pg. 560-570
1) “When he saw who it was, though every cell his body had been replaced since he had last seen her, his hands jerked in his lap and blood bounded against his skin. (561)”
Clyde Behn sees his past love, Janet, in a doctors office and when she see her, his whole body rushes everywhere and he can’t control his feelings. His feelings right there and then he wants to get close to her although they are no longer together. He wants to get into her head and wandering how she is doing without him. He asks questions such as “…are you happy? (567)”, hoping she would say that she misses him or that she is not happy with her relationship with another man. When he is with her makes him want her no matter in what state they are both in.
2) “I thought you were successful. I thought you had beautiful children. Aren’t you happy? (568)”
Janet towards the end was being sucked into Clyde’s desire but realizes what he and she were getting into was wrong. She had stopped it before anything else would happen. She asks him if he is happy and he replies that he is “but happiness isn’t everything. (568)” He is saying that he isn’t happy with everything he has; he wants something more, her. His feelings that he had for her came back to him. He realizes at that she doesn’t want to go back to the past and just wants to move on and that gives him the closer of his feelings, knowing that they ended well.
This Blog is for my American Literature class. Have fun reading this page.