Response 2

Alora Young
Introduction to Writing and Literature - Response 2
9/29/09

Fantasy vs. Realism

Humans have always had a fascination with the fantastic. This is evident from the earliest known oral tales and literatures – all seem to include divine gods, sorcery, obvious scientific impossibilities, or utter improbabilities. All of the readings this week were stories based in the real world, but that didn’t necessarily make them ‘realistic’. ‘The Father’s Blessing’ had obvious elements of fantasy, while ‘The Caretaker’ was clearly realism.

‘The Father’s Blessing’ seemed at first to be wholly set in reality, and then some odd things started happening. After he tried to convince a newlywed couple to have their last rites, “even [bringing his] friend the undertaker with [him]”, I thought perhaps our priest protagonist was just slightly mentally unstable. As the story continued, however, the story just got more and more strange. I had no idea the significance of what happened in the final couple scenes. I had to assume it was symbolic, but I couldn’t seem to work my way past what actually happened in the story to even begin to figure out what in the world something like that is symbolic for.

After our class discussion, I see that Mary Caponegro intended this entirely – we aren’t supposed to understand what is happening because neither does the Father. Once I understood, I appreciated that it was a clever technique, and a refreshing use of the fantastic in what had initially appeared to be realism.

‘The Caretaker’, on the other hand, was almost too real at times. It just seemed to get worse and worse for our protagonist Joseph, and for the world around him. The imagery used when explaining the guerrilla warfare was graphic, sickening: “terrorists in football cleats trampling the bellies of pregnant women.” It is made worse by the fact that it reminds you, yes, humans are capable of things like this, and yes, things like this do really happen. A lot. Joseph loses everything multiple times; he goes through so much, and all we want is a happy ending for him. What we’re given, though, is too real to make us feel the relief of closure. “Home, she signs. You are going home.” The words themselves sound comforting, but we know that he has hardly a home to go to. If his house has survived the war, it’s not as if his mother is there anymore. Or if death, perhaps is his home, that is equally depressing.

Nightmares of the Past

For me this week’s reading was a little too real, and a tad bit too depressing. Most of them were just sad thing after sad thing. No smiles and little hope. Especially, Anthony Doerr’s “The Caretaker.” This story is about the American Dream, and just getting away from your past. Also with having to deal with your present, while accepting the past. It is very realistic, and, at times, too realistic. But this story does happen to hold some hope.

In “The Caretaker,” the main character lives through an awful war that makes him need to just run away. He just wants to “throw himself into the bay and drown himself.” The character is being overtaken by the evil of the war. And this war was described so realistically that I understand why he wanted to jump. The war had taken everything from him, and it had even made him a killer. So then he decides to run away and have a dream: the American dream. This even made it much more realistic because I know people ran away from their past. And, it’s odd, but they always run to America. Mostly because America’s cliché idea is that it “is the land of the dreamers.” I guess that is true, but at same time many dreams die.

I actually begin to really like the story as it progresses. Mostly because of the symbolism that was hidden behind almost everything. My favorite part was about the whales, and how, even if they did push them back into the ocean, they were doomed to come back. These whales were like Joseph’s memories and his past. He may hide them in “the dungeon,” but they’re still there. And they will still come back to haunt him. I also loved them so much, because of the symbolism behind their hearts. Since those giant hearts are like all the hearts and souls left behind. It also shows that where the narrator was from held many beliefs for the heart. Maybe tt could have been where the soul was kept or the heart was so large it meant that it had a lot of love. There can be many different ideas.

Another amazing thing about these whale hearts was that the main character went through all that work to bury them. To him it is like burying all the forgotten people from his past that never were buried. Giving them a proper burial makes him feel at least a little better about him himself, since he so burdened with guilt. Though he guild still sticks. But he loses a bit more of it after he saves the life of his old boss’s daughter. I love how he questions fate, and if all the utter shit in his life happened for a reason. Since if he had not lived through a war, lost his mother, and ran to America; this girl would have drowned. The girl becomes a large character, because she is the first person he has really let in since his mother. She even begins to take care of him. But somewhere between this he gets the amazing idea to create life from death, and make a garden where he buried the hearts.

I honestly had really mixed feeling for this story. At times it was hard for me to read, and then I just started to really like it. I can’t be sarcastic or even witty about it, because it is a very serious story. I guess if I really hated it I could have been super sarcastic, but I only a hated a few parts. Like when he was being lazy and selfish. Since that is how he used to be, and then the whales came along. Those whales made him flourish. Made him actually grow up. In a way this story is a bildungsroman, because Joseph used to be like an oversized kid. You know, relying on his mother for everything and just taking without asking. But as the story goes on he becomes a man and begins to finally care for others.