The Same River Twice Pt. 4

The last section of the book is more serious then the rest of it, but it should be he is slowing coming to the realization that life isn't worth living if you can't share it and that he is no longer in his youth, he escaped to Florida to get clean and it be his monastery and this is where I feel he discovers his life. "We were de-evolved humans who'd chosen proximity to the foundations of our existence, living on neither land nor water, but in a foreign world of both. The transient existence prevented anyone from getting too close. No one asked question. The choice to live in a swamp implied a past that was somehow worse, therefore worth leaving." This quote Offutt is being to see that in his search for himself he has actually become lost from society and is no longer a member of it. On page 169, the second paragraph starting with "Years ago,....I had entered the world to become a man and wound up truly caring about very little......Jacob was coming for me and I would meet him freely. Hoka hey." this portion is the beginning of his rebirth into a world which he kept running from, "A tremendous gust lifted my feet. My body tipped over the bay, held by wind to the railing, while my legs lifted behind me. for several seconds I hung in the air, waiting for the blast that would crush me like the pelican. I creamed at the hurricane, daring it to come, cursing it for its refusal." In my opinion this is the true point when he changes from a loaner to the man he becomes later in the book. " The wind shifted and my legs dropped, knees striking the concrete. Another gust pinned me to the rail. I shrieked, unable to hear myself..... In the sudden rain I realized I was crying, utterly frustrated by my failure to be defeated." In that moment is where he was born again, just as his baby crowned went back in the did it again, he was realizing it was time for him to grow up, to finally accept that he was 30 and his youth was fading and he didn't want to be 60 and still chasing his youth. Later on he is married and moves to start school and I feel this is the point where you see his rehabilitation from his visit to Florida and he says "The fist year was hard and I considered leaving, an old pattern. Rita convinced me otherwise." might of been the first time he didn't leave something that was pressuring him. when his son was born Offutt says "his birth was my rebirth." but I believe that it was the hurricane that was his rebirth and this was his first steps at being a man. Finally I believe Offutt at the end of his book is at piece with himself and life. He is still surrounded by nature but he now feels as if he has a purpose and a reason of existence, and that is shown with the love he has for his son and his closing words of "Daddy loves you."


"The alligator began walking parallel to the boat, head high as if proud. I felt both envy and awe." I think this experience is really a universal feeling when people that enjoy nature see this, the envy that the alligator is so "free" and the awe that a creature has been around for so long. This quote doesn't have much depth in the point of him turning his life around but more the visualization and beauty that nature has.