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Post by clairem on Dec 17, 2013 6:43:44 GMT
Despite the horrific situation (a husband cheating on his wife), I would classify this short story as a Romantic piece of literature. Yes this story revolves around a revolting love triangle of infidelity, but it still centers around the topic of love and where one's faithfulness lies. The icing on the cake is the narrator's hopeful and romantic point of view for her and Jack's future that seems to undoubtedly classify it as a romance.
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Post by naomiporter on Dec 17, 2013 6:52:50 GMT
In my made up genre for "No One's a Mystery," I see the primary aspect of it being the open-endedness of the plot and all the possibilities that could occur. This does not necessarily have to refer only to what happens after the story ends, but could also refer to various possibilities for the plot within the story. For example, In "Where are You Going? Where Have You Been?" we do not know for sure whether Connie was asleep and dreaming the whole encounter with Arnold Friend. The different options that are available for how to interpret the story dramatically impact the actual plot line. After the story ends, Connie could wake up, be terrified and duly warned by her dream, and change her ways, or she might end up dead. Going back to "No One's a Mystery," I think the defining characteristic that makes me place it in my genre of "possibilities" is that we do not see what the narrator ends up writing in her journal a year later. For that matter, we also do not see what she writes that night, and for all we know it might not be what she claimed she would. We really know very little of the actual plot of the characters' lives, so for all we know, this could be a coming of age story, a realist story, or an optimistic, happy, ending kind of story. It all depends on what happens next. What does the narrator write in her journal the next year?
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Post by jamiezimmerman on Dec 17, 2013 7:04:29 GMT
"No One's a Mystery" is a comedy. I'm partly saying this because I want to be creative, but in actual analysis of the text, it does have some elements of a humorous nature. There are the plain jokes about Jack's wife believing the signs about the aircraft-monitored skies and the hypothetical baby with a horrible middle name. Then there is the relationship between the two. They are talking about the same thing, but it seems they don't even want to be talking about the same thing. Jack keeps implying that his girlfriend is definitely a child who he shouldn't be carrying on with: "No little kids get into this truck except for you" (246). He is perfectly negative about the whole situation and keeps indulging. The girl, on the other hand, is perfectly content. At her tender age of eighteen she doesn't know how much it sucks to be "[pushed] down onto the dirty floor of the pickup and kept one hand on my head while I inhaled the musk of his cigarettes in the dashboard tray" (246). She is a child trying to pursue a relationship with a grown man, and her desire is so strong that she's willing to sneak around his wife just to be with him - doesn't that just seem strange? The dichotomy between the attitudes of each of them creates a situation to laugh at, and yet still remains realistic and plausible.
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Post by danyhong55 on Dec 17, 2013 7:23:50 GMT
I like this story a lot because it is so open ended. My genre of choice for this short story would be most akin to "choose-your-own-adventure," like those books with all the different possible endings that we used to read as kids. It gives us two obvious/main options to choose from: a cynical heart-break prediction from Jack, and the romantic fantasy from Eleanor (the name I gave to the narrator). Quite frankly, I want the Eleanor's reality to become reality where they fall in love and live happily ever after because, well as girly as this sounds, I can't resist a good love story. But then there's the fact that Jack is a cheating husband; who's to say he won't do the same to Eleanor as he did with his wife. His reality seems more... realistic. In either case, however, there is no one end result. Allow me to clarify. Eleanor could have a happy family in three years. Or, her marriage with Jack could be falling apart, and their children are the only thing holding the family together. Similarly, Jack's prediction may come true. Eleanor could be happy to have him out of her life, or she could be remorseful of her time with Jack, or both, or anything really. In the end, I get to choose whichever ending Jack and Eleanor get; I get to choose my own adventure.
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Post by haleyjensen on Dec 17, 2013 7:58:20 GMT
No little kids get into this truck except for you" (Tallet 245).
Genre: Cautionary
I get chills from the sentence above. And not the kind of chills a person gets from having a grasp on the intrinsic meaning of life, but the kind of chills a person gets from fear that the evil in the world has a grasp on them. This is the kind of story I finish reading and say to myself, "I'm so glad I'm not the main character." It's also the kind of story that attempts to draw the fine line between judgment and discernment. While it's not fair to deem every man that smokes cigarettes and drives a truck a sexual predator, it's probably not the wisest idea to climb into this man's truck if you are an eighteen year old girl. I don't want to be the little kid that gets in the back of this man's truck. However, I do believe there is a role for someone to wait at the end of the road for the truck and have a long conversation with this man.
This story also made me think of the fairy tales we talked about last time, in the sense that it's a story that comes with a warning. For people in the world that always assume the best in others, these stories are very important. There are numerous examples of stories that come with the theme, 'if X (character) hadn't done Y (action), then Z (result) would not have happened.' Stories like these remind us to use our common sense.
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Post by coreybrown on Dec 17, 2013 8:08:51 GMT
I love how complex this story is in that there are so many unanswered questions which could lead to many different interpretations. Is Jack afraid of his wife finding out? Does Jack really wish for a similar future as the narrator (but just see it as impossible), or does the giving of the diary suggest that he's planning to leave her because he sees that she wants a lot more from him that he's willing to give? The questions continue. One common thread, however, is that of love and a contrast between a young girl with hopeful dreams of a loving future and an older man who could either love the narrator (and agree with her dreams, but see them as fruitless) or see her simply as a mistress, nothing long-term in a romantic sense, and still love (or care to continue a relationship with) his wife. In the end, i think this story boils down to one of a realistic romantic coming-of-age story (does that even count as a genre??).
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Post by robertxu on Dec 17, 2013 12:38:04 GMT
I would characterize this novel as "trealistic (tragic+realistic) romanticism". "No One's a Mystery" is very similar to "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" in the sense that it takes an innocent premise and completely perverts it. In popular literature, love and romance are idealized. Even if the affair is fleeting, there is some reasonable explanation for why the two lovers can never be together. This is not the case in "No One's a Mystery" as the only reason the narrator and Jack are together is because of lust. Neither of them actually love each other, as Jack doesn't care enough about her to leave his wife, and the narrator seems to be more infatuated with the idea of having an affair with an older man, than liking Jack for who he is. The pathetic reality of their affair is seen when Jack tells the narrator, "In two years you'll write, 'I wonder what that old guy's name was, the one with the curly hair and the filthy pickup truck and time on his hands" (Tallent 247). Jack is basically the anti-romeo because he fails to meet every conventional standard of attractiveness, yet still is able to cast a spell over the narrator. Additionally, his severe cynicism contrasted with the narrator's naiveté is why I would characterize the story as both realistic and romantic. The tragic aspect of the story is that Jack has given up on life. He refuses to even entertain the idea of giving a relationship with the narrator a chance. This can be seen when he tells the narrator in response to her long-term vision of them being together, "I like yours, but I believe mine" (Tallent 247). Clearly, Jack's life is so terrible and banal that he does that have even a pint of optimism left in his body.
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Post by billfeng on Dec 17, 2013 14:42:49 GMT
Frankenstein Genre: Psychological Coming-of-Age
Like Patrick, I'd also like to relate this story to one of Hemingway's stories. I found the female dynamic in "NOAM" to be analogous to that in Hemingway's "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber". In both stories, there's a young woman who doesn't want to break out of the status quo. In "Short Life", Margot Macomber is trapped in a toxic relationship with Francis. When Francis finally gains the courage to escape from this miserable marriage, Margot shoots him dead out of pure despair. Tied to Francis both emotionally and financially, Margot fears that his leaving will be her demise. Elizabeth Tallent fleshes out a contemporary incarnation of Margot's demeanor through the unnamed female character in the story. Unlike Margot, this female character attaches herself to her male partner, Jack, more innocently. But like Margot, this female character treats her partner as someone she "cannot live without". Yes, as many people have noted, "NOAM" is a coming-of-age story. But, I think there is a definitely a psychological tone surrounding the girl in this story. The girl doesn't actually love Jack. Rather, she has an infatuation that psychologist Erich Fromm would consider to be superficial. Jack tries to shatter this superficial romantic connection and struggles to do so. The girl, who is still so young, denies his rejection of her. She doesn't understand that he is only using her to fulfill his sexual needs. Once the girl is capable of breaking out of this Frommian love, which she still doesn't reject at the end of the story, she will be about to come-of-age and experience a real love with someone else.
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Post by travistoal on Dec 17, 2013 20:14:23 GMT
Genre: backwards love story Alternate (boring): coming-of-age story
This short story starts off with the narrator and Jack together and seemingly in love. With Jack's gift to her, it can be inferred that, even if he teased her by saying that they would break up, he thinks about a future with her in it. However, his teasing introduces the narrator to the idea that he would leave her alone. While a love story takes the confused couple and gives them a happy-ever-after, "No One's a Mystery" takes the lovestruck, naive narrator, who believes in this fairy tale ending, and plants a seed of doubt in her. Instead of starting off hopeless and ending happily, the story starts off with fantastical romantic imagery, and ends in an awkwardly realistic tone.
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Post by anaritter on Dec 19, 2013 0:28:42 GMT
I agree with Haley in that "No One's a Mystery" can be taken as a cautionary tale, but more than that, I think that it's just a bare-bones generalization of common relationships and attitudes in our day and age. It's also just a story based almost entirely on dialogue. We don't get background information about the characters, nor do we really know about their personalities besides what we glean from what they say and the small amount of actions that Tallent actually describes. You could take this story as a sad depiction of modern life and love, or you could take it as some doomed Romeo and Juliet love story, against all odds and obstacles. But I would side with the first option, because neither people really seem to want to be in a relationship - they're not in the relationship for each other, they're in the relationship for the relationship. They're just lying to each other, telling pretty stories for the sake of prolonging a good moment and a good thought, though they know the thought can never be manifest. After Jack tells the girl he doesn't buy her story, or he doesn't have faith that it'll work out for them, he just extends her fantasy. "'I'm not wrong,' he said. 'And her breath would smell like your milk, and it's kind of a bittersweet smell, if you want to know the truth.'" (Tallent 247). I think if I combine all the conclusions I came to about "No One's a Mystery", I would arrive at something like a dialogue-based realistic (neither optimistic nor pessimistic)analysis of what life is for most people.
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Post by samwerner on Dec 19, 2013 0:38:55 GMT
I see where people are going when describing the story as a realistic fiction, as well as a "coming of age story." However, I would like to posit that the story is neither of these. Realistic fiction does make sense, seeing as the scenario is one that could happen in real life. "Coming of age" holds true to a certain point as well, seeing as there is some growth in the character(s) as the story continues. I don't disagree with either of these, but I want to create my own genre for this story that focuses on the pathetic, weak and immoral nature of Jack coupled with the hopelessness of the situation. I might call it "hopeless fiction," for lack of a better word. That title exemplifies some core themes that emanate from the story, but also lacks in some depiction of the actual events.
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