Sample Essay #2

Prompt: Why does Susannah decide that Jason Brockman needs saving and what is her motivation for taking it upon herself to do it?
Analysis of Caitlan Horrocks Somewhere in America

            Have you ever felt out of control? This is exactly the case for Susannah Kircher, the main character in “Somewhere in America” by Caitlin Horrocks. After losing her husband to colon cancer, she looks for relief from the overwhelming crises of her life by trying to help 470 pound Jason Brockman, a man she saw on Wife Swap (a show is about two families who swap their wives and mother and experience lives from different outlook). Even though she hasn't solved her own issues through grief after the lost of her husband, Susannah becomes convinced that by helping Jason Brockman that she can swap her life for a new one. Susannah's becomes also obsessed with trying to save Jason Brockman because she couldn't save her husband or her son, and with saving Jason Brockman from his wife Trudi she gains relief.

            From the start of the story we see the main character feels that she has the right tools to bring to Jason's life the control she lacks in her own life. Susannah feels that she can easily fix Jason Brockman’s weight problem (he weighs 470 pounds). She's driving with this content for him. Susannah says "I have a carton of weight loss shakes in the backseat, a disassembled exercise bike in the trunk. I have a stopwatch and a scale and a book about the caloric cost of common foods." Susannah thinks she can solve Jason's problem just by repeating the judge’s statement that “a burrito is not a sandwich." Susannah tells herself that she is going to save him from himself. On page 2 paragraph 3, she thinks she is going to put her hands on his shoulder and say, "No more burritos, Jason. They aren't sandwiches, and they sure aren't good for you either". Susannah feels she can reiterate the judge's ruling and everything will change for Jason Brockman. Human nature would dictate differently because this is his habit, and it takes time to change.

            The life that she dreams about with Jason is totally different from what is real in her life. In reality she suffers from grief due to the loss of her husband, and this creates problems in other aspects of her life. She could not save her son or gain control over his life after her husband's death, and her son soon began to snort meth and got a girl pregnant, though he's only sixteen. Although the boy showed some resistance she felt she had no other choice but to institutionalize him. She said, "I paid some people to take my son." Further proving how her grief affects her life, she says: "They set them straight. And God knows I don't know how to." This phrase gives us the feeling that because of her grief she becomes an unfit parent. Susannah correlates her issues with how Trudi treats her husband Jason Brockman. She sees the outcome of what would happen because Jason is overweight, and his wife provides no support. Furthermore Susannah sees the same thing happening to Trudi’s family that happened to hers’. She writes in her letter “I just don’t want your son turning into a wild dog because last January a doctor diagnosed his father with colon cancer.” She has not gotten over her grief because when she sees Jason Brockman she sees her Jason, when she writes in her letter “My Jason played racquetball every Sunday, some pickup basketball games in the summer,” really she just relives how different her Jason is from Jason Brockman. She also writes “My Jason was healthy and God had to shoveled him full of cancer.” This shows how delusional she is, she sees the vast difference between her Jason and Jason Brockman, and she is grieved by it. That's why she recalls it; it gives her the motivation to save him from his obese state. Jason Brockman is unhealthy physically, Susannah's husband was not. She has failed saving the ones she loves, but with overwhelming confidence feels she can save Jason Brockman.

            What she sees on Wife Swap motivates Susannah to want a change after her husband dies. Susannah's life is in shambles, and she wants a new life with Jason Brockman. She is obsessed with Wife Swap to the point where she thinks that she could just change her life. Her obsession is evident by her conversations with her brother when he said “You need to stop watching so much television, especially Wife Swap.” She explains that her husband is gone, and her son is a wild dog and I don't know how you feel about Trudi, but maybe we could run away together." Her own opinion is that Jason's wife "Trudi Brockman is a raw deal." As well Jason Brockman could not be saved even though he was on the show wife swap. The person he had as his wife for the show was not a match and Susannah imagines what Jason was thinking: "hoo boy not her either." Despite the enormous pounds on Jason she says "We can do this together. You have sweet eyes and a nice smile and a good heart." She see the best in Jason Brockman which she feels Trudi does not. Trudi does not assist her husband, or encourages him to exercise, but Susannah can. Susannah is the right woman for Jason Brockman in her mind, and not Trudi.

            Susannah has overwhelming grief over the loss of her husband and feels she has lost all control over her life. She can’t gain control over her son to get him right. She sees the solution through Jason Brockman if she could save him from his obesity, she could save herself. Susannah begins to believe that the only way to get control back is to make a change on the same level as the change in Wife Swap but in this case, she’ll change not her husband, but her life.