Judy’s answer to “I wonder if this is an allegory about commercialism, secularism, and addiction? The novel ends with…” > Likes and Comments
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That being said. Yes, I believe this could be a specific story that parallels a much bigger one. A bigger narrative where society as a whole is in denial, being sold, and using all these drugs, consumerism, etc. to avoid reality (the reality of climate change, what we do to animals, over medication, social inequity, sexual exploitation, etc.)
I agree. The diving into death is more or less for certain - there is little reason to believe the people jumping from those heights in the World Trade Center fires were "chancing" it and thought they might survive.
Rather than find it cringeworthy that the author thinks this way, I feel the author's use of this imagery (a woman with the look of Reva) is a therapeutic "slap in the face" for her, and it motivates her to feel gratitude for just being alive. I agree, it's not a good thing to use suicide as a "motivation" but in this case it seems to work and it gets the author to go out into the world once more.
I feel the spirit of this imagery for the author is that life can get rough, things can get unbearable, but there's always people who do their best with what they're given, and they take action, and even rather take their life into their own hands, instead of passively sitting back and letting outside circumstances dictate it for them. It also connects her to Reva, and serves as a reminder to the ongoing persistence and action-taking she made throughout her life. To think of the tireless struggles Reva endured (trying to fix her best friend, trying to find love, trying to lose weight and improve her socioeconomic standing) and how little self-indulgence she has even in the face of death, apparently that is the lesson the author gains here.
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Judy
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Dec 09, 2018 01:30PM
That being said. Yes, I believe this could be a specific story that parallels a much bigger one. A bigger narrative where society as a whole is in denial, being sold, and using all these drugs, consumerism, etc. to avoid reality (the reality of climate change, what we do to animals, over medication, social inequity, sexual exploitation, etc.)
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I agree. The diving into death is more or less for certain - there is little reason to believe the people jumping from those heights in the World Trade Center fires were "chancing" it and thought they might survive.Rather than find it cringeworthy that the author thinks this way, I feel the author's use of this imagery (a woman with the look of Reva) is a therapeutic "slap in the face" for her, and it motivates her to feel gratitude for just being alive. I agree, it's not a good thing to use suicide as a "motivation" but in this case it seems to work and it gets the author to go out into the world once more.
I feel the spirit of this imagery for the author is that life can get rough, things can get unbearable, but there's always people who do their best with what they're given, and they take action, and even rather take their life into their own hands, instead of passively sitting back and letting outside circumstances dictate it for them. It also connects her to Reva, and serves as a reminder to the ongoing persistence and action-taking she made throughout her life. To think of the tireless struggles Reva endured (trying to fix her best friend, trying to find love, trying to lose weight and improve her socioeconomic standing) and how little self-indulgence she has even in the face of death, apparently that is the lesson the author gains here.
