"Jeremy was different. He'd lost everything -- his walk, his smile, the muscles of his upper arms and shoulders. Even his hair lay flat now, as if he couldn't bother with a tube of gel and a comb. When she saw him at the arraignment, saw him for the first time since she'd climbed out of the car and limped into the dorm with the blood wet on her legs, he looked like a refugee, like a ghost" (8).
T.C. Boyle's story "The Love of My Life" begins with two teenagers, Jeremy and China, completely and totally infatuated with each other. After a night of unprotected sex, China gets pregnant and decides to keep it a secret from everyone. Even after Jeremy makes a feeble attempt at helping her, she forces him to remain quiet and not to reach out for help. Jeremy delivers the baby in secret and then leaves the baby "in the Dumpster out back" (6). When confronted with his wrongdoing by the police Jeremy is completely dumbfounded. Jeremy was so blindly confused all he can say was "What's this all about?" (7). Jeremy remains in shock as he vaguely recalls "that thing in the garbage sack" that he "fling... into the dumpster like a sack of flour"(7). Jeremy cannot even think of the baby as a human life but merely a "thing" that he was forced to get rid of. Jeremy's lack of emotion and complete confusion of his actions are indicators that he might have been in mental shock when he disposed of the baby.
Is Jeremy acting as a selfish murder or just an immature, emotionally disturbed boy looking to preserve his current life?
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