"The Chase" and My Observation

      "The Chase" is written by Annie Dillard, who won the Pulitzer Prize and published dozens of books. "The Chase" describes a certain event during Dillard's childhood. During this time, she was seven years old and was considered "one of the boys". She played sports, such as football and baseball, with the boys in her neighborhood and played them as well as any other boy. Dillard learned something from football. If you fall, concentrate on the ball and try to leap forward. In other words: when you fail at something, try to make the best of it and work hard to achieve that goal.
      On the day after Christmas, Dillard and the rest of the boys come out from their homes looking for something to occupy their time. They gather around the front yard on a house located on Reynolds Street. As cars pass by, they throw snowballs at them to pass the time. Each car moved by at a slow pace and did not really care about the little kids having fun. But then a black Buick rolls along and is hit by the boys. This time, the driver is not so nonchalant. The business-ready dressed man comes out of his car and chases the children mercilessly. They split up and Dillard and one of the boys ends up being the man's main target.
      As the chase drags on, the children are finally caught by the man. After several minutes of catching their breaths, the man finally speaks.

       "You stupid kids," the man blurts out.

       Dillard actually remembers this event as one of the happiest times of her life. She enjoyed the thrill of being chased and the comradery with the other boys. She had fun playing without another care in the world. But who wouldn't enjoy that?
      During my childhood, which was not so long ago, I had great fun in the snow. We would build snowmen and have snowball fights all day long. Dillard's story greatly reminds me of my time in the icy wonderland as a child and brings me a desire to travel back to that time. I had no responsibilities, no grade-threatening exams to study for, and no endless amounts of homework. I had all of the time in the world at my hands and I could do whatever I wanted with it.
      Reading this story brought back those precious memories and entertained me thoroughly. 


~ David N.



      

My thoughts on, "The Garbage Man"

"The Garbage Man," is an excerpt from Sharon Curtin's novel titled, "Nobody Ever Died Of Old Age." Written in 1972, Curtin attempts gives the reader a look into the way society views the elderly. The excerpt tells the story of an elderly man who rambles through his neighbors's garbage cans, and is told through the memories of Curtin herself. The storyline follows Curtin in her childhood as she trails the elderly man in order to get a glimpse of his face, which many people in the neighrhood think will resemble some sort of monster. In the end Curtin finally sees the man face to face, and discovers that he's not a monster at all, but as Curtin puts it, "just a regular old face."

From my understanding of the story, Curtin was trying to express societies fear and prejudice of the elderly . He is thought around the neighborhood to be a kind of, "dirty old man." We read of him being mocked and made fun of by children and adults alike. Perhaps because, he is such an easy target.I comprehended Curtin'd point of the story, but I didn't quite experience the emotional reaction that perhaps the author was hoping for. Though the excerpt was only about six pages, I found myself becoming quickly bored with the story. The ending was a bit of a disspointment. Rather then simply reading the excerpt,  I think if I had read the entire novel, "The Garbage Man" would have produced a more meaningful opinion on my part.

Since this book was written in 1972 and the story was based in the 1940's perhaps that is why I have a bit of a disconnect with the views expressed from the other characters. In my personal experience I've never seen the elderly viewed with this much mockery and disrepect. It's possible people treated older individuals like that in earlier decades, but I dont think it's as common as expressed in Sharon Curtin's novel.