In the first portion of this essay I will be comparing
the Character of Parson from “Back of Beyond” by Ron Rash and Dalloway from
“Lucky Seven & Dalloway” by Stephanie Dickinson. In the second portion I
will be describing the impact of Ishmael Beah's Long Way Gone on me, and why that novel as opposed to the other
short stories and novel we have read affected me the most.
Part One
Despite the age difference Parson
from "Back of Beyond" and Dalloway from "Lucky Seven &
Dalloway" share startling similarities. The most prominent is how they both react to
unsatisfactory situations at home.
Parson sates that hard farm work,
and everything that defined his family is farmers is "-the very things
that had driven him away in the first place" (Rash 155). But there is
an underlying message, as he pulls up
Parson thinks "he should feel more than the burn of anger directed at his
nephew, but Parson couldn't summon it and if he had, then what for?" (Rash
155). Parson ran to the city because he wanted to be away from his family, away
from the farm life. Away from not necessarily
negative memories but of memories that meant nothing to him but the memory of
sweat.
Dalloway is the same in some ways, "I
am a runaway that part is simple" (Dickinson 370). Dalloway's stated reasons are different, her
father and mother are changing and forgetting about their daughter. Her father
becoming a woman. Her mother remarrying, thus completing the destruction of her
past life as the daughter of her Father and Mother. All of these are her stated reasons for running away.
But the attribute that Parson and Dalloway share is a very important
one. That attribute is the ability to run away. The ability to run away is the ability to push
all emotional attachments aside, at least for a brief moment. And decide that
they are not important enough to keep
you around. Parson may not go the
physical difference that Dalloway goes, but he is emotionally running away
still. So much so that he would rather sleep in his truck during a blizzard
then stay one more night in the place he once called home.
Furthermore be it twenty miles or
two hundred the ability to run away is important because of the symbolism of
running away. Running away is an attempt
to sever a connection with memories of
the past, and redefine one's self without certain aspects of the past. For both Dalloway and Parson the location
defined the memory they were trying to get away from. For Parson that memory
was one of hard useless work. For Dalloway that memory was of her parents and their selfish behavior. The distance Parson and Dalloway go defines
both how important their past relationships were, and how they will choose to
interact with new relationships.
Both have created distance however Parson
keeps his old relationships only occasionally coming back. redefining his
relationship with his brother as the situation changes. Dalloway severs ties completely
and seeks out a new type of paternal relationship. So while both Dalloway use
distance they both redefine and change relationships in different ways.
Parson minimalizes his relationship
with his brother, only having a concern when it becomes obvious that the
brother can no longer care for himself. Dalloway on the other negates her
previous relationship and searches for a new relationship. In her case she is
searching for a new father, who she almost finds in Hector.
It is important to realize that
both these characters are in a current
state of running away. Dalloway is physically running away. and never gives an
indication that she is planning on returning. Parson is emotionally running
away. Parson claims he "never regretted leaving", but his actions
speak that he isn't leaving he is running
(Rash 155).
You ain't thinking of
driving back to Tuckasegee tonight?" Ray asked. "The roads will be dangerous."
"I'll be all right.
My jeep can handle them."
"I still wish you
wouldn't go," ray said, "you ain't slept under this roof for near
forty years. that's too
long."
"Not tonight,"
Parson said.
Rash 165
The invitation is extended, and his
brother Ray truly wants him to stay, and yet Parson risks the weather to not
stay at his brothers. Parson would rather risk his life than stay near his
brother and his birth home, and Dalloway
is doing the same thing. She is risking her life hitchhiking with strangers
rather than staying home. Other than this need to run the Characters couldn't
be any more different.
Parson uses his job as pawnbroker as
both identity and excuse to run from his emotions. There ages and stages of
life also separate the two characters. Dalloway is a young girl, early
adolescence, while Parson is in his sixties, he is in late adult hood. Parson
has a job a home an ex wife, Dalloway has one hundred dollars to her name. the
two characters come from very distinct back grounds. Parson is a southerner, he
in fact seems like the quintessential good old boy. While Dalloway grew up in
an apparent life of privilege in New York city of all places.
Yet despite all of these differences
the two characters end in very similar circumstances. They discover that
despite trying to run away be that
emotional or physical removal something will happen to pull them back in.
Parson is pulled back in to his
emotions by the actions of his nephew. and despite his words oif he did not
feel something he would not have bothered to chase away Danny. If Parsons truly
didn't care he would have taken his lost twenty dollars out of Danny's hide the
next time he saw him. The fact that Parson went back to his child hood home
indicates that the emotions he has been running from have been lingering and
waiting for an opportunity to be expressed.
Dalloway is physically running from
heartbreak and heart pain. She feels abandoned, and disappointed with the
adults in her life. Unfortunately for her these exact same emotions, the very
reasons she ran away, come back to haunt her with the death of Lucky Seven.
It seems that no matter what these
characters try to do, where they try to go, or how they try tom hide, that
everything they run away from come back to haunt them. In the end both of these
characters are forced to face the fact that you can never truly run away.
Part Two
I would have to say that Ishmael
Beah's Long way Gone is the one single book that we have read
that has affected me the most. To start I should say why non e of the other
texts really affected me. I have a very disturbing home life and am fairly well
read and interested in most things. SO I have known for a while about the STD
ratios among the senior citizens is quite high. In fact my Grand Father on my
Dad's side contracted AIDS from unprotected sex. He contracted it about ten
years ago.
I have an uncle who came out of the
closet in college, and when his roommates tormented him it caused his latent
dissociative identity disorder to become prominent. I have a cousin who
developed schizophrenia from meth use... or his schizophrenia encouraged his
meth use. The doctors aren't really sure which came first. I have an uncle who
died from a drug overdose, then his girlfriend at the time stole the drug he died from, after he had died,
from the room his body was in. My mother
was pregnant at the age of seventeen. She married the guy, had my older
brother. Then she divorced him, had a two night stand with his brother and had
me.
My older brother eventually became a
drug dealer, quit being a drug dealer went back got his GED and went to the
University of Washington .
Needless to say, every short story
and The
English Major don't really surprise me in terms of content. As for the use
of descriptive wording, it all sort of blends in together. All of these authors
were published for their ability to write, I am also an aspiring writer, so
while I can appreciate their diction, syntax, plot structure and tone, I am
expecting it from all of these writers.
For me the big difference is a
long way gone. This novel speaks to me because of both its subject and how
its subject is approached.
This story is about a boy soldier,
but it is not so much about the war, or even his experiences during the war. For
me this story isn't a war story, and this is made clear in my favorite line. "We had been fighting for over two
years, and killing had become a daily activity" (Beah 126).
That single quote makes this my
favorite story. An average story about a child soldier may focus on the
battles, or focus on the army, or even focus on the cause. But Beah sums up his
experiences over two years in a single line. For me this completely shifts the
context. The novel contains violence,
and the war, but the real focus is not on the fact that it is a war, but on how
the violence changes Beah and his friends.
The sentence is short, and to the
point. Beah uses a similar tactic, in the structure of his novel. It can be
broken into thirds. before he becomes a soldier, when he is a soldier and the
aftermath. The shortest portion of the novel is the section where he is a
soldier, he is trained, goes into his first battle, and comes back to do drugs
and cope.
Besides that single sentence I think
I was most affected by was when Beah asked, "Hey, you fellows have any tafe [marijuana] for
us?" (Beah 137). I have no delusion about drugs, or drug use. However the
fact that even after he is out of the kill or be killed situation he wants
things from that situation. He has so acculturated himself to being in the
military that he asks for pot, and goes
on to behave atrociously hoping that they would send him back to the front.
I think what is amazing about this
story, especially as the part during which Ishmael and his friends start to go
through withdrawal, is that it shows how humans
adapt for survival. Beah started
out completely hating having to do what he did. But by the end of a week he was
comfortable with his gun. He clung to the idea of what the rebels did to his
family and made that the focus of his life. Whereas before he joined the
military he didn't want to kill them he only feared getting killed. Beah does a
complete one hundred eighty degree turn, and he does it out of necessity.
I think the most compelling aspect
of this story is it's truth. And that its message is conveyed using a simplicity
of diction. By simple I don't mean he is talking folksy, or using language that is choppy or short. Beah uses
simple words, he is not trying to impress us with his vocabulary.
There were a multiple routes Beah
could have gone. If Beah were trying to for distancing himself he could have
use a lot of technical jargon, explaining how he was numb and emotionally
distant And though this is a telling of his story he isn't overly self
analytical. That, for me was key. By trying to convey to us his story as best
as he can remember.
I think a good example of this is
how he describes what he felt and did after he earned the nickname green snake.
"I was happy with my name, and on every raid I made sure I did as my name
required" (Beah 144). Beah could have easily gone into some length on
saying why the nickname made him happy. Or how the nickname helped to cement
his feeling of being part of a family, or even how the Green Snake Persona took
over his identity. He doesn't. With nineteen words he conveys all of these
different ideas, and more.
I also like that Beah didn't go the
other route and completely wax poetic. If Beah had used too many similes, or if
he'd used a hyperbole it would have rang untrue. The lack of certain devices
like hyperboles makes this story tat much more engaging. This novel is one of
the cases where less is more.
Language aside, Beah as the
character is portrayed particularly well, he has our sympathy, but not our
pity. I think that is an important difference. If a character is pitiable that
he is according to our culture, a bit pathetic. We don't expect him to succeed.
We as readers would just say aw, that's too bad and move on. By gaining our
sympathy he kind of becomes the
underdog. We want him to succeed, we want him to break free of the violence. I
think this contrast is obtained by making him not just a victim of violence,
but also a perpetrator of violence.
It easy as a reader to pity a
starving boy, who is always running, trying not get killed by both friend and
foe. It is difficult to pity someone who goes from the chaser to the chased.
And Beah manages to insert that little kernel of knowledge at the very
beginning. The subtitle Memoirs of a Boy
Soldier. If this subtitle hadn't been put on the cover I think many would
not have been able to get past the first half of the book. The fact that we as readers know up front
that he will be both victim and victimizer alters our perception and how we
read those first one hundred pages. And then the fact that we see mostly what
happens before and after he is a solider is what elevates this book beyond that of a simple recounting
of a horrible war. It becomes a pilgrims
tale of the destruction and eventual redemption of Beah.
The reason i picked this book as
perhaps the most life affirming or life changing book is because it picks me up
out of my every day. It forces me to look at another culture, to weigh my own
values and problems and issues and truly decide is what I am doing that
important?
It also asks to consider my fears. I
have a slight social anxiety issue. Not in class, but going new places, getting
involved in new groups . It can be terrifying. But then I think of something
like a long way gone, and I think
there is nothing that will happen here that could kill me or haunt me or hurt
me. So I should get off my ass and do
something.
I think the factual events regarding
this novel are what really makes it a great novel. It causes us to consider it
in a different light. The book is only 230 pages long. The use of easy uncomplicated
syntax and diction make it an easy read. If only read as a narrative this book
would be a breeze. It could be read in one sitting easily. However knowing it
is truth, or at least the truth as best as Beah is able to relate it, gives
every event in the text that much more weight. we as readers have to give just
that much more consideration to the events we are reading.
As a memoir of a traumatic time I do
think it is important to realize that this is Beah's memory as best as he can
recall, while giving us a compelling story. Slight fictionalizing I think is
ok. Two people become one character, time being condensed is fine. But as long
as the heart and soul and events are true, this story will remain very
important novel for me. Possibly life
changing.
Works
Cited
Beah, Ishmael. long way gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York: Sarah Crichton
Books,
2007.
Dickinson,
Stephanie. "Lucky Seven & Dalloway." New Stories from the South. Ed. ZZ Packer.
Chapel Hill: Algonquin
Paperbacks, 2008. 370-387.
Rash,
Ron. "Back of Beyond." New
Stories from the South. Ed. ZZ Packer. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Paperbacks, 2008.
150-166.
