The history of artificial hearts serves as a backdrop to the story How to Talk to Your Mother. At first they appear to be just factoids that provide temporal context, which is especially important in this story, due to its lack of chronological order. Yet, more importantly, they serve to detail the emotional life of the main character.
This is first seen chronologically, in 1958, when her cousin asks about his uncle: “Did Uncle Will have a hard attack?” In 1959, we then see her at her father’s funeral. Combining these, it can be deduced that her father passed away from heart conditions. This serves as the basis for the heart theme. She has lost the primary male figure in her life and spends the rest of her life trying to find a new one, just as technology seeks to replace the heart.
In 1963, the temporary artificial heart is invented and she breaks up with the man she thought she would spend her life with. Here the man in her life is only able to heal her momentarily, she breaks up with him before the year’s end, just as the artificial heart is only good for a few hours. Four years later, “The first successful heart transplant is performed in South Africa” and her mother moves in with her. The heart details here shows how the mother is replacing the role her father played and supporting her emotionally. However, heart implants only last for a couple years and her mother will only be able to help the narrator’s mental health for a couple years, before her own mental health fades.
It is then many years until we hear the last snippet about cardiac technology, until 1982 (The first paragraph) when “The first polyurethane heart is surgically implanted". Going with the heart theme, this implies that she has found a “permanent” solution to the emotional damage her father’s heart attack caused years ago. This is reinforced as she hears the person above her playing “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, an indication by the author that the protagonist has finally something or someone that will fill the void. Although the story suggests that she is still struggling mentally and leaves me wondering if this heart technology will be ephemeral as all the previous solutions.
This is first seen chronologically, in 1958, when her cousin asks about his uncle: “Did Uncle Will have a hard attack?” In 1959, we then see her at her father’s funeral. Combining these, it can be deduced that her father passed away from heart conditions. This serves as the basis for the heart theme. She has lost the primary male figure in her life and spends the rest of her life trying to find a new one, just as technology seeks to replace the heart.
In 1963, the temporary artificial heart is invented and she breaks up with the man she thought she would spend her life with. Here the man in her life is only able to heal her momentarily, she breaks up with him before the year’s end, just as the artificial heart is only good for a few hours. Four years later, “The first successful heart transplant is performed in South Africa” and her mother moves in with her. The heart details here shows how the mother is replacing the role her father played and supporting her emotionally. However, heart implants only last for a couple years and her mother will only be able to help the narrator’s mental health for a couple years, before her own mental health fades.
It is then many years until we hear the last snippet about cardiac technology, until 1982 (The first paragraph) when “The first polyurethane heart is surgically implanted". Going with the heart theme, this implies that she has found a “permanent” solution to the emotional damage her father’s heart attack caused years ago. This is reinforced as she hears the person above her playing “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, an indication by the author that the protagonist has finally something or someone that will fill the void. Although the story suggests that she is still struggling mentally and leaves me wondering if this heart technology will be ephemeral as all the previous solutions.
Interesting catch, Jack. When reading these portions of the book, I glanced over them, simply regarding them as random details thrown into the story. Upon further examination, it does appear as though the development of heart technology mirrors the plot the character goes through. The suggestion that the first successful transplant goes along with the mother filling the vacancy left behind by her father makes me reevaluate what I thought the purpose of the heart problems throughout the story was. Clearly, it's more than just a random detail.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting how the artificial heart plays a big role in her life --both emotionally and physically-- but it plays a relatively small role plot wise. It seems to me that the heart symbolism is tied very heavily in this story ( like you've said) , and yet it is pretty easy to overlook. I think this is kind of fitting since your heart is a part of your body that does so much and yet you are so unaware of. Our hearts tie into literally everything we do, similarly to how it tied into this story to heavily. And yet in both cases the importance is easy to overlook.
ReplyDeleteYeah, this is a really interesting parallel! I had noticed the trend about the history of artificial hearts, and I had given it some significance in the back of my mind but I never delved that deeply into how it seems to mirror the events in her life. I liked how the story just includes these details in passing, the facts about artificial hearts, and the other little historical context factoids. I remember thinking how it would be a cool creative exercise to go back through each year in my life and include little factoids like this, and use details that aren't directly connected to me to tell a certain story about myself. It would all depend on what details I chose, and something like the recurring note about artificial hearts would have a great deal of significance if I were writing in this style. This is sort of becoming a tangent, I apologize, but I appreciate you pointing it out because I thought it was such a cool device to use in the story.
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing this out Jack, I had never noticed the connection of the heart details until you had pointed it out here. Now, I'm wondering what relevance the other small tidbits in the story have, like the moon landings. Going off of Elissa's comment, I think it would be interesting for all of us to attempt that just to see if what news events remain in our collective consciousness and which ones we have all forgotten.
ReplyDelete