Displacement Story

  Richard was not your average man. Sure he may look normal on the surface, but beyond his appearance was a life  he longed to escape. He had married Isabel 20 years ago, after discovering she was pregnant with his son. She's no longer in the picture now, for reasons which his heart can't bear to dwell on. But what had come from that relationship was his son Alex, the pride and joy of his life. 

    Richard grew up in a small town up in Northern Montana called Conrad. He wasn't very social, but excelled in school. His intelligence seemed far above the rest of his peers, and for this reason he didn't seem to fit in. While all the other high school students were going out on dates and going to prom, he was inside doing homework or coming up with the next great theory. For this reason, he longed to leave Conrad and make something of himself. So after High school, he got a full ride scholarship to MSU, a huge town compared to Conrad, and studied to be an architect. After completing his masters, he met Isabel (the first woman who had ever given him a chance), and they soon became pregnant. They married and his son Alex was born nine months later. Isabel left soon after because she couldn't deal with Richards ego and sense of superiority to everyone, and so Richard was left to raise his son alone.

    Richard moved on with his life and began an extremely successful architecture business. He had a huge influence in the city of Bozeman, and soon everyone recognized his architecture. They admired his work, but no one knew about the man behind the buildings. Soon Richard was one of the wealthiest people in the valley. When his son Alex graduated high school, he was eerily similar to his father. Incredibly smart and used to getting everything he wanted, he dreamed of leaving Bozeman and moving onto bigger and better things. His father warned him not to have too big of an ego, after all- not everywhere was as safe as Bozeman. Yet despite his fathers advice, Alex believed he could do anything, and decided to travel the world and escape from Bozeman, seeking thrill and adventure. Richard was sad to see his son go, and warned him against thinking he was invincible. 

     Yet despite this, Alex soon left Bozeman thinking he could do anything. He began by going on a skiing adventure. Although he didn't have much experience skiing, he went on the most dangerous area of the hill, believing that he could do anything. His friend's advised against pushing his limits, but he did it anyway. While on the way down the hill, Alex's friends saw a danger of avalanche sign and veered the other way. Alex, however, wanting to impress, heading straight for the danger area. His friends watched him as he soared down the mountain, and all seemed well until suddenly a huge mass of snow engulfed him- he had triggered an avalanche. His friends were far enough away the all they could do was watch the horror play out. Alex's last thoughts were of his father, and his advice about not pushing his limits. This is all he remembered as his mind went black.

    The funeral was held a week later. Richard was empty inside, his only joy in life stolen from him. He knew he had passed his ego onto his son and that it was a curse than possibly caused his death. All he could do was stare at the hole in the ground as his son was lowered into it.He thought that a life can be full of success and wealth and ego, but none of this can cause pure happiness. He pondered life's questions as he mourned his son. 

Symbols and signs

        After reading this story, I'm left with an unclear mind, wondering what to make of it. It's not the most thrilling story on the surface, and if you don't give it any thought it just seems like a simple story. However, if you look deeper into it, there are so many little clues and "signs" for the reader about what the story really means. There are many small details in the story that at first glance seem useless, but they set the tone for the story. For example, the small bird twitching in the puddle sets a bleak and dreary tone.
        I agree with most people in that the third phone call was to tell that the son had been successful in his suicide attempt this time. The idea of something happening three times comes across really clearly in this story. Towards the end, when I knew what fate was coming, I couldn't help but feel bad for the parents. Especially the father, who can't sleep because he wants to get his son out next thing in the morning. It's the idea of being just a little too late and timing of things. I know the father will have to deal with regret the rest of his life, and both parents might wish they had gotten their son out of there on his birthday.
     The jars of jelly still are a mystery to me. I don't have a clear grasp on what they could represent. The only thing I can think of is that the parents were playing it safe when they got him the jellies. They didn't get him anything amazing, just something they thought wouldn't do any harm to him. This could relate to the end of the story because they played it safe by not actually seeing him on his birthday, and this is something they may come to regret.

The Spinners

     This painting that we all must analyze this week is The Spinners by Diego Velasquez. Although we discussed it alot in class, many of the elements in the painting remain unknown to me and I'm not sure what they might symbolize. But for the time being, I will just describe my thoughts on this work of art.

    First of all, it obviously is a depiction of the mythological story of Arachne, and her spinning contest with Athena. The girl in the white on the right represents Arachne. She is wearing some of the brightest clothes, and to me stands out as a central point in the image. Next, the woman in the white head cloth represents Athena. She appears older and more distinguishes, and the way she is spinning seems more effortless. This could represent her authority and higher power as a goddess. In addition, the foreground of the painting appears to be a stage. I can tell this because of the lady holding back the red curtain on the left side. It makes sense that the contest would be in the form of a stage because it is the main event and a spectacle in the story of Arachne. It is her chance to prove herself in front of everyone, and because of that it represents a show. 

    It is interesting to me how this painting is like two paintings in one. In the background is another story. The tapestry in the back actually references another story- the rape of Europa. I can't see the details of the painting very clearly, but this background portion seems much brighter and lighter and there seems to be people around admiring the work. I think that this area of the painting could represent the winning tapestry of Athena, and everyone admiring it. Since Zeus is judging the contest, it feels like his presence is in the background. When I think of gods I think of lights being associated with it, and there is plenty of light in the background. Overall, I believe that the front of the image is the beginning of the story of Arachne, and the background is the conclusion with the winning tapestry. 

Midas

  Today I was looking at how mythology is common in our everyday world even if we don't know it. Something interesting that I found was that many companies today use mythology in their names and logos. For example is the car repair company Midas. In Greek mythology, Midas was a king of Phrygia who had the power to turn everything he touched into gold. This was called the "Midas Touch". But soon, Midas realized that the golden touch was not always a good things. He couldn't touch anything without it turning into gold, and that was a problem for eating or using any object. So overall, Midas realized that having the golden touch was tougher than he thought.

    The Slogan of the Midas car company is "Trust the Midas touch", which now that I think about it might not always be a good thing. I guess in terms of cars, having a magical touch is a good thing. However, overall in the story of Midas, the touch led to many disadvantages for him.

   Something else that could relate to the Midas story is something I saw in the t.v. mini-series The 10th Kingdom. This series basically is about two people in a journey through a magical kingdom and throughout their journey they encounter many fairytale characters. At one point in the movie, one of the main characters Tony sticks his pinky in a magical fish and the fish bites him, and his pinky turns gold and everything he touched turns to gold. At first he is super excited about it, but his daughter feels differently. He tells her, "look, I could touch this boat and it would all turn to gold and we would be rich!". Then his daughter puts things in perspective and says "yes, but then the boat would sink and we would all drown." I think this shows the two sides of the Midas touch very well. On one hand, the idea of turning things into gold seems marvelous at first, but when you think about things in a realistic way its not that great.