The Arena Essay

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”The Arena” by Martin Golan The unnamed protagonist is the father of two children. One with his current wife, and one who sadly died with his last wife. The story takes place in the suburbs of New Jersey and the protagonist has been living there for some time: “In my town in the suburbs of New Jersey there’s a building called “the Arena.” The father describes the Arena “...to be too cold and too hot at the same time...” He seems to be discomforted by the surroundings of the Arena, which must be related to his past. We follow the unnamed father and his teenage son driving around town. The setting is described positively, but this positively describing is about to being ruined as the father remembers the dead of his son Willie. No matter how a beautiful and promising day it is, the father feels uncomfortable, and his feelings is described like this: “My life is burdened by the weight of this “dream”. It has always been like this, at least for some time, a beautiful morning with a happy, healthy child, and fear gnawing at my stomach.” This quote illustrates the contrast in the setting between a beautiful day, and the father’s feelings that is ruined the beautiful day. The contrast shows that the father is struggling with his life, and he also says: “I sense that I am seeing not only ahead but also behind, that I’m glimpsing my future as well as my past.” He does know, that he is stuck in the past, and it is really hard for him to separate the past (one life) from the life he is living now. The father’s life now and in the past, is kind of the structure of the story. The story is chronological with a lot of flashback of the father’s earlier life with his son Willie and his old wife. Even the smallest thing makes the father thinks back to his earlier life, and it is like that he is stuck in his flashbacks: “Before the life I have now I had another life, with a
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