In the first couple of chapters of The Same River Twice, Chris Offutt uses dirty, straight ford realism to describe his life in the past and in the present. Each chapter bounces back and forth between current times and his life growing up and leaving his hometown and exploring the world. Stream of conscience is used with first person to narrate the story from Chris's point of view. The novel starts off with his unavoidable love for nature. He compares everything to nature and animals as seen "...we were both in the same fix- animal sex is only a billion ad a half years old"(Offutt 16) where he compares having a child with his wife to turtles procreating. Most of this book is driven by the act of sex, whether he is trying to have a child with his wife or learning to have sex for the first time. Sex seems to be a heavy ongoing theme in the novel as he matures. Sex maybe a metaphor for his life, as he grows older his meaning for sex changes. When he is younger he is "fucking" Jahri but as he is trying to make a child with his wife he realizes "Sex with the goal of conception finally meant making love" (Offutt 14). Another theme is his selfishness throughout his life experience. He is first selfish by not wanting to have children seen "All I could see was what I'd lose"(Offutt 14) and him getting jealous of Rita and her pregnancy. How can you be envious of your unborn baby getting more attention then you? All he cares about is himself an how his life is going to change. Also how can you be so selfish when you are a loser in life with no job living off your wife's salary? The baby made him think that he would had to get a real job and he didn't care for that thought. Overall the tone of the book made Chris seem emotionless and selfish and living his life not caring for others. The book has a great tone of realism, easy language with some euphemisms that made the read light but the hard, real language kept me entertained.
Vocabulary :
fecundity -the quality of being fecund; capacity, especially in femaleanimals, of producing young in great numbers.
saboteur-a person who commits or practices sabotage.
I thought the part where Offutt compared human sex to turtle sex was amusing as well. I agree - this section of the story demonstrates his immaturity. Eventually I saw his maturity, finding that he didn't feel jealous of his son anymore, but his son became a part of him, so his son's interest was also his.
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