Victory Lap- by Gorge Saunders
Introduction
‘Victory Lap’ by Gorge Saunders presents a weird picture of an anticipation of the future state of American life through effective depiction of the story’s main themes. Saunders aims at illustrating how American life has grown strange due to disconnections amongst its citizens. Saunders uses Allison, and Kyle’s homes to illustrate how comfortable homes have been constructed in the same plan through Allison’s statement that if someone had a friend in Glad song, they already knew where everything was. Allison is presented as being unaware of how it would be to live in an estate where you know about your neighbors’ whereabouts when they never know yours. Therefore, to deliver his anticipation for the future of America, Saunders explicitly presents the plot, character, setting, and perspective of the short story to portray the theme of postmodernity error.
Plot
Saunders explicitly presents the plot of the story ‘Victory Lap’ in a dreamlike narrative to present the effect of the post modernity error. Saunders presents the perspective of teenager, Alison Pope, approaching the age of fifteen. The author presents the teenager as a day dreamer thinking of her life while walking down stairs searching for a suitor. The author uses Alison Pope’s imaginations to illustrate the behavior of teenagers in the post modernity error as having lost morality due to desire for pre mature romantic love. Alison Pope is presented as imagining of how she would turn down several men till she gets her best of all who will approach her. Alison Pope is presented as a confidently happy teenager with profound love for herself (Saunders par 3). Alison Pope imagines herself to be special but rather not more than the renowned charity worker Mother Teresa, or Mrs. Roosevelt. The author uses Alison Pope’s confession as not special than Mother Teresa, and Mrs. Roosevelt to present the idea of social inequalities in the society which calls for the need for charity workers to help the less fortunate. For Alison Pope, her little age proves that she has not had enough experiences in the world still, thus she believes with much confidence that her life would be much great.
However, Saunders shifts the story to Alison Pope’s Encounter with a kidnapper to reveal the idea failure of the postmodern parents to give their children adequate guidance on how to face real life. Saunders narrates the story of Kyle, Allison’s’ friend, and an agemate to present how different parents bring up their children towards facing the reality of life. Kyle is presented as a sheltered childlike Alison Pope; however, his parents are very strict on him. Kyle acquires both work points, and chore points which when given chance, could be cashed to have him get a treat. As Kyle keeps on with his normal house chores, he witnesses Alison Pope’s kidnap by a meter reader. The author uses an internal monologue to present the aspect of dilemma which Kyle is faced with. Kyle is mixed up between running for Alison’s rescue which would be an act of disobedience to his parents, and saving his friend which would be an act of care (Saunders par 7) . To Kyle, rushing for Alison’s recue would mark an act of disobedience to the rule of the house which sated that here was no permission to interfere with other people’s businesses. Besides, by ignoring to rescue his friend, it would render him as a guy with nothing to offer to the society forever. Therefore, effective developing of the short story’s plot illustrates how, teenagers are exposed to realities of adulthood.
Besides, the author effectively uses three characters including Alison pope, Kyle, and the meter reader to illustrate underlying differences in human perspectives, and character. Alisson is presented as a visionary child as she keeps thinking of her future. Alison imagines of how beautiful her future life would be, and how lucky she would be to have a chance of choosing the best suitor for herself (Saunders par 6). However, despite being a future oriented child, Saunders presents Alison as a less vigilant character. Allison could not think of anyone as evil since she thought very visitor was outgoing, a mind which landed her in the hands of the meter reader due to her failure to be vigilant in the house. Besides, Saunders presents Kyle as undecisive due to his failure to make a decision between saving Kyle and obeying his parent’s rules. On witnessing Allison Pope’s arrest, Kyle rashes to check at the garage whether his parents were still in (Saunders par 12). He further attempts to make a call on the police line, but that would not help as Allison would be already gone.
Setting
The setting of the story ‘Victory Lap’ presents the author’s idea the pain of realities of life faced by most teenagers in the contemporary American society. The setting of the story focuses on two homes belonging to parents for Alison Pope, and Kyle. At Alison home, the story was set with Alison moving down the house stairs in a monologue while preparing for her birthday (Saunders par 5). While descending down the staircase, Alison imagines of her future by viewing the staircase as a marble since she wonders of where the special one would come from. Alison imagines of how suitors would say view her as grace contained is one small package to refer to how suitors would be impressed with her beauty at a small age. However, in her monologed, the setting of the story is shifted as Alison approaches the door where she opened for a meter man dressed in vests ready for abduction, rape and murder.
Besides, the author shifts the setting of the story to Kyle’s home to illustrate his dream of middle class societies, and anticipated situations in the near future. Saunders’ presentation of Kyle’s household while featuring the existing directives, traffic Logs as well as wok points illustrates Sounder’s dream of the postmodern error in middle class families. The author effectively furnishes his magical imagination of the near future with sets of house rules which cohere to a logical world. The author’s selection of the setting at Kyle’s household illustrates his anticipation of the future state of life where nations would be governed by strict sets of rules. Thus, the generation in the postmodern error would have to choose between strict rules and facing the reality of life. The underlying rule in Kyle’s household of not interfering with other people’s business can be linked by anticipated interruption of nature by man in the postmodern error. Saunders addressed the issue of climate change through symbolic lives of Allison and Kyle which h would be caused by man’s attempts to survive challenges of the post modern error such as increased poverty . However, man would have a primary obligation of taking care of the environment. Kyle says, that by not rushing to rescue Alison, he would be referred to as a guy who had nothing to offer forever, meaning that that humanity is obliged with the duty of care (Saunders par 21).
Perspective
Besides, the author’s effective application of point of view play a vital role in creation of a profound understanding of the story’s plot, character, and setting. Saunders presents his story ‘Victory Lap’ from three points of view illustrating varying perspectives of the three characters in the story. In ‘Victory Lap,’ Saunders makes effective use of the third person point of view to enhance the flow of the plot of the story. The third person perspective helps me to understand the effective flow of events in the story’s plot by knowing exactly what comes after another. Besides, perspective has played a vital role in minimizing the number of characters required for the story. Instead of including a third person omniscient speaker, the author told the story from points of view of three different characters. Furthermore, perspective plays a vital role in demonstration of different conditions in the story’s setting. By narrating Kyle’s point of view, I am able to understand living conditions at Kyle’s home setting. Thus, the narrator’s presentation of Alison’s, Kyle’s, and the Meter reader’s point of view play a crucial role in effective understanding of the story’s plot, setting, and characters.
In summary, Saunders explicitly presents the plot, character, setting, and perspective of the short story to portray the theme of postmodernity error. The short story is centered around Allison, and Kyles’s families to depict a true picture of American life. The author uses three points of view to demonstrate his anticipated state of life in the post-modern error of America. Allison is presented as an imaginative child and less vigilant but has trust for all strangers. Besides, Kyles is presented as indecisive through his dilemma in deciding whether to save Allison, or obey the rules of the house. Therefore, the story would be most appropriate for teenagers to help them learn how to face realities of life.
Work Cited
Saunders, George. “Victory Lap”. The New Yorker, 2009, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/10/05/victory-lap.