Monday, February 20, 2012
When Two Socks Fall In Love
T.C. Boyle's "The Love of My Life", tells the story of two ambitious selfish so totally in "love" teenagers whose whole world revolve around each other and nothing else. What supposedly start's out as a great loving relationship, end's in deep tragedy with the love experienced between China and Jeremy becoming nothing more then a shadow of it's former glory. One of the moment's in the story come's in the form of imagery during the camping scene:
"What else? The rain, of course. It came midway through the third day, clouds the color of iron fillings, the lake hammered to iron, too, and the storm that crashed through the trees and beat at their tent with a thousand angry fists."
During this unforgettable week there was to be nothing but sunshine yet the rain came through and shattered the sunshine. This scene in many way's imitates what happened to China and Jeremy's relationship as they suddenly got swept into this unplanned path with the pregnancy and the media attention and the public bashing's they received during the trial.
Throughout the story, the love they have for each other is mentioned repeatedly yet by the end and particularly when Jeremy throw's away the baby they both made while making love, it has to be asked if the love they had was as strong as they lead themselves to believe. Despite their agreement about being always safe with sex they still proceed to do it with no thought for the consequences and afterward's in every way act very selfish. By essentially throwing away the baby as Jeremy so easily did, they threw out their "love" and failed to weather the storm together. It is also interesting how Boyle opened this story be calling them a pair of sock's because a pair will always be together until eventually one sock becomes lost and in a pair of sock's there can never be a third.
Question's:
1. What do you think was the problem with Jeremy and China?
2.At the very end of the story, can it be said that China really does still love Jeremy?
3.Why are they in particular trying to prosecute Jeremy and willing to let China off the hook?
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I agree with Ariel that the repeated mentioning of the rain, especially in this instance, marks changes in China and Jeremy's relationship. Throughout the story, Boyle states, "that was love, that was the way love was" (79) or "He didn't even bring his fishing rod, and that was love" (80) imparting this immature and naive idea of what love means. Essentially, this is the story of two kids who tried to burrow within their relationship--spending a weekend in the woods away from everyone, cocooning themselves in a motel room--and yet wanted to be able to live normal lives and grow up ("He couldn't have a life. Couldn't be a freshman" [81].) Just like all children, they wanted to cling to the known while simultaneously flinging themselves into the unknown, the future. The catch is that neither of them could move on with a baby on the way.
ReplyDeleteChange in this story is marked by rainstorms: "On the night her water broke...it was raining. Raining hard" (82). The night they conceived their child, it was raining. The night they killed their child, it was raining. While rain often symbolizes a baptism of sorts, in this story it ushers in unwanted circumstances with tragic, unwelcome outcomes.
Within the space of a year, everything went from "green" (79) to "dead brown twigs" (87). Jeremy went from feeling "immortal and unconquerable" (78) because of his love for China, to not being able to picture her face. And China went from wearing socks to wearing an ankle bracelet that tied her to her home. This story is about growing up--and what happens when you don't.
Question: Do you think Jeremy and/or China did find a baptism/rebirth of sorts through their experiences? If not, what do you think the rain symbolizes?