Save as Many as You Ruin In this short story called “Save as Many as You Ruin” by Van Booy we are introduced to Gerard, who works in an office. He appears to the reader as likeable man and the story begins one day as he gets off work. He walks down the street thinking about what the area was like before the big city of Manhattan was constructed. The footprints in the snow remind him of how everything will disappear. He breathes out just to see his breath disappear, and thinks of a Rainer M.
Rilke quote: “What is ours floats into the air like steam from a dish of hot food. In this connection it could be noted that this seems to be what he really believes, hence the cynical way he comments on everything. The overall mood in this short story could probably be described as indifference and Gerard, the main character, seems to have some serious existential problems. “He wonders if his life is an extraordinary one”. In this simple statement lies a worrying doubt which indicates that he does not think much of himself, if even anything and he has a hard time finding out what his purpose in life might be. He is described as a handsome man.
Furthermore he seems smart and well educated as he quotes poets and makes comparisons to specific painting techniques: “Her face is still sharp and angular like a Cubist painting”. He has slept with many women but he has only ever loved one and the only one he now seems to have any sort of affection for is his daughter Lucy. As he walks home he suddenly stumbles upon his old love standing inside a store. On impulse he walks into the store and up to her, forgetting about the rest of the world. He bumps into people but does not seem to even notice it, and it is first afterwards he considers if it was a smart thing to do.
It is also of the greatest significance to be aware of the fact, that the feelings he once had towards her never actually left him. This will be an important clue when trying to explain the title of the short story. Talking to his old flame, Laurel, it is revealed to the reader that Lucy? s mother, Issy, died a few years back. It is also relevant to mention that while Laurel seems genuinely sorry to hear so, Gerard does not express any sort of regret or emotion towards the fact that his old partner left him and died.It later turns out that he met Laurel before he met Issy. Gerard asks Laurel to walk with him and as they go outside they get into a taxi.
They end up going back to Laurels apartment and continue were they left off eight years ago. Except this time Gerard has become a much shallower and unaffectionate person but he acts as if everything is the way it was. Laurel seems like a nice person though she is insecure and probably has a low self-esteem. This can be seen at the point where they speak of Laurels ex-husband.
She laughs but Gerard can tell she is disappointed”. This very well illustrates the facade which Laurel unsuccessfully tries to keep Gerard from seeing through. When Gerard gets home later the same night, he is greeted by his daughter Lucy. He explains that he was with an old friend and Lucy guesses that it was a lady friend. From her reaction it becomes clear that most likely she has been expecting this.
Gerard knows she is becoming curious about her mother and he suddenly seems confident that Laurel will move in with them soon.It may be somewhat problematic to pinpoint the exact reason for Gerard’s willingness towards this idea. Maybe it is because he still loves Laurel or maybe it is because of Lucy’s request for a mother. It is possible that it could be a combination of these two things but Gerard somehow seems tormented by the feeling of guild towards Issy. This can be established at the ending where he seems to experience something cold down his back, which could be interpreted as the ghost of Issy.
He gets the feeling that someone is there and that he is being followed. Gerard is noticeably a man with a lot of issues and there are some indicators that point towards the fact that he is no longer really connected to this world. At least he feels so himself. ”But in the space between him and the world he can see air, only air […]” The cool and almost emotionless mood that dominates throughout the short story is perhaps because the reader sees the world as Gerard sees it.Since the moment when he realized that he would never really be happy, he accepted it and decided to devote his life to at least save those whom he had ruined. This is illustrated at the point when he finds out that he is going to have a child with Issy: “Then he felt something crack inside him because she wouldn’t stop crying and he knew it was true”.
In this moment Gerard realizes what is happening and what he is doing to the people in his life, he cracks and feels the emptiness inside of him.Since he abandoned his own life and needs, he has had a strong desire to save those who he hurt, so when he now gets the chance to save Laurel after what he once did, he simply cannot help himself, hence the title “Save as Many as You Ruin”. The use of contrasts could very well symbolize the struggle within himself of never allowing himself to be happy. So when his daughter Lucy kisses him he cannot help but to strain his own emotions by thinking of something horrible: “She is kissing him all over his face. Gerard imagines her mother floating in the pool”.
This could illustrate the guilt he feels towards Issy as she is the only one he cannot save. To illustrate this point further something similar happens when he later thinks of Issy: “He remembers her laugh, then the roar of snapping flames at her cremation”. Even though Gerard does not feel attached to the world and his own life, he is in a number of ways still connected to the world through his daughter. The basic themes of the short story are not as much about relationships as it is more basic existential questions. I believe that the author wants to portray the major issues in the modern way of approaching life.The shallow and indifferent way most people pass by each other is unquestionably criticized in the text when he describes Issy’s funeral: “People exchanged business cards at the buffet after the cremation”.
These themes would also fit well on the composition used by the author where the reader first hear how he is walking down the street, unaffected by his surroundings, and then later it is explained what made him feel this way. Another way the author makes the reader aware of Gerard’s feelings is by occasionally using the literary style of James Joyce, the stream of consciousness.When using this literary style the reader experiences Gerard’s point of view through his thought process. By the meeting with Laurel some of the important actualities about his past is revealed, but it is not until the end that the reader learns that maybe he missed Laurel for the wrong reasons. By using these different literary tools Simon Van Booy creates a distinctive mood which I believe is a unique method of describe how some individuals get lost in the never ending search for a purpose in life.
