I’m afraid of being rushed.
We all know about death, we know that it is inevitable, that it is something we can’t change about a life no matter what. Now George is staring at his reflection, at “the face of the child, the boy, the young man, the not-so-young man” and understands what can happen next. He is not getting any younger and Jim’s death reminds him about it. However, it would be a mistake to say that George is afraid of death, for he is not at all. He is scared “of being rushed”, to die suddenly just like his Jim did.
Geo – are you all right?
Friends are those people who will be there for you when you need them. Charlotte does try to be a good friend for George, but the problem is that she doesn’t know what to do. It is a quite common problem not to know what to say in order to support a person who has recently lost someone important as a partner, a relative, a friend or even a pet. She doesn’t know what to ask and not to provoke George’s anger. The woman calls him to find out whether he is “all right” in spite of the fact that she knows that he is far from being all right. Sometimes there is nothing else to do.
Jim is nothing now, now, but an excuse for hating three quarters of the population of America.
Jim used to be everything for George. He still remembers the first meeting with a good-looking Navy officer who became an irreplaceable part of his life. They used to be genuinely happy in their little cottage! Jim’s death leaves an empty hole in George’s heart. Jim used to be everything and now he “is nothing” but “an excuse for hating three quarters of the population of America.” This is really frightening when love is replaced with bitterness, disappointments and pure hate. It is not easy to return to a normal life after a tragedy like that, but a life worth trying.
