Free Write

December 24

It was Christmas Eve. Fog stuck to the tarmac at Lindbergh field. Everyone was gathered by the big clear windows awaiting his arrival. He had been gone for almost nine months now, leaving behind his loyal wife and two children, ages 3 and 5. I watched the family anxiously wait for their loved husband and father to enter the airport. As the plane landed, I watched from a far the children looking out the window with gleaming eyes and jittery hands, trying so hard to be patient. As the passengers walked out, the kids stood as close to the entrance as they could without getting in the way. All the soldiers walked out, dressed in all camouflage and boots, standing tall and strong. One after another, they filed off the plane walking in single file line but quickly broke through to see their families as soon as they could. The little girl and boy screamed “Dad! Daddy! Daddy!” as they watched their dad finally walk out, safe and sound. He knelled on his knees with his arms spread open and the biggest smile I had ever seen. As he embraced his children, I felt a chill up my spine. Looking around the airport, I remembered the first time I had welcomed my father home from war. I also remembered welcoming my husband and two older brothers home as well. This time, I had not come to welcome anyone, but just to watch. Although this wasn't anyone’s ideal way of spending Christmas Eve, I wanted to see what I had once looked like so many times before. Maybe this was odd or even a bit creepy, but I felt like this is where I belonged. About 14 Christmas Eves of the 25 I lived had been spent here welcoming my father, then later both my father and two brothers, and eventually my husband. This had been a more of an eye opening and joyous place than any Christmas party, any Midnight Mass, any turkey dinner with apple pie for dessert and any drunken home alone experience watching movies. This was where I wanted to be.  

Reflection

              The overall theme of The Plot Sickens by Fanny Howe is young people’s writing and its lack of the typical “happy ending”.  The author’s ideas about young students’ writing is more criticism than appreciation. Howe initially states a prompt given to the her students, “They were to get together in small groups of five and construct a very short story beginning, ‘It was Christmas Eve. Fog stuck to the tarmac at Lindbergh Field’”. She then states the results of the writing she obtained, “Of the twenty stories generated by this assignment, only five had ending that could qualify as ‘happy’… All the others concluded with extraordinary violence.” Her claims basically say that, when given the choice to write about anything, young writers will not chose to end this happily or with a problem resolved.  What is to blame? Howe believes these stories are effects of the economy. She states “I believe that the Economy instructs my students in a particular sense, or non-sense, of human agency, and that their stories quite naturally reflect this instructions”. She believes that young writes do not solve problems in their stories, but rather go straight to violence and to undeveloped plots.

                My free write does not support Howe’s claims about young writers. The speaker in my free write is not violent or depressed about the situation the person is in. Also the families of the soldiers are excited and happy to their loved on return, and the soldiers themselves are returning safely and are happy to see their families. Besides the fact that the soldiers are involved in violent acts while at war, that is not a theme in my story. The theme is their arrival, and how many people experience happiness from this, whether they know someone arriving or not. The speaker in my free write is happy and appreciative of the times she has been in their situation and she returns to the airport because this is where she is comfortable and where she would like to be.