I. Both the Judge’s monologue in Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann and Man on Wire deal with crime. The crime Phillipe Petit committed and the crimes Judge Soderberg spoke about are not the same, however. Phillipe’s crime is one driven by passion and love for the art (of tightrope walking) while the crimes the judge speaks about are crimes driven by lust and greed. These crimes include rape, murder, and robbery.
II. Judge Soderberg gets both Phillipe Petit as well as Jazlyn and Tillie on the same day. This judge is Claire’s husband, and this bridge in the characters is what ties them together. The judge almost has a predetermined outlook on the characters in which he thinks of Tillie and Jazzlyn as bottom feeder criminals and prostitutes and sees Corrigan as nothing more than their pimp. Doubling up on both of these cases show the different walks of life in which these people come from while still highlighting a connection they make with one another (a prominent judge, two prostitutes, and an Irish missionary).
III. The prologue in Let the Great World Spin tells the story of the day Phillipe Petit crossed a wire connecting the World Trade Center Towers. It tells how all of New York hushed in amazement over the great feat that was being done over their heads. People halted their daily commutes to watch this man do what was thought to be impossible and perhaps foolish. As the two buildings were bridged that day by the tightrope cable, people from different walks of life crossed paths as well. It was on that very day on August 7, 1974, that said events would take place. We learn Tillie and Jazzlyn get arrested, Corrigan dies, Claire has the women from counseling over, and Judge Soderberg presides over both the tightrope walker as well as Jazzlyn and Tillie. Whether they knew it or not, these people would affect each other in one way or another.
The connection that surprised me the most was the one of Corrigan and Adelita. Knowing he was a Catholic monk and that he had to take a vow of celibacy, I was truly shocked when we first learned how intimate their relationship truly was. With talks of furthering their relationship, it was soon evident that Corrigan showed interest in leaving his duties as a monk and eventually his duties as a priest. I feel like this was solidified in having sex with Adelita. I think its also interesting in noting the fact that neither Corrigan nor Adelita were native to New York, or the United States for that manner. Adelita is from Guatemala while Corrigan’s original home was Ireland.
A connection that makes my heart skip a beat is that of Jaslyn and the tightrope walker. Jaslyn carries a photo of Phillipe Petit in her pocket in memory of her mother. When she looks at it, she wonders how something so beautiful can happen the same day just hours before of something so wicked taking form (the death of her mother). This was significant to me because we should all be aware of fleeting time. The notion of significant events happening in concert with one another. This goes well with a book like this because it is a perfect example of the networks this book establishes among its characters.
“As the two buildings were bridged that day by the tightrope cable, people from different walks of life crossed paths as well.” Nice way in!
…”The notion of significant events happening in concert with one another. ”