I did not like this story at all! I thought it was poorly constructed and I got lost during the first two paragraphs. It was confusing due to the shifting narration; omniscient, first person, third person, and objective. In the beginning of the story there was a girl that left a hospital, than there is an apprentice machinist driving, than there are passengers boarding a train. From there the story switches to a man standing in line at a supermarket and than to a poet speaking "gibberish". Than it speaks of the weather conditions for that day, and than it speaks of "several factors involved in braking". It also speaks of other factors involved in acceleration and deceleration. The passengers now board the train and the story shifts back to talk about the girl, Su Lin. She was studying music at a university and she had fallen in love with her boyfriend. The machinist slams on the brakes to the train. "Locked steel wheels grind and shear."
This story still makes no sense even though I read it over again. When we reviewed it in class, the teacher said that Su Lin had a breakdown which is why she was in the hospital, and she commits suicide by laying down in front of the train. Her boyfriend hears the news of his girlfriends death by overhearing someones conversation in a coffee shop. The machinist feels the most grief and regret over her death. I honestly had no idea that Su Lin committed suicide. I did not catch on to that at all. And I have no idea why the author chose to use so many different perspectives. I don't understand why there are so many characters in this story.
I didn't learn anything from this story, all it did was frustrate me. I do not recommend this story unless you are in the mood to get frustrated and irritated. And the title does not tie in with the story at all, at least that's my opinion.
This story was inspired by an actual tragic incident. Many years before he wrote the story, the author was a passenger on a train which struck and killed a young girl who had chosen to take her own life in this manner. The multiple points of view technique is designed to show how people bring their own emotions and experiences to their perception of an event -especially a tragic one. It is a technique that has been used in other pieces of literature and in films such as 'Rashoman', 'Go', 'Pulp Fiction', and 'The Usual Suspects'. This story won accolades and was the inspiration for an art film. Perhaps it is too subtle for a first year university student. By, the way, you misspell the word "then" throughout your piece.
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