Emotional Experience of a Short Story Lorelei by Jerome Charyn - Essay Example

?Your Full Your 14 March Lorelei Jerome Charyn’s short story “Lorelei,” published in The Atlantic Magazine on August, 2010, is a story about a man who, in a way, has spent all his life on the run. The man, Howell or Carlton, is a building supervisor’s son, living in the building itself, called Lorelei, in the Bronx, New York. Intimidated by and attracted to his father’s employer’s daughter, Naomi, he becomes a sort of companion for her, or what is termed in the story as her “slave and part-time beggarly brother” (Charyn). Being children, they end up exploring each other sexually, once during which they are caught by Naomi’s mother. Howell is not reprimanded sharply, however, he decides to run away, spending the rest of his life defrauding widows out of their money by making love to them. The story, in essence, is about his return to Lorelei, and his discovery that Naomi and her father still reside therein. He is invited to dinner with them, and it is during this dinner that he discovers that in actuality he has never really succeeded in running away from Naomi, as he is still held captive by her and the love he has for her. However, the end shows him trying to make a last escape from Naomi and her father. This realization comes to him almost too late, however, now that it has occurred to him, he makes an intentional, last-ditch effort to escape from it. Naomi’s character is both a cause of wonder and revulsion in this regard. Naomi’s father, Hugo Waldman, had come from humble origins but was a successful, self-made real estate owner. He had made his fortune by the time she was born. Thus it was that Miss Naomi was born into the lap of luxury. Naomi’s mother, Helena, who was “a myopic girl without much credentials other than her ability to play the violin” (Charyn), did not have much influence on the young girl. She seemed to have mostly been attached to her father – the story itself seems to have pushed Helena into the background, with only Naomi and Hugo being in the forefront. Naomi seems to have been a precocious child from the start, even during her childhood she seemed to have been fully aware of her charms. Naomi, thus, appears to be a very interesting character – she seems fully aware of the power and hold she has on Howell. In fact, she seems to take a perverse sort of pleasure in it, despite claiming that she had only cared for Carl, as she referred to Howell. The fact that she spurned all romantic advances made to her and chose to stay with her father points towards the veracity of her statement. Upon Howell’s return to life in Lorelei, Naomi invites him to dinner on her own, without Howell getting to have met her. Thus, it seems, Naomi is still emotionally involved with Howell, or harbors feelings for him. She seems to have started teasing him from the get go, with regard to him bringing her a white rose, she exclaims that “The white rose is the symbol of love as everlasting war” (Charyn), thus again showing that she is fully aware of the Howell’s feelings for her. It is, again, during this dinner that she proclaims that she has always harbored feelings for Howell. Just why exactly she seemed to have said that is not so clear; while it is clear from her own words during her childhood, she did not seem to have any feelings for people with money, however, she sought for herself someone who fitted in with her image of a “Bronx Van Gogh” (Charyn). But the fact that she did not go out of her way to search for someone who fitted her image of such a person, seems to point at a different reason for her not getting involved with the rich people who seemed to have taken abundant interest in her. But it is not clear whether it is because she seemed to have been in love with Howell. It is interesting to see, from the conversation she has with Howell at the end of the story, that her relationship with her father is not as straightforward as it seems. Hinting at, what can be taken to be, abuse, she decries the fact that it is her father, perhaps who may be the cause of her being alone till now. Again, when the amateurish love-making of Naomi and Howell are discovered, it is her father who tells Howell that the latter is not good enough for his daughter, as he is not the intellectual type his daughter seems to have the fancy for. Naomi has been, however, confined to a wheelchair, and it is not clear if it is her bitterness at having gone through such an experience that is making her speak like that. She lives in a world that has not changed, and yet has changed completely. It seems as if it is only her life with her father that is at a standstill, while the world around them, including their own status in the city, has changed completely. She seems to have feelings of bitterness and resentment towards it. Naomi does not express her feelings clearly, however, the satirical tone she adopts during the dinner seems to point at her anger and bitterness. Her feelings are all the more apparent after she seems to have blamed her father for her present single status, blaming his fear of being alone for it. Though it seems on the surface as if there might be truth to her statements, however, perhaps it is because Naomi feels that she is going to be alone herself soon (because her father is, after all ninety years old), that she seems to have fed these lies to Howell in a bid to have him stay with her. She is, actually, projecting her feelings on to her father, it is she who does not want to be alone and that is why she seems to have played the charade with Howell. Works Cited Charyn, Jerome. “Lorelei.” The Atlantic Magazine. The Atlantic Monthly Group, Aug. 2010. Web. 13 Mar. 2011. Read More