Fun or ForeverEssay title: Fun or ForeverFun or ForeverWhat is it that makes a relationship work? Is there a certain something that both involved need to have? Can one person have enough love and devotion to keep both people moving forward as a single unit? In the story, “No One’s a Mystery” by Elizabeth Tallent, the author describes the relationship of an older man and his much younger mistress. The reader takes a ride in the front seat of a dirty old farm truck as a couple drinks tequila and hides their affair from his predictable wife. Through the author’s use of setting, dialogue, and characterization, the author seems to have written this story to show how expectations for a relationship can be different for each person involved. While one may be seeing forever in the future, another may simply see the fun to be had in the present.
The setting that is given helps the reader to understand Jack is in no way looking to impress or entertain the narrator. The entire story unfolds in the cab of Jack’s truck. The reader is given a description of the interior when the young unnamed narrator is forced into the floorboard to avoid a possible encounter with Jack’s wife. From her thoughts, we learn that the interior of the truck is dirty and has pop tops laying everywhere. As they sit in the truck, Rosanne Cash’s “Nobody’s Into Me” plays on the radio. Also given to the reader is enough detail to assume the story is set in a rural area, perhaps agricultural in nature. As the specifics are given to the reader an impression of Jack’s attitude towards the narrator becomes clear through his statements such as, “In a year you’ll write, ‘I wonder what I ever saw in Jack. I wonder why I ever spent so many days just riding around in his pickup. It’s true he taught me something about sex. It’s true there wasn’t much ever much else to do in Cheyenne” (Tallent 2). These lines reveal that Jack does not intend on anything long-term or particularly more serious than sex. In fact, the bulk of their relationship does not warrant anymore promising of a location that his dirty truck, while the predictable lines of the song blare what seems to be his true feelings in an area that is revealed to be so rural in nature that sex is the only entertainment to be had. The setting of the affair reveals that Jack’s feelings about their relationship are not serious, but rather something to be taken lightly.
The dialogue between the two characters goes further to explain how their expectations for the future of their relationship differ greatly. Jack reveals his take on her maturity with the line, “No little kids getting into this truck except you,” when she remarks on how a child could be hurt by all the pop tops on the floor of the truck. With this line Jack reveals his feelings that the narrator is a child, not even to be taken seriously. When they begin to discuss the future that will be written in the new diary, given to her by Jack for her birthday, the two characters describe greatly different worlds. Jack continues to see their relationships demise while the narrator describes their eventual marriage. Lastly, Jack’s conversation regarding his wife points out his boredom with the everyday. He notes that her behavior seemingly never changes from day to day. For example, Jack
mutes his feelings of being bored with the daily, at a distance, for the past ten years when he notices that they don’t follow that daily, that he doesn’t even need to feel that way before meeting up, like a romantic love. He adds that he doesn’t have the patience or strength to continue to do what he’s doing after the fact. He doesn’t allow himself to feel that way either because he wants to do the same thing over and over again.
Even though Jack and Cindy seem to feel the same way for most of the episode and every single episode, Jack and Cindy seem like they are at the same point in time when they are having sex. Their marriage seems to be very intense and intense. Though Jack tells that the world he and Cindy are living in may be different in some way, he expresses an affection for the character. He and Cindy have some similarities in that they aren’t being separated in a “joke.” He says his girlfriend, Cindy, would have a different attitude after a certain point. Jack thinks that she might be the “real big girl you want to meet,” which is not true at all. Though Charlie is shown to be a happy person, he is at least not always happy when he needs to be. For Cindy it seems that Jack’s love for the character started with seeing her as a child. As they talked and the story progressed to the end, Jack’s love for the character continued. While Cindy was a bad liar and manipulative, it is suggested that it was to escape Jack’s despair and to be with him.
Cindy is seen as one of the most successful young adult characters ever to appear on television. As a child she was extremely popular and enjoyed spending time with her parents. She was introduced in the Season 6 episode “Cindy’s Boyfriend” where she made friends with many men and was eventually introduced for the main episode “Cindy and Daddy”, when she met Jack. Cindy’s relationship with him was a major problem for Cindy and she wasn’t happy at all when she met Jack. During their first kiss she asks Jack if she wishes to find an opportunity to spend time with him. After meeting Jack he was even more annoyed that Cindy was watching him, asking her to come to his house. This was done to explain why he thought Cindy was doing all of this kissing. He continued to talk about his problems at home. He also mentioned to her that she always went to his car after bed and that she never went back. However, later when Cindy told him how she was seeing her dad, she admitted to him that her dad was cheating on her for not wanting that money. When Jack got jealous that Cindy was watching him, he attempted to explain why and was eventually angered that he said Cindy was cheating. Cindy felt that Jack used her for his own personal benefit and Jack told her that he didn’t care but rather that she always went back to him. This caused her to begin to feel extremely jealous of him. She wanted to leave Jack though and began looking for a new relationship. Unfortunately for Cindy all she found was a relationship over dinner. One evening Cindy finally told Jack, “That’s it. I can’t get to it. I’ve forgotten. I told you at bedtime. I’m looking for a new relationship where I’m not a whore and will go fuck myself every night.””
In “Cindy and Daddy,” Cindy tells Jack that she didn’t want to talk to Jack for a