"The Disappeared" Reading Response

"But the money meant little to him. It was America he was curious about, attracted by; especially its colorful disorderliness.

'Disorder, of which there was very little in Sweden, seemed sexy to him; the disorder of a disheveled woman who has rushed down two flights of stairs to offer a last long kiss." (pg. 110)"

I really liked this story. I think a lot of the reason is because how obsessed he (Anders) becomes with the woman in the story. Even when she warns him that she is "radioactive" (pg. 116). I like how Baxter makes it seem cosmic - their connection. But it's not real. It really is much more obsession what he is feeling rather than love. Though even he is not sure what he is feeling towards her.

"Happiness and agony simultaneously reached down and pressed against his chest. They, too, were like colors, but when you mixed the two together, you got something greenish-pink, excruciating." (pg. 119)

Even the imagery in the above statement is so telling. Giving the emotions colors instead of saying what they actually are is a very brilliant trick that the author used. You can feel more through those descriptions than you can by using simple words to describe the emotion itself.

I think Baxter did a wonderful job showing how some people "disappear." I am always so pleasantly surprised when with the readings - as in not everything is what I am expecting it to be. At first, I thought this was going to be a story of someone having been kidnapped. But I am glad that this was a story where the woman "disappeared" as in she left all on her own and she knew she was going to and even Anders knew he was going to do as well. Maybe it goes with people wanting to "change" others and maybe thinking that "I'm going to be different." After re-reading it, I have come to think that Anders is very much - "I will be the one she changes her mind for." But even her grandmother says that it is not so. That they almost all think that. That not only does she disappear from these guys' lives, but they disappear from hers as well.