...Save as many as you ruin Gerard is the main character of the short story “Save as many as you ruin”. He has a daughter, Lucy, whose mother, Issy, died tragically many years prior to when the story takes place. Gerard has made many mistakes in his life, and in the story we hear about how he recovers from one of the biggest ones, when he once again meets the love of his life after many years of separation. The themes and topics discussed in the text include making mistakes, losing and finding love, coincidences and being a spectator in life. We are introduced to Gerard as a pensive man who wanders in the snow, deep in thoughts about his life and how short and insignificant it is. “Gerard thinks of his own footprints and how soon they will disappear. He exhales into the world and his breath disappears. (…) He wonders if his life is an extraordinary one” (p. 1, l. 7-9). Although he does ponder a lot about whether or not he is making the best of his life, he is not active in doing anything about the things that he may be discontent with. He gave in to temptation once when he initiated the affair with Issy, a mistake that turned out to be a fatal turning point in his life. He lost Laurel, the love of his life. He also lost Issy, which must have caused a lot of pain and regret even though he never loved her. But in spite of all the trouble his past mistake causes him, he also gains what turns out to be the most precious thing around which his life evolves - his beloved daughter...
Words: 948 - Pages: 4
...Save as many as you ruin Gerard is the main character of the short story “Save as many as you ruin”. He has a daughter, Lucy, whose mother, Issy, died tragically many years prior to when the story takes place. Gerard has made many mistakes in his life, and in the story we hear about how he recovers from one of the biggest ones, when he once again meets the love of his life after many years of separation. The themes and topics discussed in the text include making mistakes, losing and finding love, coincidences and being a spectator in life. We are introduced to Gerard as a pensive man who wanders in the snow, deep in thoughts about his life and how short and insignificant it is. “Gerard thinks of his own footprints and how soon they will disappear. He exhales into the world and his breath disappears. (…) He wonders if his life is an extraordinary one” (p. 1, l. 7-9). Although he does ponder a lot about whether or not he is making the best of his life, he is not active in doing anything about the things that he may be discontent with. He gave in to temptation once when he initiated the affair with Issy, a mistake that turned out to be a fatal turning point in his life. He lost Laurel, the love of his life. He also lost Issy, which must have caused a lot of pain and regret even though he never loved her. But in spite of all the trouble his past mistake causes him, he also gains what turns out to be the most precious thing around which his life evolves - his beloved daughter...
Words: 948 - Pages: 4
...Save as many as you ruin The short story Save as many you ruin is written in 2007 by Simon Van Booy. The theme in the story is about existentialism. In the story we are following Gerard, who is the protagonist. He has a midlife crisis. Gerard thinks a lot about his past and sometimes he questions his own life. He thinks whether he has done enough in his life. The protagonist has a conflict with his past and he feels somehow stuck in his past because of a bad relationship. Gerard is the main character in the story. He is the father to a little girl called Lucy and he loves her a lot. Gerard is a handsome guy, who sleeps with a lot of women. He had an affair with Lucy’s mom Issy when he was with Laurel. He had never loved Lucy’s mom, only Laurel. When he found out that Issy was pregnant, he chose to settle down and be a good parent to Lucy. But Issy chose to leave her husband and child. Gerard is a good father and responsible person, the fact that he chose to stay with Issy even if he didn’t love her. Furthermore Gerard attended Issy’s funeral and this shows that he is a decent person. He questions his own existence: “Gerard thinks of his own footprints and how soon they will disappear.” (Page 3 lines 43) This quote shows us that he is seeking for something more in his life. He feels that he is miserable in his life. He perceives his own existence and he wonders if he has made a mark in his life: “Gerard told her that he was caught because it began to snow and left footprints”...
Words: 1104 - Pages: 5
...Save as Many as You Ruin In the short story ’Save as Many as You Ruin’ we are introduced to the way of making relationships in most of the big cities. In this essay, I will be analyzing the text focusing on the mood and contrast. In the end I will be making a separate conclusion, where I will be summing up the things I’ve analyzed. The short story ’Save as Many as You Ruin’ begins in medias res. It appears that Gerard is very selfish and somehow lost in his career and in his wife since he decides to hire a babysitter to take care of his child, named Lucy. This shows us that he gives his pursuit of love a higher priority than his own child. However, we also experience him as considerate and compassionate person when he is together with his child Lucy and this kind of ambiguity is extreme in everything that Garard does. Gerard also seems to be a very doubtful person. ”Gerard wonders if he has done the right thing” – line 60. We also notice how Gerard, from what we know, does not ask about her daughter’s well-being, when they speak together. This can also substantiate the fact that Gerard is a very selfish man. There are a lot’s of contrasts in the short story, ’Save as Many as You Ruin. For example, when Gerard think’s about what will eventually happen and what actually happens turns out to stand in great contrast to each other. ”Perhaps he could have walked on. Later home in his study, he could re-create the moment he saw her in line at the shop and let her memory spill...
Words: 761 - Pages: 4
...Save as Many as You Ruin by Simon Van Booy. It is a shorts story from 2007. It jumps a lot between present and past tense, which makes the story more exiting for the reader, it also starts in medias res. The story is about Gerard who lives in Manhattan. Gerard want’s to stand out from the crowd, like when he wonders about his life is extraordinary (line 9). Or when he sees the mannequins who are still (line 28-30). Is maybe because he is afraid of ending up like them, still and boring, and not feel anything, like he does with his women. Gerard has an 8-year-old daughter, which he loves a lot. He do not let other women in that Lucy and Laurel, who is the only woman he ever loved, but when she got to close, he still found something else to ruin it, like Issy, who is Lucy’s mother. He cheated on Laurel with Issy. Gerard mood get shown by the weather when he is thinking about Lucy, she is always warm, and when he is thinking about his life, and all the women there is snow, and when he gets Laurel again, there is candles in her apartment and when he sees her, he says the memories spill over him like a faucet left running (line 62.) like the snow is melting, like his cold and snowy heart. Issy was like fire to him, and he burns himself when he ruins his relationship whit Laurel, it is also why she is killed in a pool, because water kills fire. The Title which is “Save as Many as You Ruin”, maybe means that he saved Lucy, when he ruined his relationship with Laurel, so...
Words: 816 - Pages: 4
...Save as Many as You Ruin The story, “Save as Many as You Ruin” takes place in Manhattan and tells the story about Gerard who is approximately 40 years old. The story takes a turn when Gerard meets Laurel by coincidence after he sees her through a shop window. Gerard and Laurel used to date, but the relationship ended when Gerard admitted to have made another woman pregnant. The woman Gerard made pregnant was Issy and the child they got was named Lucy. Issy decides to move to Los Angeles to fulfill her dreams about becoming a Hollywood actress, Gerard takes the responsibility of raising Lucy on his own. Four years after Issy went to Los Angeles, she was found dead in a pool, likely after committing suicide as she had taken her time to write Gerard’s name as her next of kin. Gerard is not the type of person who wants to impress anyone or leave a permanent change for anyone, maybe except for Lucy. As the story begins, the reader follows Gerard as he is walking home. “Gerard thinks of his own footprints and how soon they will disappear. He exhales onto the world and his breath disappears.” Gerard is walking alone in the streets and wondering how soon his footprints will disappear, also questioning how insignificant his existence is. These thoughts are very depressing and the fact that he is having these thoughts, gives the reader an idea of how he feels about life and with this quote, one can conclude that Gerard doesn’t find his own life important. In the part of the story...
Words: 964 - Pages: 4
...Save as many as you ruin The text “Save as many as you ruin”, is written by Simon Van Booy. The main character of this short story is called Gerard, and he is about 40 years old. In my analysis of this story I will in some parts go through some parts of the story to find the red line. I am also going to comment on some of the themes, how the language is used, and how the mood is. In the beginning of the short story, we are told that Gerard is on his way home from his work. As he walks home, his surroundings are described. It getting darker outside, which makes the streetlights turn on. It is winter and there is snow in the streets, which he mentions as he is walking. Through “Save as many as you ruin” the surroundings are described a lot, mostly the nature, which seems like telling us about his emotions, which we see as well in the following quote: “Gerard thinks of everyone’s footprints in the show. Manhattan was once a forest. He imagines the footprints of an Indian slipping home, on his shoulders a warm carcass with clumps of snow stuck to its fur”. The story’s narrator works a bit like a limited pointed narrator, but as well the narrator is omniscient. Back to the footprints; Gerard thinks of if there is anything special or good to remember him of, or if he is just like the footprints, which are just disappearing and being forgotten. The first part we see a pretty depressing mode from Gerard, but this is before he meets Laurel, when he walks alone in the snow. In this...
Words: 856 - Pages: 4
...Save as Many as You Ruin In the postmodern society, focus on individuality is a key point. Each person lives in their own reality, and has to figure out their purpose and identity themselves. Simon van Booy’s short story “Save as Many as You Ruin” is about a man named Gerard wandering Manhattan, looking back at his life, trying to reconcile with his past, accepting the choices he’s made. As he wanders through the snow, he meets his old love, and gets a chance to correct some of his past mistakes, and move to a better future. “Save as Many as You Ruin” is set in New York: “Manhattan was once a forest” (p. 2 l. 4). When we meet Gerard it is twilight, when the day ends and the night begins, this term often symbolize rebirth, which fits the story as Gerard walks around in his own thoughts looking back at his life, getting ready to put his past behind him. The language used in the story is not very detailed, and the reader must draw his own conclusions when it comes to the characters: “Her name is Lucy and she is eight. She has short brown hair with Hello Kitty clips pinned cleanly to her head.” (p. 2 l. 18-20). Here we see also see that the author uses references such as Hello Kitty. The dialogues are written in a minimalistic style to make them natural to the reader, for instance the conversation between Gerard and Laurel (p. 3-4), where the sentences rarely exceed four words. The tone of the story is intimate, since most of the time, we find ourselves in Gerard’s mind. There are...
Words: 955 - Pages: 4
...Save as Many as You Ruin Miracles and catastrophes are inevitable in life and so is the past. Therefore it’s not possible to run away from what happened earlier in life and the footprints we made back then. However, after every catastrophe miracles often get the opportunity to flower. In the short story “Save as Many as You Ruin”, written in 2007 by Simon Van Booy, the main character; Gerard, is given due to fate the opportunity to be blessed by new chances in order to save what has been ruined in the past. In the past, before Gerard became a father to a little girl named Lucy, Gerard lived a hectic “businessman’s” life consisting of constant social events including ladies and uncountable amounts of money. More precisely he lived the Hollywood lifestyle. Back then he also enjoyed the promiscuous life where sex was never the same, “He has slept with many women” (p.2, l.34), but despite of this, what Gerard regrets most from his past is his desire to have sex with Izzy: “Gerard vaguely remembers the feeling of being in love with Laurel and the desire to have sex with Izzy. He knew that other men enjoyed the occasional partner outside of long-term relationships, and he wanted to try it.” (p.6, ll. 123-126) Even though he is genuinely in love, for the first time, with Laurel as the above sentence also explains, he commits a crime, which sooner puts on a show of huge regret and his conscience is still being plagued by this mistake. However, accentuating the mood in the story...
Words: 1129 - Pages: 5
...Save as Many as You Ruin George R. R. Martin, the author of A Song of Ice and Fire, had this to say about morality: “We have the angels and the demons inside of us, and our lives are a succession of choices” This short sentence characterises a lot of recent literature which is in many ways the opposite of traditional literature; rather than cantering on the good versus evil paradigm in an outwardly focused narrative; the story in which there is a protagonist who is kind, honest, humble and sincere, and an antagonist who is cruel, dishonest, arrogant and deceitful. Current trends in fiction take a more internal focus; the demons are no longer caricatures that seek to maim and kill for evil reasons but personal thoughts and desires. The short story: “Save as Many as You Ruin”, written in 2007 by Simon Van Booy, explores these themes through the narrative of a father, lover, cheater, widower and liar by the name of Gerard. The story takes place in a snow-swept Manhattan in the middle of a snowstorm: “At the end of each block the sidewalk disappears under a pool of gray ice water.” The weather plays a significant part and is often commented on: “It’s a blizzard now” “Flakes like clumps of fur ripped from winter’s back” The weather serves as a reflection of the main characters dark and sombre thoughts. The main character is Gerard, and what is most identifiable about him is that for every positive trait he has he also has a negative; he is a handsome man: “Gerard is handsome”,...
Words: 981 - Pages: 4
...A: Save as many as you ruin Throughout each man’s lifetime one comes to gather a great deal of memories. These memories can be both positive and negative, but it is certain that many of them will stay with us for a very long time. We can ruin these experiences when they actually take place, but if we still keep them within us, it is then that they will make us grow, and we will learn from them. In the short story “Save as many as you ruin”, we are presented with the main character, Gerard, who has experienced a great deal throughout his life, and who still keeps these memories with him. Even though he has ruined most of his experiences in life the memories still remain within him. Gerard, does not seem to be in contact with his emotions. He has only loved one woman in his life although he has slept with many. The reason for him sleeping with so many women could perhaps be him being promiscuous. When he finds a woman whom he actually falls in love with he still feels an urge to sleep with other women, “Gerard vaguely remembers the feeling of being in love with Laurel and the desire to have sex with Issy.” (p. 5 l. 123-124). Even though he loves Laurel he can not remain faithful. His urge to follow his sexual instinct overpowers him and he is not able to control it – it controls him. The two women we are presented with in the text, Issy and Laurel, have had a very different impact on Gerard. Even though Gerard is not aware of it he is a lot like Issy in some ways; when he...
Words: 1312 - Pages: 6
...Save as many as you ruin Going through life, you are going to make many difficult decisions, every day you have to choose something and therefore deselect something else; some decisions will be the best ones we ever made, others we will live to regret for the rest of our lives. One thing is for sure though, you can’t change the past, and you can’t just go back and redo the important decisions, that’s just life. However, sometimes, if you’re lucky, life gives you a second chance. Gerard, the main character of the short story Save as many as you ruin by Simon Van Booy, has been given a second chance with love. He’s a single father, living on Manhattan. His daughter, Lucy, means everything to him, but except for her, his life seems meaningless and sad, and he seems to be frustrated with this empty and trivial living. He’s only ever loved one women, and it wasn’t Lucy’s mother Issy, it was a woman called Laurel, whom he thought he’d lost forever – but life grants him a second chance. On his way home, walking the cold, snowy big city-streets of New York: “he sees Laurel through the falling snow. Eight years has passed”. The famous “one that got away”. Gerard is a middle-aged, good looking man (“Gerard is handsome. He has slept with many women”). His relationship with women is rather superficial, he has slept with a lot of women, many of which he had no intention of loving. The women then keep a safe distance, to avoid “the grief of an ancient pain”, but all this meaningless sex and...
Words: 1210 - Pages: 5
...Save as many as you ruin Children… We have all been there. We have all grown up to be a reflection of our parents or guardian. Girls become comparable with their mothers and boys with their fathers. And then, there are the ones who don’t. All over the world both men and women live the everyday life as a single parent. Girls are missing their female and motherly role model, as well as boys are missing their male and fatherly role model or perhaps the other way around. The children suffer under the struggles of a single parent trying to do the job of both a mother and a father, while going to work to make sure their financial situation is stable. The line between chaos and cosmos becomes very fragile. And how is the single parent supposed to cope with the life of a single parent while trying to find a partner for life. Simon Van Booy’s short story Save as many as you ruin tells the story of a single father, Gerard, living with his eight years old daughter, Lucy, whose mother, Issy, left when Lucy was just a baby and died four years later. When Issy got pregnant with Lucy, Gerard was dating another woman, Laurel. Issy was just fun for Gerard and when he told Laurel that Issy was waiting his child she didn’t get mad, but it didn’t take long before Laurel broke it off with Gerard. Laurel is the only woman Gerard has ever truly loved. Now, eight years later Gerard meets Laurel. Gerard seems to be a middle-aged businessman. He works almost all day, but still gets off before the...
Words: 958 - Pages: 4
...Save as Many as You Ruin by Simon Van Booy Is our future established and are we just following a route, which is already set? Or is everyone the architect of their own future? Manhattan was once a forest inhabited by Indians. As a result of the immigration the Dutch gave it the name New Amsterdam. Today Manhattan is the most densely populated county in the US, and one of the most populated areas in the world, and it is here the short story “Save as many as you ruin” take place. The story is written in third person with a limited point of view. The narrator keeps close to Gerard and describes his thoughts on almost every subject. Gerard’s feelings, thoughts and experiences are present by the narrator. The thoughts of Laurel and Lucy are based on descriptions and thoughts of Gerard, but nevertheless the reader seems to get an impression of their thoughts and feelings through the ones of Gerard. We jumps between present and past tense several times. We are quickly introduced to the main character, which is called Gerald. He is a middle-aged handsome man, who is living alone with his daughter Lucy. He seems to be very confused, maybe he has many things going on in his mind, he cannot control. He wants to stand out of the crowd and don’t be like the mannequins, he is talking about in the beginning; boring, unable to really fell, sleep, eat etc. He is the type of man who sleeps with many women, but does not let them get close to him emotionally. Gerald feels stabbing...
Words: 1154 - Pages: 5
...Save as Many as You Ruin The short story ”Save as Many as You Ruin” is written by Simon Van Booy in 2007. The story is about Gerard. Throughout the story we hear about Gerard’s memories and life experience. The story conflicts over the topic of finding balance in life. That even though bad things happen, if you look ahead and move forward there will come good times as well. The story is compose in a way that crave all your attention when you read it as it jumps between present and past tense several times. In the beginning of the text we find out that it is important to Gerard to stand out from the crowd and make his life an extraordinary one. Gerard is afraid of ending up like a mannequin – empty, boring, meaningless, without the ability to feel or taste anything and never fully living their life. “Gerard thinks of the mannequins. They are very still, perfectly still. They are talking about something they’ve never done. They are sitting down at meals they’ll never eat; tucked into beds in which they’ll never dream” Gerard is a handsome man Living in New York, who is approximately 40 years old. Gerard has a daughter named Lucy. He had Lucy with Issy. At the time he met Issy he was dating Laurel. Laurel is the only woman besides Lucy he has ever loved. “Gerard vaguely remembers the feeling of being in love with Laurel and the desire to have sex with Issy”. He was not faithful to any of them, but he told them the truth to avoid hurting them. Issy moves to Los Angeles...
Words: 911 - Pages: 4
