the arena
The Arena
Martin Golan’s short story from 2008, the Arena, shows us how it is to have lost a child, and how it is a parent’s worst nightmare. The topic, “to lose a child” really comes pops up. The father is struggling to cope with the pain from the past, and it’s surely isn’t easier when he has the feeling he could have prevented the loss of his first child. The father hasn’t got a lot of energy to give his son the attention he needs, when all of his thoughts are one the dead son. The first person narrator is driving his son to his lacrosse team bus at the Arena, which is sited in the suburbs of New Jersey. The short drive from the house to the bagel-place and afterwards to the Arena becomes a long trip down on memory lane, when his thoughts begin to circle around the past when he lived with another wife and his adopted son, Willie. Willie was killed in a traffic accident, which could have been prevented, but he died and his marriage broke. These thoughts kept on coming up in his head on the short drive.
The marriage broke because they couldn’t find a way to forget their loss. “Even though they still loved each other, they were unable to stay married”. After the break he found a new wife, who apparently looked a lot like is first wife. He couldn’t see it until his friends told him about the resemblance. The narrator isn’t mentally present in his new life. He found a new wife but he hasn’t really moved on, and the thoughts are a sign of. Also the dream about he wakes up but find him self in a stranger’s bedroom, and can’t recognize his own wife who lies on the other side of the bed with the sheet around her hips.
Willie is the only character there’s named. That means he is very important to the narrator. Even though is son sits right next to him in the car, we don’t hear anything about him, other than his father took him to the Arena when he was younger. The narrator must be absent from the present and is stuck in the past.
The short story is formed of
Martin Golan’s short story from 2008, the Arena, shows us how it is to have lost a child, and how it is a parent’s worst nightmare. The topic, “to lose a child” really comes pops up. The father is struggling to cope with the pain from the past, and it’s surely isn’t easier when he has the feeling he could have prevented the loss of his first child. The father hasn’t got a lot of energy to give his son the attention he needs, when all of his thoughts are one the dead son. The first person narrator is driving his son to his lacrosse team bus at the Arena, which is sited in the suburbs of New Jersey. The short drive from the house to the bagel-place and afterwards to the Arena becomes a long trip down on memory lane, when his thoughts begin to circle around the past when he lived with another wife and his adopted son, Willie. Willie was killed in a traffic accident, which could have been prevented, but he died and his marriage broke. These thoughts kept on coming up in his head on the short drive.
The marriage broke because they couldn’t find a way to forget their loss. “Even though they still loved each other, they were unable to stay married”. After the break he found a new wife, who apparently looked a lot like is first wife. He couldn’t see it until his friends told him about the resemblance. The narrator isn’t mentally present in his new life. He found a new wife but he hasn’t really moved on, and the thoughts are a sign of. Also the dream about he wakes up but find him self in a stranger’s bedroom, and can’t recognize his own wife who lies on the other side of the bed with the sheet around her hips.
Willie is the only character there’s named. That means he is very important to the narrator. Even though is son sits right next to him in the car, we don’t hear anything about him, other than his father took him to the Arena when he was younger. The narrator must be absent from the present and is stuck in the past.
The short story is formed of