The Other, Post 6

The last few chapters of novel The Other, written by David Guterson, tell the reader about Neil’s quest to bring closure to his relationship with his late friend John William. Since John William died in his backcountry cave, Neil has had many mixed emotions about John William and Neil’s role in his life. On one hand, Neil knows that he was John William’s only friend. Neil probably did John William lot of good by visiting him frequently, bringing him food and necessities in his cave, and staying in touch with John William even when John William became a social pariah. However, Neil also has a nagging and deep-rooted guilt that he let John William down by allowing him to die in his cave. Neil feels that he should have checked on John William more, encouraged John William to live somewhere safer than a cave, or even turned John William in to park authorities in order to keep him alive. Finally, Neil feels like he has betrayed the ever-private John William by spilling his story across newspaper, magazine and television headlines. Overall, the conflict that John William’s life posed is something that Neil is having a very hard time resolving for himself.

Neil decides to contact John William’s divorced parents, Rand and Ginny, to talk about John William with them. He wants to apologize to them for keeping John William’s life in a cave secret. Also, Neil seems to be looking for more understanding about John William and what caused him to lead such an extreme lifestyle. While talking to Rand, Neil learns a lot about John William’s childhood. Rand, who has been holding in a lot of emotion about his divorce and failed family, divulges quite a bit of information. Rand tells Neil that John William’s mother refused to comfort the baby John William when he cried, and physically abused her son. Rand also emphasizes that John William was a very intense person from childhood. He recollects a time when John William stayed up all night working on a telescope instead of doing his homework, because John William felt that “The stuff they teach you at school is just so they can own you” (242). Rand believes that the bad parenting that John William received caused him to express ideas such as the one in this quote, and insists that John William’s death was not Neil’s responsibility. Ginnie, on the other hand, doesn’t have much to say to Neil because she has become senile with old age. However, Ginnie does express her deep regret and loathing for the way her life turned out. She yells to Neil, “I was born in the wrong place and time! I was trapped!” (253). Clearly, the unhappiness and cruelty of his mother, and the ineffectiveness of his detached father had negative effects on John William. However, it wouldn’t be accurate to say that his parents and childhood were the sole causes of John William’s withdrawal from society. John William was someone who had strong beliefs and refused to budge from them, and these traits were intrinsic to him. They were not caused by his childhood—many children are abused in similar ways to John William, and almost none end up leading a life like John William’s. Neil feels, and I agree, that John William was born with characteristics that caused him to retreat to a cave later in life. Therefore, Neil gains more knowledge about John William from his conversations with Rand and Ginnie, but not more understanding of why John William was the way he was.

As for Neil—he carries on his comparatively average life as a school teacher until he accepts the $440,000,000 that John William left Neil in his will. After receiving this money, Neil quits his job, but continues living in the same way that he did before his windfall. Neil understands that he is a compromiser and a hypocrite—like John William, Neil also has strong beliefs, but unlike John William, Neil bends these beliefs to make them fit into the parameters of his life. Neil explains this decision by telling readers, “When I think about John William now, I think about someone who followed through, and then I’m glad not to have followed through, to still be breathing, to still be here with people, to still be walking in the mountains…I’m a hypocrite, of course, and I live with that, but I live” (254). Neil’s relationship with John William has taught Neil to examine his life and make sure that he is comfortable with the choices that he is making. I think this is an important theme of the book: it is okay to make hypocritical choices if you understand why you are making them and can reconcile yourself with them.

Throughout the book, I really enjoyed the writing. One aspect of the writing that I especially liked was the accuracy to the eras that the author, Guterson, was writing about. For example, when writing about the 1970s and 1980s, Guterson brought up popular music and fads from those periods as he wrote. Additionally, Guterson referenced current events and movements when he was writing about the present time period. The book and characters seemed very life-like when they mentioned George Bush or Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth in their conversations. Another interesting characteristic of Guterson’s writing was that the main character, Neil, seems to have a lot in common with Guterson himself. Although I don’t know much about Guterson, I do know that he lives in Washington, like Neil. Also, Neil is an English teacher and an aspiring writer—two things that could easily be true of Guterson as well. Finally, at the end of the book, Neil tells of his intentions to write a book about his friend John William. Neil’s book would undoubtedly be similar to Guterson’s book, The Other, and it’s easy to imagine that The Other is indeed Neil’s account of John William. While I know that The Other is a work of fiction, these similarities serve to bring Neil and his story to life.

Work Cited:

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

The Other, Post 5

In the latest section of The Other, by David Guterson, John William’s lifestyle in the backcountry of Washington state becomes even more extreme. He insists on staying in his cave through the harsh Washington winters, and only accepts food and other necessities from his friend Neil because he needs them to survive. As he spends more time away from society, John William also begins to seem more incredible and far-fetched in his beliefs. When Neil is visiting him one night, John William tells Neil that he is going to continue living in the woods because “Life’s short. Eternity’s long. I’m going to slip past God—he can’t get me” (159). This pronouncement shows that John William believes he is escaping some kind of curse that society has upon it. John William has always thought that he will be rewarded for following his beliefs instead of society’s ideals. Initially, he thought that living in his cave would be gratifying in and of itself, but this hasn’t proved to be the case. Therefore, he seems to have convinced himself that he will be rewarded in an afterlife. The evolution of John William’s reasoning for living in a cave hints that he is beginning to run out of motivation for his hermit-like lifestyle. This idea is also supported by Neil’s impressions of John William from Neil’s occasional visits to John William’s cave. Increasingly, Neil finds John William in a bad mood, and notes on one visit that John William seemed “just depressed” (173).

Neil is prone to making up excuses for John William’s radical ideas, and says that he hopes that John William is just going through an odd stage. Neil probably tends to justify John William’s strange beliefs because he is still nursing a hope that John William will rejoin society and prove himself to be a normal human. Whether or not John William is normal was a question that Neil grapples with constantly. After finding a story with a character similar to John William in it, Neil discusses this character with his high school English students to try to find insight into John William. Neil says, “I could discuss ‘The Miracle of Purun Bhagat’ with my students as if our discussion was an exercise in literary history, instead of a veiled way for me to ask myself if John William made sense” (167). However, both the readers and Neil know that this story is just one of many things that Neil uses to try to reconcile his friend’s strange behavior. Neil wants to see John William recover from his cave-dwelling phase because he is a loyal friend, and still he likes and respects John William. This is also why Neil continues to bring John William food and to visit him. Furthermore, Neil seems to feel a sense of responsibility to John William, because he knows that John William would die in his cave without Neil’s help. Since Neil is the only person aware of John William’s existence in the forest, Neil considers turning John William in to the park service or to John William’s father. However, Neil feels it would be disloyal to John William to do so, and even convinces himself that John William would rather die in his cave than be forced back into society by the park service or by his father.

The decision to keep John William’s cave-dwelling existence secret is one that Neil questions heavily after John William finally does die in the woods. Neil is heartbroken and distraught when he finds his friend, who probably starved, dead near his cave one day. The burden that John William’s death brings to Neil’s conscience is significant, because Neil was the only person (other than John William) who had the power to save John William from his death. Even after John William dies, however, Neil doesn’t tell anyone that John William used to live in the woods and has now died. I think that Neil’s decision to keep John William’s death secret is in part caused by his guilty conscience, and in part caused by his desire to honor John William’s wish to be completely separate from society. Eventually, however, John William’s cave and remains are discovered in the backcountry. Neil is interviewed by a newspaper, and the story is made into a huge production in the paper. Knowing that he has helped to turn John William into a gripping newspaper headline only adds to Neil’s remorse about the situation.

Work Cited:

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

The Other, Post 4

Upon reading the fourth section of The Other, by David Guterson, I have come to realize that the main topic of the book is compromises. More specifically, the book explores the idea that most people make compromises in their lives in order to assimilate to society. People have to deviate from their ideal vision of how they should live their lives if they want to enter mainstream culture. Neil Countryman is the character in The Other who makes these compromises—he is finding the middle ground between doing what he believes in and doing what is convenient. John William, of course, represents the opposite of this. John William has decided that he is going to avoid compromising his beliefs and ideals at all costs. This choice has led him to live in a cave, isolated from society.

Neil’s decision to let society’s standards overrule his own beliefs may initially make him seem like a hypocrite. For example, when Neil receives the first $70,000 from John William, he is originally repulsed by the idea of having so much money. He realized that, because of the money, his “life was changed, and this understanding was not only poignant, but tinged by…corruption” (135). Even though at first, he hated the idea of being rich and wanted to give all the money to charity, he eventually decided to use some of the money to stay in a fancy hotel with his girlfriend in San Francisco. On one level, this decision reveals a double-standard held by Neil. But on the other hand, who wouldn’t use a fraction of the windfall for enjoyment? Wanting to have fun in life is a natural human desire, and Neil is simply acting the way that almost all other people would act in his situation. Furthermore, Neil split the difference between his idealistic aspirations of giving the money to charity and his greedy desire to use it all for himself. He didn’t move out of his ratty basement apartment and he didn’t take a month-long vacation to Italy—in other words, he didn’t entirely abandon his morals. Therefore, I think it would be a mistake to label Neil as a hypocrite, because of his conscious decision to maintain some of his ideals.

John William, however, refuses to budge from his lofty ideals and criticisms of society. He is fiercely opposed to materialism, to society’s emphasis on money and status, and to almost anything that is celebrated by the bulk of society. He criticizes Neil incessantly for Neil’s assimilation into mainstream culture. For example, at one point Neil asks John William how he plans to survive the winter in his cave, without a source of food or heat. Neil asserts that John William will “go up to Forks for bacon and eggs” instead of sticking to his disciplined life confined to the forest (149). John William fires back that this is only something Neil would do. John William tells Neil, “You’re thinking of yourself. You’re a loyal citizen of hamburger world” (149). John William prides himself on being separate from civilization and its flaws. His goal in life has become to live without stooping to society in any way, and that is what motivated him to retreat into his cave. However, even John William has a certain dependence on civilization because of his reliance on the food and supplies that Neil brings him periodically in his cave. Therefore, not even John William, in his extreme way of life, is free of hypocrisy.

In writing about Neil and John William, author David Guterson seems to draw no conclusions about which character’s way of life is correct. His purpose in writing the book isn’t to persuade readers to adopt John William’s hermit lifestyle, or to follow Neil’s path. He is simply examining the compromises that our society forces us to make, and the way people react to this societal force. An interesting exception to this neutral stance, however, is that Guterson portrays Neil as being happier than John William. Neil has a girlfriend, takes vacations, and enjoys his studies in college; John William leads a lonely existence weaving baskets from bark. The only thing that John William has that Neil lacks is the knowledge that he is doing only what he believes in. As a reader, this difference between the two characters makes me want to lead a life like Neil’s as opposed to one like John William’s.

Work Cited:

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