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Helen Grover's avatar

Sorry my homework is late:

My family is from a town where people would assume there are a lot of Earle’s (my grandpa is even named Earl) but I think a genuine Earle is harder to find than people might think. I think this kind of person represents something more extreme than the bitter aloofness some people in a rural area might feel. He’s more of a stock character or an archetype than a person. I think he’s meant to speak to a particular aspect of a disaffected and apathetic experience in life. There are people like Earle, I just think that what we’re seeing here is a specific part of them. I feel like they’ve made an effort to close themselves off from others and while they often claim it’s because of some insight or a lack of positive illusions these are deeply wounded people. I don’t like people like Earle and I struggle balancing the contempt and empathy I feel.

I think the bluebird represents something killed through callousness and indifference. I feel pretty differently about birds in stores than our narrator. It makes me happy to watch them intrude. We put up walls in a place they used to live and expect them to stay away. We don’t know how to react when they intrude on what we’ve built for ourselves. It feels like there’s a bit of rebellion to the act of a bird going somewhere it shouldn’t. Similar to a bird wandering into a building, Earle is stuck in a changed world that no longer makes sense to him. He feels vulnerable and left behind. While he affects a tough exterior he is hurting every day. Just like the modern landscape results in a bird dying without anyone’s direct action, Earle is slowly dying in a metaphorical way. He feels trapped in a society he paradoxically feels he’s been cast out of. His ability to connect with others is being destroyed by his apathy and his judgmental attitude. He copes by investing in cultural narratives around toughness and masculinity that are supposed to help him, but they don’t. Hating on the annoying young people won’t fix his health or his money problems. His anger has been co-opted by more powerful people to maintain control. I’d argue Earle is partly responsible but even if he could see his role in his suffering that doesn’t automatically grant him the skills to change.

I think that Earle like the bluebird is slowly being killed by the vastness and indifference of a society that doesn’t have him in mind. It’s why he lashes out in terrible ways and why the stress is always grating on him. I think he will probably die an early death related to stress.

TLDR I think you wrote a story about social murder which is one of the most political things there is.

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J.K. Ghillis's avatar

I’ve never known a man quite like Earle

But I’ve once met a shy, ginger-haired girl

Who had a dead bluebird

Stashed in a cupboard

Her name was Miss Sue-Annie Pearl

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