For all that the 70's was a magical time of being a young child, the 80's was that that time I grew up and realized freedom of choices often come with consequences and life is not always fair. I started the decade at 14 and finished at 24, with a lifetime of growing in between. I spent the early part of the 80's in high school and a good part of the rest of that time in the Navy. I was stationed in Washington, DC when they first opened the Vietnam Memorial Wall, and all I can say about the experience of walking the wall was heart wrenching sadness. It is a feeling I will never forget. In October 1983, one of the first terrorist attacks - the bombing of a Marine barracks in Beruit killing 241 Marines. 1986 I watched in horror with my shipmates the Space Shuttle Challenger exploding right after take off, at the very moment it was happening. Many years later I will be watching tv and will witness the Space Shuttle Columbia explode as it reenters the earth's atmosphere, they were broadcasting reentry when they realized something had gone terribly wrong. I remember watching the Iran-Contra affairs senate hearings with many of my other shipmates. We all cheered when Oliver North told them "I must have shredded my memory banks", in sarcastic reference to the shredding of confidential documents. In 1989 while watching World Series we got "snow" on the screen, and moments later they broadcast that San Francisco was hit by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake. The earthquake destroyed parts of the San Francisco bay bridge and killed 63 people. The magnitude of what we saw on television while it was happening was incredible in this decade.
Our stories for this decade "Gesturing" and "Where I'm Calling From" shows the changing of relationships and the consequences of our choices. While "The Shawl" was about the choices that Rosa was forced to make due to situations beyond her control with consequences of life and death. In John Updike's "Gesturing", the husband is faced with his wife's decision to end their marriage. This story was written in third person with a limited point of view, so we only know his view of their marriage. The second story, is Raymond Carver's "Where I'm Calling From", the narrator in this story must face the consequences of his alcoholism while watching two other men face their consequences. This story was written in the first person point of view. The last story "The Shawl" by Cynthia Ozick is a sad and painful story about two women and a baby during the Holocaust. This story was written in the third person omniscient point of view, we get Stella's point of view in the first paragraph only, the rest of the story is Rosa's.
"Gesturing" shows the changing dynamics of family, where once the wife would have stood idly by while her husband had an affair this wife finds a lover of her own. Additionally, she has decided to go it alone and sends her husband away because she can. He is faced with finding an apartment in Boston, and starting his life again. He is caught between his lover and his wife that I feel he still loves. A carving in his window "with this ring I thee wed" from previous tenants irritated him, not so much as it marred his view as it was a reminder of who he had been. While he settled in to that everyday routine of his life there was still that connection to his wife. "The motion was eager, shy, exquisite, diffident, trusting: he saw all its meanings and knew that would never stop gesturing to him, never; though a decree come between them, even death, her gesture would endure, cut into glass". They have simply falling out of line with each, it was easier to quit than work at what they had once had.
"Where I'm Calling From", the main character in this story is a divorced alcoholic quite like the author himself. This is his second stay at Frank Martin's rehabilitation house, the first time when his wife brought him to help get back on track. This time around his current girlfriend drops him off after they have drank themselves into a stupor. He meets Tiny and JP while he is there. Tiny has recently suffered from a serious seizure that was caused by withdrawals from alcohol and JP was brought by his wife's family when he could no longer work or drive, a non functioning alcoholic. JP's story is filtered through our narrator who tells about his great love for his wife and job, and the deterioration of his relationship with both his wife and his job. What is lost when alcoholism takes over their lives is the underlying theme here. JP loses the woman he loved from first sight, as well as the job he loved because of his drinking. Our narrator has destroyed his marriage, and his new relationship was on the rocks as well because of his drinking. Frank talks to the men about "if", "we can help you. IF you want help and want to listen to what we say". To me this story talks about choices and the choices we make, and the consequences we must accept because of those choices. Also, while there is help out there for addicts they must decide they want the help, you can not help someone who doesn't want your help. How far down is rock bottom?
The last story in this group tears at my heart, and I find it hard to go back and read again. "The Shawl" is the story of two woman and a baby that are being marched to a concentration camp and what happens to them while they are there. The baby, Magda, is hidden by the 14 year old mother, Rosa, under a shawl through out the story, both woman and the baby are starving to death. On this fateful day Stella steals the shawl from the baby. It leaves you wondering if Stella stole the shawl because it was previously told she was jealous of Magda or because the cold had become unbearable to her. Or in the end did her own self preservation become more important. Magda wanders out into the courtyard looking for her shawl and is found by the soldiers moments after Rosa sights her. They grab this small child and toss it into the electric fence killing her. Rosa is faced with hollering out to Magda to come back to her before the soldiers get her, but it would call attention to both of them and they would both be shot. After the baby has been murdered, she wants to scream out but again she risks being killed herself. The choices she must make at this point are life and death, does she try to rescue Magda and sacrifice both their lives or does she just watch in horror her death. This story truly saddens my heart.
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