Each of
the three stories had something in common within their plot; they all dealt
with relationships. Each of these included a relationship between a man and
woman (boy and girl), but there were other important relationships in each story,
such as that between Deirdre and Violet in The
Saving Work, the protagonist and his father in Canoe Sickness, or Mason and his heritage in Where Tourists Don’t Go.
In The Saving Work, the relationship
between Thomas and Jasmine was very troubling to me. Thomas was absolutely
enamored with Jasmine but had trouble showing his affection, a huge mistake on
his part. And on top of that, Jasmine was a sweet, innocent, virgin girl that
he has known for so long; he just wasn’t sure how to approach the situation. As
soon as they get comfortable in bed, however, there is an extremely awkward
moment between two friends who should’ve stayed friends, but got too close.
Jasmine sees the power she holds over a man and it takes over her; she didn’t
realize it was so simple and easy! She also didn’t realize one other important
factor: she liked it. This changed her character dramatically and made her very
easy, in my opinion, to hate. Not only did she have sex with Moby, she carried
his child and pushed it onto Thomas, followed by getting married to him. This
is a clear display of manipulation that is so cruel and unjust, not capable of
a typical person.
Deirdre’s
place in the story is a bit confusing, but it is clear that she has a direct
conflict with Violet. What is unclear is whether or not she caused the fire,
and if she did, is her son’s marriage to Violet’s oldest daughter the reason
she started it?
The
protagonist’s relationship with his father in Canoe Sickness interested me the most. On talking about how his
father found out about his morning runs, “He knew discipline. Going to graduate
school, working full time. Often, he wasn’t home for dinner. Sometimes when I
came back from running, the sweat cold on my neck, he’d be in the living room
on the couch. His body deep into the creases, the couch sinking into the
floorboards. His shoulders and head leaning into a textbook.” (p 62). There is
a clear mutual respect between the protagonist and his father. They both know
what it means to be disciplined, something I can also relate to and leads me to
also respect the two also. While the protagonist sees his father put the family
on his shoulders metaphorically, he chases after his goals, both literally and
metaphorically. There is a moment of conflict when his girlfriend mentions that
his father may have a woman on the side, and is the real cause for his late
nights out. This moment of distrust leads him to sneak into his parents’
bedroom, to watch them in their “natural state.” He saw what he was doing was
wrong, and left their room embarrassed as his father watched. But he got over
his conflict; he feared his father was less than perfect but he proved it to be
a false fear and thus his respect for his father was maintained.
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