Understanding Labyrinthine
Understanding Labyrinthine "Labyrinthine. The very sound of that word sums it up-as slippery as thought, as perplexing as the truth, as long and convoluted as a life" (Cooper 347). That was how Bernard Cooper ended his insightful and thought-provoking essay "Labyrinthine." Those words haunt me to this very day. Cooper had perfectly described life through the pronunciation of one lone word, "labyrinthine" (630). It was through a trivial infatuation, one that started when he was seven, that Cooper was able to make such a powerful observation. He loved to solve mazes, and he loved to create them even more. He was so fascinated with mazes that it’s no surprise he can so easily come up with an observation like this. This only proves to show that a single, powerful, infatuation can teach you a great deal.
Why did Cooper have an infatuation with something so unique? He used to want to feel a stronger emotional connection with his parents. That used to be his goal. Cooper was a “big surprise” to his parents who were older than most parents at Cooper’s age (346). They were more forgetful and tired than the younger parents. When he asked his mother to solve a maze he created, she replied with “You’ve got to be kidding me…I’m lost enough as it is” (346). Her life was already in a mess of confusion. She couldn’t handle more. Cooper had hoped his parents would solve his mazes in order to understand them. He noticed the daze of old age his parents lived in; “[his] father’s hair receded, [his] mother’s grayed. ‘When you’ve lived as long as we have’ they’d say,” as though they had lived forever (346). In order to try to help them, he wanted to understand them and so he became infatuated with mazes. It was all to get a better understanding on life and old age. Thirty years later he had finally understood after he started aging. With the days becoming “loopy and confusing”, Cooper understood why his parents were unwilling to solve his mazes. And he understood that life was
Why did Cooper have an infatuation with something so unique? He used to want to feel a stronger emotional connection with his parents. That used to be his goal. Cooper was a “big surprise” to his parents who were older than most parents at Cooper’s age (346). They were more forgetful and tired than the younger parents. When he asked his mother to solve a maze he created, she replied with “You’ve got to be kidding me…I’m lost enough as it is” (346). Her life was already in a mess of confusion. She couldn’t handle more. Cooper had hoped his parents would solve his mazes in order to understand them. He noticed the daze of old age his parents lived in; “[his] father’s hair receded, [his] mother’s grayed. ‘When you’ve lived as long as we have’ they’d say,” as though they had lived forever (346). In order to try to help them, he wanted to understand them and so he became infatuated with mazes. It was all to get a better understanding on life and old age. Thirty years later he had finally understood after he started aging. With the days becoming “loopy and confusing”, Cooper understood why his parents were unwilling to solve his mazes. And he understood that life was
Cited: Cooper, Bernard. “Labyrinthine.” Occasions for Writing. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2008. 345-347 Goodman, Ellen. “The Company Man.” Occasions for Writing. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2008. 629-630