Steven Millhauser’s “History of a Disturbance” was an interesting read. I found the format of the story to be interesting, as it is the first that has been formatted as a letter. It also indicates that the story has already taken place and that the narrator already knows how the circumstance has ended. I believe that the idea that is always emphasized in class that we should not conceptualize everything to our understanding is necessary for this story. Even at this moment I still do not know what the story is truly about. It could be a story of a person losing a sense of self, or a person wanting to become more aware of their environment, or a person becoming unhappy with their lives, or it could be all of the above, or none of the above. In the end, I don’t think that it is necessary to make sense of the story and simplify it. Which is ironically what the story seems to be saying.
There were quite a few words that seem to carry a sense of symbolism which I am not sure what it means but seems important to the plot of the story. For instance, words like rupture, fissure, murder, disintegrate, fatal, rift, rip are used as descriptions. All these words that seem to have strong –maybe aggressive — connotations are used to describe his relationship, words, and himself. These somehow allow for the reader to identify the narrator’s emotions of how things are falling apart all around him. It seems to illustrate how the falling apart of the narrator’s world is not passive but aggressive destruction of what he has known. Additionally, there is also the use of fire and sun. He describes this new world as one that is bright like fire and to come into the sun. Both indicate a sense of burning and passion. I don’t necessarily understand how they are used effectively. but they allow for the reader to attempt to grasp this feeling that the narrator is having over finding this new world. I also sense that there were some religious inclinations in this story, by the way in which the narrator talks about the afterlife, angles, and heaven.
Finally, it was difficult for me to find this necessarily fantastical, because this seems to me to be in the realm of possibilities. It does not seem to be impossible for someone to find a sense of closure or enlightenment from silence. Additionally, these sensations the narrator feels from not using words could be real or could be imagined. It is not evident that what the narrator is going through is the actual manifestation of not having words, or if he simply is feeling as if these things, like his hand melting, are actually happening.