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.