"The Same River Twice" pp. 54-109

This section of “The Same River Twice” started with Chris and his wife having a sort of disagreement over a treatment for the unborn baby. In the end Rita won and they end up getting the test done. On page 58 it shows their reaction to finding out that their baby is ok so far. “An accompanying letter says that the test has shown them to structurally sound. The kid has a solid foundation. If it turns out to be a terrorist, the fault will be environmental, not genetic. Rita and I hug each other for what seems like hours.” If found this quote to be kind of strange. How Chris was already thinking that his baby would be different. For some reason maybe he thought that if his kid turned out weird then it wouldn’t be his fault.

Next we pick back up with Chris’s memories of his path to adulthood. He recalls his father and how he and his mother interacted. A statement on page 60 sums this up. “Her usual stance was a balancing act between loyalty to her children and to her husband. She raised us, but Dad controlled us.” This seems to be how most families are raised. The mother does the raising of the children and the father does the decision making. In a way I agree with this system but feel like the parents should work together a little better.

We now are listening to Chris share his stories. He is traveling across America hitchhiking. A “missionary” named Al picks him up. Al shares some of his crazy beliefs. He is basically begging God to come back and take him up to heaven and leave all the “sinners” behind. Also he believes that insects are little devils from Satan. Therefore he raises spiders to counteract this evil. Chris gets dropped off and Al prays that some else will pick him up in five minutes and sure enough someone does. A crazy man named Winner picks him up. Winner is a racist how believes that it is going to be his job to protect America when WWIII comes along. He stockpiles guns supposedly all over the states. Once Chris leaves Winner he is on the California shoreline. Chris stays on the beach for a while. He begins to draw some sketches and leave them for other people to find in hopes that they will like them and want to pay him for his drawing skills. But this dream is shattered when a man picks up one of his drawings and then throws it into the trash. This man states that the bums are no better than the trash they leave behind. Chris then revaluates his life plan and decides to move on from California. I kind of felt bad for Chris at this point. He was only trying to fit into society but he was too different for people to understand. I know that I do this to people sometimes. I don’t give them the time of day because they are so different from me.

Chris’s plan led him to Alabama. He met up with a traveling circus and joined on to be a laborer. At first he seems to have found a place where he fits in. Because everyone is kind of strange and weird they accept him for who he is. After a time he is give the opportunity to move up to play “Louie the Great Trained Walrus”. He wore this ridiculous suit and followed what his “trainer” would say. The trainer would have a dialogue with the walrus as an act with the audience. I found one part of this dialogue on page 105 to be very interesting.

“Kaybach (“trainer”) tossed a fish and asked the final question.”

“Are you a walrus, Louie?”

“I shook my head no.”

“Oh, I guess you think you’re human, then.”

“I nodded very fast.”

“I’m sorry, Louie. You’re nothing but a walrus. You’ll never be a man.”

This last statement seems to be very much what Chris is dealing with in the present. He is trying to discover what really a man is. And possibly his entire growing up he was trying to discover this answer. Not long after Chris becomes so sick of the circus that he leaves in the middle of the walrus act and causes a huge scene.