Essay On Future Emergencies by Nicole Krauss

Introduction

In today’s society, change is something that individuals tend to stray away from, but it is often necessary in order to live a free, happy, and well-contented life they have always wanted to live. Fear is the feeling that conquers a person and halts them from doing what is best for themselves because of the unknown inevitabilities in the future that life might behold. This is clearly illustrated in the short story “Future Emergencies” by Nicole Krauss. Krauss utilizes many literary techniques in her short story that help address the insecurities and uncertainties in the American society, ultimately expressing the American people’s fear of change even if it consists of a life full of freedom. 

Nicole Krauss Future Emergencies: Fear of Change Theme

The author first introduced the narrator’s fear of change when she reveals her past relationships with other men to the audience and wonders what her life would be like without Victor, foreshadowing that the narrator wants to leave her boyfriend. The narrator and Victor met during the narrator’s last year of college when Victor was her medieval-history class professor. The narrator mentioned, “When I first met him I was practically a kid”; she is suggesting that she was too young to know what she wanted, foreshadowing that she may have made a mistake by getting into a relationship with Victor. Moreover, she mentions that the life she lives with Victor now is the only life she knows how to live; when the narrator states this, the audience can conclude that the narrator fears change because she is comfortable with the life she lives because it is full of certainties. To continue, she states, “there are moments when I still imagine another life, with different things in it. A life with someone who is not Victor and who is nothing like him.” Although the author feels comfortable with her life with Victor, she is indicating that she wants to meet new people and live a more unrestrained and improved life. A few scenes later on in the short story, foreshadowing, once again, appears; this time the narrator explains to her audience past relationships she has had and how they compare to her current relationship with Victor. She recalls that she had dated other men, men her own age, and describes her sexual experiences with these men. She states, “It’s even hard to remember what it felt like to be the person they loved, for whom the world was still opening.” The narrator hints at the idea of Victor not loving her the same way the other men she had dated in the past did; these men were a “refraction of Victor.” In addition, she later states, “I have the feeling then that Victor is standing between me and some distant harm”; this is ironic because Victor seems to be standing in her way of living the life she has always wanted. She further describes that he shields her from harm, but he is actually blocking her from a free life full of new and exciting opportunities. Although the author loves her boyfriend Victor dearly, she foreshadows that she wants a new life without Victor by thoroughly describing past relationships and thoughts of a life with someone new. 

Subsequently, the feeling of fear to change due to unknown certainties in life is further developed through foreshadowing and irony when the narrator goes to work and walks her morning tour group through the museum’s photography collection, suggesting the unhappy life she lives. The first clue given to the audience is when the narrator mentions one of the people in her morning tour group: Paul. The narrator notices Paul’s appearance before the tour even began and noticed “he had beautiful hands.” This suggests that even though the narrator is in a relationship, she still is looking for another man that could potentially replace her boyfriend, Victor, although it is not clearly stated in the author’s writing. The narrator then satisfies Paul’s interests and leads them to the photography collection and begins showing Walker Evans’s portraits to the tour group. The narrator states that she has “always been struck” by Walker Evans’s photographs because he captured “people caught in grim and hopeless lives.” This specific scene in the short story is considered to be ironic because the narrator finds Walker Evans’s work “breathtaking,” yet she is living the same life Evans captures in his photographs, suggesting that she too lives a “grim” and “hopeless” life. The narrator also mentions how Walker Evans has a lack of compassion while capturing his photographs; this is also ironic because the narrator does not want to face her fear of leaving her boyfriend Victor. Furthermore, the narrator continues and begins showing the tour group photographs by Diane Arbus. Diane Arbus’s photographs, similar to Walker Evans’s work, illustrate unhappy people and the unhappy lives they live. Unlike Walker Evans, Arbus has a connection with the people she photographs; she seems “to feel their unhappiness.” The narrator does not like how Arbus identifies “with her subjects on a terrifying level,” suggesting that the narrator, once again, does not change the life she lives because she fears the life she would live without Victor. Moreover, the last photograph the tour group looks at before moving on is a picture of a child holding tightly to a toy grenade and an old woman in a wheelchair holding a witch mask over her head. This exact photograph foreshadows a scene later on in the short story that indicates that the narrator feels terrified and trapped being with Victor. In conclusion, the theme of Nicole Krauss’s short story is further developed through foreshadowing and irony within her writing, implying the narrator lives an unhappy life but will not leave her boyfriend because of the fear of change and the uncertainties that come with it in the future. 

The narrator’s fear of change, even if it consists of a life full of freedom, once again, becomes even more evident during the very last scene of the short story when she, who is now pregnant with Victor’s child, watched the runners and wished her child would be born into their race and not hers, suggesting that the runners symbolize a free, happy, and healthy life. Although the audience may have not realized the importance of the runners from the beginning scene of the short story, it is now clearly obvious that the runners symbolize something more than just a normal runner. To recall the beginning of the story, Victor and the narrator had disagreeing views of the runners who ran around the reservoir on the track at dusk in the morning. The narrator was astonished by the runners and states, “maybe they belong to a more evolved subspecies, one actually benefiting from -- actually able to break down and harness for energy -- elements still toxic to the rest of us.” The narrator identifies the runners as people who live their life to the fullest and enjoy what they do; she seems to want to live the life they live, which is shown by her willingness to watch them at dusk every morning. She describes them as “lithe, agile, unharmed by pollution” and the overall “image of health,” while Victor states, “they’re wearing away their joints, grinding down cartilage.” Victor, unlike the narrator, wants to live a simple and straightforward life, while the narrator wants to explore and adventure all the new opportunities that are waiting for her outside of her relationship. She compares the runners’ lives to a sunset that is more beautiful without all of the particles in the air; the narrator is suggesting that life will be more beautiful without the fear of change because she will be living the life she has always dreamed of. The symbolism utilized in this short story, the runners, is crucial to understand because she mentions that she wants her child to be “born into their race” and not the life she lives, suggesting that she wants her child to have a better life than she did. 

Сonclusion

In conclusion, Krauss’s short story, “Future Emergencies,” addresses the uncertainties and insecurities in one’s life in order to illuminate how the feeling of fear to change one’s life can stop them from achieving a life full of freedom and happiness. Throughout her short story, Krauss presents several ideas and different literary techniques to help support and establish her theme thoroughly. At the beginning of the short story, Krauss utilizes foreshadowing and irony within her writing to demonstrate the life the narrator lives and the life she wishes to live. She focuses on how the narrator knows she lives a hopeless life, emphasizing that the narrator wants something more than the life she is currently living with her boyfriend. To further, throughout the story, Krauss applies a crucial symbol, the runners, to represent a life full of freedom that the narrator dreams of having, especially for her soon-to-be child. Ultimately, Nicole Krauss’s short story shows that individuals fear change even if it means they could live a life full of freedom and happiness.