"Elroy Berdahl: eighty-one years old, skinny and shrunken and mostly bald. He wore a flannel shirt and brown work pants" (O'brien 46)
This quote and mainly this part of the book leaped out at me. The quote is very regular and barely descriptive, however; everyone has seen this type of person in their life. The author during this section of the book really comes and shows us his transformation. For him the getaway from life and being able to relax around someone who didn't care enough was "just alright". The narrator turned from and overly schizophrenic boy trying to jump the border, to a man who was ready to face his call for duty. Even so, O'brien probably knew that Elroy had his speculations but Mr. Berdahl gave him his privacy and the narrator enjoyed it as O'brien put it on page 49, "To an extent, I suppose, his reticence was typical of that part of Minnesota, where privacy still held value..."
No comments:
Post a Comment