Re: 9 stories-eskimos
T.A. Muller (tamuller91@hotmail.com)
Thu, 29 Oct 1998 09:46:43 -0800 (PST)
>> I just read "Just Before the War with the Eskimos". Does anyone out
there
>> understand the last line. "A few years before, it had taken her three
days
>> to dispose of the Easter chick she had found dead on the sawdust in
the
>> bottom of her wastebasket." This is my first time reading it and I
will
>> read it again before my class with Will but as of now I'm not
>> understanding it too well. Have any insights?
You know, I might be a total imbecile, but I *completely* missed the
fact that Franklin's friend (I don't have the book with me at the
moment) is gay, the first couple of times I read it. Maybe I just had
to get older and become more worldly or something. Anyway. I always
thought the Easter chick was representative of her inappropriate or
disproportional sympathy, or even guilt feelings.
She feels the same sympathy/guilt/pity or whatever for Selena now,
knowing that her brother has heart problems and that he was prevented
from doing what the other young men his age were at the time, and that
he has to hang out with gay men (disclaimer: not that that's a bad
thing!!!! Please don't get me wrong; I'm only speaking in the context of
the time period in which the story was written). Maybe Franklin is gay
himself. Whatever. But it's enough to elicit her sympathy/guilt/etc.
And *that's* enough to override her previous opinion of Selena being the
biggest drip in her class. You may quote me wildly on that. ;)
Am I way, way off about this?? Anyone?
T.A. Muller
tamuller91@hotmail.com
http://www.geocities.com//Colosseum/Sideline/7014
http://www.geocities.com//SouthBeach/Coast/2017
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