First-Person Fiction

This narrator is telling us what happened to him in his lifetime as a butler. He seems to have many regrets in life as he follows a new employer that has failed a lot in his career. He also seems to regret letting Miss Kenton the housekeeper leave without telling her he liked her, she married another man.  The butler does change throughout the story because he feels he is too uptight and don’t not find his new employers’ humor funny or his social conversations useful. So he strives to better himself on being less uptight and to try and enjoy/please his new employer as that’s all he has to grasp too. I feel like this is a reflection of all the regrets he had in life. The butler is found to have a covered heart, he doesn’t express much emotion and this is one reason why he fails at getting Miss Kenton and being able to converse with his new employer.

This narrator wants to tell us this story because it has meaning and symbolism to his life. This tree is something that has been there since he was a child himself. Now in his eighties this tree is being threatened to be cut down by a younger neighbor. I feel he is tying the tree to himself as a person. I say this because when he goes to talk to the man about getting the tree sprayed with bug repellent the guy says something like since the bugs were already being seen they had already worked their way into the tree. He said it could still live because some trees can grow back bark faster than the bugs can eat it. If we tie this to himself he is old like the tree and is having something inside of him that could kill him, his bad heart. If he can keep himself calm as people eat at him and doesn’t raise his heart rate he will sure survive this bad heart, just like the tree. So he feels if he protects this tree that has been there since his childhood he is supposedly protecting himself too. This being said if he can keep that annoying neighbor away from that tree and not let his neighbor get him overwhelmed they will both survive.

In this story, the narrator has something to say because they want to tell us about this place called the “better place” and how they want to go back there so things will “be better” and full of excitement. They tell us what they have to do to get to this place and things about it. These children have to either die or kill a specific person to make it back to the “better place”. This tells us there is some kind of horror story wanting to be told. In the first sentence, I thought that the audience could have been any age, even possibly children because it was talking about someplace I assumed was imaginary. But once you read a little into the story you find out quickly that the narrator’s audience may be young adults and up because it portrays itself as a horror story. I think that the narrator’s tone of the story would be imaginative and wistful to get back to the “better place”, but also horrifying in the way she acts. The behavior changes as in the beginning she seems to be quite relaxed and chill about all of this to later being weird and to normal people sinister or scary.

The narrator comes out saying that he has a story to tell about a lesson he learned when he was only sixteen years old. Les learned that pain and suffering is an important lesson to learn in life. Whether it be an animal dying and suffering in a pond, his mother’s feelings and heart being broken, or losing his father. The narrator’s perspective is him telling this story at the age of forty -one where he doesn’t hear from his mother much. But he starts by telling us about a flashback event he had when he was only sixteen and living with his mother. He thinks that the story is about him learning how to hunt geese for the first time. But he is mistaken because the story is really about how much his other cares about his well-being. She worried that he would fall down the same path as his father, that’s why she would always say something along the lines of Les was not taught and raised by crazy parents. She wants him to be successful and happy even if it is hurting her in many ways. Just like when she didn’t want to go on that hunting trip knowing that she and Glen would not last but she knew it meant a lot to her son Les. I feel that the story was a reflection of a lesson he learned at a young age. But also an explanation of what his mother was trying to do for her son.

This novel could not have been told in any other form than letters. Werther is such a passionate, heart-first character that I think he would have been incapable to express himself in a structured format, like say, a simple story. There is no censure in his words, no hint of pretense, for Werther did not imagine that his letters would be made public. He didn’t desire any audience to his feelings save those people to whom he wrote. In fact, though the epistolary form makes public that which was once private, we still want to avert our eyes from the letters. This is Werther in his true self; these letters are his conversations, both to himself and the people in his life. They were not meant to be read by foreign eyes and that alone makes them powerful. We feel his passion in the words; they practically pore off the pages. There is no wall surrounding his heart, no barrier between himself and the words in the letters. And what do these letters do to us as the reader? We are in conversation with Werther—a literal conversation, in fact, as these are also in response to the ones that he received. The letters themselves are an enactment of Werther’s feelings. They are also a physical form of his central anxiety—his is unable to be with Lotte, the woman who rules his very soul. Perhaps these letters are also an exercise for Werther’s attempt to conquer this anxiety—they are, after all, an obsessive form. Werther shows us the fragility, the complexity, the simple humanity of ourselves. Much as we try to deny it, we cannot separate ourselves from our feelings and emotions. If we didn’t have them, we wouldn’t be human. The human condition is personal, and nothing is more personal than a letter? We might say a diary, but is that not simply a letter to yourself? Werther is not unique in his situation. Love causes much grief and that is the consequence we all must bear. Werther understands that more than anyone, and I believe that he knew it would be the death of him. These letters are writing at its finest—intimate, vulnerable, and honest—and there is no way we can remain unchanged by them.

“The Sorrows of Young Werther” is a story of Werther who falls in love and it destroys him. However, Werther is not innocent in any sense. The story is limited to the letter Werther writes but if the reader pays attention it is easy to see how mentally unwell Werther truly is. His hyper-fascination with Charlotte and pushing friendship onto her and her husband Albert which not only harms them but also harms Werther. The constant strain of seeing Charlotte with another man pushes Werther into becoming even more desperate for Charlotte.

This internal struggle is what continues to drive the story forward. The format of the letters makes this story feel very personal as if as the reader Werther is writing to us. With never knowing the other opinion of Werther’s friend Wilhelm, it always the reader to form their own “response letter” to Werther. I can only imagine how many times Wilhelm said in his letters for Werther to “calm down” and to “let go” of his feelings for Charlotte. Werther’s actions ultimately become detrimental to his mental health.

It is interesting to think about how much love can affect someone so much they take their own life. This story was so popular during its time that other men began taking their lives in sake of love, but was it really love? What I would describe as Werther’s love, would be obsession and denial. Werther constantly forced his feelings onto Charlotte after trying to hide it under the guise of friendship continued to affect him up until his death. Since the story is only described through Werther’s letters, many things get left out. However, it was an entire different experience to read. Many first person stories share at least some detail of the other characters and their lives, we lack this knowledge. However, this is what makes the story interesting. Even though it was old English and there was a lot of drama, this story was quite interesting.

The Sorrows of Young Werther is a story about a man who is in search of love. Werther goes throughout the story writing letters to a friend. These letters are our source of insight into Werther’s tragic life story. He falls in love with a girl named Charlotte, but she doesn’t return his love because she is already engaged. Eventually, she tells Werther to not visit her or her fiancé anymore because this creates tension.

In his letters to his friend, Werther mentions two trees a few separate times. This foreshadows his death and burial later on in the story. Werther decides that in order to resolve the conflict of the love triangle, one person must die. He chooses to take his own life as a result. The two trees earlier in the story come into play again once Werther is buried at the site of these two trees.

This story is obviously tragic and heart-wrenching, but it’s also a story of Werther finding acceptance and peace within himself. He was looking for someone to love him and he came to the conclusion that no one would. I don’t even think Werther loved himself because of this. He ends his life at the end of the story and Charlotte doesn’t even come to his grave. No one does. I feel like this story was mainly defined by its tragedy but also by Werther’s determination to find love.

“Dancing in the Moonlight” features Moshfegh’s specialty: a deeply insecure narrator. This narrator is unlike her other insecure uglies in the way that he is not ugly at all. The narrator in “Dancing in the Moonlight” cares about their appearance more than anything on the planet.

Most of the shenanigans that take place in this story are a result of the narrator’s desire to protect/create his desired self image. He fills his life with expensive things, clothing in particular, in order for people to see him the say he wants to be seen. He even knows that it’s a problem- “Plus, I was always broke. I kept spending all my money on clothes.” He’s aware of his intense focus on his looks and need to tailor other people’s perception of him He says his long “Jesus hair” keeps him from looking like a tool. He describes searching hours on the internet for an ottoman that “conveyed what I want to convey: I lived in an expensive converted loft, had a very high-quality camera, and was an organized and broad minded aficionado and reader of literature.”

However, what’s most interesting about this story is that although the narrator can see his problem, only readers can understand where it came from. It’s clear that his family is also concerned about appearances. His dad has a new young wife and takes fancy vacations, he paid for his son to go to Yale. He straight up tells his son to focus on his career and that “women are attracted to money.” This in itself could explain why the narrator acts the way he does.

But it goes deeper than that. The narrator’s need to be attractive and appear to be the perfect package goes deeper than just wanting to get women. He navigates his life with such separation for love and human contact. Even during his sexual fantasies with Britt he imagines her professing her love for him. He goes to insane lengths just to keep the idea of a future with someone- in this case some random girl named Britt- alive. He puts up a facade just in hopes that someone will love him because of it

This severely affect him, he also believes that every other person is also pretending. He accuses a friend at a party of putting a glove on the “invisible hand of selflessness.” He doesn’t believe anyone could do anything good, unless they were doing it for appearance.

That’s why the ending of the story is so perfect. It finishes with the image of two lovers, the main character’s next door neighbors, hugging. Despite all of their wordly things burning up in a fire. Exactly what the narrator craves more than anything.

The best feature of Oshfegh’s short stories is how utterly grotesque yet riveting they are. She states everything as it is, very matter-of-fact and up close. This writing style makes it even more impressive that she is able to convey the softer side of character; the thoughts inside their head that they are unable to express.

I think this is particularly relevant in “Slumming.” The narrator is outwardly arrogant despite their own obvious shortcomings. She genuinely believes that she is just better than the people of Alna. She imagines that the people think of her as a “Rich Bitch” and look up to her for tipping 50 cents on top of her sandwich bills. Despite her being a druggie who eats fast food sandwiches for two meals of the day, she states “What would it feel like, I wondered, to let myself go?” When it’s extremely clear to the readers that she already has.

However, that’s just the surface observation. Through the details that Moshfegh provides, readers can see that this is a deeply insecure character. This type of character is also represented in Moshfegh’s story “Malibu.

The main character in “Slumming” is revealed to be insecure through a few events. The first is that she chooses to stay at Alna during the summers, a place where she can allow herself to believe that she is better than those around her.  Her insecurity is deeper than that however, she not only believes that she is inferior but believes she has wasted her life. She describes how high school graduation makes her incredibly anxious, she is surrounded by people she considers to still have a future. She says she “had this fantasy that I’d get married and suddenly find a calling the humiliating need to make a living. Art or charity work, babies- something like that.”

This feeling of wasted potential is continued when describing her sister. She says that she “only wanted to discuss things and name things for what they were,” and that she “gave up her career and everything” for her daughter. Something that the narrator believed she would do with her life.

I think that these feelings explain why she acted so awfully to the pregnant young girl that the end of the story. That girl had everything that she wished she still had: youth, a child, potential. Confronted by all of those things at once, the narrator made the choice to watch the girl suffer.

This story was written in such a unique way compared to a lot of the other stories that we’ve read throughout this term, mainly due to its letter format, and that the immediate perspective of young Werther in these letters justifies the story continuing on to describe his own death. This is a very unique perspective, and having the death of Werther at the end wouldn’t be possible unless it was written with the particular letter or diary style, which is a very clever way to get around this issue if Werther himself is the narrator. I think that Werther believes he has a story to tell for a few reasons; the first of which is that he is travelling away from home to the town of Walheim. A trip such as this, especially to a place where he feels so inspired by the scenery and people there, definitely gives him cause to feel that he needs to share his experiences with Wilhelm back home. Another reason why Werther believes that he has a unique story to tell his audience is because he meets Charlotte, and gets caught up in the life of someone he desperately loves, but who is already spoken for and engaged. This in itself is an experience that he feels he needs to get off his chest and speak honestly about his feelings for Charlotte, and the letters allow him to do that. The narrator’s perspective on the events that happen throughout this story are relatively immediate, with Werther writing about the details of his trip shortly after they first happen. However, the perspective of the narrator shifts to a different person at the very end, during the Editor’s Note. This is because Werther is now dead at this point and cannot narrate any more about his story, or what happened to him when he set out to kill himself. The Editor has a more distanced perspective on the events that happened to Werther, and he presents the information long after Werther was already dead, from the details provided by other people around Werther.

I would describe the nature of this story as more of a confession than anything else, although it does not originally begin that way. In the beginning of this story, I thought that this book was more of a reflection on the town of Walheim and the peace that comes with being out in nature, and how that affects our creative capacities. However, as the letters progress it becomes evident that Werther is using them to be more like a diary of sorts, and to confide his feelings for Charlotte honestly. I would also say that the beginning of the story has a very different tone from the end, in part because Werther is now dead at this point. In the beginning of the story, the tone is very inquisitive and intrigued by everything new that Werther discovers. The tone gets more and more filled with tension and dissatisfaction, until at the end the Editor has a much more somber and desolate tone when presenting what happened to Werther after his suicide attempt. This change in tone was really interesting to witness, especially because of how hopeful Werther was at the beginning of the story. For example, on May 30th Werther states, “What I have lately said of painting is equally true with respect to poetry. It is only necessary for us to know what is really excellent, and venture to give it expression; and that is saying much in few words” (Pg. 10). He shared his food and money with those around him very freely in the beginning, had an appreciation for the beauty in nature, and his whole demeanor was full of excitement and discovery. In this way, the author really allows us to connect with Werther’s character, and it makes his downfall even more tragic as a result. Werther changes throughout the story by becoming much more turmoiled when Charlotte gets married, and although he tries to stay friends with both her and Albert, it just hurts him more to see them together. Ultimately, he believes that one of the three must die in order to solve this problem, but because he could never murder his friends he determines it must be himself that perishes. The transition from his demeanor at the beginning of the story to the very end is very depressing to witness, but it is also the result of really great writing. Overall, this story was very intriguing and its exploration of human emotion was very interesting to read.

“The Sorrows of Young Werther” is told through a series of letters, mostly sent to a person named Wilhelm. A young man named Werther falls madly in love with a woman named Charlotte. Unfortunately, Charlotte is engaged to another man named Albert. Even though Werther knows he cannot have Charlotte, he still spends a lot of time around her, hoping to possibly win her affections through playing with her younger siblings to debating philosophy with her fiancee Albert. Werther tries to respect the couple as much as possible, even moving away to go work at another job as a writer. However, he can never get Charlotte out of his mind. This drives him into despair as he ultimately kills himself by shooting himself in the head with one of Albert’s pistols. He dies a slow agonizing death as he is still alive in the morning but only breathing.

Werther feels that he must die as he is slowly going mad that he cannot be with Charlotte, he debates killing Albert but he chooses not to because of their relationship as friends. This is even portrayed through the trial of a servant that kills their mistress. Werther sympathizes with them because he wants Charlotte to only love him. He tried to get the judge to drop the charges against the servant but ultimately fails which further throws him into grief.

As to why Werther writes the letters about his various misfortunes with not only Charlotte but his employment opportunities, he wants to leave his mark on the world. Even when he dies, he still wants to be remembered. These letters are his testament to his unrequited love and what he had to suffer through to get to the point of ending his life. This story is a confession of a sinful love and lust that Werther developed for Charlotte.

The theme of stars in “Emperor of the Air” is poignant. Again and again, the narrator returns to the stars, both in his work as a teacher and in his personal life. He knows the name of every constellation, and can track them all through the sky. While the title of the piece refers to a fake constellation Mr. Pike tells Kurt about, one could argue that the narrator himself is the emperor of the air through his understanding of the heavens and his wisdom of the earth. It could be argued that he has fixated on the stars for so long that he’s neglected the world around him, not fulfilling his life the way he seems to want to at the very end.

Compared to Mr. Pike, Kurt and the paperboy, he’s the only one with the wisdom to understand the world they live in. Where Mr. Pike would do away with tradition and steady reliability for temporary comforts or paychecks, the narrator is adamant that history must be respected. He’s spent so many years watching over and teaching this town that the idea of destroying any piece of its history– like the infested tree– is a heinous crime to him. It drives him to try and level the playing field with Mr. Pike with the insect infestation. If he loses his tree, his history, then Pike has to lose his.

His fear of destruction and change seems to stem from the fire in his youth that nearly swallowed the neighborhood. Seeing his mother refuse to leave their home, even in the face of death, affected him deeply. While he might fear death, resolutely making sure he doesn’t exert himself throughout the story to prevent a second heart attack, it doesn’t stop him from crawling through his neighbor’s yard to infest his trees. The drive to protect history and tradition is strong enough to overpower this instinct.

He can’t imagine losing so much as an old man, whether it be via death or– worse, in his mind– the destruction of an ancient tree. Therefore, in the end, he comes to realize the only way to carry on his knowledge is to teach it to children like he has for so many years, possibly even his own children. His fear of death may not be eradicated, but he is perhaps able to make some peace with it.

it became overwhelmingly clear pretty early in this novel that Werther is an extremely volatile character. This volatility feels like a ticking time bomb through the story and eventually it is his undoing. Now, I don’t know enough about psychology to throw words around like bipolar, but I hope I understand enough to say he shows symptoms of it. He experiences extremely high highs and low lows. At the beginning of the novel, he is in an incredibly elated state. Werther is in a state of pure tranquility and joy. He paints, reads homer, and finds a weird amount of happiness in meeting townspeople. He meets Lotte and says “Oh, the angel! For your sake I must live (Page 38)!” However, only a little under a month later he casually mentions that Lotte plays good music “Often at a time when I would like to put a bullet through my head (Pg. 43)!” These drastic mood changes are dangerous to both Werther and the people around him. When caught up in his feelings for Charlotte, he can no longer reason the way he once did. At the beginning of the novel, he expresses that every man believes their woman to be an angel but none are, and then soon begins referring to Charlotte as one.

His propensity for anger and mood swings are also highlighted in his rant towards Schmidt. While being frustrated at Schmidt’s sullen attitude he goes on a tirade about how one should always be in a good mood. This exchange is humorous, but also incredibly frustrating that he can’t see his own hypocrisy.

The brilliant part of this novel is that we expect this decline. Everything I just described happened in the first half of the novel In the first two pages, the writer has Werther describe how he “swings from grief to excess, and from sweet melancholy to ruinous passion (10).” In the first few pages, the author gives us the lens through which we are to read the book: closely analyzing our narrator’s mood and mindset, always aware of its quick changes.

In addition, I think I would be remiss not to point out the extreme mention of linden trees throughout the book. In German folklore they represent truth, they believed people couldn’t lie while standing underneath one. This narrator is extremely unreliable (and I have no reason to believe what I’m going to hypothesize) but I like to think that in the moments he speaks of linden trees he is telling the truth

This was my favorite story that we had to read throughout the class, stories that use the template of the narrator writing letters to ambiguous “friends” as a way to speak directly to the reader are always really personal, and it reminds me of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” in a lot of senses. There’s Werther’s struggle with mental illness, the love triangle, the vivid imagery, internal monologue, sensitive nature, and even the ending is vaguely similar. The main difference is that we know that Werther doesn’t survive in the epilogue, or rather Editor’s Note, and it isn’t written from his perspective to the reader.

Werther, like I mentioned before, is an extraordinarily sensitive person. After dancing with and falling for Lottie he said, “since that time sun, moon, and stars can calmly go about their business, I know neither day nor night, and the whole world fades away around me.” (pp. 30-31) I love how gentle Werther really is throughout the whole novel, he understood how deeply infatuated and in love he is with Lottie, but he also has a constant internal battle about how selfish he is because he is genuinely friends with and cares for her fiancé. He feels like a character who really could be a real person with how deeply complex and sympathetically he feels; yes, he can be a little dramatic, but I also think that partially comes with the territory of being a deeply emotional artist. To many people, it may seem ridiculous that he’s so hung up on her after having only one dance, but it was more than that. It was a genuine connection as he and the woman he fell for stared out at an oncoming storm; a storm both literal and figurative.

One element I found interesting about this story was how wrong the initial perception of Gregorio was. Doctor Xaviva first referneces Gregorio is his museam idea. Initially, this museum is seen as a time-waster by an odd man who has the time to throw away. Throughout the story, we see through the mystery of Gregorio, to see in reality he is a passionate artist. This negative portrayal of Gregorio comes in large part from his own family. After his arrival back in Spain, his family was annoyed by his decision to make the museum. One of the most painful parts of this is how underappreciated he is within his family unit.

“Gregorio did eventually help his parents – he brought Carlos a new truck, and he paid to have his parent’s kitchen Modernized… – his apparent selfishness and the reports of his silly impracticality over this dream of a museum of miniatures earned him no love among his neighbors and relatives.” (Brown 11).

This is an important quote because it shows that the towns’ perception is not true to Gregorio’s reality. This is also important because it shows the narrator’s views of Gregorio are changing. Suggesting that Doctor Xaviva has had character growth take place due to the events of the story. This remark is also painful, as his family could have easily done something to stop the rumors.  Instead, they help spread them and ruined their own son’s reputation for no reason other than they disagree with this dream. His family is cruel, and yet they are such a critical part of the story.  Gregorio’s mother does not value his creativity and demeans him throughout the story, while his father questions his masculinity. When Gregorio injuries his hands, his mother is desperate for him to return home. While at first to Doctor Xaviva and the reader, Gregorio’s refusal to go home may seem ungrateful. However, in reality, it is a fight to maintain his sense of agency. His mother has repeatedly tried to keep him from his dreams; one example is him being made to watch Patrick. Gregorio knows if he goes home, he will receive this same treatment from his mother. Art is Gregorio’s life, and going into a house that stifles him would be a death sentence for his creativity.

One last thing I would like to talk about is the museum itself. The doors being opened are symbolic of his relationship with his family. Gregorio has tried to explain that he is an artist in the past, but his family is always unwilling to listen. Like the doors, he is an open book ready to be discovered, but no one makes an effort to learn about him. Instead, the town relies on rumors to form the basis of their characterization of him. He wants so badly to share his art, but no one is willing to make an effort to talk to him about it. He so desperately wants to make his family proud of him with his art but knows subconsciously he will likely be met with disapproval. In the end, is family is supportive but only when they see it is a recreation of them. This suggests the family is self-centered and only sees the value of art when it directly affects them.  For Doctor Xaviva, this makes them question how they’ve treated Gregorio.

” But what had impressed me the most was not this ability to capture us all so exactly. It was that despite everything, all along, we had been his inspiration.” ( Brown 21.)

This is a heartbreaking ending, as it shows despite all the cruelty Gregorio has been delt by his family, he still cares for them deeply.

The book began once the narrator, Werther, wrote a letter to Wilhelm after Werther left to pursue his dreams. The book was mostly comprised of letters to Wilhelm that explained what was going on in his life and how he felt about the events. In some instances, it appeared that Werther was also writing to Lotte, but it was mostly letters back and forth to Wilhelm. Throughout the letters, Werther was explaining the situations he encountered along with the people, and while sometimes he wrote about other people, it was always what he saw in them. A few instances he wrote this way, but it was still mostly about himself, which I think he didn’t understand at those points that it was still about him and his reactions to the events, as with page 94 where Lotte had written a letter and he gladly assumed it was for him despite her husband was away. Among that, his infatuation with Lotte is certainly misunderstood as he believed that she was just as in love with him as he was with her, but to me, she didn’t see him more than a good companion and is in love with Albert, her husband. I think he understood his feelings to a certain extent, but then fell into them a little too much and couldn’t pull himself out of it (his desire for Lotte), and I doubt that he truly understood anyone else relayed in the story, as with his family’s concerns and why they pushed him toward a more reliable job, and, especially, Lotte’s affections toward him. There was a lot of emotions that flowed through Werther throughout the book, so I wouldn’t say that there was one presiding emotion / tone when he wrote — most of it is all over the emotional curve. Throughout the story, Werther certainly changed. On page 57 under the section August 18, he changed entirely. The overall tone had consisted of hope, love, admiration, energy, but on that page it completely flipped around to fury, despair, loneliness, and hopelessness. So much so, he had gone from full of life to no life at all.

While this story on a surface level appears to be the narrator talking about the lengths he went to save his elm tree, in reality, the story is much more personal. It appears the narrator is telling this story as a way to grapple with the fact he is old and will die sooner than he would like.

On the first page of the story, we learn that the narrator has a heart attack; this is an important detail. After revealing this information, the narrator describes the elm tree itself and the problems facing it.  While the bugs on the tree are real, they are a representation of the narrator’s fears. He lays in bed at night thinking of these bugs “Vera was gone, and I lay in bed thinking of the insects, of their miniature jaws carrying away heartwood.” ( Canin 3). This level of obsession does not suggest someone thinking impartially about this tree but rather someone who feels a connection to it. The heartwood makes this a slightly on the nose metaphor, but it is still just as powerful. The narrator dreads the decay of his heart, the inevitable failure of his body. Him fighting so hard to keep this tree represents his own fight against his age.

“With it I slapped up and down the trunk until the line was in chaos…. I stamped he stood where they emerged, dug my shoe tip into their underground tunnels. When my breathing becomes painful, I stopped and sat on the ground.” ( Canin 5). He goes about the attacking of these insects like it’s his life on the line, working to the point of causing himself physical pain. This intense is unique because, in the rest of the story, we see him taking it easy due to his heart, but here he works until he reaches a point of exhaustion. This is his fight against death, and he puts his everything into it. In life, he sacrifices not going places with his wife, missing out on the lifestyle he once had. However, all this is useless; this only delays the inevitability. While it helps take some pressure off his heart, it does not take back the condition. The fight against the bugs is useless as well, as the next day they return. This breaks him, and he goes about drastic action.

He puts the bugs in a jar and sneaks into Mr. Pike’s house at night to let them out on his elm trees. This is metaphorically significant because if the bugs represent his heart disorder, he is in a way putting his worse fear on his enemy. He is dooming someone else to the fate he is so desperately trying to fight back against. However, before he can get to the tree’s, he stumbles upon Mr. Pike’s bunker. Upon looking around the bunker, the narrator demeans Mr. Pike’s character.

“I thought of his houses ten years from now, when the pipes cracked, and the ceilings began to pool with water. What a hopeless man he seemed to me then, how small and afraid.” (Canin,8 )

This scene is interesting because he mocks Mr. Pike for being fearful when the narrator himself is full of fear. He is afraid his heart will fail him, yet he was not aware enough to realize at this point in the story. This stops when he comes out and see’s Mr. Pike with his family showing them the stars. This is, of course, relevant to the narrator as his father did the same thing to him, so now seeing this is reminding him of his own youth. This marks a turning point in the story.

At this point in the narrative, the narrator begins to accept that his age is catching up to him. However, this becomes most apparent as he watches the family from the house, saying, “Every so often when they laughed at something on the screen, he moved his hand up and tousled Kurt’s hair. And the sight of this suddenly made me feel the way I do on the bridge across the Mississippi river.”  ( Canin 8.).  This scene holds a lot of meaning for the narrator. Firstly, it is what leads him to change his mind about letting the bugs loose. He sees Mr. Pike using his youth wisely and knows he wants to wish them no trouble. He is willing to sacrifice his own tree for Mr. Pike. This represents he is willing to step aside for the younger generations. This is also a sad moment for the narrator as this joyful moment is tampered with regret over not having children. He knows it is too late, but this does not stop him from now trying to make the most of his time left. The narrator goes home and speaks to the newspaper boy saying, “I’m an old man and I want you to do something for me. Put down your bicycle and look up at the stairs. “(10.). This is a powerful ending, as in this moment, we see him accepting of his age. It shows by accepting it, he is now able to make the best of his time. Making for a positive ending of this story.

The author of a better place weaves a complex story of the human condition and the mystery surrounding the human mind. While reading this short story the reader is left confused as to what is reality in this story and what is fabricated by the narrator. As I was reading, I was left asking myself if these children really were some sort of alien or if it was a shared delusion. This where this story differs from the others, while based in our reality the nature of the other place is fantastical.  In this post, I would like to discuss how these fantastical elements fit within the theme of the collection and how it is used to show the nature of humanity.

A central theme throughout the collection is the disgusting nature of the earth and the humans that live on it. Most of the narratives within the story are disgusting to reinforce the author’s chosen theme. Despite the appalling conditions they live and the awful lives they live, there is sometimes a celebrity nature to the text.   One example of this is in Dancing in the Moonlight, where the nsrort descbirses a women he’s interested in as ” her face was pinched , as tough she’d just smelled someone farting. It was that look of revulsion that awoke something in me.” ( Moshfegh 219). In this the narrator is celebrating something that to the reader sounds uncomfortable and we find his fasntcation unevrving. This all plays into the authors overall goal for the story.In my opinion, the author does not deem humanity to be evil; instead, she celebrates its oddity. It appears she intends to show existence is not clean-cut but rather a series of messy events that appear humorous to readers. This is a commentary on the fact that humanity often idealized life to fit a cookie-cutter standard. Unfortunately, the author does not use these people’s lives to show that living outside the norm is ok but rather that it tends to be messy. Saying we should celebrate the chaotic aspects of life and resign ourselves to the facts surrounding it.  Most narrators in this collection have resigned themselves to this life on earth.  The nartor of a better place Urszula seems to differ from this but looking below the surface, you find the same attributes.

The narrator Urszula is in direct conflict with this notion of accepting the negative attributes of earth. Unlike the other narrators, she has not resigned herself to the rough parts of her existence and instead pushes back against them.  She hates earth, saying that she “had doubts, even so early on, about this place on Earth with all the dumb things everywhere.” ( Moshfegh 272). This conveys her clear hatred for the nature of humanity as she believes she hated it from the moment she was brought into it. This also suggests she believes herself above the rest of the people on earth. We see this same sense of arrogance with the narrator in nothing ever happens here. He believes his looks will allow him a chance at being an actor and make the people of his hometown jealous. The main difference between the two is his commitment waivers, and he does not kiss the two girls. Another example of arrogance is in the narrator of a dark and winding road. In this ‘ Charles ‘ believes himself to be better than those around him, especially his brother. We see this through both his actions and thoughts throughout the story. He is tired of his life but takes no changing measures, just a brief break. Despite their heightened sense of self, both of these male narrators resign themselves to the mundane lives they lead. For the former, it is giving up hope of being an actor; for the latter, is it going back to his real life.rszula is different because she believes she is better than those around her and believes this throughout the story. This drives her to want to kill Jarket, even as those around her warn her. When her mother warns her against seeking him out, it is no surprise when Urszula disregards this. It is shown through the story that she has very little respect for her mother’s intellect and character. However, when she disregards her twin’s feelings, it shows how driven she is. Her twin Waldemar is the one person she values in her life, saying, ” thank God for Waldemar, who is si much wiser than me.” ( Moshfegh 272 ). She doesn’t just value him; she thinks he’s smarter than her. This was an intelligent decision on the author’s part to have this be a positive relationship because it shows what Urszula is willing to give up. In the end, we see Urzula lash out at her brother, “oh you think you can solve things? You’re just a little boy You might have more musckes than me, but you’re only a day older” ( Moshfegh 290). Her willingness to ruin this relationship shows how desperate she is to get away from earth. She is a spirited character and far more motivated than the others in the collection, yet she still fits within the collection.

While she seeks a new life away from earth in a way, she has resigned herself to the fact she would never have a fulfilling life. The twin’s life is not nearly as drastic as some of the other narrators; it is simply mundane. A mundane existence where a widowed mother favors her son over her daughter. As previously mentioned, Ursuzla believes herself above this way of living. Yet despite her differences with the other characters, they are very human characters. Each is an oddity in this book’s collection of oddities. Urzula’s only difference is she believes she has a chance in this other world. However, even with this chance, like the other characters, she has given up on earth. Believing her only opportunity to have a good life is to be away from earth. While only prevalent in this story, the other world’s fantastic elements are closely related to the collection’s themes.

A major purpose of this book is to show the different and unique lifestyles of humans. While someone beliving their an alien might seem to be an extreme example, it is one of the most representative of human nature. Urszula and Waldemar claim the other place is real, and we as readers are given no way to prove or disprove this. This leaves the interpretation of the other place to the reader.  In my personal opinion, I believe the twin’s belief in the other world is a trauma response to their father’s death.  After their father’s death, their mother likely tells the twins he is in a better place, which is the typical response when someone dies. To cope with their father being gone, the twins may have manifested this heaven as a physical place they can reach rather than having to wait for it. This gives the twins a chance to be with their father while also getting them away from earth. They feel wronged by earth due to their father’s death, and they do not want to be anywhere that let their father die. This belief in the other world isolates them from their peers, making them feel othered from society. This sense of being othered is a common theme for narrators within the book. However, most notable is the fact the nartor is trying to cope with the fact people die. I believe this story was last because it covers the most uncomfortable topic in the collection. While the other stories were gross, this is uncomfortable because it has no solution. Death is something humanity has been attempting to explain since our beginning. It’s odd and uncomfortable that we’re simply gone one day. While the other stories are uncomfortable, it is mostly things that would not happen to us; death affects us all. Narrators in this book have resigned themselves to live mundane lives, and this bothers many of them. This is due to death; if life was not something you could lose, then we would not value it so highly. This is why some characters cling to the beauty of the disgusting world they live in because they are trying to make the most of the life they have. This last story is such a powerful ending because it reminds us that earth, despite all its flaws, is our home.

This story offered a more heartwarming and emotional narrative than we’ve been reading in Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel. Ethan Canin gave us a beautiful story about an older man looking back on his life and contemplating death.Our narrator seems to be worried about the looming presence of death.He looks out into his yard and contemplates whether or not to cut down a tree.He is worried that if he cuts it down and plants a new one he won’t be alive to see it grow. During this moment he starts to wonder if he’ll leave a legacy in the world like the tree. Its a heart breaking sentiment as he looks back on his life and realizes he didn’t make the impact he wanted to. Despite his years of research and his contributions to science, he still feels as if he’s been stagnant in life. He wants more out of life. He is yearning to leave something behind and create a lasting effect before he no longer can. You find yourself longing for this man. It brings out a deep feeling of nostalgia and even if I can’t entirely relate to the feeling of being older and fearing death, it still brings out the soft feeling of craving for an impact. It makes you think about whether you have made a contribution or if you’re happy with how your life has been.
In the end the narrator realizes that he has made a difference. He contributed to nature and taught people about the stars. Even though his impact wasn’t world wide or long lasting in history, it was his. It’s an extremely sweet sentiment and your heart feels so content with his realization. It is such a fulfilling revelation and you find a huge sense of satisfaction in the ending. Ethan Canin puts a delicate touch on writing and created a beautiful piece full of nostalgia and self realization.

I loved how compelling this piece is. It gave a completely bizarre and captivating experience which extremely differed from Ottessa’s earlier pieces. This piece is focused on the present which is a sharp change from the rest of the stories in this collection. It has a more urgent tone and the actions and thoughts of our narrator are more immediate. I think this style of writing accents the subject matter of this story very well as you are quickly taken into the narrators thoughts. The narrator, a younger girl, is convinced she is from another planet and wishes to return. This is a delusion perpetuated by her brother who feeds into the idea and seems to genuinely believe it as well. It’s obvious that the narrator doesn’t have a true grasp on reality. The girl shows a horribly misunderstood world view as many parts of the story show you the unreliability of the girl’s narrative.The young girl doesn’t seem to understand the emotions and reactions of the people around her. She doesn’t truly understand the consequences of the world as seen in her understanding of Jareks’ actions and the severity
This delusion seems to grow until the author disclosed how to get to the other world and the consequences it would bring. In my personal opinion I think this alluded to death. I think the other world they are from is the after life and the stories title is alluding to it being the classical “better place” people tend to talk about. I think the brother has figured death is better than life and has contrived this idea that if the return to it they would be set free. That they would be happier.