The Other Place
Content
Our author Mary Gaitskill is an award winning author who's talent shines through in novels, prose, and short stories. She has been nominated for many of her novels and loves to write about weak characters that long for happiness. Her main purpose for writing "The Other Place" was to show how people know they have a problem but don't know how to handle it and how to cure it. Also, to understand the way men view the world, even if if isn't the way a woman would.
She wrote this to show the sex level in society where men think they dominate women. Historical events that influenced this piece is in the 1930's women weren't allowed to vote and couldn't represent themselves. As the story unfolds we see how our main character stalks women. He thinks that the only thing that can stop him from killing women is himself. Gaitskill wanted to take the readers into the account of a man who knows that without a doubt he can dominate any woman.
She wrote this to show the sex level in society where men think they dominate women. Historical events that influenced this piece is in the 1930's women weren't allowed to vote and couldn't represent themselves. As the story unfolds we see how our main character stalks women. He thinks that the only thing that can stop him from killing women is himself. Gaitskill wanted to take the readers into the account of a man who knows that without a doubt he can dominate any woman.
Plot Overview (Summary)
In the short story "The Other Place" by Mary Gaitskill, the reader gets the overview of our main character's life. The story starts off with a father discussing his son, Doug, and his obsession over violence. His son had an addiction to toy guns, and seeing killing scenes on television. He then goes on about the similarities that are common between him and his son. As they hardly watch the television in front of them where a woman is enslaved, a flashback occurred to him. He feels his son's fascination but that feeling isn't mutual because Doug doesn't know of his father's past.
However, as the story unfolds, our protagonist tells his own childhood. He played pranks on neighbors, and even secretly watched Jenna Legges at night. He didn't want to intentionally hurt people, but to lurk on their everyday life so he can know more about them. Even though his past is still with him he wants to make light of it for his son to learn from. He is, however, worried that his son will abuse his thoughts into malevolence. Later on in the story, we hear about his parent's divorce, and how that has no affect on him. When he was a boy golfing with his father he didn't want to do it because his father didn't even know how to. Of course he sees things differently now that he is a father. The same situation happened to him and his son, how convenient.
He talks about his long walks at night and how he could escape from everyone. Furthermore, he talks about how his mother was on her dying bed and finally confessing her past to him. He didn't feel affected by this, but as he went through puberty he began to have this interest in woman getting hurt. He even compared himself to a murderer rather than just watching them. Also, he was influenced by his peers as a teenager, but inside he had the mind of a criminal, making him appear different. If someone doesn't like something or finds it strange, he jumps at the opportunity to be apart of it.Taking a ride with his friend Dan, he talks about not liking a girl because she talks too much. Our curious, main character starts to stalk the girl because he does like her. Another scene is that his mother and him got pulled over by the police, where they saw a man hitchhiking. His mother started to laugh and at that second he realized that he would hitchhike. It's not that he needed a ride to a place, but he wanted to see what it was like. He believes that he has the ability to kill someone, but as soon as it is his time to do so, he can't do it.
Doug- he is the son of our protagonist. His point in being mentioned in the story is to prove how his father is. His current actions is not normal because he laughs at people being hurt. Also, he draws pictures of men getting killed and at the age of thirteen, this is frightening.
Marla- is Doug's mother and the father's wife. Her ignorance represents people who never take the time out to help someone in need of assistance. She puts a smile on her face to hide the pain that her husband goes through. Growing up she made common mistakes that dealt with drugs and too much freedom, and put it past her to make the best out of her future.
Marcy- is the mother of our main character. She was a prostitute that got paid for her looks, as she said. While getting caught with the flu she thought she would die and confess it to her son. Only to discover that she would live longer than planned. Her purpose is that she is one of the reasons why her son acts the way he does. All the energy she put into her boyfriend should have been into her son, and that led him into being alone. He didn't even have her by his side, not to mention how ready she was to die and leave him.
Chet Wotazak- is a friend of our main character when he was a teenager. He is someone who influenced his friends to be like him, because he made it seem like the right thing to do. He pulled pranks that all the young boys pulled at that age.
Jim Bonham- is the other friend that did disturbing activities with him, and he too influenced our main character to do things like smoke and drink. Our main character's friends are vital to the story because while they do average things like be with girls for one reason, not intending to actually hurt them, he wanted to. He did the same things they did, only he isolated himself inside and pretended to be like them.
Dan- is Chet's brother, a local drug dealer. He is their leader and someone they look up to. He has drugs that needs to be sold, so he introduced our protagonist into the game. He is described as a menace to society.
Jenna Legges- she is our protagonists' crush. One day she is asleep, when her eyes meet with the man who has been watching her. It was our protagonist, and she knows that he was looking at her. Rather than scream or call the the police, she just sighs and rolls over. She isn't afraid of him and knows that he likes her, and wants her attention. Jenna knows this and doesn't even play like she likes him, but acts like he is just another person in the room.
Girl at the college- No one pays attention to our main character, so he makes us people in his head. The girl of his dreams Jenna isn't budging so he tries to find someone else. On a way to a drop off with Dan, a girl answers the door. She babbles on and on, not stopping for air. While Dan doesn't like girls like that, our protagonist is attracted to her. Prior to the fact that she talks so much, and this shows that he is desperate for someone to talk to him or a girl period.
Pregnant woman- our protagonist started hitchhiking, and ran across this blond, older woman. He was eighteen years old, but still resembled a little boy. He wanted someone to fear him, and wanted to see if he could kill someone. In the car, she tells him that she's pregnant and he now doesn't want to kill her. He thinks about the baby, which proves that he isn't a malicious person but just wants to be recognized.
Woman in car- He hitchhiked again, and ran across a strange woman. She was about forty or so, and had a sonorous voice. He told her to take him to a place called Old Post Road. There he planned to kill her. He pointed the gun out to scare her, but she really wasn't. She pointed to a place on her body and said she was ready. She had nothing to live for, and after her crazy talk he realized something. The lady was wearing a wig and had blood shot red eyes, he was about to kill a woman going through chemotherapy. He couldn't do it and she kicked him out the car because she knew he didn't have the guts to do it. This is another example on how our protagonists does have a heart, but doesn't know how to use it.
Our main character has an interest in violence against men. He gets so ecstatic that erectocism occurs. One can argue if the norm of his problem started from his parent's divorce, or if it is embedded in him. His career as a real-estate agent is a cover up of who he really is, and in society people believe that if you have a reasonable job then your life is together. This stereotype doesn't fit our protagonist because his mind isn't stable and he can't control it. He wants to be the best father that he can but his thoughts won't let him. Although he feels that he can help his son through this problem, he can't seem to speak aloud about it. This verbal conversation could be a therapy session for the both of them, but it never happened.
Doug is also a main character in this short story. While we as the reader get a mental image of the father's life as a child, we see that his son is currently going through the same situation. He is intrigued in watching violent t.v series, playing with toy guns, playing video games and he hates to be interrupted while doing so. While reading this one might think that he is a typical boy who comes off as bad. However, since his father went through a more serious faze, one starts to wonder.
His mother, Marla, thinks nothing of his behaviors and tries to keep a family together, that isn't even a family. His dad is worried what might come of this and emphasizes with him. Doug is annoyed with the father and son activities, just as his father was years ago. Nevertheless, in the end his father puts his hand on his shoulder and he doesn't snatch away this time. He is now in the "other place" a world where only he visits, and can isolate himself from the world.
Clearly, Doug and his father are similar. Look past the fact that they both look alike, both have a speech impediment, and a tremor. Their backgrounds are what actually make them a reflection of one another. Not only are they obsessed with violence, they have similar character traits. For instance, they both are aloof and try to disengage themselves from the world by hiding. The "other place" is a bubble that they put themselves to escape from there real life. Also, their parents way of handling things. The father's mother only thinks about her boyfriend. All she does is talk on the phone with him and pays no attention to her surroundings. At night when he would sneak out, or blast the music and crawl out the window, she would never notice. As for Doug his mother isn't trying to seek help for him when she needs to. Rather than have a verbal conversation with him she tries to look past it. Doug and his father could use their mothers support because they are in need of attention and have emptiness in their lives.
"You might think that the videos and the guns were part or it, that they encouraged my violent thoughts. But Chet and Jim were watching and doing the same things, and they were not like me. So I would sit with them and yet be completely apart from them, talking and laughing about normal things in a dark mash of music and snakes and children running from psychos and girls being eaten--- images that took me someplace my friends couldn't see, although it was right there in the room with us" (page 3). This quote is significant because it tells us how the main character puts on a show for his friends to act like things are funny, when in reality he is very serious about their droll humor. He is there in the flesh, but his mind is somewhere else and they don't even know it. The boys don't know our main character, and their friendship is not real. A real friend would know that our main character has a problem, rather Chat and Jim only do destructive things with him.They don't pay attention to him, because they are immature boys.
"Soon enough I realized that the college campus was the wrong place to know about making it real. It wasn't an environment I could control; there were too many variables. I needed to get the girl someplace private. I needed to have a gun" (page 4). This quote can be interpreted many ways, however, the main significance is of superiority. He thinks that he has a wright plan, and the only weapon he needs to pursue it is a gun. This means that a thought appeared that he will go out to kill an innocent girl, and the gun will give him power. A gun is also a symbol in this story because it signifies power to him; manhood. He comes to a conclusion to go up to someone and kill them with no motive behind it, except he wants to feel bigger than what he is.
However, as the story unfolds, our protagonist tells his own childhood. He played pranks on neighbors, and even secretly watched Jenna Legges at night. He didn't want to intentionally hurt people, but to lurk on their everyday life so he can know more about them. Even though his past is still with him he wants to make light of it for his son to learn from. He is, however, worried that his son will abuse his thoughts into malevolence. Later on in the story, we hear about his parent's divorce, and how that has no affect on him. When he was a boy golfing with his father he didn't want to do it because his father didn't even know how to. Of course he sees things differently now that he is a father. The same situation happened to him and his son, how convenient.
He talks about his long walks at night and how he could escape from everyone. Furthermore, he talks about how his mother was on her dying bed and finally confessing her past to him. He didn't feel affected by this, but as he went through puberty he began to have this interest in woman getting hurt. He even compared himself to a murderer rather than just watching them. Also, he was influenced by his peers as a teenager, but inside he had the mind of a criminal, making him appear different. If someone doesn't like something or finds it strange, he jumps at the opportunity to be apart of it.Taking a ride with his friend Dan, he talks about not liking a girl because she talks too much. Our curious, main character starts to stalk the girl because he does like her. Another scene is that his mother and him got pulled over by the police, where they saw a man hitchhiking. His mother started to laugh and at that second he realized that he would hitchhike. It's not that he needed a ride to a place, but he wanted to see what it was like. He believes that he has the ability to kill someone, but as soon as it is his time to do so, he can't do it.
List of Characters
Protagonist- he is our main character, and the story is told through his perspective. His career choice is a real-estate agent in Hudson. He believes that his ability to know people led him to this choice. Even though first person point of view is normally told by an unreliable character, he is rather honest about his life. He talks about his problem and how he wants to help his son, but doesn't know how to. Also, he tells us his perverted mind-set he had as a child and all the strange things he did.Doug- he is the son of our protagonist. His point in being mentioned in the story is to prove how his father is. His current actions is not normal because he laughs at people being hurt. Also, he draws pictures of men getting killed and at the age of thirteen, this is frightening.
Marla- is Doug's mother and the father's wife. Her ignorance represents people who never take the time out to help someone in need of assistance. She puts a smile on her face to hide the pain that her husband goes through. Growing up she made common mistakes that dealt with drugs and too much freedom, and put it past her to make the best out of her future.
Marcy- is the mother of our main character. She was a prostitute that got paid for her looks, as she said. While getting caught with the flu she thought she would die and confess it to her son. Only to discover that she would live longer than planned. Her purpose is that she is one of the reasons why her son acts the way he does. All the energy she put into her boyfriend should have been into her son, and that led him into being alone. He didn't even have her by his side, not to mention how ready she was to die and leave him.
Chet Wotazak- is a friend of our main character when he was a teenager. He is someone who influenced his friends to be like him, because he made it seem like the right thing to do. He pulled pranks that all the young boys pulled at that age.
Jim Bonham- is the other friend that did disturbing activities with him, and he too influenced our main character to do things like smoke and drink. Our main character's friends are vital to the story because while they do average things like be with girls for one reason, not intending to actually hurt them, he wanted to. He did the same things they did, only he isolated himself inside and pretended to be like them.
Dan- is Chet's brother, a local drug dealer. He is their leader and someone they look up to. He has drugs that needs to be sold, so he introduced our protagonist into the game. He is described as a menace to society.
Jenna Legges- she is our protagonists' crush. One day she is asleep, when her eyes meet with the man who has been watching her. It was our protagonist, and she knows that he was looking at her. Rather than scream or call the the police, she just sighs and rolls over. She isn't afraid of him and knows that he likes her, and wants her attention. Jenna knows this and doesn't even play like she likes him, but acts like he is just another person in the room.
Girl at the college- No one pays attention to our main character, so he makes us people in his head. The girl of his dreams Jenna isn't budging so he tries to find someone else. On a way to a drop off with Dan, a girl answers the door. She babbles on and on, not stopping for air. While Dan doesn't like girls like that, our protagonist is attracted to her. Prior to the fact that she talks so much, and this shows that he is desperate for someone to talk to him or a girl period.
Pregnant woman- our protagonist started hitchhiking, and ran across this blond, older woman. He was eighteen years old, but still resembled a little boy. He wanted someone to fear him, and wanted to see if he could kill someone. In the car, she tells him that she's pregnant and he now doesn't want to kill her. He thinks about the baby, which proves that he isn't a malicious person but just wants to be recognized.
Woman in car- He hitchhiked again, and ran across a strange woman. She was about forty or so, and had a sonorous voice. He told her to take him to a place called Old Post Road. There he planned to kill her. He pointed the gun out to scare her, but she really wasn't. She pointed to a place on her body and said she was ready. She had nothing to live for, and after her crazy talk he realized something. The lady was wearing a wig and had blood shot red eyes, he was about to kill a woman going through chemotherapy. He couldn't do it and she kicked him out the car because she knew he didn't have the guts to do it. This is another example on how our protagonists does have a heart, but doesn't know how to use it.
Analyzing Main Characters
Our protagonist in the story is a father. He struggles with his past but doesn't know how to handle it, let alone help his son through it. His fantasies came from his childhood and is still with him as an adult. His career is of a real-estate agent, and he believes that he became this because he's able to know what people look for in a home. As the flashback of childhood appears when he and his son is watching t.v, we can see the similarities.Our main character has an interest in violence against men. He gets so ecstatic that erectocism occurs. One can argue if the norm of his problem started from his parent's divorce, or if it is embedded in him. His career as a real-estate agent is a cover up of who he really is, and in society people believe that if you have a reasonable job then your life is together. This stereotype doesn't fit our protagonist because his mind isn't stable and he can't control it. He wants to be the best father that he can but his thoughts won't let him. Although he feels that he can help his son through this problem, he can't seem to speak aloud about it. This verbal conversation could be a therapy session for the both of them, but it never happened.
Doug is also a main character in this short story. While we as the reader get a mental image of the father's life as a child, we see that his son is currently going through the same situation. He is intrigued in watching violent t.v series, playing with toy guns, playing video games and he hates to be interrupted while doing so. While reading this one might think that he is a typical boy who comes off as bad. However, since his father went through a more serious faze, one starts to wonder.
His mother, Marla, thinks nothing of his behaviors and tries to keep a family together, that isn't even a family. His dad is worried what might come of this and emphasizes with him. Doug is annoyed with the father and son activities, just as his father was years ago. Nevertheless, in the end his father puts his hand on his shoulder and he doesn't snatch away this time. He is now in the "other place" a world where only he visits, and can isolate himself from the world.
Clearly, Doug and his father are similar. Look past the fact that they both look alike, both have a speech impediment, and a tremor. Their backgrounds are what actually make them a reflection of one another. Not only are they obsessed with violence, they have similar character traits. For instance, they both are aloof and try to disengage themselves from the world by hiding. The "other place" is a bubble that they put themselves to escape from there real life. Also, their parents way of handling things. The father's mother only thinks about her boyfriend. All she does is talk on the phone with him and pays no attention to her surroundings. At night when he would sneak out, or blast the music and crawl out the window, she would never notice. As for Doug his mother isn't trying to seek help for him when she needs to. Rather than have a verbal conversation with him she tries to look past it. Doug and his father could use their mothers support because they are in need of attention and have emptiness in their lives.
Themes, Motifs, Symbols
The theme of the short story "The Other Place" by Mary Gaitskill is of loneliness. Throughout the story our protagonist shifts from a flashback from his childhood to his current life. As a boy he lacks the nurturing of his parents since they were divorced and as an adult he doesn't have the support of his wife. He is still lonely and his his whole life has been looking for someone to care about him. Hence the name of the story "The Other Place" his presence is still there but his mind wanders off to a place where he is known for something. Even though his thoughts are cruel and not normal it's all that he knows. His son, Doug, is now expressing the same thing in that he looks for a way out and tries to find a place to fit in. Ms. Gaitskill wrote this story with a series.of vignettes of the father's life to compare his to his son's life. The motif in this story is hitchhiking. Hitchhiking is a way that people get transportation, by sticking their thumb out as a way of signaling that they need a ride. Our protagonist is always concerned about things that the people around him have no interest in. Once he sees a strange man, hitchhiking he wants to do that. He gets picked up by women and men. Each time he gets in the care he wants to commit a crime, but never does. Hitchhiking is a recurring imagine that we see, where the main character feels like he can finally make him move on women. There are many symbols in this story that are more than just concrete objects, but have a vital meaning. For example, one is music. One listens to music to block all of ones surroundings out. With Marcy whining about her boyfriend all day, our main character blasts the music to not be able to hear her. He even uses music as a way to exit his house without his mother knowing. Music represents a shield that our main character is using to get away from from his mother. There are many themes, motifs, and symbols in "The Other Place" but they are the main ones.Important Quotes
"Doug didn't speak or move. But I could feel his fascination, the suddenly deeply quality of it. And I doubt that he could feel mine. We sat there and felt it together" (page 1). This is the scene where they watch an advertisement for a movie named "Captivity", where a girl is in a cage. This shows their anxiety for what's about to happen to this terrified girl. They each don't speak to each other, but the vibe in the room is similar; a passion for violence. This quote is the starting point to the story because it tells you the intersecting of a father and son."You might think that the videos and the guns were part or it, that they encouraged my violent thoughts. But Chet and Jim were watching and doing the same things, and they were not like me. So I would sit with them and yet be completely apart from them, talking and laughing about normal things in a dark mash of music and snakes and children running from psychos and girls being eaten--- images that took me someplace my friends couldn't see, although it was right there in the room with us" (page 3). This quote is significant because it tells us how the main character puts on a show for his friends to act like things are funny, when in reality he is very serious about their droll humor. He is there in the flesh, but his mind is somewhere else and they don't even know it. The boys don't know our main character, and their friendship is not real. A real friend would know that our main character has a problem, rather Chat and Jim only do destructive things with him.They don't pay attention to him, because they are immature boys.
"Soon enough I realized that the college campus was the wrong place to know about making it real. It wasn't an environment I could control; there were too many variables. I needed to get the girl someplace private. I needed to have a gun" (page 4). This quote can be interpreted many ways, however, the main significance is of superiority. He thinks that he has a wright plan, and the only weapon he needs to pursue it is a gun. This means that a thought appeared that he will go out to kill an innocent girl, and the gun will give him power. A gun is also a symbol in this story because it signifies power to him; manhood. He comes to a conclusion to go up to someone and kill them with no motive behind it, except he wants to feel bigger than what he is.
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