In the first leg of his journey, a pastor assumes that Smithy is homeless and helps him out a lot. he gets him food, clothes, etc. He even gave Smithy that little "home is in your heart, you carry it with you" spiel. Smithy is too awkward and a little awestruck to get it out that he actually does have somewhere he could go to. The priest is really nice, but something that's been nagging at me is the question; "would have the pastor helped Smithy if he'd know the full story?" I think yes. There isn't some contract that says priests can only help homeless people. The priest is a really nice guy, and seems very understanding and sympathetic to emotional and spiritual (duh) needs. He would probably have still helped Smithy out, because I would at least partially grasp that the journey would be necessary for Smithy's well-being.
Monday, November 17, 2014
Homelessness
Something that came up a lot on the novel was the question of Smithy's homelessness. Throughout the book, there are instances where people don't necessarily state directly that they think he's homeless, but imply it through their actions. It's not hard to see where they're coming from. He looks shaggy and dirty. Plus, he's not a young man anymore and usually homeless pepole (or at least the ones I've seen) are at least on the young side of middle-aged. Is he homeless or not? I suppose legally, or officially or whatever, the answer is no. But, an argument could be made for yes. Although he has his apartment (possibly) and his parents' old house, while he's actually on the journey to Los Angeles he could be considered homeless. He doesn't have anywhere to stay and he keeps moving from place to place. He's not on a very consistent method of transportation like a bus, train, plane, etc. I know he's not really homeless, but he's kind of living like he is.
Old vs. New
This kind of ties into my previous post, but I was inspired to talk about it so I'm going to.
While reading Memory of Running, I sometimes had trouble differentiating between chapters that took place in Smithy's past and chapters that took place during the journey. Obviously, I'd figure it out fairly quickly based on context, but looking back on this now got me thinking. It was difficult to tell the difference between past Smithy and present(-ish) Smithy other than the fact that they were living through different events. They just seemed like kind of the same person. It was hard to keep track of which was which and what happened when even after doing the reading.
To me, there are a couple of possible reasons for this. One, is that Smithy doesn't sound like a different person from his old self because he hasn't mentally matured very much since then, something that has been touched on in various blogs in various contexts. Another possible reason is just that it's because its actually being narrated by the same Smithy. Of course narrator Smithy is going to have the same voice no matter what he's narrating, since he's telling all this at the same point in time. So in order for us to form opinions of any of the Smithy's, we have to know whether or not we trust narrator Smithy. As was discussed in a post by a classmate, I think Smithy is a narrator we can trust. Even though he has some issues, I like him a lot, and he knows what his issues are. He isn't ignorant.
The similarities between Smithy at various points in time, therefore, come from a combination of Smithy not having done a lot of "growing up," but also from whatever influence narrator Smithy has over the retellings.
While reading Memory of Running, I sometimes had trouble differentiating between chapters that took place in Smithy's past and chapters that took place during the journey. Obviously, I'd figure it out fairly quickly based on context, but looking back on this now got me thinking. It was difficult to tell the difference between past Smithy and present(-ish) Smithy other than the fact that they were living through different events. They just seemed like kind of the same person. It was hard to keep track of which was which and what happened when even after doing the reading.
To me, there are a couple of possible reasons for this. One, is that Smithy doesn't sound like a different person from his old self because he hasn't mentally matured very much since then, something that has been touched on in various blogs in various contexts. Another possible reason is just that it's because its actually being narrated by the same Smithy. Of course narrator Smithy is going to have the same voice no matter what he's narrating, since he's telling all this at the same point in time. So in order for us to form opinions of any of the Smithy's, we have to know whether or not we trust narrator Smithy. As was discussed in a post by a classmate, I think Smithy is a narrator we can trust. Even though he has some issues, I like him a lot, and he knows what his issues are. He isn't ignorant.
The similarities between Smithy at various points in time, therefore, come from a combination of Smithy not having done a lot of "growing up," but also from whatever influence narrator Smithy has over the retellings.
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Age is just a number
Something that we haven't touched on a lot in class that has really struck me while reading The Memory of Running is that Smithy doesn't really seem like a middle aged man. It's been mentioned briefly during discussion that he seems to sometimes exhibit perhaps teen-like behavior/tone, but for me it's really just hard to picture him as this man in his 40's. Maybe I'm just weird-- I do this with a lot of adult narrators, but when I'm reading his narration I picture this guy who doesn't really have a specific age, he's just himself. But, even when I force myself to really produce a concrete image of him using descriptions from the text, his voice seems to go with someone who's not old enough to be my dad.
In a lot of ways Smithy doesn't seem to have really grown up. As an adult, he's still just as awkward as we see him in his memories of being a teenager; he doesn't really talk much and doesn't know what to say a lot of the time, he's never sure of what to do with himself, he has low self-esteem which affects how he handles himself, the list goes on and on. Even though he has been seeming more his age as the journey has progressed, he still shows some, I guess, youthful innocence in his actions. For example, when he saved the kid and the police thought he was like a child molester. He didn't really know what to do. He didn't realize he looked suspicious enough for the policeman to shoot him, and that's what ended up happening. He also hasn't had a lot of experience with women. As far as we know, he hasn't had any kind of serious relationship. His skills of interacting with the opposite sex haven't really improved since high school.
I guess it's just hard for me to age Smithy while reading his narration because he has some qualities that make him seem older (it's pretty easy to imagine a guy drinking off his troubles at a bar being middle aged), and others that are more immature.
In a lot of ways Smithy doesn't seem to have really grown up. As an adult, he's still just as awkward as we see him in his memories of being a teenager; he doesn't really talk much and doesn't know what to say a lot of the time, he's never sure of what to do with himself, he has low self-esteem which affects how he handles himself, the list goes on and on. Even though he has been seeming more his age as the journey has progressed, he still shows some, I guess, youthful innocence in his actions. For example, when he saved the kid and the police thought he was like a child molester. He didn't really know what to do. He didn't realize he looked suspicious enough for the policeman to shoot him, and that's what ended up happening. He also hasn't had a lot of experience with women. As far as we know, he hasn't had any kind of serious relationship. His skills of interacting with the opposite sex haven't really improved since high school.
I guess it's just hard for me to age Smithy while reading his narration because he has some qualities that make him seem older (it's pretty easy to imagine a guy drinking off his troubles at a bar being middle aged), and others that are more immature.
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