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dollstock-review-blog · 6 years ago

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Humanity Declines in “The Last Word“

“The Last Word” by Jane Campion Hoye

Part of the: Spring/Summer 2017 Issue of Popshot Magazine

Summary: An agent travels to a remote island to receive the code that may save Earth from ruin.

Thesis: Sorry seems to be the hardest word for Agent Tekia.

Analysis: Women often apologize for simple mistakes. Among friends, some people say, “my bad” instead of “I’m sorry.” I once had a teacher who made us say “I apologize,” instead of “I’m sorry,” because sorry meant “worthless and no good.” People see apologies to absolve wrongdoings, while others see apologies as a sign of defeat, weakness, or compromise. What if apologizing could save humanity? Could it save humanity?

It won’t, because humanity is too stubborn to swallow their pride to save themselves.

For centuries, humanity has damaged livelihoods, ecosystems, and civilizations for economic, religious, or political reasons. We now face the consequences of what our leaders have done: political fallout, war, climate change, endangered and extinct species, and mistrust in media. If you’ve taken a literary criticism course or are familiar with literary studies, then these discussions are nothing new. Scholars discussed these issues for centuries and prove that nothing has changed in the present day. “The Last Word” shows a world on the brink of ruin, and only a single word could spare humanity from a catastrophe.

Throughout the story, Earth experiences widespread environmental disasters. Ze Yu asks the organization to send a woman to receive the Code, because women endure many things, often in silence. Also, women are often compassionate and open to forgive. As mothers, women lose their children to the military, terrorism, mental anguish; In famine, women can’t feed their children; In politics, women have difficulty providing the best in health care and education. Regardless of culture and class, if a mother can’t provide for her kids, she has failed.

Ze Yu give Agent Tekia the password to save humanity. She says to herself, “I do not speak because I do not understand what I see written in the sand, circled in the seaweed. How do I tell them? They won’t understand any more than I do. It’s too simplistic. It won’t compute. This code has no symbols or sequence of numbers. It has no formulaic structure at all. All we have left to save our world is a word. Just a word. One word. Sorry.”

“The Last Word” takes place in an era where intelligence exceeds humanity. Laws and devices won’t cover for the irreparable damage humanity does to itself. Apologizing can hold a lot of weight, when readers imagine people apologizing to each other. On the other hand, readers may imagine nothing changing, because apologies may lose their significance. Are humans truly capable of forgiving each other? No, they are not.

#Literary short stories #short story analysis #The last word #Jane Campion Hoye #Popshot Magazine #Short stories #Literary magazines

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dollstock-review-blog · 6 years ago

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Broken Brotherhood in “He’s Like a Different Person“

This story was featured in the Fall 2016 issue of the Glass Mountain Literary Journal (University of Houston).

Summary: Tucker’s life is a blend of the MMORPG he plays and the home where he lives with his brother and father.

Thesis: This story highlights a deteriorating relationship between brothers.

Analysis: Tucker and his brother Trevor live different lives. Tucker spends most of his time playing Realm of Conquest, an MMORPG where players fight for treasure. The story shows Tucker mostly alone in his room while Trevor hangs out with friends. The brothers used to get along but no longer want each other’s company. Trevor is always with friends and is active on social media, while Tucker barely receives text messages every week.

Tucker is respected in Realm of Conquest, because of the level of his characters. In real life, Trevor picks on him, and their father Randy is disappointed that one son spends a lot of time on the computer and another spends most of his time getting high.

The story shows the deteriorating relationship between the brothers by emphasizing their reactions to each other’s words and actions. Trevor and Tucker curse each other out, after Trevor playfully grabs Tucker’s neck. The brothers talk about a video Trevor posted on Facebook of his friends shooting at a burning propane tank. The brothers laugh at each other, and Tucker sees Trevor as the brother who defended him against bullies, the brother who he went bike riding with, and the brother who helped him how to walk and speak. Tucker’s perspective changes after he refuses to give Trevor money for synthetic weed.

Trevor calls Tucker “the Warthog,” implying that Tucker’s appearance and assumed greed is the reason why Trevor’s friends don’t want to hang out with Tucker. Eventually, Trevor and his friends rush into Tucker’s room and beat him up, stealing his electronics and managing to rip off the wart on his nose. They leave the injured Tucker with the smell of burnt hair and cigarettes. Trevor went from a positive figure in Tucker’s life to a burglar after Tucker’s most expensive and valued possessions. By robbing his brother, Trevor no longer sees Tucker as a brother but a source of money.

Conclusion: The story highlights how two brothers, who used to be close, grow apart as adults. One brother plays an MMORPG, because it may remind him of his childhood adventures with his brother. Another brother gets high with friends most likely as an act of independence from his brother, except when he needs money. Siblings growing apart from each other, especially because of opposing lifestyles, is common. Even with strict limits on online use and interaction, families may see someone who’s hobby is mostly online as an addiction by default. Parents may make fun of their child who frequently browses the internet by placing them in fictional or real-life depictions of online addiction. As a child develops an identity separate from their siblings, the older siblings may convince the younger sibling to buy certain products or take up different hobbies, so the child is not seen as too weird or eccentric in public.

The reality of siblings growing apart as adults can be a painful experience. When siblings hurt one another as adults, the physical pain is most likely a fraction of the emotional pain, which may last for many years.

#Short story analysis #dollstock review 2018 #Ty Pederson #literary short stories #DollStock Review #short stories #literary magazines #literary journals #Glass Mountain

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