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.