SSRJ #2: Oates

The story of the two girls sparked my curiosity and I was in suspense in regard to what was going to happen when they saw Marilyn Monroe. I was caught off guard that the two girls felt that there was “unspoken young love” between them. I was also surprised that Marilyn Monroe walked into the Strand Bookstore and I thought it was interesting that the author used her in the story.
The element that stood out as particularly interesting to me is the author’s use of detail between the two girls while they were watching and following Marilyn Monroe. “We couldn’t resist, we had to follow! Cautious not to whisper together like excited schoolgirls, still less to giggle wildly as we were tempted; you nudged me in the ribs to sober me, gave me a glare signaling Don’t be rude, don’t ruin this for all of us. I conceded: I was the more pushy of the two of us, a tall gawky Rima the Bird Girl with springy carroty-red hair like an exotic bird’s crest, while you were petite and dark haired and attractive with long-lashed Semitic sloe eyes, you the wily gymnast and I the aggressive basketball player, you the ‘experimental’ poet and I drawn to ‘forms,’ our contrary talents, bred in our bones. Which of us would marry, have babies, disappear into ‘real’ life, and which of us would persevere into her thirties before starting to be published and becoming, in time, a ‘real’ poet-could anyone have predicted, this snowy March evening in 1956?” This passage gives insight to the reader about the feelings the girls have for each other, their thoughts about the future and their physical descriptions as well. What a wealth of information from a simple nudge in the ribs.
The only situation in my life that this story made me think about was when I was a teenager. I was taking karate lessons at the time and Chuck Norris came to the karate school. My friends and I were all there, trying to play it cool even though we were excited to meet him. By the time it was our turn to shake hands and meet him we could hardly contain ourselves. We calmly shook hands and once we left we felt star struck and couldn’t believe we just met Chuck Norris.
I believe that what the author is trying to say in this story is that money does not buy happiness or lasting memories. Love and unforgettable moments are not defined by fancy, costly possessions, a glamorous lifestyle and it can not be purchased. This story takes place in a humble bookstore, not Hollywood or New York, but a simple bookstore that means a lot to two girls. “No bookstore of merely ‘new’ books with elegant show window displays drew us like the drafty Strand, bins of books untidy and thumbed through as merchants’ sidewalk bins on Fourteenth Street, NEW THIS WEEK, BEST BARGAINS, WORLD CLASSICS, ART BOOKS 50% OFF, REVIEWERS’ COPIES, HIGHTEST PREICE $1.98, REMAINDERS $.25-$1.00. Hardcover/paperbacks. Spotless/battered. Beautiful books/cheaply printed pulp paper. And a the rear and sides in that vast echoing space massive shelves of books books books rising to a ceiling of hammered tin fifteen feet above! Stacked shelves so high they required ladders to negotiate and a monkey nimbleness (like yours) to climb.” The author also portrays this idea using Marilyn Monroe in the story. She was a symbol for glamour, fame, lavishness and wealth. However, in the story she is described as a woman that was “…an individual wholly absorbed in selecting, leafing through, pausing to read books.” She was a real person. She enjoyed books. Books that didn’t cost a lot in a bookstore that was small and intimate. The priceless memory is told at the very end of the story. “Oh. Oh God. Marilyn Monroe. She gave us a book. Was any of it real? It was real: we had Selected Poems of Marianne Moore to prove it. That snowy early evening in March at Strand Used Books. That magical evening of Marilyn Monroe, when I kissed you for the first time.”
Do you think our society puts too much emphasis on money and glam? Do your fondest memories have anything to do with cost, social status or fame?