Tag Archives: Death

Keep Spinning, World- Reactions to LTGWS

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It’s kind of intriguing to see how the World Trade Center has such an effect on people in the last half of the century. From the time construction started in 1968, to its opening in 1973, to its tragic incident in 2001, and even extending to now in 2014, and to the future, World Trade Center is and will always be a symbolic representation of New York. This thought really hit me while I was on the E train today, one that was bound for none other than World Trade Center.

My Japanese class made 1000 cranes and attached it to one of the trees in the 9/11 Memorial. The 1000 cranes symbolizes hope. (March 8th, 2014)

Upon finishing Let The Great World Spin, I’m really disappointed- disappointed at the fact that it had to end. I started off with an indifferent attitude to it, since it just felt like a lost piece of novel. I didn’t understand what anybody had to do with each other. It was like a puzzle, with pieces fitting in as the novel progresses, jumping between different people’s viewpoint. It really shows what a small world we live in. I guess the whole “Six Degrees of Separation” thing is true!

In the story, World Trade Center acted as a reference point for everything. So does our lives today as New Yorkers. It symbolizes that even though we were attacked in 2001, we didn’t give up. We get up, rebuild, and are stronger than before. I guess the “world” can mean the World Trade Center in Let the Great World Spin (play on words, doesn’t mean that of course).

~Christopher Chong

Let the Great World Spin Reflection

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In class we talked about how this novel relates to death and how different people can deal with it very differently. The chapter that I feel best demonstrates how differently people can react to death is “A Fear of Love”.

The two main characters, Lara and Blaine, react drastically differently from each other, despite being very similar individuals. Lara struggles to forget about the events that led to them killing two people. Whereas, Blaine quickly rationalizes his part in the accident by explaining that it was Corrigan’s fault because he did not know how to drive.

It is not surprising to see contrasting reactions to death; however, I find it interesting because both Lara and Blaine are so similar. They are both artists and enjoyed the party lifestyle with many drugs and few concerns. Yet, their reactions to death were complete opposites, which show how influential death can be and how difficult it is to come to terms with. At the end of the chapter we can even see that it is driving the couple apart, as each cannot understand the other’s response.