First-Person Fiction

Although there were many differences between these two stories, there was a common theme that differentiated the lives of the two narrators: change. While the concept of change is both physical and mental, the change (or lack thereof) that occurred in both narrators’ mental and emotional states could not be more different. “The Lifeguard” by Mary Morris described a man as he remised about his days as a lifeguard before he ventured to college. In the beginning of the story, we were presented with this young man who somewhat vain; he even told us so himself, “I loved my body that summer. I loved its firmness and its bronzed skin. But mostly I loved the way it was admired… So I loved to stroll the beach among the girls who wanted to have me, old men who wanted to be me” (Morris 427).
His curiosity with Billy Mandel’s death was almost ironic as he was flung into a life-or-death situation himself, and was effortless in his attempts to resuscitate the poor girl; but what changed here? Did this life-or-death situation bring him to some grandiose confession? While he did confess to Ms. Lovenhiem that he did not know what to do, the real change was his disposition in response to the world around him. “…and I’ve never seen the water or the umbrellas of summer in the same way again” (Morris 431).
That narrator’s response to change was very different compared to “The Liar,” by Tobias Wolff. While the story was presented in first person and in past tense just like “The Lifeguard,” it was apparent to me how different the narrators felt/acted at the end of their stories. The narrator in “The Lair” lacked any sort of monumental change in his demeanor, lying until the very end of his story (Wolff 174). These two narrators have both set themselves on very different paths, all because of their willingness or resistance to change.