The Lazarus Project Part 2, off to Europe

This section of reading proved to be fairly intriguing, keeping the pages turning as Brik and Rora meander through Europe, learning more about life and searching for answers.

I looked up a few words to help my understanding of the reading. First off, deracination means an isolation of an individual from their native land. A fishmonger is simply a dealer of fish, and finally an aberration is the act deviating from the normal.

This section of reading starts off with Brik and Rora meeting and talking more about their past, present, and future. While the two are meeting and discussing ideas, I think I enjoyed more from Hemon's side tangents than the main plot itself. For example, Hemon writes about Rora: "He stuck out in the morning Andersonville crowd embarking upon their day's work of achieving perfection...I finally comprehended what I had known but had never been able to formulate; he had always been complete. He had finished the work of becoming himself, long before any of us could even imagine such a feat was possible" (page 30).

I liked this quote because it shows what a lot of people struggle with-confidence in themselves. Almost everyone I'd say struggles with their own identity long after reaching adulthood. People like Rora stand out because they're completely fine with where they have come from and who they are.

Another section that stood out to me was when Brik describes the church he attended as a child. He says that "everything in the church bespoke death, the heavy-clothed, airless, blind and deaf and decaying death" (page 39). I think it's very ironic that a revolutionary and life filled religion of Christianity can be so downtrodden in traditions that it becomes the solemn place as Brik describes it.

When the story shifts back to the early 1900's immigrants' mistreatment becomes the clear subject in the story. When the Fitzes and Miller go to investigate Lazarus's apartment and interogate his neighbor mercilessly, one clearly feels sympathy for the immigrants who are severely mistreated. Also, when Olga sees her dead brother sitting there, the situation is extremely distressful. Fitzpatrick even goes as far to say, "Happy to see him? Give him a kiss..." (page 57).

This mistreatment strikes anger in most readers, I'd assume. It's hard to tell where people get so much anger from. Really, though, when put into stressful situations, people tend to want to force the finger of blame somewhere. In Spike Lee's movie, 25th hour, there is a brilliant scene in which Edward Norton stares into a mirror and laces out an expletive laced rant against any kind of minority in New York, venting all of his frustrations in the post 9/11 environment of New York City. No minority was at fault, but Norton feels a sense of justification in himself in making everyone seem like villains.

In the same sense, when problems arise, people have to blame someone as responsible. Whether this responsibility resides with them or not is really beside the point. Blame is given in order for the other party to feel at peace with problems. With punishment dealt out, they feel happier about themselves, and better with the overall situation.