The Seemingly Random Nature of Dying
The first book of the Colum McCann’s novel, Let the Great World Spin, is comprised of four interconnected stories, or chapters. Although each of these chapters would make sense on their own, and each has different central characters, the stories do end up connecting to each other plot wise, such as when Lara and Blaine get in a car accident killing Corrigan and the resulting interaction. However, it is just as important to notice the thematic, motific and literary parallels between the stories. These different stories all being juxtaposed together allows an attentive reader to notice many of these types of parallels and connections. What I observed to be the most important connection is the fragility …show more content…
Their hardship is their loss of their respective sons in the cold world of war. The truth behind their grief is revealed when they talk about the tightrope walker who is risking his life to attempt to cross the twin towers. They all react differently to this man’s decision to attempt this feat. One of the women, Marcia, imagines the rope walker to be her son in a different form. Claire, one of the women, does not see the tightrope walkers act in a positive light “How dare he do that with his own body? Throwing his life in everyone’s face? Making her own son’s so cheap? (113)” she says. Claire realizes that life is fragile and doesn’t think that the tightrope walker is respecting that fragility by risking his life in that way, and she believes that in fact he is disrespecting her son’s death by doing …show more content…
Although by the nature of being a tightrope walker, he flirts with death frequently, it is when he is stuck in the snow that he is closest to death. This experience helped him realize even more about how fragile life is, as he realizes how it feels to be so close to death. Instead of this experience leading him to take less risks, he does not change his fearless attitude and still dreams of walking across the world trade center. His unique view of this fragile nature of life can be summed up by the sign he has in his cabin door, “Tacked inside his cabin door was a sign: NOBODY FALLS HALFWAY (160).” My interpretation of this is that what really matters to him is not conserving his fragile life, but making the best of the little time he has in his life. He knows that if you are focusing on the risks you are putting yourself in then you are trying to fall halfway, which is impossible. Although death and near death may lead all of these characters to realize how death can come at any time, they all come to different conclusions about what this means and how this idea should affect the way they each live their life. The novel forces the reader to ask this question about themselves; should the closeness of death and the value of our little time cause us to live more daringly, more cautiously, focus more on ourselves, or something else all
The first book of the Colum McCann’s novel, Let the Great World Spin, is comprised of four interconnected stories, or chapters. Although each of these chapters would make sense on their own, and each has different central characters, the stories do end up connecting to each other plot wise, such as when Lara and Blaine get in a car accident killing Corrigan and the resulting interaction. However, it is just as important to notice the thematic, motific and literary parallels between the stories. These different stories all being juxtaposed together allows an attentive reader to notice many of these types of parallels and connections. What I observed to be the most important connection is the fragility …show more content…
Their hardship is their loss of their respective sons in the cold world of war. The truth behind their grief is revealed when they talk about the tightrope walker who is risking his life to attempt to cross the twin towers. They all react differently to this man’s decision to attempt this feat. One of the women, Marcia, imagines the rope walker to be her son in a different form. Claire, one of the women, does not see the tightrope walkers act in a positive light “How dare he do that with his own body? Throwing his life in everyone’s face? Making her own son’s so cheap? (113)” she says. Claire realizes that life is fragile and doesn’t think that the tightrope walker is respecting that fragility by risking his life in that way, and she believes that in fact he is disrespecting her son’s death by doing …show more content…
Although by the nature of being a tightrope walker, he flirts with death frequently, it is when he is stuck in the snow that he is closest to death. This experience helped him realize even more about how fragile life is, as he realizes how it feels to be so close to death. Instead of this experience leading him to take less risks, he does not change his fearless attitude and still dreams of walking across the world trade center. His unique view of this fragile nature of life can be summed up by the sign he has in his cabin door, “Tacked inside his cabin door was a sign: NOBODY FALLS HALFWAY (160).” My interpretation of this is that what really matters to him is not conserving his fragile life, but making the best of the little time he has in his life. He knows that if you are focusing on the risks you are putting yourself in then you are trying to fall halfway, which is impossible. Although death and near death may lead all of these characters to realize how death can come at any time, they all come to different conclusions about what this means and how this idea should affect the way they each live their life. The novel forces the reader to ask this question about themselves; should the closeness of death and the value of our little time cause us to live more daringly, more cautiously, focus more on ourselves, or something else all