Running


For most of the book so far, our narrator has denied his grandfather’s message. Yet the narrator can’t deny he’s been kept running for all his life. As reader’s we first see the narrator on the treadmill during the battle royale scene. The narrator is riding a kayak in the middle of a tsunami. The order of events seem to make no sense, but he flows from one to the next with no question. Only when he figures the blindfold trick does he seem to have some control. That doesn’t last for very long because he still has to face the big guy with whom he can’t cooperate. The narrator doesn’t realize he’s being kept running because this is life as he knows it.
At college he’s kept running again by administration. Bledsoe is using the narrator in an attempt to show the “founders” what they want to see. Weirdly enough, Bledsoe is the one running the narrator. Once the narrator is revealed the truth, he grows angry at himself for not realizing and acting in the way he was expected to act. Even after he is shown the truth, the narrator continues to run for Bledsoe.
Now our narrator has moved to New York. When he first moved, he had a positive attitude and a good idea of what he wanted to happen. Time passed, but he kept his positive outlook. As it dawned on him that he would soon have no funds for living, he decided to take a more active role in his job search. Being more assertive lead him to meet Mr. Emerson jr. The interaction between Emerson jr. is a mind-opening experience for the narrator. The revelation that Bledsoe never tried to help the narrator is something that he had to understand in order to move forward in life. Otherwise Bledsoe would continue to hold power over the narrator indefinitely.
Leaving the meeting with Emerson jr. the narrator thinks about his next move. He doesn’t have enough money to go back home and Emerson jr. has offered him an attractive job. He wants to go with Emerson’s job, but he’s worried that it’s exactly what is expected of him, meaning he’s still running for someone else. At the same time, the narrator thinks to himself that it’s okay if he runs for someone else as long as he stays aware of his situation.

Comments

  1. Jenna LeeSeptember 15, 2019 at 11:17 AM

    I like how you track what kind of running the narrator is doing throughout what we've read, and it will be interesting to see how he goes from running blindly for others to having full control of his actions like the narrator from the prologue. I also wonder if his new job opportunity with Brother Jack is another form of people running the narrator for their own agenda or if it's different because he has more awareness and has his own agenda that happens to line up with the others'.

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  2. MitchellSeptember 15, 2019 at 12:13 PM

    You raise an intriguing possibility at the end of this post, which has everything to do with the narrator's development of an independent, critical consciousness: is it okay to "run" for someone else, if he's fully aware that he is being made to run, and he even "chooses" to run? Does "freedom" come from consciousness or from circumstances? Stay tuned as the Brotherhood chapters unfold: is this a case where he's working "for" Jack and co., but *conscious* and *aware* and so not able to be duped? Or is this another instance of him being "kept running," as his grandfather warned?

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    Replies
    1. KatieSeptember 15, 2019 at 12:28 PM

      I think that one of the main questions I have currently in this book is whether or not the Narrator is really free or in control of his life while at the Brotherhood. Before the Brotherhood, it seemed like he actually felt free but at the same time he wasn't free because of Mary. He felt guilty for not paying rent, which lead him to working with the Brotherhood, which means he's back under the control of some group. I mean the narrator chose to go to the Brotherhood, but did he really have a choice at that point? In the Brotherhood, it doesn't seem like he will retain the sense of freedom that he had after the factory accident or really the same identity, since they are quite literally giving him a new identity. At the moment I feel like he is both being "kept running" but also somewhat aware, but I'm not sure if he's aware enough.

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  3. HenrySeptember 16, 2019 at 9:39 AM

    I like the question of if "running" is better if one is aware of their situation. The running later in the novel seems better than the running in chapter 1 when the narrator had no critical consciousness of his situation, but doesn't "running" for someone while trying to work your own agenda behind the scenes seem like what Bledsoe is doing? Hasn't the narrator grown to hate Bledsoe?

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  4. HerzogSeptember 17, 2019 at 7:21 AM

    I noticed in almost every chapter or sequence of a few chapters, up until the narrator meets the Brotherhood, the narrator starts off thinking he can settle in one place - continue driving Mr. Norton around, become Bledsoe's assistant, find a vocation in NYC... until the end of the chapter when he's back out running, and each time a bit more aware of his invisibility. I'm curious to see if that trend repeats itself with the narrator's time in the Brotherhood.

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  5. SimonSeptember 18, 2019 at 4:30 AM

    I love your depiction of the narrator being “on a kayak in a tsunami” for the first scene, it completely captures the general feeling of what is happening in that situation. My question is do you think the narrator has actually stopped running after meeting Emerson? In fact, his hatred of Bledsoe was actually keeping him running and getting him to go to the factory. Then after that, he is again constantly being moved around and forced to do various things, without being given the chance to think. After all, part of the point of keeping him running was not letting him get to stop and think about what was happening to him. It’ll be interesting to see if he has finally stopped running after the electrocution treatment, or if he will again find himself running at another point in the novel.

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