It
was definitely a hard time that I went through when reading Carver´s story “A
small, good thing” The presence of a child I think is what caught my attention,
even more when the little kid was hit by a car. At first glance, it appears that
everything is going to be fine. That what doctors said is true and the boy
sleeping long hours was just a matter of the shock because of the accident.
In
order to get what will happen at the end of the novel, I continued reading and it
wasn’t easy, going page after page without seeing a solution. It was almost possible
to put yourself into that terrible situation and you heart started to beat
faster. Firstly, I thought it might be because I´m a mother, but then I came to
realize that is not a matter of parenthood but a matter of life, and how it can
be taken away from us at any time.
This
thought usually came to our mind when we know people that die suddenly. Two days
ago a neighbor from childhood, two years older than me, died because of a heart
attack. The same day just a few streets away from my home a men was hit by a
car and died immediately.
The
boy finally died, after two days of profound sleeping. His parents were
profoundly amazed and sad about the death of their son and at the same time
they recover a relation that might have been destroyed when everything was
fine. As we know the details of the story, the cinnamon rolls offered by the
barker gave them a restorative experience as well as the conversation with him.
It
is difficult to express how this story makes you fell but most important is to
showcase the importance of relations in life and how this kid of horrible situations
from the outside in my case or the inside in the case of Scotty´s parents makes
us aware that life can end at any time and that we have to enjoy every minute
of it. That life is valuable no matter what happens and it can be taken away
from us in a wink.
“La muerte esta tan segura
de vencernos que nos da toda una vida de ventaja” José Piquer, 1822
It
was difficult to translate the phrase and have the same meaning, that is why I
left it in Spanish, but we still understand what it means, and how is related
with the story. I also wanted to show a representation of the story, and I
looked for one in YouTube, but every personification did not express what I
felt, so I definitely believe your imagination and feelings toward the
fictional work can do a better job.
I think that the fact that you are a mother could have affected you through the reading of the story in a different way that many of us, but everyone might have felt somthing while reading it. The difference between reading the story and watching a video about it is that you tend to be involved in the story in a different way. As a reader you compare the story with things that happened or could happen to you in your own life, because you don't have faces or images for accompaning the story. It's your own imagination playing with the sotry, it's more personal. I think that's why you think you couldn't find a video that makes you feel the emotions that the story made you feel. I totally understand it, because when you read something you are the one that recreates the sotry in your head, comparing it with your life, in a video you just watch and sometimes reflection about it, but it is not as a deep connection as it is in reading.
ResponderBorrarYou'll never know when your life or your dearest lives would end. It is difficult to imagine and it is more difficult to live it, and I imagine that losing a child, as it was in the story, has to be the greatest suffering a person could live. But, as I said before, every person get involved in the story through their own experiences, their own emotions, beliefs and visions of life. A video would hardly involve all those things of all people on minutes or hours. So, I agree with you, imagination and your own involvement in the story is what makes it more meaningful and closer to you.
I believe that it was exactly what Carvel intended to make you feel. You got the point by understading the epiphany, the characters, on the other hand, didn't.
ResponderBorrarIt was difficult for me to read the story for the same reason, the image of the parents trying to talk to their son and later on discovering that he wasn't really alive, was terribly frustrating to me.
Also, it represented me in a way, I believe that when we are in troubles or living a stressful or really sad moment, our only wish is to be in someone else's shoes, just like the mother in the story wished--at least it's what happens to me.
They were so desperated by their loss that they were not thinking clearly--they wanted to kill the baker after all--and I believe that that's the moment in which we could have our epiphany, and It's also when the characters didn't. In the end, they just avoided talking about the matter when they were eating in the bakery store, but at the same time, they didn't want to leave the place because they knew they would face reality again.
Thank you for sharing your personal experiences with us.