E.B. White confused me. Each part of his essay's focused on a different topic, thus making it somewhat more difficult to follow. The broad overtone of the circus narrative implied that the general story was dealing with the passing of time, but it was told through the story of a young women at the circus. While he was telling the story of time, I felt that there was almost a surrealistic undertone. He focuses in on the beauty which he sees in her at this time and how she will never be so beautiful again. It is almost metaphorical when we read about her riding the horse around the circle. For her, that was how time seemed to pass. For him, it was all that he could do to keep from yelling out and telling her that it would soon be useless to try to keep time going in this circle. Without a doubt, she would, just like the rest of us, fall onto the straight path and grow into her old age.
My favorite part of "The Ring of Time" was the Fiddler Bayou section. The narrative at the end of him describing how a performer performs pulled the whole story together for me. He connects the performance we give in life to the time we have on earth - no one else can control it and "our most notable performances have already been given."
No comments:
Post a Comment