Eyes of Tornados

Will Landschulz
Am. Lit Per. 2
Mrs. LaMagdeleine

Esther, at first glance, appears to be a normal female New Yorker college student, with dorm mates she likes and those she doesn't like, with a 9-5 job, with normal hopes and fears and anxieties.  However, judging from the first line in the story, she doesn't know what she's doing in New York.  But the story doesn't start with "I don't know why I'm in New York."  Even more inexplicably, It starts with "It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York."  Let's break this up.  1) she mentions the weather, as "sultry," hot and humid, and "queer."  As this probably means strange and not the other, more modern, meaning, this becomes much more interesting and confusing.  Why would she describe a season as strange, not right, not normal, when it's just a season, no less open to strangeness than spring, fall, or winter?  Maybe it's hotter than normal?  That would explain the "sultry" adjective, but "sultry" is quite a normal aspect to peg onto a summer.  But this could all be just semantics and fluff, and be totally useless past the temperature reference.  2) "The summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs" is the next thing she mentions, less inexplicable as it's probably to set a date on the story (which I forget).  However, later on the page she notices an effect on her mind because its mentioned so often, where the Rosenbergs' faces appear "behind" such things as her breakfast (Appetizing, I'm sure) and her boyfriend (ditto).  3) And then, her aimless feeling.  Even more easily explained than the Rosenberg date, as sophomore slump plus coming-of-age confusion.  But taken all together, do we get a spectrum of inexplicable to quickly and succinctly explained?  Yes, but no.  Its an opening statement, the thematic prologue to the book as a whole.  So it makes little sense on its own, but when taken with the reading it gains more meaning.  Queer and sultry together echo the conditions in her mind by the end of the book.  The reference to the Rosenbergs, while useful in pinpointing the date for OCD things like that, is more indicative of the idea of the recurring image, the "greasy black balloon" that stuck with her and wouldn't go away.  The confusion is part of the background as the Empire State building is, part of the backdrop against which she will finds her way or not.