This Much Is Constant: Analysis Essay

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Vikhyat Mundlapudi Mr. Brandstetter ENG-3UH Monday, September 26th, 2011 yThe Ripple in the Pond Janice Galloway's “this much is constant” is a testament to adults who have let out all their bottled up issues in the form of crime. Through her choice of descriptive words, she hints at the fact that the protagonist may have revisited her childhood home, only to murder her mother. The protagonist's feelings start to be revealed on the first page when she talks about how fear and wonder are constants, meaning that even though all the fearful and wonderful things that happened to her have long passed, they were still fresh in her mind, staying with her for eternity. The reader discovers that she has the longing to accomplish something as she says, “Determination is never outgrown; only with fear and wonder, adapted, reviewed, refined.” (p169) This can be interpreted as the protagonist had wanted to do something in her childhood, and that desire had never outgrown her, it had just been more refined to a point in her adulthood where she could conceivably execute her plan. She says, “Fear is never outgrown...,” (p169) meaning that even though she now has the plan to go along with her determination, she is still as fearful as the child she used to be. Her fear seems to stem specifically from this home, as she talks about how home is where bones grate against each other, signifying conflict, and as many child psychologists will say, a home with much conflict is the devil's workshop inside a child's mind. On the second page, there is an interesting juxtaposition in that the formatting of the text is quite unusual. Instead of the usual text where all lines start and end at the same point, Galloway purposely makes each line contain only one or two words where they are lined on top of each other, giving the impression of falling, or more specifically, the protagonist
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