Save as Many as You Ruin

961 Words4 Pages
A mistake is an action that is not correct and produces a result that you did not want. It is commonly known that everyone makes mistakes, but sometimes they can be fatal for your continuous journey. Sometimes one simple mistake can shape your life into something that you never would have dreamt of. In the short story "Save as Many as You Ruin" by Simon Van Booy we meet a male character who has committed a mistake and is constantly thinking of "What if...". Our male main character, Gerard, is a fairly decent looking man and single father. One day, while walking home from work, he sees Laurel in a shop window. Gerard and Laurel had a brief relationship 8 years ago but it ended suddenly when Gerard had an affair with another woman with whom he has a daughter, Lucy. When Gerard sees Laurel in the shop window he begins thinking of what could have happened and where it went wrong. The whole short story is a set of flashbacks that have the purpose of introducing the reader to the life of Gerard - a typical man, but also a man who has failed along the way and therefore is just a small piece in the greater picture. An example of this is seen, when he is walking home from work, on p. 2, ll. 7-8: "Gerard thinks of footprints and how soon they will disappear. He exhales into the world and his breath disappears." This is a great example of how he perceives himself. To him, he is not very influential and his role in this world is small because his breath and footprints will be gone in a few seconds. In this world he is "The Invisible Man" . Or until he sees Laurel again that is. Because when he does the mood changes from this rather dull, cold mood in the beginning into something where he pictures what could have happened, which makes him happy. It could be that Lucy's mother, Issy, was the sexiest woman on earth and that she spoke to his Id - his primal side. But on the
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