Answering the Questions Concerning On Leave - A Book of Anecdotes by Tuma - Assignment Example

? No. Anecdote Part A Keith Tuma has managed to express his concerns about redundancy of literature and cultural depression all around American nation. In his anecdote , “Shooting the Air”, Tuma has shown his concerns about Americans and namely everyone all around the globe else being more concerned about what is happening out there and ignoring our inner selves. The depression in the cultural settings is getting onto people therefore death is perceived as the only solution. This carelessness and social numbness has made us lost the real meaning of life which is why we do not feel poetry and music or any other thing beautiful in life. Despite our social ignorance and indifferent nature, life is moving on. We do not have any role model that would provoke us to get up and question the status quo. This element is also acting as a catalyst for our social numbness. Due to amalgamation of various kinds of critics i.e. art, literary, even music, art of writing is evolving however ability of assessing and understanding that literature is still missing. Tuma Asserts that art of writing is undergoing evolution and so is human ability to deal with depression around them. Some chose to live with it, some ought to resolve issues arising out of it whereas others chose to finish it once and for all. The book has been written precisely in the second term of George W. Bush, an era criticized for economic downturns and huge social costs paid for foreign wars mainly Iraq war (Stein, n.p). Recent economic crunch transformed American’s lifestyle. Millions lost their jobs, homes even families and lives due to extreme depression and lack of resources. Tuma has given multiple references in his book about earlier lavish lifestyle of Americans which has given rise to a monster of a problem like ‘obesity and related disorders’ affecting social and economic landscape of United States. At the same time, Iraq war waged years ago had added to budgetary turmoil of American nation (MIT edu, n.p). With millions losing their jobs, families losing their sons during war, ongoing anxiety and depression have made Americans indifferent towards what is going on around them (Oxford Analytica, n.p). A simple example of such event was given by Tuma by saying that a man died but the crowd paid attention to him after couple of hours. This is precisely the reason why beauty of art and literature does not affect as anymore. In the meanwhile, art is also transforming humbly, digressing from its earlier norms and requiring more skills to analyze it and understand it. At the same time, no matter how obese Americans are, no matter how indifferent they have become towards political and economic issues around them, a desire of human contact and affection remains there. However, it is hard to identify if this need is sufficient enough to provoke one to notice beauty of life once again. Tuma mentioned that there are rays of hope still available by mentioning a dying lady who is more than willing to take care of nature and protect it. Hence, life has evolved, people even art has shown evolution. It’s just a matter of time when this change becomes acceptable and becomes part of our lives without making us socially ignorant. Part B In my view, anecdote is an interesting way of telling a story and creating main theme by using abstract ideas and symbolization. Detailed analysis of Tuma’s mannerism of telling an anecdote helped me in understanding that in order to tell a story, one does not need to be straight forward. One has to leave an element of surprise and let the reader think and get indulge in the story. Similarly, events defined should be interwoven effectively and whole fabrication must follow a logical pattern. However, the element of surprise must not be aggressive that readers find it hard to relate to anything that they are aware of. Simple example can be Tuma’s anecdote called ‘Shooting the Air’. When he began, the readers had no clue what he is about to talk about and this was precisely the gist of his writing, ignorance towards society and art. He began with simple cluster of unrelated event and went onto explanation of a dead man followed by Iraq war and Americans’ indifference attitude towards government policies. By explaining series of unrelated events, he continued to demonstrate how art has evolved over the period of time; it is abstract with a certain degree of humility. Hence, reader continues to ponder what element he will discuss in the next paragraph. An anecdote has to have a degree of spontaneity and surprise in it which is what Tuma’s writing is all about. While exploring definition of anecdote, I was reminded of various events that took place during and after 2008 right when economic crisis hit US and Iraq war was on its peak. One of my friends lost his father during war and out of family disturbance, he became drug addict. He was just about my age and seeing someone you have spent lifetime with, spoiling their lives was very painful. Situation was no different in my neighborhood. Our neighbor next door lost his job during recession and was forced to do odd jobs although being highly qualified. One day, his children asked my mother for some food. Seeing that made me realize how fragile human life is. Even, my family had to cut back on our expenses and seeing my grandfather not having his medicine was surely a difficult time was me. Apart from my own observation, there were numerous stories that demonstrated changes in American way of life. I remember one of my friends telling me that his grandfather has allowed his uncle’s family to share their family house. A four room house which was a residence of 8 people was now shared by fourteen individuals. He told me how difficult it was to study, even have few minutes for oneself all alone. No wonder, he used to spend hours roaming around in play grounds. Some of my relatives postponed their weddings because they could not afford to have a family life even think about it near future. In addition to aftershocks of recession, stories of veterans also caught my eye during research. It was hard for many of them to embrace new civilian life after nerve wrecking term at war (Simpson, n.p). Besides, things were not exactly very encouraging here as well. From survival of life to survival of living, America was surely in trouble after 2008. Part C Reading Tuma’s ‘On Leave’ made me realize that life itself is an anecdote. There is a series of events seemingly unconnected but leading one incident to another. Reading this particular anecdote from Tuma’s book made me recall past few years after recession. I remembered losing friends, frustration at home and in surroundings, seeing US surrounded with international threats. It looked like life was asking for a price from us. In my view, if Americans went socially and culturally numb, they were righteous to be like that. Pressure and stress from practically every dimension made many of us lose hope and faith and anticipation for future. In the meanwhile, if no one could see transformation in art which was actually taking place as a result of social and cultural changes, then they cannot be blamed. I believe that Americans have become stronger during past few years. Yes, we are obese but it’s just are recouping or healing mechanism. It does not really matter if as a nation we are not concerned about what is going on in Iran and Iraq; Americans have more battles to fight at home. Assessing what happened in the past made me understand how anecdotes are born and how a real life event transforms into a captivating fictional story. We all are aware of horrors of Great Depression. We all know how people lost whatever they owned within spur of moment and how millionaires were forced to sell apples on the streets. Same goes for tales of World War I and II. They are all interesting stories that our grand fathers tell us. One day whatever is happening in my life can became an anecdote for those coming after me. Seemingly regular days can form a string of interesting story without us even realizing it. Times after recession were a live anecdote themselves. They were full of surprise. No one knew what new turmoil was waiting for them yet everyone was anticipating for a change. Same goes for anecdotes too. They are expected to be short, exciting, full of surprise and bearing some lesson. After developing an understanding of what an anecdote is expected to be about, it was easier for me to analyze perspective of Keith Tuma. His book was written within and after second term of George W. Bush when Iran/ Iraq issues were at their peak and America was in between economic and political turmoil. Understanding the background of the stories being told, I realized how Tuma wanted every reader and even his students to make the most of this current moment. Where recession and war took away what we had along with our hopes and faith, Tuma wanted us to regain our strength. This notion is well-exhibited by one of his lines when he said, “if I were teaching this semester, I’d be tempted to ask my students to write, “You must change your life” forty times on the blackboard (2011, p.49).” He went onto directing readers’ attention to the changes that have appeared in art during past few decades and shared his view that not following tradition is a tradition now. However, it requires greater level of skill to understand these unknown changes. In order to make his point, Tuma talked about Susan Howe, poetry of black mountains, jazz musicians who are known for abstract nature of work and randomness of things that inspire them. He also continued to talk about changes that Americans have gone through. In order to symbolize that, he talked about his friend in despair who was jobless. However, Tuma tried to ignite fire in his readers by saying that whatever happened in the past was just a phase in evolution. Like they say, what cannot break you makes you stronger. Similarly, despite economic and political depression, one should not forget to love and admire things around them and people in their lives. Talking about his friend Cheek improvising his song, he mentioned Cheek saying, “It occurs to me that this is the story of human evolution (2011, p.52)”. Evolution is considered synonymous to development. So, Tuma’s story ends with a lesson that aftershocks of recession and war have made Americans more developed. Some interesting anecdote indeed. Works Cited “Iraq the human cost”, mit.edu, n.d. Web. 16 March, 2013. Oxford Analytica. “The True Cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars”. Forbes.com, 2010. Web, 16 March, 2013. Simpson, Kevin. “Veteran’s ‘Homecoming’ is ongoing quest to forge identity”, Americanhomecoming, 4 March 2013. Web. 16 March, 2013. Stein, Sam. “The Iraq Recession: Debate Raging Over War’s Economic Impact”. Huffingtonpost. 2008. Web. 16 March, 2013. Tuma, Keith. On Leave: A Book of Anecdotes, Salt Publishing. 2011, Pint. Read More