Northline Walking Blog #4

My final walk was in and around the UNR campus. I decided to take a break from Allison’s perspective and consider Dan Mahony’s instead. His incident on the UNR campus left him out of work for quite some time, and badly scarred his hand and eye. Dan does not reveal exactly what route he took when he was traversing the campus at three in the morning, so I took my own route on Sierra Street and through some parts of the southern end of campus. For some reason, when I read his story, I pictured Dan near Sierra and University, so I made sure to wander around this area as Dan might have been doing. I didn’t do this at three in the morning, but I have been around this area late at night before, so I could imagine Dan there.  

                Dan’s story is on page 163 and 164 in Northline. Dan describes the situation as confusing—he didn’t know what was going to happen to him, and he didn’t expect the men to jump out at him like they did. His situation then went from confusing to hopeless as the men brutally beat him, and he thought he was going to die. This event changed Dan’s entire life—he could no longer be a plumber, and he had to go through intensive psychological repair to return to a healthy mental state of mind.

                This inspired me to think about time and our complete ignorance of the future. Dan didn’t wake up the day he was beaten and expect anything like that to happen to him. To me, it seems that tragic events never seem possible until they happen—we hear about them, but I get stuck in the mindset that they always happen to other people. It’s difficult to imagine that you could be killed or seriously injured in a car accident or a shooting or something of that nature; in fact, I would venture to say that these possibilities do not occur to us very often. This is perhaps why Dan’s experience was such a monumental event in his life—he had his future planned around the assumption that he would be in good health, that nothing like this would ever happen to him. When it did, he was thrown for a loop and had to deal with heavy physical and emotional stress.

                However, I also considered how this event changed Dan for the better. He was forced to become strong enough to fight against his fears, and to shift his life in a different direction. He may not have fulfilled his dream of taking over his uncle’s plumbing business, but he learned quite a bit from working at the VA. Not to mention, he met Allison, who made him extremely happy. Without learning and growing from his situation, he never would have ended up in the place he did. 

Link to a map of where I walked:

file:///C:/Users/Kyla/Pictures/Walking%20Blog/sierra%20and%20university%20-%20Google%20Maps.htm

Northline Walking Blog #3

As many of my fellow students probably did, I took a walk to the Little Nugget, aka home of the Awful Awful hamburger. When Allison went to the Little Nugget with Penny, she left the vacuum office on Second and walked from there. Since I was close, I walked past the Nugget and ventured along the river for a while, and then headed from Second Street up to the Nugget again. I couldn’t stomach a burger of my own at the time, but the memories I have of eating there definitely sufficed. It’s hard to forget a meal like an Awful Awful.

                I tried to focus on Allison’s friendship with Penny during my walk to the Nugget. Penny was a guiding force in Allison’s life in Reno. Penny was very encouraging toward Allison—she was always complimenting her on her voice and sales abilities, telling her she was smart enough to go to college, taking her around to her favorite places in town, and nudging her to open up about her life experiences. Penny was often the catalyst to Allison’s stories—the audience learned quite a bit about Allison through her conversations with Penny. I think this was because of Penny’s soft approach to her questions; she made it clear to Allison that she didn’t have to talk about things if she didn’t want to, and was very non-judgmental when Allison did decide to open up. During their conversation at the Nugget, the audience learns of Penny’s problems with her husband, and Allison tells Penny about her first boyfriend Roger. What is perhaps most significant about this conversation, though, is that Allison brings up Paul Newman in regards to her definition of love. This is the first time Allison brings Newman up in conversation with anyone other than her mom. She says “Love seems nice…like in the movies, like with Paul Newman” (122). This is extremely important because Newman is such a driving force in Allison’s life—her revelation of him shows that she trusts Penny, perhaps more than anyone else in her life.

                This led me to think about the importance of having solid relationships in our lives. I love having girl talk over an Awful Awful, although with my friends it’s more like a coffee. There is something so satisfying about sharing yourself with people you love and trust, and having them share things with you. I think Allison and Penny developed a bond like this, even if they didn’t tell each other everything. Allison’s experience in Reno greatly benefitted from knowing Penny for this reason. Penny was a reminder that even though Allison had gone through difficult experiences, she didn’t have to be ashamed of them. 

Link to a map of where I walked:

file:///C:/Users/Kyla/Pictures/Walking%20Blog/Wingfield%20Park%20to%20233%20N%20Virginia%20St,%20Reno,%20NV%2089501%20-%20Google%20Maps.htm

Northline Walking Blog #2

After Allison ran into Dan Mahony on Second Street, she went to get a cup of coffee with him at the downstairs lunch counter in the Cal Neva. So, at the end of my walk, I made sure I walked along Second Street and back up to the Cal Neva. While I didn’t get a coffee at the lunch counter downstairs, I tried to consider the themes of the novel as I walked back, especially those prevalent at that point. Allison and Dan walked back in silence—while this may not seem significant, I thought it went well with the idea of gender roles. I think Allison was hesitant to reveal herself to Dan because of her past experiences with men. She expected Dan to be dominant and controlling—as he naturally isn’t this way, the conversation was lacking. Allison was too timid to contribute anything about herself, and Dan was trying to let her have the opportunity to do so. Dan was distancing himself from the typical male role, at least in Allison’s mind, and she was uncomfortable because of this.               

                This was further expressed when they sat down at the restaurant and Allison stated that “She knew the cook, and felt better that he was there” (page 145). Her desire for a familiar figure explicitly demonstrates Allison’s need for protection. She was afraid, in a way, of Dan—not because he had done anything to suggest that he would hurt her, but because of her past with men who had pursued her. Allison only knew how to react to a certain type of male role—Dan did not fit this type, so Allison closed up.

                As I walked back to the Cal Neva, I thought about the prevalence of these gender roles in our society today. I definitely think they still exist—my best guy friends have made too many “women jokes” around me for me to believe otherwise. I think that this is the case because as long as men and women are different, there will be a natural “role” that each tends to uphold. This idea has never particularly bothered me, and this was reaffirmed as I studied the men and women I passed on my walk. In my opinion, women and men complement one another, as long as neither takes their so called role to the extreme. This happened to Allison, which partly why she had such a skewed view of herself. However, I like to think that her coffee date with Dan was when things began to look up for her. And all it took was one walk. 

Link to a map of where I walked:

file:///C:/Users/Kyla/Pictures/Walking%20Blog/W%202nd%20St,%20Reno,%20NV%20to%20Club%20Cal%20Neva%20-%20Google%20Maps.htm

Northline Walking Blog #1

The first walk I went on was to Second Street. Allison’s walk is mentioned on page 144: “The morning was cold and she left the casino and went down Second Street as the sun began to come up over the mountains.” Allison does this after her night shift at the Cal Neva, so I decided to walk from the Cal Neva down Second Street. Although I didn’t go on this walk as the sun rose (even though I would have liked to), I could still imagine Allison making her way down the street after a long night of work.

                This was a unique experience for me, as I have traversed these streets before, but never from the perspective of a fictional character. I have never put myself in the shoes of a waitress on the graveyard shift at a casino before, or tried to picture what this same walk would be like if that were me. This catalyzed a novel way of thinking: How do my personal experiences cause me to view my surroundings? How do these differ for others? It is fascinating to consider that two people can live in the same city on the surface, but it can be two completely different worlds to each of them.

                As I completed this walk, I thought about how Allison would feel. Relieved, probably, that her work was over. Grateful, perhaps, that she didn’t have to sleep alone in her apartment. Maybe she was admiring the serenity of the sunrise. The most blatant emotion I could think of was a sense of peace and relief that she was alone. Allison was, in my opinion at least, by far the most introverted characters in the novel, and she loved to be alone. In fact, I couldn’t really picture her enjoying a walk on Second Street at any other time of day because of this.

                Shortly after her walk began, Allison ran into Dan Mahony, the man who always ate breakfast during her shift. She was hesitant to talk to him, and hoped he wouldn’t notice her. As I walked, I observed the people I passed—any one of them could have been a Dan Mahony, or an Allison, and I would never know. This helped me to consider the complexity of people—each one of us has deeply personal experiences, yet we pass each other by every day and often forget to consider this. Maybe I walked past a man yesterday who had once gotten mugged on the street, or a woman who was abused by her boyfriend. I will probably never know. Even so, it is valuable to consider this when we encounter people in our everyday lives. 

Link to a map of where I walked: file:///C:/Users/Kyla/Pictures/Walking%20Blog/W%202nd%20St,%20Reno,%20NV%20to%20Club%20Cal%20Neva%20-%20Google%20Maps.htm