Text-Exploration

Page 93. “Starting at the deep end I glide¹ over the slick-tiled bottom without kicking up a spume or making a splash². Sometimes another swimmer churns past me, more a disturbance³ of water than a body⁴. … While everything above is loud and bright, everything below is whispers.⁵”

1[Word Definition]: Glide is defined by the OED as “To pass from one place to another by a smooth and continuous movement, without effort or difficulty.” This definitely starts to signal an objective correlative. We start moving out of reality into a dream, in a way, into a very individualized version of reality. Because of the individualistic nature, we are able to start to look for feelings. The importance is not so much the words, yet. The real key is that we are able to see that we have an objective correlative. We don’t really have enough information to critically analyze it for a range of feelings yet, but we might be able to get some ideas: We see that it’s kind of dreamy, smooth, and continuous. When I read it, I also got the connotation of slow.

2[Syntax, Phrasing]: Here the correlative is continued. This adds on to the first feeling, and shows us more of the slow, steady, and dreamlike connotations. This is interesting, and it certainly helps us close in on the feeling that the objective correlative is giving off. The way it does this is through a connection that spans over multiple sentences. This is achieved not by just the words themselves, but the connotation, or feeling of the words. The feeling of the words, plus their context, emits the kind of feelings for the objective correlative itself. This is a great example of how an objective correlative works on the reader.

3[Word Definition, Syntax/Phrasing]: The most important word in this sentence, for me, is disturbance. It essentially single-handedly drives the point of the sentence home, especially when compared to the words later on, especially body. Disturbance is defined as “The interruption and breaking up of tranquility, peace, rest, or settled condition.” This actually starts to, perhaps, change the sentiment offered by this objective correlative, when looked at for the first time. Now it seems that there’s something breaking this dreamlike state. This offers, for me at least, a different range of feelings because of this one word. However, when analyzed more closely, I find that perhaps it doesn’t change the point or feeling of the objective correlative too much. I think that even though the word disturbance is used, it’s actually a rather light word for the situation. It’s a small indent to the dream-bubble of the reality. It doesn’t puncture it, just pushes on it slightly. This is certainly an interesting word. Depending on how the reader views it, it can lead him/her in a different direction, and different feeling, emitted by this objective correlative. This shows the power of the objective correlative.

4[Syntax]: This is a great addition to #3, because it is the comparison to the disturbance mentioned earlier in the passage. When people pass Yunior in this state, he feels it more as a disturbance than a body. This is interesting because of how it connects to a disturbance. A disturbance might seem at first like the less dreamlike occurrence, but because of the context, a body actually might seem worse. It is a matter of opinion, but this opinion really defines the second part of the correlative. It seems to me that a disturbance makes the dreamlike state still lie true, while bodies passing by one another seems to be closer to what could be happening in reality. Perhaps this is importance because it shows that an objective correlative can’t be used by looking at one part. It takes the whole thing to deliver the feeling intended. In a way, this is helpful, because as you dive deeper into the objective correlative, it seems to become more familiar to you, and maybe easier to understand. As you familiarize yourself with the events in the objective correlative, the ideas and feeling evoked become more familiar and easy to grasp.

5[Phrasing]: This kind of wraps up the objective correlative, and completes the feeling. Now that the reader is immersed in the world of this objective correlative, the feeling in its whole can be evoked as the objective correlative comes to a close. I think in this case, this comparison, between above and below, and loud and whisper, really finishes this off. It further enhances the dreamlike state. It’s clearly important, how objective correlatives finish, because that’s the reader’s most recent memory of the whole scene, so it sticks with them more. It also starts to transition back to reality with a realistic description- under water, things do seem like whispers. This symbolizes, perhaps, the end of the objective correlative. The feeling, I think, when all is told, is one of longing, little care, and a sort of tired, uncommitted feeling that’s hard to really describe or pin down. But this is exactly the purpose of the objective correlative- to give an idea of the feelings, but not exactly one necessary feeling.