Passage #3
Sherman Alexie
Illusion
Message
Relationships
Characterization
Perspective
Death is a hard thing to accept.
Jimmy - Jimmy is a happy person,
when he is hit with the reality of his
tumor he leans to humour to accept
his diagnosis. Jimmy wife Norma is
shocked by the news and doesn't
appreciate the way Jimmy has reacted.
Norma loves Jimmy very much, when she is told of the news Jimmy has had to face, she is devastated. Jimmy jokes around about his diagnosis and Norma doesn't apreciate the way he is telling her ther tragic news.
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Multiple established baseball players
were mentioned in the passage. Babe Ruth,
Roger Maris and most importantly Hank Aaron had a very important part in the peice.
"No, really. I told her to call me Babe Ruth. Or Roger Maris. Maybe even Hank Aaron 'cause there must have been about 755 tumors inside me.
Hank Aaron was a professional basaeball player who played in the
MLB from 1954 to 1976. Over his
outstanding career, while withstanding
racism and managing to break new records, he hit a total of 755 homes runs
over his 20 plus years career.
Sybolism
The symbolism of the sentence really capitalizes the magnitude of his diagnoses. The illusion of the sentence captures the sad reality that Jimmy won't make it to next year and he needs to understand that there is no coming back from his unfortunate.
Norma, scared and feeling like she can't handle the sad truth of death Jimmy will face leaves Jimmy due to the fact she can't bare to see him pass.
Jimmy feels empty without Norma in his life, when she leaves she misses the way she makes everything feels ok and hopes she will come back.
After Norma accepts what Jimmy's inevitable death she comes back home. The end of the story doesn't result in Jimmy's death but Norma was with Jimmy holding his hand through the challenges of his last days.
After leaving Jimmy, Norma refuses to go home and return to her husband. It takes her months to realize she will regret not coming home to the love of her life and she won't be able to take back her decision once he's gone.
Sherman Alexie strives to help us undertstand the effect that death can have on the ones around us.
Everyone has a different way of mourning loss.
Some people can't handle the harsh
reality of death but the best way to mourn loved ones is to celebrating their life and holding their hand until their last breath.
Jimmy relies on Norma to comfort him in his final months so when she leaves he can't be the one who tells her she has to move on and keep living when he's gone. When she comes back they get to enjoy his final months together and that's all he can do.
Norma will always have a special place in her heart for Jimmy.
Norma and Jimmy are in a happy marriage prior too his diagnosis
When Jimmy tells Norma about his Cancer in a joking manner, she can't take the fear of losing him.
Of course Norma loves Jimmy but she can't take the fear of losing him. When telling Norma, Jimmy expects her to understand that it is not his fault, simple bad luck and she will stand by his side until his last day.
Every relationship has bumpy spots, Jimmy and Norma among them. The fear of taking a break in such circumstances is scary, Norma could never see Jimmy again and they could never make up for their disagreements. A big part of death is being on good terms witrh the love one that you lose. Norma understood that if she never came back to support Jimmy, she might have never gotten that chance agin. The diseases she made to come back and support her dying husband was one that she would never regret.
Norma could be viewed in different light by readers.
Anyone who has experience the death of a loved one understands the pain that Norma had to suffer. It is easy to make an assumption that Norma was being selfish but she just didn't want to watch her husband struggle and fight for his life. She felt like the best way for her to escape from the nightmare she was faced with was to run away from it.
It is easy to sit on a couch and criticize of woman for running and abandoning her problems but the situation she was put in influenced her desision. I guess the only way to know if you are right to call Norma a coward is to experience what she had to go through and put yourself in her shoes. The way Jimmy would feel fighting his battle alone after Norma abandoned him, without the love of his life by his side is a hard thought to fathom.
It is not hard to understand why Norma made the choice that she did. Though it isn't the choice I could see many others making, it is understandable the choice she made. Jimmy is the most important person in her life, he gets her up in the morning and puts a smile on her face everyday. Norma couldn't imagine what would happen to her if she didn't have Jimmy by her side. The choice she made to leave her husband and make her own decision to leave could have been the breath of air that she needed to come back even stronger than she was before.
The important thing is that Norma eventually came home to her husband and persevered through her struggles. Every relartionship has bumpy roads but she managed to overcome the fear that she had to see Jimmy fighting. Every team is stronger with two people, you never know maybe Jimmy beat the enemy and won the fight against Cancer.