Reading Response #1

I liked the beginning of this story, the relationship between Jeremy and China was very interesting and heart-warming. I did not like the statements she made about young couples who have children. When I realized she was not going to tell her parents and ultimately chose not to keep the baby, I was very angry for their selfish and delusional decision. I felt resentful after knowing what they did with the baby; I wanted to know what the consequences were going to be for their actions. The end of this story gave me the strongest emotions, when I realized how “sick” China was, after all that happened, the only thing she could do was think about Jeremy, I accually felt some sort of pity for her.

At the beginning of the story Boyle says, “They wore each other like a pair of socks” (pg.1). This sentence sums up the relationship between Jeremy and China, they were in love with each other, or at least physically. Boyle says, “And the sex. They were careful, always careful – I will never, never be like those breeders that bring their puffed-up squalling little red-faced babies to class, she told him, and he agreed, got adamant about it even, until it became a running theme in their relationship, the breeders overpopulating an overpopulated world and ruining their own lives in the process – but she had forgotten to pack her pills and he had only two condoms with him, and it was’nt as if there was a drugstore around the corner” (pg. 139). In this paragraph I understood what a skewed sense of getting pregnant and having children was to them. Most people look forward to having children, maybe not when they are in high school or even college, but eventually when they have settled down with their partner. China and Jeremy on the other hand are very judgmental towards teens that have children and despised them. They remind me of children in grade school who are grossed out by anything that has to do with liking the opposite sex. It is ironic that they forgot to bring protection on the camping trip and continue to have sex even though they are well aware there could be consequences. Boyle says, “For a long while she just lay there gazing out the window, watching the rinsed-out sun slip down into the sky that had no more color in it than a TV tuned to an unsubscribed channel, and then she found herself picturing things the way they were an eon ago, when everything was green” (pg.152). At the end of the story China finds herself reminiscing about how things between her and Jeremy used to be. After everything that has happened, she is still thinking about Jeremy, this is not surprising to me. She is fantasizing about how things were after all the tragedy; this shows me that somewhere in her she probably feels some type of remorse for what has happened.

This is a story about a young couple who have a strong sexual relationship and when the consequences of their actions are apparent, no one will step up to take responsibility and an innocent child dies. I believe the author is showing us how a typical stereotype can be taken too far, if China would have just faced her fears and told her parents the truth, she would not be in the unfortunate situation she is in now.







Work Cited
Oates, Joyce Carol, and Christopher R. Beha, eds. The ecco anthology of contemporary american short fiction. Pg.1

Oates, Joyce Carol, and Christopher R. Beha, eds. The ecco anthology of contemporary american short fiction. Pg.139

Oates, Joyce Carol, and Christopher R. Beha, eds. The ecco anthology of contemporary american short fiction. Pg. 152