Jack
Strout elucidates, “He was just an old man with a sloppy belly and not anyone worth noticing. Almost, this was freeing. There had been many years of his life when he was tall, good-looking man, no gut, strolling about the campus at Harvard, and people did at him then, for all those years, he would see students glance at him with deference, and also women, they looked at him.” A comparison of Jack’s past and present looks surmises that beauty is impermanent. His good looks have diminished; hence, he cannot draw people’s attention. Youthfulness amplifies attractiveness; however, old age reduces one’s freshness.
After the Police Encounter
Strout writes, “Jack took a deep breath and said, “Okay. It’s okay. It’s Over.” He drove the eight miles into Crosby, and on the way he said, “Betsy. Betsy! Wait until I tell you what happened to me. You’re not going to believe this one, Betts.” He allowed himself this, the conversation with her about what had just happened to him.” Betsy is already deceased; however, Jack feels her presence based on how he recounts his experience with the police to her. Psychoanalytically, Jack experiences a regression by calling Betsy, who she greatly misses, so that she cannot comfort her. Imagining that she is there and listening to him calms him.
The Wharf
Strout expounds, “Jack stood at the end of the wharf and watched the ocean; he looked one way, then the other. Small whitecaps rolled up from a breeze that he felt only now. This is where the ferry came in from Nova Scotia, he and Betsy had taken it one day. They had stayed in Nova Scotia three nights. He tried to think if Betsy had put her arm through his: she may have. So now his mind carried an image of them walking off the ferry, his wife’s arm through his.” Being at the wharf elicits Jack’s memories with Betsy. It is an absolute incident of Regression which makes Jack to feel Betsy’s presence. He yearns for her although she is no longer existent. The wharf offers an ideal ambiance for Jack’s regression to transpire because he had been there with Betsy; her death does not change the unconscious memories which Jack has of the place.
