The Other, Post 3

In the third section of The Other, by David Guterson, a new character is introduced: Cindy Saperstein, who was John William’s girlfriend at Reed college. Cindy enters the story when Guterson fast-forwards to Neil’s adult life as a high school English teacher. Neil had been helping his friend John William survive in an unusual lifestyle of living in a cave in the backcountry of Washington. Eventually, John William had bequeathed Neil $440,000,000. Neil’s unusual story is featured in the newspaper, and it motivates Cindy to introduce herself to Neil. She wants to talk to Neil about John William, but Neil is at first hesitant to do so. I think that Neil is uneager to talk about John William with Cindy because he feels that it would be disloyal to John William. John William was never a very outgoing person, and turned into a recluse when he lived in his cave. Therefore, Neil, who comes across as an honest person, probably feels that gossiping about John William with his former girlfriend is two-faced. Nonetheless, Neil eventually agrees to meet and chat with Cindy.

Cindy tells Neil all about her relationship with John William in college. She describes John William as being very intense in everything he did. This trait was one reason for Cindy’s unhappiness in the relationship and her eventual break-up with John William—Cindy was not as severely passionate about their relationship. For example, John William asked Cindy at one point whether she would be willing to kill herself for him. Cindy explains to Neil that she “said yes, I’d kill myself, but it was strictly an act—…ninety percent [of me] was just this normal college girl who was hanging out and having fun” (72). This discord between the couple was not the only source of trouble for them. Cindy also tells Neil that John William was generally anti-social around other people, but was very clingy around her. Over winter break, he was even calling her three times a day. It seems as though John William was getting all of his social satisfaction from his relationship with Cindy, instead of having many friends and acquaintances.

As she describes John William, Cindy paints a picture of someone whose social habits are decidedly unusual. Although by college, John William hasn’t reached the point of being dysfunctional in society, he seems to be heading in that direction. Undoubtedly, his mother’s mental breakdown and his lack of nurturing care as a child contributed to his unorthodox behavior. However, it seems like John William’s upbringing does not fully account for his bizarre social skills. This is because a lot of the strange social tendencies that John William has stem from his adamant and unwavering beliefs in how one should live. For example, John William believed that bathing “required no more than two quarts of water every forty-eight hours if the bather was wise and responsible, whereas the cultural norm in the modern world was to send gallons down the drain daily for no sanctionable reason” (74). While many people would agree that taking a shower every day when you aren’t really dirty is a waste of water, John William’s life is drastically impacted because of this belief. Being uncompromising in one’s beliefs isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can make someone into a social pariah.

Meanwhile, Neil tells us about his relationship with Jamie, a girl he met backpacking in Europe the summer after his senior year in high school. Jamie and Neil are very happy together, and have none of the complicated problems that Cindy and John William encounter. Neil has told the reader that he and Jamie eventually get married, and when he talks about his adult life, he often mentions the adult Jamie. Through these descriptions, it’s clear that, as adults, Neil and Jamie are not nearly as enamored with each other as they were in college. They don’t fight or have violent disagreements, but the passion that was once in their relationship is gone by the time they reach their fifties. It is interesting to compare John William’s relationship—which was short but filled with passion—with Neil’s relationship—which has lost some of its fervor but has lasted a long time. Perhaps the author is suggesting that it is impossible to sustain a passionate relationship.

Work Cited:

Guterson, David. The Other. New York: Random House, 2008.

The Other, Post 2

John William and Neil Countryman become more developed as characters in the latest section of The Other, by David Guterson. Neil tells readers about his mother’s death, which occurred when he was twelve. His mother had brain cancer, and Neil describes her painful and slowly-deteriorating condition. Neil’s mother’s death most acutely affected him in an unusual way: because of her death, Neil was left $5,000 from her funds in life insurance money. This money came to symbolize his mother for Neil, because it was all he had left of her. He wanted to use it in a meaningful way, and do something significant with the funds. Eventually, Neil decides to spend the money on a trip to Europe after his senior year in high school. Even this use for the money didn’t satisfy Neil, however. He felt that he was wasting his mother’s money, because nothing he bought could ever replace his mother or bring her back. Neil describes this by saying, “…I sat by the Herengracht with a packet of frites in my hand, crying, because this is what had become of my mother. She’d been transmuted into an experience I was having…” (45). Though Neil knows his trip can’t replace his mother, he does have big dreams for it. He envisions himself gaining the experiences and worldly knowledge on the trip that he feels he needs to become a good writer. To that end, he spent an incessant amount of time during the trip jotting notes about his time in Europe. In the end, though, Neil’s self-conscious desire to become familiar with exotic scenes and to discover more about himself makes him lonely. He doesn’t have a destination or a purpose on his trip, and he meanders though Europe without much motivation.

John William has chosen to stay in the United States during the summer after his senior year, and spends his time camping and living a nomadic lifestyle in Washington state. John William gets many of his meals out of dumpsters, and is even arrested for being a vagrant at one point. He seems to take a strange delight in living as cheaply as possible. For example, he even “ate a dead carp washed up in a side water and got the runs and a fever” (49). It is ironic that John William, who is much more affluent than Neil, chooses to spend almost no money on even basic necessities such as food. Contrastingly, Neil has less money, and spends a large portion of it in Europe. Perhaps John William’s desire to live on less than bare necessities stems from the overabundance of money and luxuries that were available to him throughout his childhood. It seems likely that John William is searching for a better understanding of himself and of life through his rough lifestyle. Although John William always had enough material goods in his childhood, he never had much love and lacked a coherent family as a child. To me, John William personifies a classic example of someone who has everything that money can buy him, but needs something more to become content with his life.

Guterson continues with his fascinating habit of flashing forward to his current life as an adult throughout the story. From this technique, we have learned that John William eventually becomes a recluse who lives in the backcountry of Washington, and that Neil helps John William survive as he lives in the backcountry. We also know that, sometime in their adult lives, John William bequeaths Neil $440,000,000. Finally, Neil tells us that he meets a woman also traveling in Europe who he will marry, and that he will work as an English teacher. I think these tidbits of information from the future are a successful technique for Guterson to use to keep the story engaging. It makes me wonder what leads the characters to these fates.

Works Cited:

Guterson, David. The Other. New York: Random House, 2008.

The Other, Post 1

I am reading a book titled The Other, written by David Guterson. The basic premise of the story is that two high school boys have formed an unusual friendship. The boys, John William Barry and Neil Countryman, are from very different backgrounds, and the first chapter of the book describes how these differences affect them and their friendship. Neil Countryman is from an average Seattle family. As the narrator of the book, he portrays himself as rather ordinary in the book’s first chapter. Neil describes his role on his high school’s track team by telling readers that he is “someone intimate with the middle of the pack,” and this description seems to fit other areas in his life, too (3). Neil doesn’t seem bitter or unhappy with his commonplace background and life. Instead, he focuses more his friend John William’s atypical life. John Williams is the opposite of Neil in high school: Neil goes to a public school, while John Williams attends an elite prep school in Seattle. Neil’s family is big and traditional, but not college-educated. John William, on the other hand, comes from a family of prosperous and famous Seattle businessmen. John William is the only child in a broken family: his mother has moved away after going insane, and his father is often away on business trips. Neil’s nuclear family, however, seems to be caring towards him and his younger sister.

One thing that these polar opposite boys have in common is a love of adventure. They meet during a track meet, when they race neck-and-neck during their 800 meter run. Although neither Neil and John William have any chance of winning the race, they share a drive to push themselves to their physical limits. Neil explains that half mile runners are “in search of deeper agony than they can find elsewhere (5).” This common search also leads John William and Neil to extended and rugged camping trips in the backcountry areas of the North Cascades. John William and Neil become reckless during this trip and get lost, spending a long time without food and with no knowledge of how to get out of the backcountry. This, combined with their experimental drug use, makes the pair seem like stereotypical rebellious teens. However, the author uses an interesting technique to keep readers from dismissing the book as boring because of this: he writes the story from Neil’s perspective as an adult. This doesn’t make much difference in a lot of the telling of the story, but Neil does add occasional observations from his point of view as an adult. For instance, Neil and John William decide to steal coins from a fountain in a park in Seattle one night while they are high. This scene isn’t very original, but Neil’s bewildered comments on it as an adult make it more unique. Neil says, “But I can’t explain why we were stealing coins at the Seattle Center. It makes no sense to me now, though it must have made sense to me then. I just don’t recall what the logic was…” (12). These observations add depth and interest to the story, and give the reader clues about what kind of a person Neil is as an adult. I am excited to continue reading about the intriguing characters and their adventures in The Other.

Work Cited:

Guterson, David. The Other. New York: Random House, 2008.