Be Here Now is a short story written in 2012 by Miguel Syjuco, currently based in America. One of the main themes portrayed in the short story is how people are affected by war. The relationship portrayed in the short story plays a large role, in terms of how the main characters portrayed in relation to one another and how they are characterized.
The name of the main character in the short story is not revealed, however, we do know that he is engaged to a woman named Jenna, and that he works as a news photographer. He has travelled in Middle Eastern countries whilst Jenna had been packing everything up in their old house since they were moving. He seems very torn between wanting to go back to his work and staying with Jenna. For example, “I check my email. I’m relieved and disappointed there’s nothing”(p.3, l. 51). He even says himself that he is caught in limbo. “I know by experience that it takes at least a week to negotiate the limbo between this world and the one I’ve left behind.”(p. 3, l. 64-65). This first week when they are unpacking, he feels caught in his own ‘world’ that is in-between the two worlds he live in. That is probably why he sees contrasts everywhere. He does not know what is familiar and unfamiliar. He says that “home is unfamiliar” (p. 2, l. 28) but also that the headlines on the news sites are “too foreign and too familiar” (p. 4, l. 73). This way he never really feels at peace when he is at their new home, because it is all new, and what feels familiar to Jenna is different to what feels familiar to him.
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