BA#8

After reading "The Ledge," by Lawrence Sargent Hall I began to think about the series of events that lead up to the final culmination of the deaths of the Fisherman, his son and nephew. It seems as if there were many options that would have taken these characters in different directions. For example, I can't help but wonder how the story's outcome would have been entirely different, if the Fisherman had returned home to retrieve his tobacco when he realized he hadn't brought it along with him. What if he had tied the boat up before they went out to retrieve the dead ducks? It seems as if author's knowingly take the turn away from what is an easy route, to create a "happy ending," and instead opt for the difficult task of writing a tragic, emotionally disturbing peice instead. What makes an author decide a specific ending when writing a peice of literature? How does one seemingly insignificant event lead to a tragedy? How does both a tragedy and a "happy ending" have different effects on the emotions of a reader?

BA#8

I read the short story The German Refugee by Bernard Malamud (BASS page 438). It tells the story through the perspective of Martin Goldberg, an English tutor living in New York City during WWII. Although he has numerous pupils, he becomes intrigued and close with one particular student, Oskar Gassner, a German refugee who fled his homeland to escape the wrath of the Nazis, leaving his wife, a Gentile, behind. He is a man without much hope and purpose, but he happens to get a job at the Institute of Public Studies, where he has to give a lecture in English by the summer's end. He and Goldberg make progress at first, but then, in his frustration, Gassner decides to stop the lessons. However, Goldberg, knowing that Gassner is "aleinated" (Malamud 444) from everyone, with " finiancal insecurities, being in a strange land without friends and a speakable tounge"(444) spends more and more time with the lonely man. However, the more time Goldberg spends with Gassner, the more depressed he himself becomes, and the more worried he grows about the depressed Gassner. However, they start their English lessons again, and Gassner pulls off the feat of the lecture in the I.P.S. But, three days later, when Goldberg goes to Gassner's apartment to visit him, he finds that the refugee killed himself; a letter was found from his anti-Semetic mother-in-law, who tells him that in spite his wife converted to Judiasm and was captured, taken away and shot by the Nazis. This story is interesting in the fact that although he hated Germany and was able to leave it, the memory and beloved he had in Germany ended up getting the better of him. The message of the story would be not to take it upon yourself to save someone that you cannot save, like Goldberg tried to do for Gassner, spending most of his time worrying about the man and becoming just as depressed as him. Despite his efforts, Gassner was already damaged from the memory of his wife he left in Germany, and the occurences going on in Germany itself. This story shows that no matter where you are, you can't really escape your past.