An Analysis Of Bernard Cooper's The Fine Art Of Sighing

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“The Fine Art of Sighing” Discuss. The story “The Fine Art of Sighing”, by the art critic for Los Angeles Magazine, Bernard Cooper, is about a boy who has begun to take notice of the sighs of the world both good and bad; particularly that of his parents. He starts by talking about some forms of sighing and the reasons behind them. He states it is a “gradual welling up of pleasure, or boredom, or melancholy” (Cooper, p. 62). He goes into detail of our body mechanisms while producing a sigh and provides metaphors for the action like “your shoulders fall like two ripe pears” (Cooper, p. 62). The boy then talks about his middle-aged mother, a housewife, who is “dreaming at her sink” (Cooper, p. 62). He has the opinion that while she is in deep thought gazing out the kitchen window, she is also mournful about her separation from the world outside wishing she could be happy with her life; perhaps believing that things would be better for her out there. She seems to sigh so heavy that it looks as if it may be her last breath. I know this…show more content…
63), people from all different walks of life, all ages, various professions, who sigh because they are elated, relieved, or extremely mournful. I think that everyone of us sighs numerous times in any given day for many different reasons. It’s like the boy said, “you can no more contain it than your hands can cup a lake” (Cooper, p. 62). Even in this environment at college, I take notice of the people here, who are from various walks of life, some may be here because they want to be, and so they sigh for the relief they feel in this opportunity; and they are others who do not necessarily want to be here, but may be here to appease their parents, and they sigh out of the annoyance they feel for being having to be here. As for me, I fall into the group that feels blessed for the opportunity to be here, and so I sigh with

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