Graduation Afternoon (SPOILER ALERT)

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Gerald

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Sep 8, 2011
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I was kind of wondering if this story is somehow linked to The Things they left Behind. Because it's both about an attack on New York and it follows right after.

It's just one of those stories that is so short, that you hardly get any info. It's first about a love relationship between different classes, and then an unrelated event happens: a bomb falls in the distance on the city and it's over.

It's as vividly written as is usual for King, but it is puzzling to me what it means. What were other's interpretations?
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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I suppose so... The class difference doesn't seem to matter in the end, because when something like that happens it involves everyone no matter what class.

But there is also a line where Bruce's mother says when she sees the bomb: "If it's some kind of advertising, it's in very poor taste!"

Does that refer to 9/11?
...I think tangentially that it does...
 

Gerald

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Sep 8, 2011
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The Netherlands
I found Things they left behind more disturbing. Because of the burning hair. There is something really disturbing about hair catching fire. It seems to be the part of our body that catches fire the quickest. And once it burns you gotta be real quick to put it out.

Also, the idea of narrowly escaping a disaster friends or colleagues die in is quite sickening. Why were you the one that lived while the others died, just because you decided to do something else that day. It's not even a matter of guilt as the story seems to imply, it's more a matter of pure chance.
 
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Gerald

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Sep 8, 2011
2,201
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The Netherlands
I'm usually not good at understanding the very short stories. This falls into that category and I think you two hit the nail on the head. Thanks

I agree basically. Some feel too short to me. I think he has stories that have a clear plot and others (fewer in number) that seem to be more about mood or atmosphere or a certain sentiment. I think only in Night Shift do all the stories have a very clear plot. The other four have both stories that have a clear plot and others that are more puzzling/open to interpretation. I tend to always expect some sort of explanation in a short story, but it's not always there - some feel like fragments from something longer or a rumination.

When it's really short the endings feel too abrupt to me. It just ends and you're like WTF. But then one of my favourites ever is Last Rung on the Ladder - very short, but very satisfying.
 

blunthead

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Aug 2, 2006
80,755
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Atlanta GA
I was kind of wondering if this story is somehow linked to The Things they left Behind. Because it's both about an attack on New York and it follows right after.

It's just one of those stories that is so short, that you hardly get any info. It's first about a love relationship between different classes, and then an unrelated event happens: a bomb falls in the distance on the city and it's over.

It's as vividly written as is usual for King, but it is puzzling to me what it means. What were other's interpretations?
I really like this short story as I like all works of art which are unlike all others...
People used to going about their normal routine, used to having romances, graduating from one social level to the next, and the world ends.
Imho, it's shortness is absolutely appropriate.
 
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GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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I doubt it's coincidence that they're placed after another. It feels to me about escalation. First it's two planes, now it's something even bigger...

But he doesn't expand on it in the afterword, just that it came from a dream...
...and I think that Summer Thunder also ties into this apocalyptic scenario...
 
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booklover72

very strange person
Jan 12, 2014
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I liike this story, i don't know bout the class thing, but my inital reaction was a nucleur bomb going off in New york after 9/11, terrifying. i was very uneasy when i read it. but let at it someone said about escalation first 9/11 then the nucleur bomb. yep i was terrified with that story.
 

doowopgirl

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Aug 7, 2009
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I agree basically. Some feel too short to me. I think he has stories that have a clear plot and others (fewer in number) that seem to be more about mood or atmosphere or a certain sentiment. I think only in Night Shift do all the stories have a very clear plot. The other four have both stories that have a clear plot and others that are more puzzling/open to interpretation. I tend to always expect some sort of explanation in a short story, but it's not always there - some feel like fragments from something longer or a rumination.

When it's really short the endings feel too abrupt to me. It just ends and you're like WTF. But then one of my favourites ever is Last Rung on the Ladder - very short, but very satisfying.
I have to agree. Sometimes short stories are so short they feel like notes for a longer story. I don't mind short if there is a clear end. Last Rung on the Ladder fits the good ending idea perfectly.
 

Sunlight Gardener

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Jul 22, 2013
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I really enjoyed this one. After N. it's my favorite in the collection. It's the classic sudden "punch in the gut" story. And I tend to love those. And a dark part of me enjoys the reactions of the "well to do" stuck up parents as catastrophe unfolds before their eyes. Like "this can' be happening to me, I'm too rich and important". There is a lot of good stuff packed into a tight little package in that one. Very enjoyable.
 

Jerry Grantham

New Member
Apr 24, 2016
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I was kind of wondering if this story is somehow linked to The Things they left Behind. Because it's both about an attack on New York and it follows right after.

It's just one of those stories that is so short, that you hardly get any info. It's first about a love relationship between different classes, and then an unrelated event happens: a bomb falls in the distance on the city and it's over.

It's as vividly written as is usual for King, but it is puzzling to me what it means. What were other's interpretations?
This story for some reason haunted me more than all the others. It just had this horrible feeling of finality to it. How huge our little problems are to us at the time. And how quickly they can become irrelevant.