My Blueberry Nights :)

Ongoco, Katrina Grace C. 3POL1

Prof. Nerisa Del Carmen Guevara LIT 104

MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS

1. What is the external journey of the main character? Enumerate all journeys.

Elizabeth’s external journey is crossing the street from New York to Memphis and Las Vegas.

Having two jobs a day in Memphis, Tennessee, a waitress as Beth in a diner in the morning and as Lizzie in a bar in the evening, surely kept her thoughts away from thinking and helped her to save money for her dream car. Next stop was Las Vegas where she worked in a casino almost all day and met Leslie who loaned all her savings to be able to play poker again and because Leslie told her that she lost she gave her Jag to Elizabeth. However, before totally giving the car to Elizabeth, Leslie asked her to give her a ride to Nevada where they found out that Leslie’s father was gone. Her last external journey was her return to where the story begun, at Jeremy’s café in New York. It is the place where the main character finds love and hope to be loved again.

2. What is the internal journey of the main character? What did she learn per journey?

Her way of walking away from her problem with her boyfriend was going to another town, finding a job and becoming busy to keep her mind away from anything that will remind her of her past relationship, on how her boyfriend cheated on her. Her main objective is to observe and learn. Her journey with Anrie, the cop, helped her to learn how to accept. Learn to manage the pain of being left alone and move on. Furthermore, her journey with Leslie, the gambler, intended to teach her never to trust people but it failed. Instead, Elizabeth learned to trust people even if at first they lie. There are reasons why people lie and in the case of Leslie, she would not want to take her ride home all by herself, she wants someone who would accompany her which was the reason why she lied to Elizabeth.

3. Who were her guides? What do the guides represent?

Jeremy was her first guide. He represents that people can really move on the only way to do is to figure out how you would do it. The second guide would be Travis, the owner of the bar where Elizabeth worked during night time. He became Elizabeth’s path of knowing the true story behind Arnie and Sue Lynne. He let her talk to Arnie when he’s drunk and asked her to follow Sue Lynne when she’s mourning for the loss of her ex-husband. The main character’s last guide would be Leslie who told her to ‘”trust everyone but always cut the cards” which meant never to trust anybody.

4. Who are the characters she met? What do they represent?

She met three people having the same situation as she does -- emotionally broken from their failed relationships -- and are all linked due to emotional loss.

First is Jeremy, the owner of Café Klyuch in New York. Just like Elizabeth, he is suffering from the loss of his love named Katya who even visited him before totally leaving the town just to say goodbye. He represents hope for he made Elizabeth realize that falling in love again is not impossible as well as being loved.

Second is Arnie Copeland. He was the guardian of the highways, the defender of freedom and the king of the white chips. He was the cop who refuses to believe that he and his wife, Sue Lynne, were separated long ago. As a means of his escape, he goes to the bar every night thinking and hoping that his ex-wife would return. However, it did not happen. It even became worst because Sue hated him for what he did to Randy. When Arnie died, Sue then realized how important he is for her. She and Elizabeth, through Travis’ help, were able to talk to each other and wonder how Arnie would be remembered. He represents a person who dies that would be remembered through the memories he had created in other people’s lives.

Third is Leslie, who is a gambler. Her addiction with playing the cards masks the problems she has with men and her father. Her character represents a weak personality hiding from a strong one. She can read other people’s face but she doesn’t win all the time which shows that people cannot always win. She may look strong for she seems to be able to cope with life alone but in reality she’s afraid to be unaccompanied. She wants someone to stay with her in her journey to her home.

5. What are the symbolisms of each?

a. Blueberry pie

- It is always left untouched, an under-appreciated treat, not because something is wrong with the pie but simply because no one wants it. People make different choices. The blueberry pie stands alone and it represents every boy or girl forced to leave a broken relationship which makes him or her, the victim of the story who is questioning their capability to fall in love again or their chance to be loved again.

b. Jar of keys

- The jar of keys contains different keys from Jeremy’s customers having different stories with special reasons why they decided to keep the keys in the jar. One of the keys belonged to a young couple who seemed not to believe that they will spend the rest of their lives together until their feelings for each just went away. Another would be an old lady’s key which would be picked up by her best friend to visit her. One more would be the young lad’s key who wished to run every marathon in his country and write a journal about his experiences but ended up running a café.

c. Car

- The main character, Elizabeth, dreams to have a car that would bring her to places until she run out of places to go. The car merely symbolizes Elizabeth’s way to her dream. This is her means of escaping from her past and going to other places that might help her in her process of moving on and finding her new self. Something that would lead her to new things, observe and learn more.

d. Coffee shop

- The Café Klyuch, Jeremy’s coffee shop, served as Elizabeth’s accidental dwelling place. It was the place where she knew about how her boyfriend is cheating on her and it was also the place where she found someone to talk to and that is Jeremy. The place her heart was broken and the same place where she found that person that would fix the pieces of her broken heart. It merely shows the image of the world where we meet people who come and go. A place where we can find people who’ll love us and people that we will love.

e. Surveillance cam

­ - It’s supposed to keep people from stealing but it did not. Moreover, it became Jeremy’s diary where he can view the highlights of what happened in his café. It recorded all amazing and important memories that happened inside the café that Jeremy was not able to notice.

f. poker chips/ white chip

- It was a symbol for an intention to stay sober and if you slip up and drink again the other day you should come back and get another chip. In the case of Arnie, he was able to get as many as 90 chips which meant he was not able to overcome his addiction in alcohol for he kept on getting another chip every time he drinks alcohol. The only way to overcome or cure you addiction is to focus your attention to something else.

6. What does it take to move on?

People should learn that emotional pain is universal. What we should do is to learn the art of acceptance and acknowledge that life must go on. You should focus your attention into something else. Make yourself busy and focus on your dreams. My Blueberry Nights is about distance and proper communication. First you need to know what happened. Second is to realize why it happened. Third is to accept and forgive yourself for what happened. Lastly, move on. People get hurt, it is normal. People move on and it’s a process that should start from you.