Monday, September 22, 2008
Balto, wish it had an ending!!
Balto by T.C. Boyle is a short story which, along with many classmates, left me at a wall with no where to climb out. I found myself wondering "What the hell happens to the girl? Is she in trouble, did her dad get the wrap for this, what hapened?!?" It left me frustrated and bewildered, but as I thought about it, that is what creates this story, it's the reason that we still wonder about it. This is not the typical story, there is uaually mass conflict internal and conflict with the world round; there is also resolve at the end of the story, but not this time, now we have left everything to the imagination. I almost sympathise with the father because to me he seems lost. It feels as if his wife has left him and the burdon of being a single dad is more than he can handle, he is frustrated, hurt, torn, heartbroke, and completely alone. He tried to fill his void with another woman, Macey, but even she is not enough. He is still so hurt by everything that he turns to alcohol, he turns into a said 'sauce monster'. He completely demolishes any self hope or strength he may have left. When he gets so drunk he cannot drive he stoops to his ultimate low and requests that his daughter drives the small distance to their house and on her way clips a small boy on a bike. This all falls on the father's shoulder as they sit in the courtroom, the lawyer hounding the little Angelle making her feel more like a prisoner than a victim in her fathers deadly game. I appreciated this story and I would actually really like to see an ending damnit!!
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2 comments:
I completely agree with you on this!! When I was reading Balto, I found myself really easily drawn into the story and as I flipped through the pages, I wondered what was going to happen next, and then finally I get to the ending and then that's it! It was just cut off, while I am sitting there going what the hell was that???!! It was a good story, but it would have been even better if I was actually able to know what the hell happened in the end. I know that author's like to use the techniques that T.C Boyle used in the story to draw the reader completely in but come on give me a little more of an ending than that!!
-Kate Lovejoy
I agree with both of you. Out of all the short stories that we read, I would have to say that this was my absolute favorite. In a way it kind of reminded me of "12 Angry Men," how in that story there really isn't an ending either, so the author makes you think of an ending for yourself. I kind of thought it would have been cool, as an assignment for the class, if we had to come up with an ending for ourselves and possible post it as a blog or even just present it in class. This way we could have seen what everyone thought should have happened to each of the characters. Anyway, I agree this was a good story but annoying ending.
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