-peas, an' a block uh chewin' gum."
Skyes does not even care that his wife had seen him with another woman which shows how far their marriage has fallen. He has no care about hiding his cheating and even abuse as people in the town seem to already know as well. He feels as if he can do whatever he wants due to his status and how people react around him.
At that moment, Sykes and Bertha arrived. A determined silence fell on the porch and the melon was put away again.
This makes Skye feel as if he is very powerful and something to be afraid which as feeds into his superiority complex.
aint no law on earth dat kin make a man be decent if it aint in 'im. There's plenty men dat takes a wife lak dey do a joint uh sugar-cane. It's round, juicy an' sweet when dey gits it. But dey squeeze an' grind, squeeze an' grind an' wring tell dey wring every drop uh pleasure dat's in 'em out. When dey's satisfied dat dey is wrung dry, dey treats 'em jes lak dey do a cane-chew. Dey throws em away. Dey knows whut dey is doin' while dey is at it, an' hates theirselves fuh it but they keeps on hangin' after huh tell she's empty
Sykes is someone who cannot stay consistent with any woman, he is inconsistent. He gets exhausted and he is irritated by Delia due to his boredom.
Did Ah tell yuh'bout him come sidlin' roun' mah wife--bringin' her a basket uh pecans outa his yard fuh a present? Yessir, mah wife! She tol' him tuh take 'em right straight back home, cause Delia works so hard ovah dat washtub she reckon everything on de place taste lak sweat an' soapsuds.
Sykes in unhinged and goes after other women due to him feeling that he can do anything.
t's too bad, too, cause she wuz a right pritty lil trick when he got huh. Ah'd uh mah'ied huh mahseff if he hadnter beat me to it."
She is demeaned by the village men.
She better if she wanter eat,
She gets food for working
Syke Jones aint wuth de shot an' powder hit would tek tuh kill 'em. Not to huh he aint.
The abuse from Skyes is known by others in the village.
Yep," Joe Lindsay agreed. "Hot or col', rain or shine, jes ez reg'lar ez de weeks roll roun' Delia carries 'em an' fetches 'em on Sat'day."
Excellent representation to why Delia is such a tenacious worker.
Two months after the wedding, he had given her the first brutal beating.
Delia had not realized Sykes abusive nature before she married him which shows this was shocking to Delia and how Sykes had exposed her to heavy abuse.
Anything like flowers had long ago been drowned in the salty stream that had been pressed from her heart.
Flowers drowning and dying may symbolize the downward spiral of the marriage between Delia and Sykes for years.
A little awed by this new Delia, he sidled out of the door and slammed the back gate after him. He did not say where he had gone, but she knew too well. She knew very well that he would notreturn until nearly daybreak also
He didn't beat her due to her change of attitude which shows that he is countered by not being submissive towards him.
hat ole snaggle-toothed black woman you runnin' with aint comin' heah to pile up on mah sweat and blood.
Sykes has cheated on her.
Sweat, sweat, sweat
The title of the story is here which may be what the story will continue to touch upon.
Delia's habitual meekness seemed to slip from her shoulders like a blown scarf. She was on her feet; her poor little body, her bare knuckly hands bravely defying the strapping hulk before her.
There is a major toxic power dynamic where Delia is unable to even talk against Sykes due to his abusive nature and larger physique.
Don't gimme no lip neither, else Ah'll throw 'em outand put mah fist up side yo' head to boot."
This shows Sykes abusive tendencies.
He stepped roughly upon the whitest pile of things, kicking them helter-skelter as he crossed the room.
This is Sykes attempt at trying to kick and dirty white clothing which possibly shows how he wants to treat them in the sense of ruining their clothing.
eah, you just come from de church house on a Sunday night, but heah you is gone to work on them clothes. You ain't nothing but a hypocrite. One of them amen-corner Christians--sing, whoop, and shout, then come home and wash white folks clothes on the Sabbath.
An interesting dynamic as though Delia resents and dislikes white people, Sykes reveals she works at a church which is ran by white people. May possibly show that employment from white individuals may seem impossible. Especially when during this time period (1920s) religion is mostly controlled by white people.
her thin, stooped shoulders sagged further.
Her shoulders sagging may symbolize her feeling as if she is not living anymore due to exhaustion of Sykes and his treatment of her and ruining her chores.
his whole manner hoping, praying, for an argument. But she walked calmly around him and commenced to re-sort the things.
He wanted an argument to feel "justified" in whipping Delia?
He picked up the whip and glared down at her.
Sykes is abusive and has possibly whipped Delia in the past.
Ah done tole you time and again to keep them white folks' clothes outa dis house
Once again we see ties to white people here on Sykes side.
You sho is one aggravatin' nigger woman!
Use of a racial slur among themselves which can be a social commentary on the use of degrading words among one another. May also symbolize Sykes degrading Delia with a slur originating from white people.
Some day Ah'm goin' tuh drop dead from some of yo' foolishness
May show how Delia does not react well to these jokes seen by her not being able to cry out for a whole minute when she initially thought the bull whip was a snake.
"Course Ah knowed it! That's how come Ah done it." He slapped his leg with his hand and almost rolled on the ground in his mirth. "If you such a big fool dat you got to have a fit over a earth worm or a string, Ah don't keer how bad Ah skeer you."
This can be interpreted either as a couple having a laugh in a wholesome manner, or terrorizing by taking advantage of another's fears for one's own satisfaction.
It softened her knees and dried her mouth so that it was a full minute before she could cry out or move.
This is very similar to sleep paralysis and I love the use of trying to make this seem as if it were a snake only to actually be a bull whip. However this may hint at a representation of wickedness from the husband, Sykes.
great pile of clothes, sorting them into small heaps according to color
Delia is seen here to be an organized person in general.
a wash-woman,
Delia Jones is a cleaning lady.
AM: And when we practice I relax and romance with her from beginning to end. You watch! Two weeks' time! "First prize for promising newcomers: Mr. Willie Malopo and Miss Hilda Samuels." [Sudden impulse.] to hell with it! I walk home. [He goes to the jukebox, puts in a coin and selects a record. The machine comes to life in the gray twilight, blushing its way through a spectrum of soft, romantic colors.] How do you say it, Boet Sam? Let's dream. [Willie sways with the music and gestures for Sam to dance.
Willie has a new start and Sam has bought a jukebox, this shows us a new turn for both of them no longer running from the mistakes of the world and embracing the world itself through dancing and the hope for change.
AM: [His violence ebbing away into defeat as quickly as it flooded.] You're right. So go on, then: groan again, Willie. You can do it better than me. [To Hally.] You don't know all of what you've just done . . .Master Harold. It's not just that you've made me feel dirtier than I've ever been in my life . . . I mean, how do I wash off yours and your father's filth? . . . I've also failed. A long time ago I promised myself I was going to try to do something, but you've just shown me . . . Master Harold . . . that I've failed. [Pause.] I've also got a memory of a little white boy when he was still wearing short trousers and a black man, but they're not flying a kite. It was the old Jubilee days, after dinner one night. I was in my room. You came in and just stood against the wall, looking down at the ground, and only after I'd asked you what you wanted, what was wrong, I don't know how many times, did you speak and even then so softly I almost didn't hear you. "Sam, please help me to go and fetch my Dad." Remember? He was dead drunk on the floor of the Central Hotel Bar. They'd phoned for your Mom, but you were the only one at home. And do you remember how we did it? You went in first by yourself to ask permission for me to go into the bar. Then I loaded him onto my back like a baby and carried him back to the boarding house with you following behind carrying his crutches. [Shaking his head as he remembers.] A crowded Main Street with all the people watching a little white boy following his drunk father on a nigger's back! I felt for that little boy . . . Master Harold, I felt for him. After that we still had to clean him up, remember? He'd messed in his trousers, so we had to clean him up and get him into bed. HALLY: [Great pain.] I love him, Sam. SAM: I know you do. That's why I tried to stop you from saying these things about him. It would have been so simple if you could have just despised him for being a weak man. But he's your father. You love him and you're ashamed of him. You're ashamed of so much! . . . And now that's going to include yourself. That was the promise I made to myself: to try and stop that happening. [Pause.] After we got him to bed you came back with me to my room and sat in a corner and carried on just looking down at the ground. And for days after that! You hadn't done anything wrong, but you went around as if you owed the world an apology for being alive. I didn't like seeing that! That's not the way a boy grows up to be a man! . . . But th
Hally seems to always misplace his anger onto the people he wants to keep close, such as Sam, here he realizes his anger is misplaced.
ALLY: I don't give a [crap] about my homework, so, for Christ's sake, just shut up about it. [Slamming books viciously into his school case.] Hurry up now and finish your work. I want to lock up and get out of here. [Pause. And then go where? Home-sweet [ . . . ] home. [Geez], I hate that word. [Hally goes to the counter to put the brandy bottle and comics in his school case. After a moment's hesitation, he smashes the bottle of brandy. He abandons all further attempts to hide his feelings. Sam and Willie work away as unobtrusively as possible.] Do you want to know what is really wrong with your lovely little dream, Sam/ It's not just that we are all bad dancers. That does happen to be perfectly true, but there's more to it than just that. You left out the cripples.
Hally has extreme problems when it comes to lashing out onto individuals which is seen by his language and tone here. This may be due to his father and strict teachers.
[Normal voice.] He can't hear us from there. But for [goodness] sake, Mom, what happened? I told you to be firm with him . . . then you and the nurses should have held him down, taken his crutches away . . . I know only too well he's my father! . . . I'm not being disrespectful, but I'm sick and tired of emptying stinking chamberpots full of phlegm and [urine] . . . Yes, I do! When you're not there, he asks me to do it . . . If you really want to know the truth, that's why I've got no appetite for my food . . . Yes! There's a lot of things you don't know about. For your information, I still haven't got that science textbook I need. And you know why? He borrowed the money you gave me for it. . . . Because I didn't want to start another fight between you two . . . He says that every time . . . all right, Mom! [Viciously.] Then just remember to start hiding your bag away again, because he'll be at your purse before long for money for booze. And when he's well enough to come down here, you better keep an eye on the till as well, because that is also going to develop a leak . . . then don't complain to me when he starts his old tricks . . . Yes, you do. I get it from you on one side and from him on the other, and it makes life hell for me. I'm not going to be the peacemaker anymore. I'm warning you now; when the two of you start fighting again, I'm leaving home . . . Mom, if you start crying, I'm going to put down the receiver . . . Okay . . . [Lowering his voice to a vicious whisper.] Okay, Mom. I heard you. [Desperate.] No . . . Because I don't want to. I'll see him when I get home! Mom! . . . [Pause. When he speaks again, his tone changes completely. It is not simply pretense. We sense a genuine emotional conflict.] Welcome home, chum! . . . What's that? . . . Don't be silly, Dad. Y
Hally's father is the thing keeping Hally from peace which is why he wanted to keep him away. Ironically, his mother who was also affected by Hally's father's actions is keen on letting him back into their lives.
SAM: Of course it is. That's what I've been trying to say to you all afternoon. And it's beautiful because that is what we want life to be like. But instead, like you said, Hally, we're bumping into each other all the time. Look at the three of us this afternoon: I've bumped into Willie, the two of us have bumped into you, you've bumped into your mother, she bumping into your Dad . . . None of us knows the steps and there's no music playing. And it doesn't stop with us. The whole world is doing it all the time. Open a newspaper and what do you read? America has bumped into Russia. England is bumping into India, rich man bumps into poor man. Those are big collisions, Hally. They make for a lot of bruises. People get hurt in all that bumping, and we're sick and tired of it now. It's been going on for too long. Are we never going to get it right? . . . learn to dance life like champions instead of always being just a bunch of beginners at it? HALLY: [Deep and sincere admiration of the man.] You've got a vision, Sam
Sam beautifully portrays an allusion to real life problems and how they relate to the failures and mistakes of dancing, however he paints it in a view which shows that its okay to make mistakes as the world is already full of them! Hardships are a common occurrence in life.
here's no collisions out there, Hally. Nobody trips or stumbles or bumps into anybody else. That's what that moment is all about.
Once again, Sam challenges Hally emotionally rather than intellectually.
ALLY: Yes, gentlemen, that is precisely what I am considering doing. Old Doc Bromely - he's my English teacher - is going to argue with me, of course. He doesn't like natives. But I'll point out to him that in strict anthropological terms the culture of a primitive black society includes its dancing and singing. To put my thesis in a nutshell: The war-dance has been replaced by the waltz. But it still amounts to the same thing: the releases of primitive emotions through movement. Shall we give it a go?
Hally is planning to represent dancing as a writing piece regardless if his teachers would look down upon him as he sees how dancing is also a part of other cultures and black culture!
HALLY: Tell be a bit more. SAM: I thought you weren't interested . . . intellectually. HALLY: [Mysteriously.] I've got my reasons.
Hally is actually interested in learning more which is shocking, and with the last part of Hally saying "I've got my reasons." we see that he is hiding something from Sam.
HALLY: Emotionally yes, intellectually no.
Sam gives Hally good reasoning, which has not really been seen before. Hally has been moved emotionally but as we know Hally is very intellect based and only views the world in a manner in which can be solved by thinking and realism. However here just as Sam moved Hally in the past, he has emotionally moved Hally in order to see his point.
SAM: No, it isn't your imagination hasn't helped you at all. There's a lot more to it than that. We're getting ready for the championships, Hally, not just another dance. There's going to be a lot of people, all right, and they're going to have a good time, but they'll only be spectators, sitting around and watching. It's just the competitors our there on the dance floor. Party decorations and fancy lights all around the hall! The ladies in beautiful evening dresses!
Hally doesn't like dancing as much as Willie and Sam and sees it as a waste of time due to the fact that he believes the "spectators" will always judge you if you're not competing with the other dancers who happen to also be there. Hally does not like competition.
Philosophers have been trying to do that for centuries. What is Art? What is Life? But basically I suppose it's . . . the giving of meaning to matter.
Hally has an extremely bland view on the world (not to say those who study philosophy are bland as these are mere realistic ideas). Hally sees the world in almost a hopeless and never getting better view as he believes art is just meaning to an object or piece of matter.
Don't misunderstand me, chaps. All I want is for him to get better. And if he was, I'd be the first person to say; "Bring him home." But he's not, and we can't give him the medical care and attention he needs at home. That's what hospitals are there for. [Brusquely.] So don't just stand there! Get on with it!
Hally clearly is lying here and trying to cover up the fact that he does not wish to see his father. Why he doesnt wish to see him is currently unknown but we can assume this is conflict between Hally and his father.
HALLY: [The glass in his hand.] So do American cream soda and ice cream. For [goodness] sake, Sam, you're not asking me to take ballroom dancing serious, are you?
Hally has no care about ballroom dancing, due to the fact that Hally does not do it well which says a lot about his personality. He turns away from things in which he is bad at.
he old Jubilee Boarding House.
not at the tearoom
t was for your benefit, Mr. Malopo, which is more than being fair. It was an act of self-sacrifice. [To Sam.] But you know what my best memory is, don't you?
they want to make willie feel like he belongs
might have guessed as much. Don't get sentimental, Sam. You've never been a slave, you know. And anyway we freed your ancestors here in South Africa long before the Americans. But if you want to thank somebody on their behalf, do it to Mr. William Wilberforce
Here is Hally being extremely critical of Sam's belief of a genius when the matter is entirely subjective. One could argue that Hally and Sam are being playful here but I believe it could be an allusion to the difference in their childhood and even skin color.
HALLY: [Gosh], you're impossible. I showed it to you in black and white. SAM: Doesn't mean I got to believe it.
Here is a representation of the differences between point of view, Hally believes that because he makes something crystal clear based upon his own beliefs, that it would influence another's opinion. Here we see that Sam sticks to his own beliefs nonetheless.
on't confuse historical significance with greatness
Historical significance is not always labeled as "great" as in reality most historical facts and events are mostly met with violence, prejudice, and oppression.
I'm all right on oppression.
Sam is sick of the idea of oppression and is entirely done with it due to the current reign of apartheid.
Penicillin and Sir Alexander Fleming
scientists who created penicillium
ocrates? Alexandre Dumas? Karl Marx? Dostoevsky? Nietzsche?
references to philosophers, writers, historians, and social critics.
six of the best
Teacher abused Hally because he drew in the book.
8HALLY
Here we see that Sam is very disrespectful towards Hilda and even sees her on the level of that as a pet as he references taking her to a vet instead of a doctor.
Hally. HALLY: [With conviction.] No! It can't be. They said he needed at least another three weeks of treatment. Sam's definitely made a mistake. [Rummages through his school case, finds a book and settles down at the table to read.] So, Willie!
Here we see more of Hally’s frantic and almost anxious behavior over his father returning from the hospital early. Is his father possibly abusive?
HALLY: [Stopped short by Sam's remark.] What do you mean? SAM: The hospital phoned. HALLY: To say what? SAM: I don't know. I just heard your Mom talking. HALLY: So what makes you say he's going home?
Hally seems to have a conflicting relationships with his father as seen by his almost frightened like-state when he hears that his father is returning.
His clothes are a little neglected and untidy:
"neglected" "little" "untidy" Hally is still a child in need of being taken cared of
gray flannel trousers in need of an ironing
Parents may not be around?
Applause from Hally and Willie.
Hally is encouraging
“She was scandalizin' my name, She took my money She called me honey But she was scandalizin' my name, Called it love but was playin' a game . . . '
Reference of an old spiritual sung by famous singers.
hen did you last give her a hiding?
Willie hits his wife.
red Astaire, Ginger Rogers.
Notions for willie when it comes to romance. These are famous American actors and singers. Willie may know about this due to colonialism and Western Influences.
tails
A suit.
You're trying too hard.
Sam sees Willie's hard work as not worth it, which may be why Sam does not work as hard as Willie.
only got bus fare to go home. [He returns disconsolately to his work.] Love story and happy ending! [. . . .] Three nights now she doesn't come practice. I wind up gramophone, I get record ready and I sit and wait. What happens? Nothing. Ten o'clock I start dancing with my pillow. You try and practice romance by yourself, Boet Sam. Struesgod, she doesn't come tonight I take back my dress and ballroom shoes and I find me new partner. Size twenty-six. Shoes size seven. And now she's making trouble for me with the baby again. Reports me to Child Wellfed, that I'm not giving her money. She lies! Every week I am giving her money for milk. And how do I know is my baby? Only his hair looks like me. She's [messing]around all the time I turn my back. Hilda Samuels is a [bad woman]! [Pause.] Hey, Sam!
Willie doesnt have a good relationship with his wife.
Willie. Also black and about the same age as Sam.
Do Willie and Sam have a different sense of work ethic?
few sad ferns
May allude to the plant being neglected as if it is not being watered and or cared after.
Leaning on the solitary table, his head cupped in one hand as he pages through one of the comic books
Shows a sense of dread as if business is slow and or that they're extremely bored since the worker has time to look over a comic book.
an old-style jukebox.
A jukebox needs coins in order to operate, and it is also extremely old.
“Master Harold”... and the Boys
Takes place in 1950s.
uch moments, and the whole city would grow black with spots like the tarred chewing gum on subway platforms. And we would notice the marks as little as we do that gum. So there may as well be nothing.
Shows the flaws within the city which doesnt have importance in events.
The cop climbs into his cruiser and is gone. Then the ambulance is gone. The fire truck.
Simple sentences.
what I’m doing there, telling me to move along
Questions the authors place in the situation.
“Move along.”
Shows how B.C. is just a bystander to emergency services, not someone who called in the accident in the first place.
“This isn’t an accident,” he says, and I half expect him to follow the procedural script and say, “This is a tragedy,” but it’s not even that; it’s just someone dying, or possibly dying, or maybe he’ll be fine. I’ll never find out what happened to the man. I’m just an extra.
B.C. feels as an extra which shows he feels powerless, even if he called in the ambulance it was still deemed as a tragedy, the opposite of which B.C wanted.
The fire truck arrives first.The police car arrives second.The ambulance third.
Ironically, the ambulance was the last to come, and also it could be the shock in B.C which explains the use of simple sentences.
I can’t tell if I’m inept or if blood is simply not moving.
He can't tell if it is his own faults or if it is reality that the man's blood is not circulating.
I don’t feel any breath under his nose. I tell him it’s going to be all right, as if I believe it.
We can see the doubt in B.C's mind about the man's condition due to his lack of medical background and lack of knowing what he can do. As he states he lacks confidence in knowing how to save or tell whether the man is ok.
I walk over, and they turn to me: “Oh, good. You’re here,” one of them says. He sounds annoyed, almost, as if I am late or forgot his birthday. “You got this, right?” I nod dumbly, and they are back at their truck and continue on with their sandwiches while I stare at the motionless old man in his now-motionless car.
The two men go back to their lives instead of staying to help the man when B.C arrives.
The driver, if you can call him that, is not moving, or blinking, or looking around dazedly — he’s not doing anything.
Establishes the bad state of the driver who is unconscious.
Then, without warning, the two men stop eating, jump out of the truck and begin running toward me. An Oldsmobile drifts through my periphery and past the bus stop at exactly the speed a car moves when its driver loses consciousness and no longer has his foot on the brake.
We see that the 2 men racing towards the narrator are actually going to help the unconscious and dazed driver, this is the conflict.
I am in Brooklyn waiting for the bus the way most people wait for the bus: leaning dangerously over the curb, trying unsuccessfully to transform the white delivery truck in the distance into the B43.
The somebody is the narrator B.C Edwards.
The rift between high school and college is wide, but it is one I must cross for those who have carried me to this point. The same hope that carried my parents over an ocean of uncertainty is now my fuel for the journey toward my future, and I go forward with the radical idea that I, too, can make it. Savoring each bite, I listen to the sound of neighbors calling out and children chasing a dog ridden with fleas, letting the cool heat cling to my skin.
The point of the last paragraph is to sum up the author's resolve and ability to persevere through hardships like his family in the past and to become a hope and work towards a future which is in his control.
My grandmother hovers over the stove flame, fanning it as she melodically hums Kikuyu spirituals. She kneads the dough and places it on the stove, her veins throbbing with every movement: a living masterpiece painted by a life of poverty and motherhood. The air becomes thick with smoke and I am soon forced out of the walls of the mud-brick house while she laughs.
The first two paragraphs set the stage for the story by helping show culture and the life of his grandmother and the poverty side of his own and family's life, while also giving us glimpses into the personalities of his family
But, it is too much to process. Instead, I dream of them and the future I will build with the tools they have given me.
We see the resolve here as he is able to build upon his future with tools provided and it shows how he is able to live within the worlds of both not being from America yet still being someone who is also within the world of his own home and America. He wishes and plans to use these two parts of him to build himself up and build a future.
the old dust of barren apartment walls and the constant roar outside of life in the nighttime
He remembers the previous home, while his younger sister does not. This may be him trying to explain the previous house to himself using his own memory.
he manages the soft smile I know him for and asks about our day.
Juxtaposition here in the personality of the father, as he is very tired and beaten down by work but still tries to show he the opposite and puts on a smile to contradict his physical and or emotional state.
But these are the two worlds I have inherited, and my existence in one is not possible without the other.
Living in Poverty and Prosperity are both a part of his life, and the person who he is today would not exist if he were to lose or be void of either one.
the scourge of poverty and flickering prosperity
Juxtaposition between poverty and prosperity as we see how America is very unbalanced where poverty and wealth lie.
her brow from hours of picking coffee at a local plantation.
Shows how his family's hard-work is dedicated to their former lives in America as they have been through many hardships.
Kikuyu
Tribe of farming individuals.
she laughs.
The grandmother still laughs even in an environment which is full of poverty and economic hardships.
life of poverty and motherhood.
Shows how poverty and motherhood are both described as a "masterpiece" as we know motherhood and poverty do not mix well due to the struggles of hard-work, he's showing how his grandmother persevered through poverty and still became a loving mother/grandmother.
These are the two worlds I have inherited, and my existence in one is not possible without the other.
A very deep statement which wraps up the entirety of the personal statement about the two lives in which Muthondu must live in, and how each one of these aspects of his life is important and cannot not coexist.
I killed someone. I loved him. I walked away. A warped version of that icebreaker game.
I agree with Tanakh and Shadia, Claire is devastated and doesnt understand until now how much regret and sadness she feels about Aaron's death,
to prepare her for the town hall that has been called regarding her continued presence on campus.
We see that Claire's involvement has caused others to want her to be removed from campus.
but mostly he’s angry, so when he sees, as he tells the police later, a huge black guy pulling Claire out of her car and rum-maging through her purse and driving her away, he is alarmed enough that he and his friends get back in their car and follow Claire’s, alarmed enough to call the cops while they’re driving
We see how racism affects Claire's life as well as she was close with Aaron, and how it eventually ends the life of Aaron. While this could be called a big misunderstanding, it begs the question whether the same thing would've happened if Aaron was white.
“Who is anybody, anyway? Who are you?”
Claire doesn't care about who she encounters anymore. She has lost all feeling in emotional attachment, this is combined with the fact that she is also drunk and was drinking.
“Because every time I see her I want to tell her I’m sorry your mother is alive, because it reminds me that mine is dead.
We see Claire truly express her feelings about Angela to Aaron. She has a form of envy and jealousy for Angela's mother's being alive.
here Puppy has already strutted into the space her mother left behind with such velocity that it’s clear to Claire that her father checked out well before her mother did.
To Claire, she feels entirely alone. She has lost friends, and now in her mind both of her parents, it's no wonder she has been crying out for attention this entire time through pure ignorance and stubbornness.
She still thinks of it that way, as in: so far, her mother is still dead
This shows us that she still thinks of her mother's death as if she'll wake up one day from a bad dream and her mother wont be dead. She is still in a denial stage where she thinks that her mother can come back possibly.
“So a hundred people can send me death threats, but I can’t put a flag in my window.”
Claire still shows a magnitude of ignorance here
She puts on her mother’s pearls, takes them off, puts them on again.
This shows us her second guessing whether she should wear her mother's earrings, it shows that she is confused and still deeply affected by her passing.
He is a perfect gentleman, but one with a mother, and Angela is a friend with a mother, and already they are galaxies away from Claire, alone in her grief.
Claire is still viewing the people around her in terms of what they have and and what she use to have. This is because of the trauma of seeing everyone around her having better outcomes then herself.
out of the hospital in full remission. Not a trace of the cancer left. Her hair grows back, soft and downy. She takes up running to drop the steroid weight. She is working up to marathons. Angela trains with her.
This shows us the truth behind Claire's "broken" family, she hates the fact that her father is seeing someone she isn't fond of and how her mother died of cancer but no one elses.
They don’t love each other that way, or pretend to, so it isn’t weird afterward, just a thing that hap-pened because everyone is closer now.
As we see Claire mostly has sexual encounters with individuals she does not feel anything romantic towards, this may be an indication that she runs away from problems rather then facing them head on.
“It’s Jupiter for me after all.
Reference to the title as he says it's Jupiter for me after all. Which may just mean its a way off from where he wanted to be, a derail from hopes and dreams.
Angela is her best friend, her other self. Someday they will go to college together. The world will unravel for them, fall at their feet
We see that Angela and Claire are possibly intimate in their closeness as they care deeply for one another and have an extremely close relationships and Claire even calls Angela, her other self.
and thinks to the mental picture of the girl whose name she cannot remember, if she has ever known it, wellfuck you too.
Claire responds with anger against the girl who called her out for wearing a confederate bikini.
My hallmate just posted this picture of herself on vacation :/.
The bikini which Claire was wearing was not something she had wanted to wear, rather it was something Jackson pressured on her.
Claire doesn’t have the heart to object
Claire is not someone who would tell anyone off even if she was uncomfortable about the circumstance or was against an action. This is seen by Jackson posting a picture of Claire after he had sex with her.
but her father’s new life in St. Pete is relentless sunshine, sunburn weather in December.
We see that Claire is not use to the weather patterns which make her dislike moving to Florida as she misses winters which are actually cold compared to where she lived before.
Puppy, having no job and, from what Claire gathers, limited ambitions beyond strolling the house in expensive loungewear, is always home to miserably watch her eat it.
We see that Puppy (Poppy) is someone who has no ambitions rather then personal comfort/luxury and has no job. This shows how Puppy wishes to live comfortably without putting in work.
I'm Valerie Rye," she said, savoring the words. "It's all right for you to talk tome.
This is hope itself, the entirety of the story built up a world of pure despair and ruin, however in this last moment of the story we see hope being restored in Rye which is symbolized by her stating her name to the children.
To her shame, she thought she couldunderstand some of the passions that must have driven him, whoever he was. Anger,frustration, hopelessness, insane jealousy... how many more of him werethere—people willing to destroy what they could not have
This shows how society may never return to its original state due to jealousy and envy causing individuals to want to take what they dont have in a form of selfishness and anger. This will cause less individuals to be able to ctualyl recover if the sickness has run its course.
It would not have held her back either. She could not have watched thewoman murdered and done nothing.
Grasps the true effects of the silence, it shuts down empathy and sympathy and makes you think only about survival while also becoming numb after losing important people and communication.
And Rye was alone—with three corpses.
This is the same as Rye losing her family as when she lost her husband and two children, she was also left with three corpses.
Straightening up, Rye saw that the runner was a woman, fleeing from an old framehouse to a boarded-up storefront. She ran silently, but the man who followed her amoment later shouted what sounded like garbled words as he ran. He had somethingin his hand. Not a gun. A knife, perhaps.
Shows the sicknesses effects in action as we see the true nature and severity in which impairment has on men, however this may be a social commentary on how isolation (long periods of time) and lack of communication can degrade anyone's mental state.
Men like Obsidian were rare. Women either settled for less orstayed alone. If they found an Obsidian, they did what they could to keep him. Ryesuspected he had someone younger, prettier keeping him.
We see the true nature of men who are left handed as women were either going to go for individuals like obsidian or no one. This is due to the impairment which the sickness causes in most men.
He could give her forgetfulness andpleasure. Until now, nothing had been able to do that
Rye wishes to forget her past as it haunts her and is a literal weight on her very being, including her own will to live in some parts of the story.
She had left herhome, finally, because she had come near to killing herself. She had found no reasonto stay alive. Perhaps that was why she had gotten into Obsidian's car.
We see what the author meant when they states that Rye couldn't handle the sadness anymore as here we see how Rye would've committed suicide if she hadn't left her home. This is due to the pandemic taking away her entire family.
deep, bitter hatred. What did literacy mean tohim—a grown man who played cops and robbers? But he was literate and she wasnot. She never would be. She felt sick to her stomach with hatred, frustration, andjealousy. And only a few inches from her hand was a loaded gun.
Here we see deep rooted jealousy and envy coming from Rye, this may a result of the rarity of literacy and how it is no longer taught due to the lack of language being used due to the pandemic.
She handed him her own name symbol—a pin in the shape of a large golden stalkof wheat. She had bought it long before the illness and the silence began. Now shewore it, thinking it was as close as she was likely to come to Rye. People likeObsidian who had not known her before probably thought of her as Whe
Shows how names are symbols rather then actual name since they cant speak.
Language was always lost or severely impaired. It was never regained. Often therewas also paralysis, intellectual impairment, death
Speaking makes the illness become even worse due to its trigger. Speaking triggers death.
The illness hadstripped her, killing her children one by one, killing her husband, her sister, herparents..
The illness has negatively affected Rye by taking her family.
Nor did she expect anyone to help her if she needed help. Thepeople around her were all strangers.
A lack of community in this society.
attitude of superiority
Superiority is needed in order to survive such as having a weapon.
The least impaired people tended to do this—stand back unlessthey were physically threatened and let those with less control scream and jumparound.
The disease seems to make people more impaired due to the pandemic.
There was no more LAPD, no more anylarge organization, governmental or private. There were neighborhood patrols andarmed individuals.
No more government support or rule in this area, most likely due to the pandemic.
Left-handed people tended to be less impaired, more reasonable andcomprehending, less driven by frustration, confusion, and anger.
Having the disease as a left handed individual has these symptoms rather then the aggression in right handed people.
She returned his gaze, very much aware of the old forty-five automatic her jacketconcealed. She watched his hands.
Rye is still very concerned about her safety.
Cars that still ran were as likely to be used as weaponsas they were to serve as transportation
May be related to cars being used as a bargaining chip due to their convenience that a lot of people could not have.
Buses were sorare and irregular now, people rode when they could, no matter what. There mightnot be another bus today—or tomorrow.
Shows us that there is a problem which makes buses less accessible which makes other's want to find the first bus they see due to its rarity.
They stood in the aisle, grunting and gesturing at each other, eachin his own uncertain T stance as the bus lurched over the potholes. The driverseemed to be putting some effort into keeping them off balance. Still, their gesturesstopped just short of contact—mock punches, hand games of intimidation toreplace lost curses.
We can assume that the men who are mentioned here are not talking but rather making hand gestures and such due to the fact that they were most likely impacted by the disease which was circulating.
She had put off going until loneliness andhopelessness drove her out
This shows us the type of character Rye is, she was motivated by emotions in which she couldn't or didn't want to handle.