Part 6- Pages 197-227

Plot

Josh checks into a hotel near Boston to watch the reaction to his suicide. He imagined the reactions of his family. A shoe of his turns up on the shore. He doesn’t even recognize himself anymore. He watches the news for the next few days, worried about a Larry hunt. Instead he finds a hunt for Gil Jackson, the alias he gave the detective at the crime scene. He watches his funeral on the TV. To his surprise, even Beth contributes. He watches Peter dig the grave alone, and feels closer to him because of it (pgs 199-205). He goes to his own grave, sits at a tree, and thinks. He goes to see Beth. He is ready to leave Massachusetts as Tom (pgs 206-209). Then the stories start. A person is claiming Larry as the father of her baby, sixteen people come claiming they’re Larry’s true father, Larry was behind the Olahoma bombing. He knew he couldn’t go back, or the lawsuits would keep him in court his whole life. He switched towns, names, and disguises every few days. He decided to write out his story (pgs. 210-215). After finishing the manuscript, he goes to visit Walden Pond, where he has never been before. He realizes that if the story was published, he would our himself. He realized he could still change the world-just from a smaller scale (pgs 216-219). In the author’s note, Ms. Tashjian talks about getting the story published and how it has changed her. Of course, she maintains that it is not fiction, and the story ends with her and her son watching a plane write “LARRY COME HOME” in the clouds (pgs. 223-227).

Characters
Josh - takes on a variety of faces, names, and places while in his self-exile. Realizes he has to come to terms-with himself.
Theme
Redemption - Josh has a chance to start over. He siezes it eagerly, but realizes he might be hanging on too tight-that he might have to go back.
Symbol
Walden Pond - Josh goes to the place of his idols to be alone, to think, to connect with nature.
Settings
Shady Time Motel, cemetery, various towns (names not given), Walden Pond.
Quotes
“He had a laser-like mind that focused on one thing-looking inside instead of outside ourselves for answers” - Beth on Josh.
“I remembered an article I’d read during my anthropology phase. It described a “primitive” tribe with no doctor or shaman. Whenever anyone in the village was sick, he or she stood in the middle of a circle surrounded by their community. The person was asked, “What is left unsaid?” People sometimes sat for hours, days, however long it took them to draw the courage to say whatever they had been holding back, which was, of course, what was making them sick. In a culture with no doctor, the cure rate was 98 percent.” - Josh, reflecting on himself.