Chapters 22-24

[Patrick]

Ben, Dylan, and Gerry came to the quick and unnerving realization that their father disappeared during the night by either accident or suicide. Instead of detailing their irrational reactions, M. H. Herlong described the boy's reactons to the their situation surprisingly calm and rational. What is the effect of that? Have your thoughts/emotions changed about the characters at this point in the novel? Reflect on a time in your life, if any, when you reacted rationally to a highly unexpected event.

[nyyfan20]

The effect on the reader, initially, is confusion. Three kids sixteen and under just lost their father (although the youngest is somewhat unaware) and they are having a reasonable discussion as to how and why it happened. The best explanation is that the situation has a stressful effect on them which generally will cause people to set their emotions aside for later and try to get out of the situation at hand. Although, different, a similar comparison would be in baseball in the ninth inning when the closer (pitcher at the end of the game who tries to get the last few outs) is trying to finish off the other team. The tougher the situation, a lot of the time, the better the performance. Similarly, the three brothers are lost at sea and have a severe issue at hand. Instead of mourning their father, they focus on trying to find a solution to the problem. I suppose a time in my life when this occurred to me would be when I watched a truck t-bone the car my family and myself were in. I did not feel fear and reacted quickly to exit the vehicle and check on my family. It was not until afterward that I felt any sort of emotion and shock. Simply put, the phenomenon can be attributed to the adrenaline rush.

[McKenna]

I think that Ben acted rationally because of his already dissolving relationship with his father; his numbness toward his father's supposed suicide comes from the fact that he had been trying to feel nothing for his father the since the beginning of the novel. Dylan, on the other hand, still cares about his father but acts rationally out of respect for Gerry. His love for his father becomes apparent when he refuses to consider his father's death a suicide. I have decided that Dylan, rather that Ben, is the more rational thinker of the three children. Gerry is more observant than the rest of his family thinks, which is why he tells them that he can see through "Blankie."
I don't think I've ever been able to act so rationally. Whenever something shocking happens, I always freeze and am useless in my fear for whoever is hurt. So, beware: I am definitely not someone to depend on for help in an emergency situation.