Interpretation.

Though the work I will be writing from will be The Boys Next Door I am going to specifically be zoning in on the character Jack. He has such a big role in this play as the social worker working with these four men with mental handicaps. He basically supervises them while letting them try to make it out in the world. They all live in a group home together and Jack comes over practically every day to make sure they are okay. You can tell that the four men need this in their lives just by some of the scenarios that are presented. For instance, Arnold is taken advantage of in the grocery store and Jack is there to help him work through that. Lucien is about to get his government money cut and Jack is trying to prepare him for the court date coming up. Jack plays such a huge role in helping these four men live the most normal life they can. Though he is doing the best he can, it is completely apparent that he is coming to the end of his wire. There is only so much he can do to help these men, and he seems to be getting overwhelmed with trying too hard to do too much. Throughout the play there is several times he really bares his soul to the audience and we see what is going on behind his façade. He tries to put on a strong mask before the four men to be like a rock for them, but in these few moments he completely shows us just how much he is struggling. He is struggling so much that he ends up quitting his job to go work somewhere else. And it is in these few moments that he really opens up that I would like to focus on.

It may seem like the speeches he gives can be taken at face value. Though at times this is true, at other times I believe we should look deeper at the underlying things he is trying to get through to us. Throughout this play it is easy to lose focus of Jack and not pay him as much attention because after all we are paying close attention to the four men with handicaps. Obviously they are a central part of the play, but Jack is also a very important part to this play and he should not be overlooked. I think if we were to really study his character we would find a lot of things that were “hidden” or overlooked accidentally.

I think a lot of people have pegged this play as a way to raise awareness for people with mental handicaps. While this is partially true of this play, I definitely do not think that is the sole reason for this work. I believe this author did a wonderful job at giving us all a reality check in many aspects of life. Even just in the fact that we are so blessed to have the life we do. It reminds us that though this life has many struggles, God made us all unique in our own way and He loves us more than any of us could possibly comprehend. I think that is a very central theme of this play, even though it may not have been the author’s intention.

For Jack specifically I think throughout this work he was learning and growing. It was obvious that he had no real home life anymore. At one point while he was sharing his feelings to the audience he mentioned running into his ex wife, and the feelings that were presented there. He said she looked great. While mentioning the conversation they had I felt that she had no understanding of why he did what he did for a living. How is this possible? How could they be married and she not understand his intentions or motivation for the work he was doing? That showed me that they had no communication. I imagine that while they were married, a huge problem in their relationship would be his work. I don’t feel like he was very good at separating his work life from his personal life because he was so involved with this group of guys. I just know that Jack had a huge heart and wanted to completely help these men in whatever way he could. At the very beginning of the play he mentions that he is burnt out, and I believe that throughout this book he really grew just by making the steps to end this job. If he were to continue trying to help these men, I think it would eventually end up affecting his health in a negative way. Not just his physical health, but also his emotional and spiritual. It’s interesting to see how just his decision to quit affected each of these men. I think it would be even more interesting to see what happened with the rest of their lives.

Really analyzing Jack and the development of his character throughout his life can really affect you. Just seeing the love he is showing and has for these four guys is incredible. Although he is getting more and more frustrated by all the little things that make up one big thing, you can just tell he is trying so hard to make their lives better. Even at the very end when Jack talks to Barry in the psych ward you can just see the love he has for them. Yet he has to quit his job before it ends his own life. This love is something we should all strive for, I think.          

A very old man.

When you think you’ve read the most intriguing, confusing, weird story ever written.. Professor Corrigan assigns another one.

The first thing I would like to ask is how is this a tale for children? Perhaps I could understand it better if I had the mindset of a child, and I wasn’t trying to analyze every little thing as much as I have been. Though I highly doubt that is the case. Something that shocks me in both of these stories we have read recently is the people’s complete lack of concern for a human life. Whether it is a child or an elderly man with wings. Of course, this is fiction. I guess I shouldn’t forget that.

Is their significance in the fact that the boy got better after the angel had arrived at their house? Or that both the angel and the boy got chicken pox at the same time? I feel like there is, I just can’t pin point it. Especially since when the angel left, there was no fanfare. Neither was there any correlation between him leaving and the boy seeing. However, the mom saw and felt relief. This would make sense though because she felt he was slightly a nuisance wandering about the house.

Another interesting thing I saw were the discussion questions at the end of the story. One of them asked us to discuss how the “very old man” had impacted the lives of the man and wife together. It is hard for me to see how he really did in any significant way. It’s not like they were struggling to begin with and then the angel brought them together. So in what way did this guy bring their family together? They did make plenty of money by showing him off as a spectacle. Stories like these just really make me want to get inside the author’s head. I really wish I could just know what they were thinking while writing this story and what intentions they had for each character.

December First!

Wow. Just wow. This story is completely different than anything I have ever read before. I definitely was not expecting all the turns the story took either. I don’t really know what to think. I was trying to figure out the significance of the child in the room, and my mind kept on changing as the story progressed. At first I thought maybe it represented all that is bad in the world. We just try to tuck it all away, or sweep it under the table instead of really acknowledging that it is there. And then when the author said this:

“It is the existence of the child, and their knowledge of its existence, that makes possible the nobility of their architecture, the poignancy of their music, the profundity of their science.”

my mind changed again. It confuses me. I feel like I’m so close to what I’m trying to think, and yet I just can’t quite get it out. Does that make any sense? It kinda reminded me of the hope thing we briefly talked about earlier in the class. How there is really no point of hope if you never go through trying times. So like, there really is no bliss without the badness of life or pain. So that was another thought that ran through my mind.

Then what is going on with this town? I feel like they’re crazy! I mean, I guess I understand what he was trying to do. He was just trying to make us picture our own perfect world, right? Then.. BAM! the child comes into the mix. Then he talks about people just walking out of this perfect little town. But then they walk into something even better? How is that possible?

Obviously, it was a very different story than most. Or at least most that I have read. I am excited to hear what everyone else has to say about it tomorrow though. And after we discuss it, I will probably have more clarity on the whole thing.

Philippians

I love the book of Philippians. I just find it so encouraging, for some reason. I have read it several times, and every time I see something new or something takes on a new meaning then it did the previous time. It is so refreshing when that happens. Like God is revealing something to you that is just for you. It’s a great thing to think about, in my opinion.

Anyway, there’s a prompt for this post I do believe. So as I was reading through it I was specifically looking for metaphors. There was only one that really stuck out to me. Now, of course, that is not to say that it is the only one. Nor is it to say that what I thought was a metaphor really is a metaphor. I’m not very good at discerning things like that. So the one that stuck out to me was this:

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Is that a metaphor? Maybe the reason I thought it was is because this isn’t usually how the world views things.. But I’m not sure if it is a metaphor or not. Another one that made me wonder was this:

“But you know of his proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father.”

I thought maybe this was more like symbolism? Just because it is relating it to something else. Or maybe it is something completely different.. Either way, these two quotes of Paul make you really think about what he is trying to get across. In the second quote I wrote, it uses really good imagery and makes me relate it to something else that is easier for me to understand. Whereas before, it was almost on a level that I couldn’t really understand. It didn’t have as much feeling behind it as it does now that I can understand it on my level.  

Symbolism

Symbolism. Although I read the chapter, this was a difficult subject for me to fully digest. There were so many literary terms I was having to look stuff up left and right. And then when I read the blog post for this blog, and I read the story, I did not understand how I could relate the story to symbolism in any way. So, that was a no go for me. Of course, I also was not there on Tuesday to participate in any of the discussion or activity, so I am probably a little lost in that aspect.

I did think the story very interesting though. Why did they only call the child, the child? Why did they never say her name? But she’s also the narrator, I guess. Yet, it refers to “the child” all the time. I thought that was a little different. And what was the moral of the story, exactly? Or was it one of those things that doesn’t really have a moral, it’s just a story. Definitely interesting.

In terms of “reading, interpreting, and criticizing” however I think I can manage. Upon first reading this, I was a little befuddled, I won’t lie. Just because it was definitely a unique story, or at least way of writing a story. I interpreted the child to be a very curious young girl. She obviously thought she was smarter than the other kids, but I feel like that was mainly because she was maybe more mature than they were in some ways. Then again, I also feel like she was a little less mature in some ways also. They were a little older than she was, and had their minds set on different things, that is the truth. Either way, the child was the star of the show.

Reflecting

So I decided to reflect upon the past week or two and the play we read, since we had no designated reading for this upcoming class. Since this course is supposed to be all about helping and teaching us to read better, I wanted to see if this assignment really did help me learn to read any better. I felt that I gained something from just reading the play the first time through, without any special activities. But then when we read some of the lines with each other in class, it really brought it to life for me. It was just a little more real. Especially hearing how some of the other people portrayed their characters.

Also, the girl that spoke to us in class was wonderful I thought. She just had so much energy and passion about what she was talking about. I loved hearing it! And she also brought out a new side of the play that I wouldn’t have come up with, or even known to think about on my own. Then the last big thing which completely brought the play to life was visiting Alliance for Independence. Seeing the people there and even meeting a couple was so neat.

So I do think that the way we’ve been reading in this class is molding me into a better reader. It is really making me want to do more research and investigate more things than just the face value of the story. I feel that it helps me to really understand and even engage texts better when I put more effort into it. Even just finding things out about the author and the purpose for them writing the story makes a big difference. It really changes your perspective. Another thing I’ve noticed recently, is how the meaning of a book can change depending on when you read it. Kind of like Bible passages meaning different things at different times.

Essay

I read the essay by Dr. Fettke. I also had a chance to meet his son, Phillip, on the field trip. One of the major things I found interesting about this essay was when he talked about people of the church not thinking people with disabilities made in God’s image. That is something I have never heard, nor thought before. I have heard about some people thinking that people with mental disabilities were demon possessed. This is something I have never believed though. So, I found it really interesting that apparently so many people think that humans with mental or physical disabilities were not created in God’s image. I wonder how people can think that though. The Bible says that man was created in His image, does it not? It doesn’t specify that only “certain” people were made in His image. I find that to be very frustrating.

How much more so would someone with a relative close to them with a mental handicap, feel? Or better yet, how does that person with the mental handicap feel? Even though life seems so unfair sometimes, God has to have a purpose for it all, right? Or is that just my naiveté speaking?

One line that stuck out to me was this:

“Hauerwas notes that “helping” the handicapped can actually expose our own weakness, by which he means “our own sense of helplessness and loneliness.”

What I took this to mean was that sometimes when we reach out to the handicapped or try to help them, we feel vulnerable and our own “problems” come to the surface. Maybe that is why many people shy away from things like this? I feel that whenever I am around people with mental handicaps or such, I feel loneliness. But it’s not loneliness for me. Instead, it is more of the loneliness that I expect them to be feeling. And in return I have a desire to fill that void they are experiencing in their lives.