Stagnation Case

Stagnation isn't an uncommon feeling for most people in today's society. It's the feeling of being stuck in a routine, a family, a place, a life. Most of our time is spent doing the same thing: getting up early in the morning, going to work or school and hating it, going home, eat, and then go to bed to simply get up and repeat the whole thing until the day you collapse. The worst part of stagnation is that when you're in it, it's almost impossible to break free from. It's the familiar way to work, you've done it so many times that it has become quicksand and it's not planning on letting you go. William Lychack's short story, "Stolpestad", is about this exact feeling and is named after the main character, a policeman, who is called in to put a dog down for a boy and his mother. In the evening the father of the boy shows up at Stolpestad's house to tell him that the dog didn't die, and the family had to go a vet to get the job done right. This might seem like a specific and very odd story but, in fact, its theme and moral can be applies to any individual whose life isn't anything else than a rerun.

The coffee shops, the liquor stores, laundromats, police-, fire- and gas stations make up the setting of the story, and they're introduced as all being a part of Stolpestad's boring life . His entire life seems to have become as monotonous as the "long slow lazy afternoons of summer" , and he has to define himself through a place instead of an actual identity. Stolpestad never says verbal why his life has turned out as like the way it has, but Stolpestad's actions says more than words: Instead of going home to his wife and children after his long day at work, he choose to find the comfort at the bottom of a couple of pints at the local pub. This action seems to be one of Stolpestad's regular routine, because his wife, Sheila, knows exactly where she should call to get in contact with him to inform him about the boy with the dog is currently at Stolpestad's house with his father. A pretty clear picture of the main character is starting to appear: He's a policeman who has spent his entire life "along the same sad streets" and as a result of that he has become an irritated apathetic husband and father who doesn't have the strength to break free from his usual habits. Even when he has the chance to change his life, he's not able to take it.

This is where the dog becomes important. It symbolizes his trivial life in the suburbs. The whole thing with the dog seems completely absurd for many people the most obvious thing to do would be to call a vet who has been specialized in how to put down an animal but the mother to the boy rejects this idea with a single "No" . Stolpestad is therefore forced to do the horrible job of killing the dog and thus his entire existence which is what he truly desire.

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