I have a kind of feeling, if a stuff appears in the life, and accompanies with us for a long time, then the stuff is seeming to be alive. It becomes part of my life, like a friend that stay by my side. I believe most people are feel the same way. After I read the “Stability In Motion” by Marina Keegan, I can strongly relate to her situation, which make this article deep in my mind, and start reflect on the story she has written. First of all, seeing the thing, one thinks of the person.
There is a car in the article goes from the beginning to the end, in the beginning the car was “The glove compartment had a magnifying glass, three pens, and the registration in a little Ziploc bag. The trunk had two matching black umbrellas, a first aid kit, and a miniature sewing box for emergency repairs.” (paragraph 4, page 155) The car fully filled with grandma’s stuff and her memories. Which shows the personality of her grandma: a neat and discipline person. As this kind of person, I believe, her grandma must have a clear mind and a strong memory of her life in the past.
Therefore, since the car belong to Marina, she can always see and smell the reflection of her grandma everywhere in the car, although she maintains this immaculate condition for a while. However, Marina get a chance, and totally change the car to her own, “The Toyota was born again, crammed with clutter, and exposed to decibel levels it had never fathomed. I filled it with giggling friends and emotional phone calls, borrowed skirts and bottled drinks.” (paragraph 5, page 155) Since that moment the car had no more grandam’s reflection, it totally belonged to Marina.
The car got messier and messier, the exactly opposite of grandma’s habit. On this point, it shows the old saying, “seeing the thing, one thinks of the person.” We can see through the car to Marina a messy and order less person. This is a little unilateral, but I believe it must show one side of Marina’s life. At the end of the story, this car belongs to her younger brother, and the last looks of this car is “I spread six trash bags over the driveway, filling them with my car’s contents as the August sun heated their black plastic. The task was strange, like deconstructing a scrapbook, unpeeling all the picture and whiting out the captions.” (paragraph 14, page 157) It only described how terrible it looks, but I believe it also smelled worse.
The huge difference between the beginning and the end. The car had completely reflected Marina, and her life. I believe her brother ever since find a messy car would think about his sister, just like Marina seeing a neat and clean car would think about her grandma. In my personal opinion, things close to a person will reflect this person’s habit. Let me give an example to illustrate this difficult point, the person’s dress, word, room, even body language.
That is another reason the wisely elder person can always see through another, they have the experience of seeing things around a stranger. Second reason this article left a deep impression on me is the Car Culture. As a foreign reader, the car culture in this article has shocked me, which has a huge difference with mine. I born in a developing country, the car seems far when I was a kid, only twenty years, we can find Lamborghini on the street today, there are not many cultures in between. The article shows me the partial of America Car Culture.
“The trunk housed my guitar but was also library, filled with textbooks and novels, the giant tattered copy of The Complete Works of Willian Shakespeare and all one hundred chapters of Harry potter on tape.” (paragraph 7 page 155) It reflects Marina’s passion for literature, I believe even in the world-wide length, there are not much person would like to keep the whole books of Willian Shakespeare in the car. Especial in America, people like to keep everything in the car. “It became an extension of my bedroom, and thus an extension of myself.” (paragraph 7 page 155)
This make me missed my high school principle-Dr. Cronemeyer, he is a neat and clean man, and drives an old Mercedes, always clean inside his car, however in his trunk, he always keeps a sport bag full fill with soccer gears. This is the America Car Culture, the car can always be their life extension, not only Marina, Dr. C, but also every Americans. The car is the star. The car means a lot in America, there is a Chevy commercial called “Dad’s Car” (YouTube) I believe a lot of American can relate. Just like the car in the article, meaning fame, life, family, and friend.
A totally miniature of life, this is not Over-interpretation, in America the car can totally reflecting a person’s life, either tough times or walking on air, its whiteness everything about the driver, just like an old friend. Marina first kiss, (paragraph 9) drives her dad to the interview, (paragraph 10) no matter how the end is, she is there, the Camry is there, the person who understands Marina the most is there. After all those things happened, the car had been memorable for Marina, just like for her grandma, ever since she saw the car, she would think her past, all the good and bad memories.
Another reason Marina’s grandma gave this car to her was grandma wants to keep something about grandpa around her, so that she can still fell like grandpa stayed with her. However, just like everyone else in the world, life is filled with ups and downs, no matter how reluctant or abominable, it all gone with time past. There is another thought of this article attracted me, that is Marina’s personality. Read through the whole article, I can depict a character in my mind- messy, order less, hot heart, intellect, humor, optimistic and positive. I felt like there is a very talkative and a little bit annoying neighbor, complaining about her childhood in a drowsy afternoon, simple but reall. This neighbor is kind of naïve, in this indifferent world, Marina told every story of her childhood to me, she does not even know either I care or not. Her every treasure the Camry, first kiss, dad’s interview, and everything, were shared to me, I feel flattered.
As a neighbor, she probably is the annoying one, but as a writer, she is the top. Every sentence in her article has the magic, because I can actually feel her emotion, like a great speaker having a speech in front of me. It is much easier speaking out than writing out, but Marina Keegan made it. “I kept my eyes on the road, feeling the confused sadness of a child who catches a parent crying.” (paragraph 10 page 156) This sentence made me feel sad while I was reading, that is how a good writer should be, they make things a little bit simple and clear.
Marina’s every sentence in this article is like a punch to my heart, straight forward to the target. Also, reading this article is like solving a math problem, step by step. I can use the Camay as the key and finding every word she wants to tell me. Marina maybe an order less person in life, but not in her writing. Every story in this article are like data, it does not tell me happy or sad by word, but I can feel the emotions by myself. All the facts combining together make Marina became a good writer, an impressive writer. “Stability in Motion” is a straight article, it does not hide the dramatic implicit in it, but it is still a thoughtful one. However, Marina Keegan passed away in a car accident at a very young ages, only leaves few articles to this world, what a lost. As the one has read Marina’s word, I unfortunately feel bad to her death. Therefore, life is so unpredictable. Be grateful for every moment. (from online)
