Hello everybody,
So I know in class we all kinda seemed to agree that in Victory Lap, Kyle was an over-controlled but good kid who knew the right thing to do and Alison was a bit of an airhead. By that I mean she lived in a world in her head where things like this happened:
She’s a very passive and innocent character, while Kyle runs around like a lunatic hero.
However, I was thinking about Kyle and how he reacted the way he did and the emotional process we “see” him going through to get there. The process here being that his logically thinking brain shut down and his feet flew him to Alison’s rescue. We see his parents’ rules and voices being presented as things that are internally hindering him from “making the right call” or whatever you want to call it. But what if it was that complete and utter repression of all his emotions and anger (thanks mom and dad), that led to such a proactive and violent outburst from him?
He wasn’t thinking or using his brain when he ran out to save Alison. It was just a complete emotional and physical reaction, it was him snapping. He almost snapped a little too far, as we’re led to believe by the fact that it was only Alison screaming at him that kept him from killing. I wonder if his parents had been more relaxed he wouldn’t have responded like that at all, maybe he would have just called 911 and written down the license plate of the car. What do you guys think? This is supposed to be less of a “what if” question and more of a, “maybe this thing that kinda seemed like it was stopping him was actually what made him do it in the first place” kind of question. Kyle’s Repression = Alison’s Rescue?
January 29, 2016 at 4:15 pm
Kyle’s rescue of Allison was definitely a result of being over-controlled. The repressive nature of his home life, coupled with the natural tendency of a teenager to rebel– and the fact he is probably just a good kid– created a perfect storm in which he had to act. Given the fact that he was going to bash in Allison’s attackers head even more than he had to shows he may not have been completely in control of himself.
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January 29, 2016 at 10:10 pm
I was just thinking about this: Though the yarn is ostensibly told from inside of the character’s heads, as the story unfolds the randomness of the writing wanes. It’s almost as if Sanders was taking all this jumbled crap that runs through his characters brains and then slowly (not that slowly, it’s a very short piece) focuses everything to the focal point of Kyle’s rescue like a laser beam. The smart-assed bopping around, pinball writing becomes very focused– for a very short time. Then as the adrenaline wears off the familiar way they think returns. It’s like a mash-up of a innocuous pop song that bops along pleasantly until you realize you are listening to The Sex Pistols, and then the pop song returns. But there is a bad taste in your mouth afterwards.
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February 1, 2016 at 3:29 pm
I personally believe that Kyle would have responded the way he did no matter how his parents raised him. There is a part of every human that dictates how you act. Kyle’s actions were not a result of his controlled life,but of a deep rooted human need to be the hero. Every one has fantasies of saving the day. The smart think for Kyle to do would be to call the police and report what happened.Kyle saw the chance to save the girl and maybe impress her with his heroism. The fact that he almost went to far is just an adrenaline dump that he was not ready to handle. His emotions took over blocking his judgement for a time until Allison’s scream brought him back down. The only parents that have any fault in this story are Allison’s for not teaching her how to be safe in an unsafe world.
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February 1, 2016 at 8:15 pm
I completely agree with what these previous authors had to say, but something that struck me and almost terrified me as I was reading them, what if Kyle’s parents (as absurd as they are and as regimented as they are) what if they are this way, because they know that Kyle has irrational tendencies. Although we are in his head, because he is so regimented he has that urge to be rebellious, which we see from his “in head swearing” he has a very “primitive” and natural urge to defend a girl he has the urge to protect.
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February 3, 2016 at 10:20 pm
That would be pretty freaky. I never would have thought of that. I wish there was more text to analyze to compare this theory too! Also, after reading Puppy, maybe a theme in Saunder’s work is necessary over-controlling parents? With the boy being tied up to keep him out of the road, potentially Kyle being managed to the limit to keep him in line…
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February 7, 2016 at 10:40 am
What an interesting idea! Looking at the theme of parenting/children in these stories, it’s important to remember that in each of them we really only get one side or the other – so far anyway. Thinking about what led peripheral characters to make choices that influence the protagonists is intriguing.
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February 7, 2016 at 1:25 pm
Many times in life it’s the decisions of people you have only the slimmest of relationships with affect choices you make.
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