Susan Orlean uses her descriptive writing to
portray what the characters are feeling. This type of writing allows for the
reader to better visualize what is happening in the scene. In the article, we
are able to get a feeling for Colin’s life ambitions and personality not by
direct statements, but by the illustrative description of the author. The
paragraph that I am choosing to focus on is the one that describes his room. I
feel like there is a lot to be said about a person by the way that they
decorate their room. What is chosen to be in a person’s room is personal to
each individual and it usually displays their likes and dislikes.
I found it interesting how Orlean starts the
paragraph of the room’s description by saying, “Colin’s bedroom is decorated
simply.” When starting a paragraph with saying that something is simple, the
easy way to complete that paragraph would be to leave it like that. If a room
is simple, there is no need to describe it any further—it just is. However,
Orlean expands on the simplicity of the room, revealing that the room is only
simple on the exterior. When each objects is taken and looked at more closely
in an individual level, much more can be revealed. For example, Colin has
several magazine ads that have been torn out tacked to his wall. The fact that
the ads have been torn out means he does not care for neatness when it comes to
the decoration of his room. They are torn out and tacked because he saw them
and liked them and there is nothing more to that.
A recurring theme in the article is that Colin
wants to one-day move to Wyoming. That is why many of the ads plastered to his
wall have to do with rural life and farming. He watches TV a lot and is into
popular culture and merchandising and this peculiar fetish, along with his desire
to move to Wyoming, could point to a certain career path that he would take. Since
his room is not decorated very extravagantly, it would not be too hard to learn
from the media about how to live on his own and just leave. He longs for
something more than the town that he is living in and desires to move as far
away as possible. This is why he pays so much attention to the media—he longs
for what is being reported.
This proves that there is more to be said rather than just a "simple bedroom." Orlean uses this method to further expand not on the fact that the room is simple, but on why the room is decorated in this why. By being specific in her descriptions, she allows the reader to get a full grasp on what the character desires without coming right out and saying it bluntly.
This proves that there is more to be said rather than just a "simple bedroom." Orlean uses this method to further expand not on the fact that the room is simple, but on why the room is decorated in this why. By being specific in her descriptions, she allows the reader to get a full grasp on what the character desires without coming right out and saying it bluntly.
I don't think that it was inaccurate of Orlean to describe Colin's room as simple, also I don't think that there is only one type of simple room and that by saying it's simple would be a satisfactory answer. His room is simple, but it's a unique simple. His room is decorated with dirty clothes, and his bird, and a big teddy bear someone might have given him for his birthday. His room is decorated with things that just happened to come about--no planning went into the "recently worn clothing piled haphazardly on the floor," just like probably little to no planning went into Colin tearing out a magazine ad and shoving a thumb tack through it into the wall. To an extent, yes I think you're right that his room is decorated more than "simply" might imply, but I think that these "decorations" of dirty clothes and ripped out paper are not really decorations at all and looking closer at why the parakeet named Dude is "decorating" Colin's desk isn't going to make it more layered and decorative.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that the Wyoming thing and the consumerism thing are one in the same. I think that they are two different things that only overlap a little bit… like a venn diagram. The Wyoming thing is something for Colin to dream about, something that he uses the media for because it "inspire[s] him sometimes," about his plans to move there, not so much that he relies on tv or magazines to inform him about Wyoming. He isn't going to Wyoming to be as far away from home as possible nor does he need the media to show him what Wyoming is like because, after all, "he has visited with his family." I don't think that he is interested in pop culture and those types of markets only for a link to Wyoming, I think that Colin likes knowing things and advertisements tell him something. He learns things from advertisements--lots of things--that he can then share. I can't imagine why knowing that Blimpie's has the worst service ever is really helping him in his quest to go to Wyoming. So these two fascinations of his--Wyoming and marketing--are connected but not the same. Also, I'm not really sure what career path he is going to take based off of his interests in pop culture and Wyoming, but yolo.
I think that Colin likes the idea of Wyoming one day, not to get away from his home but rather to make his own home. With this passage: "He is, at the moment, very content with his backyard. For most intents and purposes, it is as big as Wyoming. One day, certainly, he will grow and it will shrink, and it will become simply a suburban backyard and it won't be big enough for him anymore." I think that he is wanting to go to Wyoming because then he can own land big enough for his grown up self, proportional to how the backyard is big enough to his child self. I say that he wants to own land in Wyoming because if he is looking for enough land for himself like his backyard is right now, then he would want to own the land in Wyoming like he owns his backyard, "at least from 4:00 each afternoon until it gets dark."