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Post by haleyjensen on Dec 17, 2013 8:26:09 GMT
Before I answer this question, let me tangent by sharing my Friday afternoon, because I felt like I was living an AP Senior English short story...
I went to get my car's oil changed during my early release. I was sitting there watching my car on the screen while the mechanic's worked on it, when a man with a scraggly beard who smelt of cigarette smoke walked through the door. There were no convenient places for him to sit down, because every other chair was full, so he would've awkwardly sat in between two strangers. He started to fix his complementary cup of coffee as he, myself, and the three other people in the room watched the news. It was footage of the school shooting in Colorado. One mechanic came in and called a lady up to pay for her car services. The man sat down 2 chairs over from me and the news continued to play. I'm pretty sensitive to the smell of cigarette smoke, so the smell was beginning to bother me. The TV played a live report from a news reporter in Colorado on site at the high school where the shootings and suicide took place, and the man next to me laughed. (Call me judgmental if you wish, but at this point the last three short stories we've read were ringing in my thoughts and all I could think about was Arnold Friend and Jack.) I glanced sideways and he must've picked up on my discomfort about his laughing during the news report, and commented that he read the ticker at the bottom of the screen, and thought it was hilarious that people kept buying lottery tickets despite their odds. He digressed, offered me a bit of his background as a former Marine, and we went on to have a thoughtful conversation about the events in the news that day.
Thinking about my encounter with the man on Friday has led me to believe that whoever harbors the most fear is the weakest in a relationship. Thinking back on it realistically, I probably should've known the entire time that I was going to be fine. I was in Lake Oswego, there were mechanics running around the entire place, and three other people waiting in the room. People who go get their cars worked on are usually just ready to get out of an auto-body shop anyway. But, the man with man with the beard and complementary coffee held the power because I was so afraid that he fit the Arnold Friend stereotype. In "No One's a Mystery" there is not a lot of evidence that fear is present in either of the two characters. Except for the very beginning, when Tallent writes, "he thought he saw his wife's Cadillac in the distance, coming toward us. He pushed me down onto the dirty floor of the pickup and kept his hand on my head" (Tallent 246). While the girl seems sure of herself the entire time, Jack appears to be on edge as his wife drives by. As others have previously mentioned, I agree that Jack holds physical power over this girl. However, Jack seems much more paranoid than she in this one instant. I think the girl has a lot of reason to be fearful of Jack, and her common sense should make her a bit fearful. However Jack is caught in this web of lovers, and is afraid that the strings attached will cross paths.
I do happen to agree that Jack holds more power over the girl, because I think physical/sexual power is a dominant force. But, fear is another interesting factor that feeds into the power dynamic of a relationship. |
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Post by robertxu on Dec 17, 2013 17:17:44 GMT
On a surface level, Jack has all the power in the relationship. This can be seen when Tallent writes, "He pushed me down onto the dirty floor of the pickup and kept one hand on my head..." (Tallent 246). Jack is significantly older than the narrator and at the moment, he is a lot less attached to the narrator than she is to him. The narrator is willing to do anything to earn the approval and affection of Jack. Jack is very aware of this which can be seen when he says, "Tonight you'll write, 'I love Jack. This is my birthday present from him. I can't imagine anybody loving anybody more than I love Jack'" (Tallent 247). Jack clearly not only uses her infatuation with her for his own personal gain, but he also makes fun of her.
At the same time, the narrator has the potential to hold as much power as Jack in the relationship. While Jack may act like he does not care for her, he clearly has a need for her. There are obviously problems between him and his wife, and Jack also shows that he does enjoy the narrator's company when he says in response to the narrator's vision of a long term relationship between them, "I like yours, But I believe mine" (Tallent 247). Jack thinks that he has her under his thumb and their future planned out. The power can shift in the narrator's direction if she chooses to leave him immediately and not succumb to his expectations of her. Additionally, age is also a factor that tips the balance of power in the narrator's favor. Jack is in his mid-thirties and is married, presumably with kids, while the narrator is a free-spirited eighteen year old. The narrator has no commitments and her whole life in front of her. She can easily find whatever "thrill" he offers her whether it is through another man or a more healthy pursuit. Jack, on the other hand, will likely never find someone like her again. In other words, while Jack has the power in the relationship in the short term, the narrator has it in the long term.
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Post by avinash on Dec 17, 2013 20:40:15 GMT
The story describes the struggle between the narrator and Jack. "'I like yours,' he said. 'But I believe mine.'" Jack feels that the narrator will forget him when he is gone. Jack is stuck in place, in a way, because he already has a wife and is settled. His mobility in life is limited. On the other hand, the narrator just turned eighteen. I think the author made sure to convey that detail with good reason. This detail helps show that the narrator's life is just beginning and she has many opportunities available to her. When looking at the story in this sense the narrator holds the power because the Jack is at her mercy. Jack can't easily replace the narrator, while the narrator can replace Jack. Jack, also correctly argues that this replacement is inevitable due to the difference circumstances between Jack and the narrator. Jack can be replaced by the narrator. This gives the narrator the upper hand in the power dynamic in their relationship.
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Post by Anna M. on Dec 17, 2013 20:51:38 GMT
Physically, Jack has more power. He is the driver and is even able to get the main character to kneel to the floor of the car so that she isn't seen by his husband. Although he seems to assert some power over the young girl, she seems to have more power than Jack in deciding her future. Jack has a wife that he still feels obligations to, since he is trying to keep his girlfriend a secret. The narrator is the one with the diary, she is the one who gets to write about her future. I think the presence of the 5 year diary shows that the girl has more power over her future than Jack does. While Jack can make cynical guesses as to the future of their relationship, when he described what she would be writing in her diary in a couple years, it sounded like he assumed that she would be the one leaving him behind.
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Post by travistoal on Dec 17, 2013 21:01:38 GMT
If the question were "Who has the power?" the responses would most likely be unanimously 'Jack,' save some super cool edgy kids. However, when asked to describe the power dynamic as a whole, I'm forced to look at the strengths and weaknesses of all of the characters. Jack obviously has solid control of the narrator. She follows his will, and shows her feelings of passion and love toward him. He gives her a present on her birthday, which shows that he has at least some semblance of feelings towards her, but when his wife drives by, he quickly shoves her into the footwell. Although this is an example of his *power,* it doesn't seem as though it is his *force.* 'Power' generally has a negative connotation of control by fear, but she, in her weak and meek nature, blissfully sings along as she kneels on the ground. His fear could show power in both of the women in the story; the power his wife has, to cause him to fear her finding out about his affair, and the power that the narrator has, given that she has the ability to bring his wife's wrath upon him. What is important to keep in mind while reading this story is that 'power' does not have to show oppression. Jack holds the power to give the narrator hope in a happy future.
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Post by mitralebuhn on Dec 18, 2013 19:34:57 GMT
Like most everyone else, I would agree that at first it would appear that Jack has the most power in this story. This seems clear because he is the one who is grounded and realistic, and the one who is instigating the cheating on his wife. But, I believe the unnamed girl is the most powerful. We discussed this is class and I do agree that because of her age she has more opportunities and more potential than any other character so, therefore, she has the most power. I think power comes with creativity, time, communication, and potential, and she has all of these qualities. For example, she describes her dream for Jack and her future, and although it is unrealistic, she does get Jack to listen and think about it, and that is significant. I think her ability to capture Jack's attention is more powerful than Jack's dominating self-image.
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Post by betsyrahe on Dec 19, 2013 1:50:52 GMT
I think Jack feels he has the most power because he's the older one and he clearly has power over his wife. Jack is taking a mistress not only to "spice up his life" but almost to prove to himself that he can. He doesn't just have to have meatloaf for dinner; he could have tacos if he chose. The girl, the narrator, has some power of the wife as well. She is giving Jack a sense of youth and life the wife cannot. She also has power over Jack because she is providing these. There is definitely some ageist at play in the story. He has the experience of the world, so he is more realistic or cynical. He will most likely be the one to end it, but the heartbreak will hurt longer than hers. She has the power of youth and being able to move on after him, but he doesn't. How they interact with each other is interesting because he treats her a little like a child.
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Post by samwerner on Dec 19, 2013 6:52:37 GMT
Prior to our class discussion on the topic of power dynamics within NOaM, I felt that the power structure of the story was actually key to the plot. It appeared that Jack possessed all the power, seeing as he was the one that played a part in two relationships, and thus had the ability to end either one (although he was too weak in character to do so). The narrator, however, also has a unique sense of power in the relationship because she has some control over Jack. She is the only way for Jack to get what he cannot in his marriage, and she therefore has him somewhat trapped. Looking further, I also found that the wife is not as helpless as she first seems. Whether or not she is aware of the affair is questionable, but she is certainly aware of her husbands feeble persona. Regardless of if she knows it or not, she has a certain power over Jack just because she had a child with him and represents his more solid lifestyle that he steps away from when experimenting with the narrator.
After class, however, I began to think more about the power structure of the story. I asked myself one simple question: Does the power structure have a large influence on the actions and decisions of the characters? It's tougher to answer because the story starts in the middle of both relationships, but my answer is a concrete yes and no. I am not convinced the power dynamic is all that crucial in the story. In some ways, I can certainly see how it is, but I also think that the characters are hopelessly stuck in their situations and lack some of the intellect to get away. Conversely, the social status of the characters in the mini-society of three people may be completely dictated by the power dynamics of the story. I am still puzzled as to which mode of thought is correct, and hope to bring this up in class to see what others think.
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Post by billfeng on Dec 19, 2013 14:16:58 GMT
Unlike the rest of the class, I'm actually going to argue for the reverse: the girl holds the power in the relationship. Jack is an aging man who's youth is quickly fleeting. The girl, on the other hand, has only begun her path towards young womanhood. The two players in the relationship both want it for different purposes. The girl wants in on the relationship for emotional safe-haven while Jack wants it to fulfill his sexual needs. At first, I would assume from the prior statement that Jack is indeed the dominating player in the relationship. But with age in mind, we need to notice that the girl has so much more potential and so much more autonomy at her disposal than Jack. Jack, I'm assuming, is going through a mid-life crisis. He is using the relationship as his last chance to flee from the confines of a modest and slow life with his wife in the near future. Jack knows that once his relationship with the girl goes kaput, he will no longer feel the thrill of youth-hood. The girl may seem more emotionally invested into the relationship than Jack, but I am almost certain that she will be less internally impacted once the relationship ends. As a young woman, she will easily be able to move on to a future relationship; Jack's romantic life will cease to exist.
Unlike some of the other forum commentators, I don't believe Jack's insistence on the girl to write what he wants is an explicit exertion of power. Rather, I think Jack is being realistic with the future. Jack insists to the girl, "In two years you'll write, `I wonder what that old guy's name was, the one with the curly hair and the filthy dirty pickup truck and time on his hands'" (246). Jack knows that the relationship will inevitably end and that the girl will continue to live life scot-free. In the long run, Jack has so much more to lose than the girl does if the relationship were to end. For that following reason, I believe the girl has the upper-hand in the power dynamic of the story.
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