Rendezvous: analyse af novelle

Chance encounters can sometimes decide our destiny. This is often a good thing, but sometimes bad decisions can prove to be fatal for our lives. This is true in the case of Kim in the short story Rendezvous. She makes a risky decision to run away from home, and by chance she meets the wrong person, at the wrong time. Kim is a typical teenage girl, who wants to prove a point to her parents. She is going through the stage, where everything your parents do, seems unfair. She hopes that running away, will make them realize how wrong they are, and she also wants them to change their rules at home. From the beginning we get the feeling that things are not going so well: “God but it's cold. God but it's empty out here.” (P.1, Ll. 30-31). The fact that it is cold and empty makes running away an uncomfortable thing, and not exactly the thrilling feeling she hoped for. Even though she is satisfied by her actions of leaving the house, a small part of her wants to go home to a comfortable and warm house, where she can lay down in her bed and relax. She wants to be an adult who can take care of herself, but on her “runaway adventure”, she realizes that she probably still needs her parents. In the story we also meet Payton. Payton is a disturbed man, who wants to control his anger, but cannot. He is easily het up, which we also see in the story. “Drums give him energy, a high. Saxophones make him morose. He hits a clean 80 miles per.” (P. 52, Ll. 7-8). It is clear to see that he is easily affected by different atmospheres. When he hears the drums, he gets the feeling that he is invincible. But as soon the saxophone plays, he gets frustrated. He is also a very reckless man, and his actions are dangerous. He is driving really fast which endangers other drivers on the road. The narrator also gives clues to Payton being a bad person. “The priest wasn’t even sympathetic about him sending the flowers and visiting the funeral home, which he’d done three out of five times after he’d gone out on the Interstate.” (P. 52, Ll. 20-22). This gives the reader an idea that Payton has done bad things at the interstate, which could be murder since he has visited the funeral home.The narrator tells the story in a way that gives the reader an idea that the two storylines are going to interfere at the ending. It starts with Payton who is driving, and then it switches to Kim. When Payton sees the hitchhiker, who is a young girl, it is clear that it is Kim. The narrator also builds up the suspense, because he does not give any clues about Payton being a possible killer until the story nears the ending. Only then is it clear that nothing good is going to happen to Kim, and that she will not make it back home to her friends and family. The primary theme is chance encounters. Kim had no idea that when she grabbed that door handle that it might be one of her last actions, before she dies. We do not realize how important the little decisions we make are before it is too late. Kim decided to run away, but she had no idea that the result would be fatal to her future. The author wants the readers to realize how lucky they are to not live in a society where small decisions can lead to your death.