Tyler Moyer's question about "The Test" in Running after antelope

Tyler Moyer’s question

How does Carrier use irony to show that he himself may harbor some mental instabilities?

      Carrier uses irony to show that the narrator may have some mental instability like the people he seeks out to interview.  He takes this interviewing job right after a dark time in his life.  He wanted to stomp his old bosses throat so he quit that job and on top of that his wife and kids left him. “I answered the questions and scored myself appropriately, and, at some point, I realized I wasn’t doing so well… The client is thirty-six years old and lives alone since his wife left him..”(Carrier 43-44).  After his wife left and took the kids he spontaneously decided to gut the house and live like a primitive.  He is an absurd character, which makes it ironic that he is administering such a test when he himself does not score well on it.

Running after antelope- The Test- by Scott Carrier

1.     How does Carrier use the grotesque?

2.     What is the significance of nobody being home or even a lack of a house on page 40?

3.     What is the significance of the details or lack of details of the narrator?

4.     What does the simile on page 41 mean? “A person’s soul should be like an ocean, but a schizophrenic’s soul is like a pool of rain in a parking lot.”

5.     What does the narrator mean by, “He says there’s a darkness that separates him from other people, a heavy darkness, like looking at a person from the bottom of a well” (Carrier 44)? What is the darkness?

6.     Briefly explain the narrator’s life.  Why does he have this job?

7.     What is the slice of pizza on pages 42-43?

8.     Why make the scale 1-7 and not 1-5 or 1-10?

9.     Looking at the narrator, is he a prime choice for interviewing schizophrenics? Why or why not?

10.  Did you like this story? Use literary devices to explain why or why not.

Mr. Moon

Kayla and I leave for dinner.  The moon smiled at me as I smiled at him.  He was full but my stomach was not.  We come out from dinner and see the moon again. This time the moon and I are both full as we smile at each other; full but not warm.  Mr. Moon looks cold with his fare complexion yet inviting with his crater smile. The cousin and I are chilly so we decide to make cocoa and sit by the fire as we gaze at the inviting moon. The fire warms my face as it dances from the pit.  The serene serenade of the waterfall in the background is soothing but is quickly interrupted by the ouw ouw ooouww of dogs and the wee ooh wee ooh of the ambulance rushing down the street. The world is chaotic but Mr. Moon stays still in the sky as he gazes upon us. They say that smoke follows beauty, well right now the fire is blowing towards the moon and I would have to agree.