This story is about a young couple in high school and the
early part of college. The two fall in love and spend most of their time together;
the author describes their happiness for the first part of the story. The couple
goes camping and has unprotected sex. The girl becomes pregnant but does not
want anyone to know so they keep it a secret, they even have the baby in
secret. They discard the unwanted baby in a dumpster and get caught by the
police shortly after. Both kids have ivy league futures but that is now ruined
and they face criminal charges and national humiliation.
The
story had a great tension and suspense; it brought the reader down to the level
of the young lovers. By the end of the story you felt as though you were the
one who had a ruined life. The author was able to do this with very little back
and forth dialogue. Most of the story
was narration and description. The narration was very forceful and confident like
the description of the young man being woken from his dream “ He was at the pinnacle
of his dream, the river dressed in its currents , the deep hole under the cut
bank, and fish like silver bullets swarming to his bait”. That line is also
great because it alludes to the fact that he likes to camp and that is when the
couple started the whole mess they now found themselves in. The story brings
back in the element of camping and ideal living as their lives are being
ruined.
Another
interesting part of this story is the title. The love of my life automatically
makes the reader see something positive or sweet. The fact that the story is
about a dumpster baby ends up catching you off guard. But you are slowly built
up to that point and that is what causes the tension and suspense.
You don't have to give a plot summary. When you read stuff by other class members, I want you to summarize what you saw as the conflict, what the character wants, etc. But when responding to the published works, I just want you to do some analysis of the way the story is crafted, like what you're doing with your comments on tension....but HOW does he create that tension? Can you look a bit more specifically at the story? See the guidelines if you're confused.
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