It has been said the mnemonic F-E-A-R has two meanings: “Forget Everything and Run” or “Face Everything And Rise.” For most people, it is much easier to run away from fear, as is the case with the female narrator from “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried” and Murphy from “Murphy’s X-mas.” Each of them ran away from their fears for a long time, and it wasn’t until the very end of their stories that they decided to face them. The narrator ran from her fear for two months and faced it for only one day. Murphy ran from his fear for much of his adult life, and only in the end does the audience understand that Murphy has a desire to face his fear. The female narrator from “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried” and Murphy from “Murphy’s
…show more content…
The female narrator knew that her best friend was dying in the hospital, yet she still didn’t go visit her for over two months. Why? She was afraid; she avoided someone she loved because of fear. Similarly, Murphy was constantly pushing his son, Michael, away, not being the father figure that he needed in his life. Again, he avoided Michael, who he really does love deep inside, because of fear. The two characters are analogous in their nature to avoid loved ones due to fear, but they differ in what they dread. In Hempel’s “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried,” the narrator had a fear that kept her from visiting her lifelong best friend for two months when she was terminally ill. She tells a story of a man who died in a car accident, but it wasn’t the injuries that killed him, rather he was scared to death when he looked at them; she ponders, “I didn’t dare look any closer. But now I’m doing it – and hoping I won’t be scared to death” (Hempel 274). Her fear is that she will be so scared by her friend’s situation that she will literally die …show more content…
The narrator claims, “She introduces me to a nurse as ‘the Best Friend…’ It tells me that they are intimate, my friend and her nurse” (Hempel 274). When the narrator finally decides to face her fear and show up to the hospital to visit her dying friend, she finds that her friend is now closer with the nurse than with her. They were clearly very close at some point in time, such as in college, when they shared the same dormitory (276), but because of the narrator’s actions, or rather lack of action, someone else takes her place as what would be the terminally ill patient’s “my best friend.” Similarly, in “Murphy’s X-mas,” Costello writes, “Murphy kisses her [Annie], and in a rush of flesh and new avowals, he puts everything into his lovemaking but his heart” (160). Murphy’s fears lead him away from his family, and he starts spending more time with Annie, even though Annie also practices infidelity. It is clear that, at one point, Murphy loved his wife, because they got married and had a kid together, but Murphy’s fears continued to creep upon him to the point that he began to distance himself from his wife and son, and he lets Annie become more important to him than his family, even though Annie is clearly not what he wants either. In both characters’ cases, the individual who comes between the
The female narrator knew that her best friend was dying in the hospital, yet she still didn’t go visit her for over two months. Why? She was afraid; she avoided someone she loved because of fear. Similarly, Murphy was constantly pushing his son, Michael, away, not being the father figure that he needed in his life. Again, he avoided Michael, who he really does love deep inside, because of fear. The two characters are analogous in their nature to avoid loved ones due to fear, but they differ in what they dread. In Hempel’s “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried,” the narrator had a fear that kept her from visiting her lifelong best friend for two months when she was terminally ill. She tells a story of a man who died in a car accident, but it wasn’t the injuries that killed him, rather he was scared to death when he looked at them; she ponders, “I didn’t dare look any closer. But now I’m doing it – and hoping I won’t be scared to death” (Hempel 274). Her fear is that she will be so scared by her friend’s situation that she will literally die …show more content…
The narrator claims, “She introduces me to a nurse as ‘the Best Friend…’ It tells me that they are intimate, my friend and her nurse” (Hempel 274). When the narrator finally decides to face her fear and show up to the hospital to visit her dying friend, she finds that her friend is now closer with the nurse than with her. They were clearly very close at some point in time, such as in college, when they shared the same dormitory (276), but because of the narrator’s actions, or rather lack of action, someone else takes her place as what would be the terminally ill patient’s “my best friend.” Similarly, in “Murphy’s X-mas,” Costello writes, “Murphy kisses her [Annie], and in a rush of flesh and new avowals, he puts everything into his lovemaking but his heart” (160). Murphy’s fears lead him away from his family, and he starts spending more time with Annie, even though Annie also practices infidelity. It is clear that, at one point, Murphy loved his wife, because they got married and had a kid together, but Murphy’s fears continued to creep upon him to the point that he began to distance himself from his wife and son, and he lets Annie become more important to him than his family, even though Annie is clearly not what he wants either. In both characters’ cases, the individual who comes between the