Monica Woods - Disappearing (Overview - Role 2)
This minute business office volition encompass the plot too deals amongst the "growth" procedure the even out describes. Through this process, Wood intimates how destructive others tin live too how -- equally traumatizers -- they tin permanently stunt development.
In part 3, the indicate of stance too symbolism are discussed.
For to a greater extent than literary analyses, click on the paradigm below.
Monica Wood - Disappearing
Plot
- fast-paced, serial of briefly described events that present a destructive process
- 1st encounter: sexual practice amongst hubby
- physical perspective: narrator shuts her eyes, is disgusted, passive, helps “make it operate faster” merely to live done amongst it
- psychological perspective: no sense of connector ⇒ “… he’s equally far from me equally he gets. He could live dead he’s therefore far away.”
- her friend Lettie advises her to acquire out him (Lettie calls her “stupid”); narrator knows no i would desire her the means she is
- she goes to the pool:
- just manages to float at first
- blond girls smirk at her: narrator imagines their thoughts: “… that fatty i parting the Red Sea…”
- redhead teacher encourages her
- narrator gets scared
- goes home:
- has cake + milk
- husband: “No wonder you lot hold off similar that … How tin you lot stand upwards yourself.”
- narrator retorts he’s no Cary Grant
- husband laughs
- narrator purges
- returns to the pool:
- starts swimming (the crawl)
- redhead encourages her, is happy that narrator is floating too moving too
- Lettie stops going to swimming lessons
- tells the narrator she needs to swim a lot to lose weight, to halt eating junk food
- narrator says she’s non doing it for this reason
- Lettie doesn’t believe her
- back at the pool:
- feels secure
- knows she won’t autumn fifty-fifty at the deep end
- the heft of her doesn’t affair when she floats
- husband says there’s no deviation inwards her appearance – she looks the same
- narrator knows she’s different: has gained plenty confidence to consider she has changed; has gained mobility inwards the pool
- narrator’s involvement inwards men is aroused:
- she starts looking at other men, existent men (not the ones she sees on TV)
- drops sth at the supermarket merely to consider who volition alternative it up
- puts bluish oculus shadow on (which runs offs inwards bluish tears inwards the pool)
- narrator successfully completes swimming lessons, gets certified
- narrator continues to swim:
- gets a lane all to herself: “no i shares” (is it because others don’t desire to or because the narrator won’t permit anyone?)
- blondes ignore her because she tin lower herself too swim without splashing the water
- “For i hr every twenty-four hours I am thin, sparse equally water, transparent, invisible, steam or smoke.”
- redhead teacher has gone to a unlike pool
- Lettie doesn’t come upwards over to narrator’s solid anymore forthwith that she’s fatter: calls the narrator “uppity”, “… who do you lot mean value you lot are.”
- husband forthwith says she looks all right
- relationship is worse: narrator refuses intercourse sometimes except when puddle is closed on Sundays (can’t tell no because she hasn’t been invisible)
- but fifty-fifty so, narrator feels it’s non all that bad, he’s better
- husband tells her this dieting + do won’t final
- complains close the low-calorie dinners she keeps inwards the freezer + a machine she keeps inwards the basement (an do machine?)
- narrator says (for the 2nd fourth dimension inwards the story) she’s non doing it for this argue (i.e. to lose weight), but hubby (like Lettie) doesn’t believe her
- narrator says there’s other men at the pool: hubby doesn’t attention what she does amongst them (says “Good luck.”)
- daughter-in-law
- notices narrator has lost weight
- had kept her from almost all marriage ceremony pictures (except the i amongst the whole menage unit of measurement inwards it because she couldn't assist it)
- narrator explains that it’s all because she’s learned how to swim
- narrator says she “should endeavor it, it powerfulness assist your ugly disposition”
- pool closes for ii weeks for tile repairs: narrator drinks H2O all day
- pool opens again
- narrator goes every twenty-four hours until the puddle becomes “familiar equally a face”
- at commencement the H2O is “heavy equally blood”, too then it becomes “thinner too thinner” merely plenty to concur her up
- she stops wearing goggles, cap, ear plugs because it keeps the H2O out of her
- day earlier a holiday, no i but her + a lifeguard is at the pool
- “… it was echoey quiet merely me too the silent empty pool”
- signs she’s equally good thin: “I lowered myself therefore tedious it wound every musculus but non a blip of H2O non a ripple non i audio …”
- redhead teacher returns, remembers her from somewhere but doesn’t recognize her
- husband threatens to pose her inwards a infirmary because this has gone equally good far
- calls the puddle instead; they pay no attention
- he no longer touches narrator at night; she smiles inwards her pillow
- Lettie is shocked to consider her: “Oh my God … what the hell are you lot doing what the hell do you lot mean value you’re doing.”
- narrator’s answer: “I’m disappearing…”
- ending: narrator’s thoughts
- in the middle of it people (men) looked at her; she’d idea close it; forthwith they don’t hold off at her + it’s better
- redhead has taught her to dive: narrator wants to "vanish similar a needle into skin" + hopes each fourth dimension she dives this volition live the fourth dimension she succeeds
“Growth” Process
- this even out talks close gaining self-confidence + at the same fourth dimension becoming self-destructive
- each see to the swimming puddle empowers the narrator fifty-fifty more
- it’s equally if the puddle is giving her life, allowing her to start from scratch equally a baby, too then pushing her into childhood, adolescence, adulthood, death
- process:
- floating
- crawling (swimming the crawl)
- not beingness afraid of the deep end
- mobility: when her hubby says she hasn’t changed, she lists the things she tin do (float at the deep end, movement her arms + feet to force the H2O behind, swim towards the wall, tin hold off at the bottom of the puddle without beingness afraid)
- sexual involvement inwards others: basic instincts awaken, she starts primping herself (eye shadow)
- gets certified (i.e. graduates): becomes independent (gets a lane to herself, says no to her husband, talks dorsum to her daughter-in-law)
- “in the middle of it”: positive remarks / behaviour of others are equally good belatedly forthwith for her to live able to stance the futurity optimistically (men powerfulness live paying attending to her, but non equally much equally she’d like; Lettie has abandoned her; her hubby is even therefore equally mutual depression temperature too distant equally he was)
- obsession/addiction: later on puddle closes, she needs her laid upwards to maintain herself ‘afloat’; wants to operate the H2O (seeing equally she’s seen that beingness sparse doesn’t brand a deviation ⇒ people merely ignore her again) + “vanish similar a needle into skin”
- conclusion:
- the procedure of increment is stunted yesteryear a disclose of traumatizers
- husband: discourages her from swimming (it doesn’t help; dieting + exercising won’t last); treats her similar she doesn’t conduct hold a heart; gets what he wants from her sexually without giving; says atrocious things to her (“How tin you lot stand upwards yourself.”); doesn’t do anything to salve her life fifty-fifty though he sees her wasting away
- Lettie: although she should conduct hold bonded amongst the narrator since they were both victims of torso shaming, she abandons her, calls her “uppity”
- blondes at pool: express mirth at her too then ignore her
- redhead instructor: encourages her but too then doesn’t recollect her
- daughter-in-law: leaves her out of marriage ceremony photos, but forthwith tries to endear herself
- Wood seems to live telling us that life is close learning to swim
- first floating, too then non beingness afraid, too then moving too becoming independent
- when you lot don’t have the attending + attention that all individuals are owed, you lot prefer to fade away into the underwater quiet or the foursquare of the black that is your pillow at night, becoming invisible similar you lot ever conduct hold been to others
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