Space References

            Chapter by Chapter

 

There are not a lot of space evidences in this hypertext that help us to locate where the action is occurring. The author never says anything about a country or a city, so she gives us the chance to feel if the story is close to us or not. Anyway, there are always some marks or facts that help us, at least, to know if the action is occurring, for instance, at school, at home… These facts help us to know more about the characters environment. Here you can find, chapter by chapter, the different elements that points space references out:

 

-          “We went to our shrink…” here we can see that they went to a place, in this case to their shrink, which colloquially means psychiatrist.  Other sign, not really a space marker but we can guess the place where they are at, could be the word therapist.

 

-          There is no evidence of space references but from the chapter Therapy, we can guess that they were at home: “He tells about the night I played for him the CD single "You Suck" by the Yeastie Girls”. They were probably at home while playing this song.

 

-          “…the spare Visa card in the kitchen drawer was good for.” The space reference here is kitchen. Also, in “So at night, while our parents worked until 9:30…” we can guess that they are at home while their parents are at work.

 

-          Right at the beginning of this chapter, we can see the first and the last space reference: “I go to my bathroom”.

 

-          There is no sign of space evidence. We can figure that the action is occurring at home since doll houses are normally in kids’ bedrooms

 

-          There are a bunch of space references that tell us the action is occurring at home. Some examples are: “I run in big circles through the library and living room, through the den and dining room…” , “Mom yells to me from the kitchen” , “I run upstairs to rooms with doors”, and so on

 

-          In this chapter Andy is at work, and the girl seems to be at home having breakfast: “I sit at the breakfast table looking at Andy's empty chair and my empty cereal bowl and wonder what exactly those people do.”  Another part of the chapter that tells us she is at home is when she says she wants Andy to be at home and “carry [her] off to bed.”

 

-          There is no a straight space reference in this chapter. We can figure out that the kid is at home bored and he wants to play with his brother’s Gi Joe but he won’t let him play with it.

 

-          At the beginning of this story, we can see that the character is at work (“I look at myself in the mirror at work”). And also, the action is set up at the character’s house (“At home, I get an apple…”)

 

-          “Living room” and “neighbourhood” are references of space.

 

-          There are no space reference, but we can guess from the conversation that they went again to their shrink

 

-          No space references

 

-          There’s a sentence that can tell us that they are probably at home: “The second night I give Andy a bubble bath…”

What can confuse us is that they list the days so we can think that they are somewhere for holidays.

 

-          There are no straight space references. He is telling what she has done (“school”, “synagogue”) that week and also that she will go to his father’s sister’s house for the weekend: “but my dad said we were celebrating Purim at his sister's house that night…”

 

-          There are no space references but it seems that the girls is as always at home doing nothing

 

-          The action here is occurring at a shop where the girls is trying dresses on and her father is “picking dresses he likes” for her. “Saleslady” helps us to know that they are in a shop. “Dressing room” is another space reference.

 

-          The story here occurs at home, and some space references are: “we cook Andy dinner for us…”, “In bed I’m mopping…even though it’s too early.”

 

-          This story occurs in the hospital: “My Dad and I were sitting in the hospital….”

 

-          In the first part of the story there are no space references, but we can figure out that they are in a conference where a Tohonee is reading his poems. In the second part, “in his apartment” is a sign of space reference.

 

-          “We go to the Swiss Family Robinson”, “we go to Frontierland, to the Bear Jamboree…”, “we go back home to the Polynesian Hotel to take a nap", "we go back to the park", etc are some of the space references.

 

-          “She goes to the refrigerator to get hard fruit for hurling” is a space reference that tells us that they are in their house and the Mom goes to the kitchen.

 

-          Most of the action takes places at a jazz bar“She drives me to the jazz bar where I'm meeting Andy”, and after that, the action takes places at Andy’s car: “We ride home in his car”

 

-          “When we get the Gingerbread House…”, “we go to Jack-In-The-Box…” are some space references.

 

-          “I close my Sylvia Plath book, and lie back, under the sheets, close enough to Andy to feel warm and far enough so I can rest my arms at my sides.” Tells us that the action is taking place at their house, probably in their room.

 

-          As the title of the story says, the action takes place at Hebrew School

 

-          There are no space reference, but I think the action is occurring at the girl’s bathroom

 

-          No space references

 

-           The story takes place in Palm Springs at Allie’s mother’s condo: “Andy and I do one of those long weekend getaways to Palm Springs. The condo is Allie's mother's…”

 

-          The action occurs in Jamaica (“This is the third day in a row of rain on our relax-in-the-sun, Jamaica vacation”), probably at the hotel.

 

-          There are no space references.

 

-          “I knock on their bedroom door” and “Breakfast in bed” tell us that they are at home and the girl is taking her parents the breakfast

 

-          Words such as teacher, desk, books and homework help us to set the action in a classroom.

 

-          “Living room” shows us that the action of the first part of this story takes place. In the second part, there are no space references but we know she’s at the psychiatrist’s because she describes the place where the psychiatrist works.

 

-          There‘s no space reference telling us where this conversation is occurring. All we know is that Andy is back home (where? We don’t know) from another business.

 

-          “The whole family is in the kitchen trying to find something to eat”

 

-          There are some words that make us believe that the action is taking place at the girl’s house: “I kept a constant inventory of all the pills we had in the house”

 

-          No space references

 

-          “ I walk around the house looking for signs of Andy”

 

-          “We go downstairs”, “the kitchen floor”

 

-          “at this restaurant”

 

-          No space referentes

 

-          There are no space referente but we can guess they are in bed and we can see it in: “He's probably hoping I'll get so excited I'll put the book down and fuck him”

 

-          There are no space references but I’m pretty sure that the action takes places at the girl’s house because she‘s getting ready to go out.

 

 

 

 

-          All the fragments have been taken from http://www.adrienneeisen.com/six_sex_scenes/index.htm

 

 

 

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Academic year 2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Raúl Fabregat Valls
raulfa@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Pres