10-05-15 Behran Kirkan 1.Æ
Rendezvous Essay

“Rendezvous” is a short story written by Daniel Ransom in 1985. In the story we follow two persons with different views on life that are trying to pursue different outcomes by acting in specifics ways, that is Kim and Payton. Kim is a fifteen year old girl who has run away from home. Though she dosen't see what she has done as running away from home, as told in the text “She dosen't think of it as running away. Merely proving a point”. She wants to teach her parents a lesson and show them that she can live her own life, without her parents help or them interfering. Payton is a young man who drinks a lot and like to listen to loud music while driving. As seen in the text “Shoved between his legs is a cold can of Budweiser that stains the crotch of his tight tan slacks”, “He opens a fresh of Bud” and “The saxophone solo is over now. The drums are back. He feels young, strong, invincible”. The fact that he drinks while driving kind of symbolises his carelesness. He loves the drums from his radio, it makes him feel alive. He has dirty long hair and a cobra tattoo on his left biceps. He's a man that dosen't care about other people's feelings and what consequences his actions are going to be. The atmosphere of the story is very tense, dark and heavy. Payton really fits this atmosphere, unlike a fifteen year old girl. While he is driving increasingly fast in the Interstate and listening to the beat of the drums, the tension raises and gets heavier and heavier. The tension from the drums and fast driving excites him and takes his thoughts away from reality. But when the saxophone starts he wants it to stop. This can be seen in the text “Payton wishes the saxophone would stop”. This is possibly because it gives him flashback from things he has done, things he regret and maybe try to run away from. As seen in the text “Saxophones make him morose”. It makes him feel despondent and perhaps a bit depressed. At one point in the story it says “The priest wasn't even sympathetic about him sending the flowers and visiting the funeral home, which he'd done three out of five times after he'd gone out on the Interstate”. This implies that Payton had killed 5 people, which makes him a murder. Taking all the things about Payton in consideration, I believe he has done these murder solely because of the adrenaline that goes with it. As far as themes go I would say the story is leaning towards crime and urge. Crime because of the murder Payton has commited and urge because of how the drums urges him to intensity. But also how Kim urges to show her parents (and maybeherself) that she can take care of herself.
Something that makes the story special is that even though the text is following Payton and Kim at the same time, they are never together before the very end (and even there they aren't really together). It's a twosplittet story that comes together in the end. As the title implies “Rendezvous” which basically means a meeting.
The story kind of describe the two persons as animals. Kim being the vulnerable one, running away from home to learn how to be strong, and Payton as the predator, looking for his next victim. The ending “As she opens the door, she hears drums. Very loud drums” leaves us questioning whats Is going to happen. We already know how Payton's intensity raises when he hears the drum sounds and that he has killed people in the past. Is Kim going to be his next victim? Or will it be different this time? As mentioned before Payton's has a Cobra tattoo. Cobras can symbolize change and redeem, because of their sloughing proces. Maybe there is something the narrator wants to tell us, maybe it's hint or glimse of the real ending.