Refresh, Refresh is from the narrative point of an adolescent named Josh. Josh, along with his best friend Gordon, lived in Tumalo, Oregon (a high desert town in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. Nothing distinguishes Tumalo except for the 2nd battalion, 34th marines base. Both Josh and Gordon's fathers, enlisted as part time soldiers, had been shipped off to Iraq. Gordon and Josh both admired their fathers for their raw masculinity.At one point in the story, Josh referred to his father as "Coors-drinking, baseball-throwing, crotch-scratching, and Aqua Velva-smelling."
Josh and Gordon, in contrast to their fathers, were skinny to the point of scrawny, which put them at a low point on the social totem pole. Gordon even recounts his embarrassing memory of being beaten badly by a varsity football player named Seth Johnson. The masculinity that the boys lacked was in-fact what fueled the symbolism in the story. Both boys missed their father's terribly and in their father's absence, aspired to become as brawny as possible as to please their fathers upon their return. The story is based around the theme of male approval. The boys lacked what they felt was essential to their classification in the male race and subsequently, took it upon themselves to appropriate their lifestyles.
Dennis, Daniela and Randi,
ReplyDeleteGood introduction to Percy's collection. Your post on "Refresh, Refresh" could be better proofread (you have an open parenthesis but not a closing) and more thorough in its summary. For example, you tell what becomes of the boys and their fathers. There's a way of doing this without giving away the ending. Try to be a bit more thorough and correct, okay?