Category: Blog Postings

Part I

Both Man on Wire and Judge Soderberg’s monologue in Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann deal with crime. However, while Man on Wire is about the artistic crime Phillipe Petit committed when he walked between the World Trade Centers on a tightrope, Judge Soderberg’s monologue is about sordid crime like rape, robbery, arson, and murder. Phillipe Petit’s crime is a crime of privilege because he has the time and resources to plan a stunt that has no purpose other than to challenge himself and to amaze others. The crimes Judge Soderberg speaks of are crimes of desperation, as most people involved have little choice but to engage in criminal activity. Both types of crime shock people and make them uncomfortable, but only Petit’s type of crime is considered art.

 

Part II

I was annoyed by the way Judge Soderberg thought of Tillie, Jazzlyn, and Corrigan during Tillie and Jazzlyn’s trial for robbery. By this point in the story I knew Tillie, Jazzlyn, and Corrigan well and I liked all of their characters. I was rooting for them. I also knew that Jazzlyn and Corrigan die in a car crash right after the trial, which made their last moments in the court room more meaningful. Judge Sonderberg does not know Tillie, Jazzlyn, and Corrigan. Instead of seeing Tillie, Jazzlyn, and Corrigan as the kind-hearted people I knew them to be, Judge Soderberg sees them as more lowly dirt he has to deal with. Judge Soderberg considers Tillie’s jokes irritating, he sees Jazzlyn as hopeless, and he mistakes Corrigan for a pimp. I was annoyed at Judge Soderberg for not being able to see past the assumptions he makes about Tillie, Jazzlyn, and Corrigan to the real people underneath.

 

Instead of focusing on Tillie, Jazzlyn, and Corrigan Judge Soderberg is distracted by an unusual case he is to preside over later in the day, the trial of Phillipe Petit, the tight-rope walker. The contrast between the Judge’s feelings about Tillie and Jazzlyn’s case versus Petit’s case again illustrates the difference between sordid crime and artistic crime.

 

I was excited by Petit’s appearance in the same courtroom as Tillie, Jazzlyn, and Corrigan because this instance connected even more of the characters in Let the Great World Spin. I enjoy how characters in Let the Great World Spin keep intersecting with one another without even realizing it.

 

Here’s an updated version of my character intersection chart which shows all the character intersections in Let the Great World Spin.

Part III

The prologue of Let the Great World Spin begins with a shocking scene of Petit walking on a tightrope between the World Trade Centers. In this scene, New York City seems crowded, chaotic, and overwhelming. Let the Great World Spin terminates in a quiet scene with Jaslyn sitting on her dying friend Claire’s bed. Between these two scenes Colum McCann bridges all of New York, and we the readers feel as if we know New York, the overwhelming city, inside and out. Petit’s walk at the beginning of the book symbolizes the journey through New York City McCann takes the reader on. It seems impossible to walk between the World Trade Centers on tightrope, but Petit does it. It seems impossible to understand New York City, but by the end of Let the Great World Spin we understand a good portion of the city.

 

A bridge that surprised me in Let the Great World Spin was the bridge between Ciaran and Lara. I was shocked that Ciaran and Lara could bridge Corrigan’s death and become close. While I’m glad that Ciaran and Lara aren’t bitter and filled with hate for one another, their friendship still feels strange and unnatural to me.

 

At the end of the Let the Great World Spin on page 346, Jaslyn describes seeing a coyote crossing the Major Deegan Expressway. I was astonished and excited to find this event in Let the Great World Spin. The tale of the coyote that crossed the Deegan is basically a legend among the scientists I worked with on the Gotham Coyote Project, and it was fun to read about this event in an unexpected place! Jaslyn’s account of the urban coyote also illustrates how nature bridges New York City. We often think of cities as removed from nature, but by showing a coyote heading toward New York City, McCann demonstrates how integrated cities and nature are. Even in the most urbanized and gritty areas, nature bridges the city.

Part I 

The crimes that the judge describes are destroying the city and lives. However, Philippe Petit’s crime of tight roping on the World Trade Centres is a crime that makes life meaningful. It represents many of our desires to be free. Most of the viewers are amazed at a person who broke the limitations and fears and lived life. Part of the city did come alive when he was committing his crime.

Part II.

The judge is Claire’s husband and he presides over the case of Jazzlyn, Tillie, and tightrope man. This is important because it is a bridge between these characters. It shows how the system treats both these people. The judge does have sympathy for Jazzlyn and Tillie and he can see the love and affection they have for each other. The judge did not actually want to jail Petit but he has to. This also illustrates how New York is indeed a big city but it is also a small city because people of disparate backgrounds meet and come together somehow. For example, we know someone who knows a guy, and the chain continues. And we are astonished to find out we are mutual friends. We go to places that almost force us meet although we are from different backgrounds and a courtroom is one of them.

Part III

When I first read the prologue, I was confused as to what was happening. I did not know what the significance of the tightrope walker is. As I continued reading after, I did not see him appear again for a while. I thought maybe the tightrope walker’s crime was supposed to be metaphorical and it is, but not completely. The prologue ends with Philippe Petit taking steps on the rope. In the next page, we are thrust into the story. Later on, we learn that Jazzlyn and Tillie get arrested that day, Soloman is the judge for both cases, Gloria adopts Jazzlyn’s kids, etc. All these connections occur of class, race, and more intersections.

The bridge that unsettled me the most was Lara and Ciaran’s romance. Lara’s husband Blaine crashed into Corrigan and Jazzlyn’s car. I didn’t understand why Ciaran would decide to date someone who was somewhat involved in his brother’s death.

A bridge that made my heart sing was Gloria adopting Jazzlyn’s kids and not only that but Gloria is a continuation of Corrigan. Like Corrigan, she does not hate the hookers, she has a loving attitude, and is Christain. She and Corrigan have beautiful hearts. She can adjust to people and help others in trouble.

Part I.

The judges monologue is very depressing. He’s very descriptive on how the Bronx is disgusting and he seems to focus only on the bad. While reading this I felt so disgusted that I wanted to throw up. Afterwards, I had to tell myself this is not the only thing that happens, there is some good in the world even if we don’t see it. It makes me realize that people tend to weigh the negatives more heavily than the positives.

Part II.

The two cases are completely different and went to the same judge and Judge Soderberg had complete different reactions to the two cases. He was overjoyed at having the tightrope walker case. He gave Tillie 8 months in prison for an old charge and only gave the walker a fine of less than two dollars because he believes his walk was a “meaningful monument.” Since there were reporters present for the tightrope walker’s case, Soderberg was more strict than usual because he was under the scrutiny of the public.

It connects the two events and forever binds them. Jaslyn even carries an old photo of the tightrope walker’s famous walk between the towers because this event happened on the same day as her mother’s death and “the sheer fact that such beauty had occurred at the same time” is what attracted her to the photo. She says it’s “One small scrap of history meeting a larger one.” I feel as though this book purposely connects peoples stories to show us that affect and impact we could all have on each other. It also shows that beauty surrounds us even when things are going wrong.

Part III.

After reading the prologue over again, I have determined that what has been bridged is the tightrope walker and every character in this book. He was in the same courtroom with Corrigan, Tillie and Jazlynn, which then affects the Jazlynn’s daughter Jaslyn, his judge was Claire’s husband, Solomon Soderberg. In every characters story, we can see that the world keeps on spinning or everything keeps moving forward which is what I feel is the connection.

A bridge that surprised me and unsettled me at first was when Gloria went back home to her apartment and saw social services taking Jazlynn’s children. In that moment I wasn’t sure whether she was just going to let them be taken or if she was going to step up and make them her own. I feel like if she hadn’t stopped social services from taking them that Jaslyn and her sister would’ve had totally different lives, Gloria raised them with more opportunities than they would’ve had if she had allowed them to be taken.

I think pretty much everyone is surprised that Lara ended up marrying Ciaran but it made me really happy (I guess it made my heart sing) that she left her husband for him and that she moved on, her ex was an a**hole. Jaslyn and Pino honestly made my heart sing (I know it probably doesn’t qualify as a bridge but let me have this), she went from basically fearing men because of her mother and grandmothers history as hookers and then meeting this guy and instantly becoming enamored and attracted to him. Their communication and conversation were also pretty funny and adorable.

I. When reading the monologue, the only thing I could think of is “The Bronx is Burning” since that time in New York’s history was when the crime rates were at a very high point. When comparing the crimes of Petit and the crimes that other New Yorkers have committed, it is almost like a spectrum where Petit’s crime could be seen as very minimal and the extremes are the ones that occur every day in NYC. This part shows that crime seems to have two different sources of inspiration; one caused by a deep desire to inspire and create, and another from selfishness and desire to take.

II. I found it interesting that Judge Soderberg was very excited to receive the tightrope walker because he described his ‘crime’ more as a work of art than anything. He went as far as to say that New York City only has a perpetual care for the present and ignoring history and that Petit was able to make and immortalize that one small moment a monument for himself. When faced with Jazzlyn and Tillie’s crimes, he was definitely less excited, but to an extent, it still warmed him to see the relationship that Jazzlyn and Tillie have. Their case was more like a break from his typical experience with cases and in a way it also made itself a small moment that would last in him for a long time.

III. Had Petit not walked across the tightrope on that day, I think that perhaps some of the relationships between characters, or at least the interactions that they had, would have been completely different. In Claire’s house, there would not have been a topic that the ladies talked about before addressing the task at hand and they would all have been bored faster and the atmosphere would have been more awkward, as was seen in Gloria’s side of the event. Claire’s last quote is a call to the massiveness of the city, while at the same time being a call to how we live in a “small world” since everyone could be connected to each other in some way or another. The thought of the “world spinning” to me is like saying that no matter how many lifetimes pass, or how many people’s lives are negatively or positively impacted, the world will keep going and in the broader scope, they will seem almost meaningless. I don’t mean this in a nihilistic way where nothing matters, but more in the sense that follows the definition of “sonder”, in which everyone has their own lives and their own set of relationships and that when these are drawn out, it is almost like a web connecting everyone to each other in some way, whether it’s between mutual friend, partners or even strangers as the connections go farther and farther from you. There is no end to this web of connections and there is no beginning either, but rather than focusing on that, it seems to just keep going and going.

One of the bridges that unsettled me, well not really unsettled, more like got me by surprise, was the fact that Ciaran ended up marrying Lara because although they did have a connection, in the beginning, I didn’t expect it to last or even grow. It seemed a bit weird knowing that Lara is responsible for his brother’s death, yet they still decided to stick together, but in a strange way, that is expected from Ciaran since his character is very tolerant and forgiving, as was seen with his interactions with Corrigan.

A bridge that made my heart sing was the fact that Gloria stuck with the girls for so long and went as far as raising them almost as her own. Thinking about it made me connect back to how Gloria must have felt when she found out her 3 boys fell in war. That pain and great loss must have created a sort of emptiness within her that I like to think was filled at least partially filled when she introduced Jaslyn and Janice into her life to raise as her own. It also made me happy that after a lifetime of adventure, Gloria’s final resting place was back in her hometown Missouri. The power that people have to help is greatly shown throughout this novel, and I feel that Gloria’s decision to raise them, as well as Claire’s to accept them into her home, are some of the most powerful because not only did they help Jaslyn and Janice grow into strong and confident women, but in a way it alsoallowed for the legacy of the previous characters to live on with them.

Part I: Man on A Wire and Let The Great World Spin really are the antithesis of each other when it comes to the deliveries and atmospheres they create when trying to explain the exact same scenario. The book really is much more structured, asa book should be, but it also makes the situation seem a little more robotic when it comes to emotion. For example, if Petit was really a man trying to commit suicide and had done so in the first few pages, I doubt any of us would have cried (not to say we wouldn’t feel anything at all). However, even though they were interviewing Petit throughout the documentary, it gave you more of an emotional connection and “behind the scenes” view of what was going on rather than a much wider, yet vaguer perspective that the book gives you. This had me sweating when Petit was actually walking across the buildings, even though I obviously knew he would survive (they were interviewing him after the fact, after all).  I was almost crying when he started to lay down! However, even a monologue by the judge at the end of the book seems to follow this standard of structured thinking (then again, he’s a judge, so that’s what he’s supposed to do). Nonetheless, you do see this structure to break at the edges a bit, as we see in Part II.

Part II: The fact that the judges get both Tillie and Jazzlyn and Petit on the same day is very symbolic on how easy it is to make a connection not only in this book, but in our lives as well. Characters that never seemed to ever have a connection between each other, or never seemed to have a purpose to meet, still found that connection between each other, even if it seems as insignificant as meeting in court on the same day. The point behind this is that even meetings by chance, which often seem insignificant (unless you’ve seen every romantic comedy movie ever), can hold greater significance to the world as a whole, even if it does only the simplest things for the actual characters involved. In other words, connections between characters may not do much for the actual characters themselves when it stands alone, but with all the connections combined (see Olivia’s chart), they add to the piece as a whole due to the fact that it exemplifies how absolutely anything can make a connection between two people, and that these connections sometimes may add to the emotional or physical strength of a character, but other times may provide a symbol for a cause greater than the characters themselves. In this case, it shows the corruption within the “interpretation of the law.” If Pettit and Tillie and Jazzlyn were on separate days, one can make the argument that the judge may have been having a bad day during one of the cases, or the judge had an epiphany. In this case, we can tell the judge does have some bias to him, and therefore we are led to feel more sympathy towards Jazzlyn and Tillie. Like G said, the judge makes a distinction between “good crimes” and “bad crimes.”

Part III: I believe the reason behind the placement of parts 1 and 2 before part 3 is because, simply enough, these two parts lead into and have a special connection to part 3 just s each of the characters seem to have a unique connection between each other. It is really left up to the reader’s interpretation of what it truly means that the world is spinning (which is why it was placed at the end). I believe that it is the connections that occur between the world, from the main ones such as Ciaran and Corrigan (a brotherly love) to symbolic ones (Petit and Tillie and Jazzlyn showing the corruption within law and distinguishing between “good” and “bad” crimes), that really makes the world spin. Think about it: Olivia spent all that time on that beautiful chart (she deserves extra credit for that), and the sad thing is she didn’t even get every connection. There are so many things that appear to simply be factors of the humdrum of everyday life that are actual connections between humans, humans and animals, or even humans and their environment. Therefore, I will make a bold statement in saying just as there probably was a new connection on every single page of this novel (if you look close enough), there is a new connection made every second for every day, and those connections are so powerful that they are just strong enough to give the world the slightest push when standing alone, but completely rotating it when coming together. Therefore, the bridge made between the prologue and the ending was the connections that brought them all together.

A bridge that unsettled me at first was the connection between Lara and Ciaran. At first, I am thinking to myself: why the hell is Ciaran going after the girl that led to his brother’s death? Are you crazy?! However, almost immediately after this thought, I decided to give them a chance because crazier things in life have led to love, so why not this? I started to convince myself that Lara didn’t cause Corrigan’s death, and how she really is perfect for Ciaran. It’s crazy how the perspective of a book can change when you are simply looking for things that would confirm your theory (see confirmation bias in your psychology notes, if you actually took any). Now, looking back on things (see hindsight bias in your notes, now that you have them open), I realize that Lara helped catapult Ciaran as a good guy that you should be rooting for (if you already weren’t doing so), because even after all that hell he went through, he is still ready to forgive almost anyone, something we can all learn from.

The connection that made my heart sing was Corrigan and the love he showed with the rest of his environment and the people that inhabited it. No matter what Corrigan went through, he was always a great man and showed great charity to others without ever endorsing a religion, showing that he truly did what he did because he genuinely wanted to help others. I’m not going to lie, I thought Corrigan was a little annoying and troublesome at first, but I soon saw the error of my ways as soon as he gave his own blanket away to a stranger. At that age, I still was hogging up the last cookie at Thanksgiving, so you can see Corrigan was at a much higher level than all of us (at least me) at such a young age.

 

 

I. Judge Soderberg’s monologue in Let the Great World Spin and the documentary Man on Wire provide two different perspectives on crime. Soderberg describes horrific crimes such as rape, murder, and theft that fill the city. On the other hand, Phillipe Petit’s crime is recognized as a work of art because it involves passion rather than necessity. The intent of the crimes is what makes Petit’s admirable, and the crimes Soderberg accounts for as immoral. While Petit’s crime unites the city through its beauty, the crimes Soderberg speaks of spawn from selfishness and defiance.

II. By doubling up the two cases of Tillie and Jazzlyn and Petit, the contrast of crimes discussed in Part I is revealed but with a twist. In the case of Tillie and Jazzlyn, Soderberg immediately views Tillie as a defiant criminal because of her appearance and obnoxious behavior in the courtroom. She wears a one-piece bathing suit with high heels, and blows kisses to men in the room. Because of this, Soderberg does not view her as a person and sees her as just one of the criminals listed in his monologue. It is not until Soderberg realizes that Jazzlyn is Tillie’s daughter that he feels any compassion for the girls. In this situation, he has an understanding for both Tillie and Jazzlyn and Petit’s case. Tillie and Jazzlyn may have committed multiple crimes, but their loving relationship is what softens Soderberg’s heart. In Petit’s case, he understood Petit’s motive for walking between the towers, and did not want to punish him severely for something he thought was beautiful. The doubling up of these two central events reveal both a contrast and connection between the cases which occur by accident, but hold great significance.

III. The prologue of Let the Great World Spin begins with Petit tightrope walking between the Twin Towers during a regular, chaotic New York City morning. While most people would rush to their jobs or appointments they have that day, it is Petit’s spectacular stunt that pauses the hectic crowd. It was difficult at first to think how this tightrope walker would connect to every character in the novel; however, in the end I came to the conclusion that Petit can be considered one of the main characters in the story. Almost every single character mentioned the tightrope walker, and how the walk had an impact on that specific moment in their life. They may have been distracted by a certain problem, but everything was at a standstill as Petit walked. Everyone, no matter their social or economic status connected for at least one moment bringing the city together. As Jaslyn lays next to Claire, she feels “the world spinning.” The only reason Jaslyn is found in this situation is because of fate. Claire and Jaslyn come from two completely different worlds, and in the end they end up side by side. Connections will continue to be made no matter what the course of someone’s life is. People will connect, and the world will continue to spin.

A bridge that surprised me was between Lara and Ciaran. It was a bit unsettling that Ciaran would find an attraction for the woman that is responsible for his brother’s death; however, this bridge is used to reveal Ciaran’s character development. I understand that the point of this connection was to show how Ciaran learned forgiveness after the death of Corrigan, but it was still odd how an emotional relationship was made between these characters.

A bridge that made my heart sing was Corrigan’s connection with every character he encountered in the novel. It did not matter who they were or what their past consisted of, Corrigan accepts them and helps them in anyway he can. He resembles a forgiveness and humility that every single person can learn from. His first acts of kindness can be seen as he gives away his blankets, and goes the extra mile to understand the suffering of the unfortunate souls of society. While living in New York, he attempts to better the lives of prostitutes by offering them a place to rest or use the bathroom during the day. Even when pimps beat him up for offering this service, he continues to do it. Corrigan allows himself to suffer as long as he can benefit the lives of those around him. Through his connections with different characters in the novel, readers can learn to idolize Corrigan’s selflessness as he bridges people together no matter what they are classified as in society.

Emotional amnesia makes me a hopeFUL romantic

I have emotional amnesia. Don’t worry, I remember everything pretty much as well as anyone else, but I don’t remember how I felt during those memories. At my highest mountains I feel invincible, forgetting they’re the step before the drop, while at the lowest valleys I feel depressed, not being able to remember the mountain tops. Because of this, I am forever a hopeFUL romantic. So of course, when we were going around in class reading Judge Soderberg’s monologue, I kept mindlessly counteracting his accusations with examples of good. I have to point out that I am not naive, though. I just have hope that one day, love will change the world. Petit united people of all colors, socio-economic status, and ages with his crime. As much as I respect his amazing abilities (I don’t think I’ll ever not be in wonder of what he did), I don’t really agree that his crime is a “good” one: his intentions were not to unite; his intentions were to simply conquer another feat for himself. This is just a thought though, please don’t come after me!

Irked

Knowing the backstories of everyone in the book, it really annoyed me that the judge is very forgiving of Petit while simultaneously speaking damnation upon Tillie and Jazzlyn (and anyone like them). I think the effect of doubling these two events is supposed to show the stark contrast between “bad” vs. “good” crimes, but I just ended up being irritated. Where is the line between art and crime drawn? I am aware, however, that if the judge doesn’t treat these matters as black and white (which they are not), the justice system might not get anywhere.

And so the world spins.

People get into accidents, people get divorced, people lose their homes, people die… and the world spins. This hurts quite a lot. For the longest time, I expected the world to stop spinning every time something bad happened to me. I expected people to drop their lives and come to my rescue. It didn’t take until I was literally left with nothing that I had the realization that the world spins, and it will never wait for me to keep up. Instead of giving up, I started working on using that to make every day an opportunity to make the world a better place, because as Xhesika mentioned in her post, we are all connected in some way, shape or form (what did I tell you about being a hopeFUL romantic?). I actually have at least one connection to almost everyone in our class, which still blows my mind. I guess everything happens for a reason, right?

The bridge that unsettled me the most would have to be the one between Ciaran and Tillie. Ciaran hates the prostitutes, hates the drug dealers and addicts, hates the Bronx; yet, Ciaran has sex with Tillie. This is a physical turning point for Ciaran, who is warming up to life in the Bronx and seeing the humanity in these prostitutes, drug dealers, addicts.

This brings me to the bridge that makes my heart sing, and possibly the most unpopular one: Ciaran and Lara. This is where the hopeFUL romantic in me shines. I see myself in Ciaran. I try my best to forgive the people who have wronged me (I’m still working on it); some of my closest friends are people who have hurt me the most. Martin Luther King Jr. stated “There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us,” which is what Ciaran and I have come to believe. I could speak forever on forgiveness and love, because at the end of the day, I believe love is the strongest force in the universe. As you can probably tell, I am not a physicist.

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? 

Part I: The Bronx is Burning

Crimes after crimes, they are devouring the city. Each of these crimes are contributing to the total destruction of the city. The Bronx is literally and metaphorically burning; in the midst of this chaos, the hope is rising.

Part II: The Puzzle is Completed

Meeting the judge, Tillie, Jazzlyn, and tightrope guy in the court on the same day holds great significance. All the scenes and all the characters that seemed autonomous to each other finally got together. When I just started reading Let the Great World Spin, I thoughts this book was encompassed of independent short stories that did not affect each other. However, after reading this scene in the court room, I realized that Colum Macann has been continuously throwing puzzle pieces at the readers. As the judge, Claire’s husband, is handling the case of Tille and Jazzlyn, along with the case of the tightrope guy, all these puzzle pieces that seemed irrelevant to each other fall into piece together. After uniting the city, Phillipe Petit once again unites this book together. The puzzle is completed.

Part III: The Hope is Rising

In the prologue “Those Who Saw Him Hushed,” the readers are witnessing the historical tightrope stunt from the pedestrian point of view. The readers are uncertain of what is really happening and what the the true purpose behind this prologue is. On the other hand, the book ends with Jaslyn proclaiming that “the world is spinning.” By the end of the book the readers are taken to the birds’ eye view, where we know every aspect and purpose of this story. Also book initially takes place in one of the worst neighborhoods of the city. But by the end of the book, the author takes the readers to the upper east side apartment of the city. Gradual improvement is the bridge that connects and runs throughout the story.

One bridge that shocked me the most was the one between Corrigan and the homeless in the beginning of the story. I was shocked at the compassion that Corrigan had for those people who he thought were less fortunate than him. Although the end result was not too great, he was able to humble himself and immerge himself into their culture with the intention of helping them.

The bridge that I really enjoyed was the one that the tightrope walker had with Jazzlyn. The idea of concurrency (Death of Jazzlyn and the tightrope stunt) made me particularly enjoy this bridge.  At the end of someone’s life which I thought was comparable to the destruction of the city, the hope to unite the city yet once again rose.