Analyse af Martin Golans novelle 'The Arena'

Being lonely and confronting yourself with the past, is a completely normal thing in the modern society. Even though you have a good life with friends and family, you can be lonely sometimes, and because of that, you need to find answers in the past. We all know this feeling, but it’s quite hard to describe. This story is a good example of this, and Martin Golan’s attempt of describing this feeling, turns out very well.

“The Arena” is a pretty short story, about a father and his son, driving to an Arena, because the son has to catch a bus. It takes place in a car, but the story is actually about the father’s thoughts, while driving the car with his son in the backseat. As the reader, we primarily hear the father’s thoughts about his old marriage and his adopted son, Willie, who unfortunately is dead. Now the father has a new wife and a new kid, but haven’t forgotten his old “Arena”, with his old family.

When reading the story, we get aware of, that he’s still thinking about his old wife. “did I mention that my second wife looks like my first?” (line 48). The big focus on the wife, isn’t an accident at all because she has a big influence on the story. Furthermore, we hear about his adopted son, Willie, who died in a horrible incident, as I motioned before. Willie and the old wife, is one of the most fundamental things in this story, because the death of Willie caused, that their marriage slowly faded away. “After Willie we had no boundaries, no secrets. I even felt her realize this and decide we couldn’t stay together anymore.” (line 111-113). The couple would do everything for Willie, and he was the strongest boundary they had. When they lost Willie, they lost their relationship. They fought for this child, and now they lost their everything – Willie. The father and his old wife were still in love after Willies death, but it didn’t feel the same way, as he mentions in this line “We discussed the change in our relationship. Afterward, we’d climb into bed and make love. But we’d only “make love.” Does that make sense? Talking felt like “talking,” hugging felt like “hugging.” It had to do with the loss of boundaries.” (line 128-130). Even though the father has moved on to a new life with a new family, he just can’t stop thinking about his old life, or his old “Arena”. This shows that his love for both Willie and his old wife, was enormous, but also his old life in general. He has moved on physically, but haven’t yet moved on psychological. He’s together with a new wife, but in his head, he’s still together with the old wife, because of the strong bond they had together with Willie.