Okay, so it’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a book I’m required to read for class, in fact, it’s been several years. When a teacher assigns a book, I look at it with a mixture of dread and revulsion, because honestly? They are the length of a Harry Potter book, and only about a third as interesting. But this book, The Metal Children, by Adam Rapp, actually kept me intrigued. Maybe it was the length, maybe it was the characters, or perhaps it was simply the very controversial topic of teen pregnancy that allowed me to finish the book so quickly. The book I loved, it was too good to put down. Now, along with the book, we were supposed to watch the movie Taxi Driver, which, as the title hints, is about a taxi driver named Travis. Now, this movie was interesting but lost me at times.
The two protagonists of The Metal Children and Taxi Driver, Tobin and Travis are two uniquely eclectic people. Both characters life an isolated and lonely life, Tobin, a writer lives in a messy apartment by himself after his wife left him, and Travis, and army veteran also lives alone. Both characters desire a connection with another person, specifically love, which they lack throughout the book and movie. The two characters presented personalities that were on opposite ends of the spectrum, Travis was all about anger, resentment and violence, while Tobin was more passive, letting everyone dictate what he should do, in short his life sucked.
I wouldn’t like to meet a person who resembled either of these characters, especially Travis, whose violent nature scares me a little. He strikes me as the kind of person who doesn’t fit into any kind of specific category, he’s a war veteran but his past is a little obscure after that. He works as a cab driver because of insomnia, and he seems to be unsure of how to interact with people on a social level, which we see when he took his date Betsy to a porn flick. Tobin also doesn’t know how to interact with people that well, he spends a lot of his time alone being a slob and pining over his ex-wife. Both characters disregard authority, (although Tobin sleeping with a minor was a little disturbing) and in doing so they evolve a little, or perhaps devolving and embracing their nature more, which could be seen when Travis attempted to kill the senator. The two characters were definitely memorable, each a little disturbing in their own way. Maybe they’ll inspire me to do required readings with a little more enthusiasm.
