Part I. Although both Man on Wire and the judge’s monologue focus on crime, how they are portrayed is very different. One makes you think that breaking the law can be the right thing, while the other shows that crime is causing a whole city to burn. The juxtaposition between the two makes it hard for me to imagine that they both take place during the same time period. Man on Wire gives me an image of a happy city, while the monologue makes me think of an entirely different place, one that is burning to the ground. Reading the judge’s monologue only makes me think of corruptness and people going against their own (fathers abusing daughters etc…), while Man on Wire only shows a united New York. Even the people behind the tightrope event had problems with each other, but eventually became united. People who didn’t know each other stood and watched as one. However, the monologue shows the complete opposite. Also like others said in their blog posts, one focuses on crimes based on art, while the other focuses on violent crimes.
Part II. It is important because it shows the importance of all the connections. It also shows how in the end they all come together and how each decision made by one person whether you know it or not can change everything. In addition, it shows the difference in how the judge views the two types of crime. Like I said in part one, he appreciates one, while looking down on the other, even though both were crimes.
Another thing I found controversial was the judge says that he wishes he could give graffiti writers big fines so they wouldn’t be able to pay. It is very funny how one form of art is better than the other. Philip was privileged enough for his art to be considered beautiful, while art like graffiti was said to be causing the burning of the city.
Part III Jaslyn’s final thought is probably the most important. That in this world, bad things happen and so do beautiful things and either way the world will keep spinning and you just have to try and keep up. No matter how sad you are, the sun still rises everyday. The world will not stop for anyone. It will keep moving. My favorite quote from the book was before the prologue and it said “All the lives we could live, all the people we will never know, never will be, they are everywhere. That is what the world is.” In the end we truly see how everyone is connected. The world will continue to be like this even after we are gone. All these people who you think are strangers and you ignore have the ability to change your life. In the prologue we have no idea what is going on and how everyone will connect to each other, but they are all connected by the end. They are also all connected to the tightrope walker. Also the prologue shows that everyone stops to watch the tightrope walker, while in the end the last sentence is “The world spinning.” It also reminds me of the theory of six degrees of separation and how any person is connected to another on this planet by ” through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries.” In the end we see how everyone is connected and how they are connected to one simple character, who I thought would never be mentioned in the story again. The ending makes me realize how we are all connected too; how Jasmine lived two blocks away from me and I probably passed her on the street not knowing she would go to the same school as me and how G knows my cousin, but yet I have not talked to her until now.
Like everyone else, I think the bridge that gave me a weird feeling was Lara and Ciaran. Maybe because I like to put myself in the shoes of the main characters. Even if I knew it was not Lara’s fault, I do not think I could even bear seeing the face of someone related to the death of someone I loved. Now imagine going out with them, it just makes me very uncomfortable. Lara seems like a very good person who tried her best to make everything right, but I am someone who usually judges people based on the emotions they evoke from me and sadly I can’t get the image of her car hitting Ciaran’s brother out of my head. However, I do think Ciaran is learning from his brother by forgiving her and seeing the good in her just like her brother saw in the prostitutes.
The connection between Gloria and Tillie’s grandchildren made my heart sing. The fact that she took care of them and became friends with Claire. What was very interesting is that Jaslyn, the child that Gloria adopted, visits the Claire, the wife of the judge that sentenced her grandmother and let her mother free. It shows how friendship transcends race. Furthermore, I feel like this connection has some of the most what ifs. What if the judge let them both free or sentenced both? What if Gloria didn’t adopt Jaslyn’s kids? If Gloria didn’t become friends with Claire. Everything would have a different ending. The whole book would be different. Who would have come to the conclusion that the world still spins?
“the theory of six degrees of separation and how any person is connected to another on this planet by ” through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries.”
Once you come across this theory of 6 Degrees, you can never unthink it. But you can fail to let it inform your judgements of others. Good you brought this to the table.
“I do think Ciaran is learning from his brother by forgiving her [Lara] and seeing the good in her just like her brother saw in the prostitutes.”
And perhaps that is the best way for him to hold on to Corrigan’s memory, to act more like him?