Ngoc's Corner of Language Arts 10th

Nearing the end of the story, we see a lot of changes about J.R., the main character. He had been confused for a pretty long time, for what he wanted to do, and how he planned to be a real man and take care of his mother. His confusion is portrayed when he states, "Half of me wanted to conquer the world, half of me wanted to hide from it" (219). This is a pretty big turning point in his life, after graduating from Yale and such, he is motivated, but at the same time unmotivated. His girlfriend and him had almost broken up and although it would be soon until she finalized her break-up with him, he was at the climax of his personality where he would have to choose between whether he will carry out the rest of his life successfully or not. He was scared of failure, wanted to hide from it, but at the same time he wanted to "fight it head-on." Later on, when he receives a job from the Times where he would have to work his way up from copy-boy to a famous writer, he makes a vow to ignore all distractions that the bar would throw at him in order to be successful. In blog post #4, I said that I believed the bar was becoming a distraction from him and that when he could finally break free of it, he would be able to carry out his career in success. Moehringer writes, "I wanted to stop into Publicans and tell the men about my good day, but I'd vowed to avoid Publicans during my tryout. I tried not to think too much of this vow. I didn't want to admit that the bar could be an obstacle to success..." (291). It pretty much is self explanatory because as soon as Moehringer was able to give up the bar during his "tryout" period, he became more successful. He was able to get rid of his old habits and focus on successful writing for the NewYork Times. However, he would soon return to the bar again to get tips that will throw him back in his path and then throw him off it again.
After being given a shot at writing, Moehringer was successful and wrote many articles and received compliments from the editor, but that all didn't add up to the mistake that would mess him up. Once in an important article where he had written so perfectly he spelled an interviewee's name wrong. Ironically, his editor said that other newspapers tried to top Moehringer's paper, but they couldn't do it and that they even spelled his name incorrectly. Moehringer then explains to his editor that the one who spelled the name incorrectly was him, it was actually spelled "Kelly", not "Kelley." Such an awful mistake threw him back at the bar where he states, "Of all things, I should be able to get a man's name right" while he was "good drunk." Mistakes, like the one his job depended on, determined success or not. Because he thought it was another failure, he throws himself back into the bar. He exclaims, "I burrowed into the bar, barricaded myself into the bar, became a fixture at the bar, like the jukebox..." (296). However, forcing himself back to the bar did help him unlike the other situations. His uncle's friend (Uncle Charlie), Bob the Cop, tells him that mistakes are nothing in life and that his can actually be fixed, but Bob's cant. Bob shares his tragic story of an accidental shooting where he had shot a friendly cop. Bob states, "Like I told you, that's why they put erasers on pencils. But J.R., believe me. They do not put erasers on guns" (305). This pep-talk cheers up Moehringer and convinces him to believe that his mistake is nothing compared to the mistakes made by others and can still be fixed. In a way, it motivated him to get back on the job at TIMES and try to work up his way even after such a downfall. However, we see that after the bar has helped him, the bar plans to degrade him again because the bar throughout the story proves itself contradictory. Helping him when he falls and then dragging him down once again. At this point, in his life, there are many twists and turns in his life and the decisions made appear to be the deciding factor that determine his future.