Response to 3 questions from NewsWorld

by: Todd James Pierce

1) Are there any prominent symbols in this story? If so what are they and how are they used?

     

     I noticed many symbols in this short story. The most prominent being the Plywood cover over the San Francisco Earthquake exhibit. I felt that the  story was describing adolescent boys who were trying to break-thru to maturity in how they managed their emotions. They did not know exactly how to feel about the attacks of 9/11 when posed a question on the topic by their teacher, but over the course of the story the author uses breaking into and thru barriers as a motif to symbolize the age old tale of the boy coming of age.

2) What connections did you make with the story? Discuss elements of the story with which you were able to connect.

     Being that I am male and in my mid twenties at the time of the attack on the World Trade Center, I am able to connect deeply with this story in its whole. I connected deeply with the sense of not knowing what happens next after the attacks, and a longing for how simple it seemed before that time. Another way in which I am able to connect to this story is how the boys felt in general about not knowing what exactly was going on in their heads when it came to expressing how they felt about something that was difficult to describe. I think it was in the way the author described the boys dads. He had made mention of how they were suburbanites who at best would say something like"Kick Ass at the game today Son!," which in a way is hard for me to connect to. I had a different kind of dad, the perpetual drunk step-dad .. dad, but what is interesting to me is that even with very different upbringings from the sound of it, we had similar complications in expressing emotions as adolescent boys. 

3) What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? what changes would you make?

     I imagine that I would change this story into a short film. The story make me think of "Stand by Me" and I can fully imagine a short rendition of it. I would probably change the order in which things happen to support the film better. I might have the summer time job at the park and all of the events of normal boys at the beginning instead of as more of a memory. I would do this to give greater impact to the boys emotional discovery in the park after seeing the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.