The Imagery of the List
Henry explains, “It said, variously: You are surreptitious. B+ student of life. First thing hummer of Wagner and Strauss. Illegal alien. emotional alien. genre bug. Yellow Peril: neo-American. great in bed. overrated. poppa’s boy. sentimentalist…stranger. follower. traitor. spy.” Henry adds, “ For a long time I was able to resist the idea of considering the list a cheap parting shot, a last ditch lob between our spoiling trenches.” Although the list is minimalist it outlines Park’s major strengths and weakness from Lelia’s perspective. The list indicates that she has been studying Park’s traits throughout their relationship; it gives the imagery of a scorecard. Henry adds, “I found a scrap of paper beneath our bed while I was cleaning. Her signature again: False speaker of language.” Although Lelia does not explicitly state so, the list is an affirmation that Park is not the person she projected him to be; hence, separating from him is the ultimate resolution. Lelia insinuates that Park is principally a hypocrite whom she neither understands nor content to be with.
The Imagery of Mitt
Henry recounts, “Our boy Mitt, was exactly seven years old when he died, just around the age when you start really worrying about your kid. Then, you look along his tender arms and calves and you wish you could keep him inside the house for the next ten years, buckled up and helmeted. But all of a sudden, more than you know, he’s outside somewhere, sometimes even alone, crossing the streets, scaling rocks, wrestling with dogs, swimming in pits, getting into everything mechanical and combustible and toxic. You suddenly notice that all of his friends are wild bad kids, the kind who hold lighted firecrackers until the very last second." Mitt's demise transpires when he is at the most vulnerable stage. His tendency to explore mechanical things puts him at risk of injuries. Moreover, his unruly, daring friends expose him to the danger which his parents want to safeguard him from.
