Throughout Each Man's Lifetime one Comes to Gather a Great Deal of Memories

Throughout each man's lifetime one comes to gather a great deal of memories. These memories can be both positive and negative, but it is certain that many of them will stay with us for a very long time. We can ruin these experiences when they actually take place, but if we still keep them within us it is then that they will make us grow and we will learn from them.

In the short story "Save as many as you ruin", we are presented with the main character Gerard. Who has experienced a great deal throughout his life and who still keeps these memories with him. Even though he has ruined most of his experiences in life the memories still remain within him. It seems not to that Gerard is in contact with his emotions. He has only loved one woman in his life although he has been slipping with many. When he finds a woman who he actually falls in love with he still feels an urge to sleep with other women, "Gerard vaguely remembers the feeling of being in love with Laurel and the desire to have sex with Issy." (p. 5 l. 123-124). Even though he loves Laurel he can't remain faithful. His urge to follow his sexual instinct overcomes him and he is not able to control it - it controls him.

The two women we are presented to in the text are Issy and Laurel. They have had a very different impact on Gerard. Even though Gerard is not aware of it he is a lot like Issy in some ways because when he tells her that he is in love with someone else and she then has to tell him that she is pregnant. She laughs at first but then cries. Laughter is mostly combined with joy where crying is often with sadness. Here we see a contrast between her feelings just like Gerard. She doesn't know how to deal with them either.

On the other hand we have Laurel, who should be someone who is alive. What Gerard has with Issy is just a release of his desire where Laurel makes him feel true love. After Laurel breaks things between them off he still longs for her as he keeps her wristwatch in his bedside cabinet and sometimes falls asleep with it. He uses the wristwatch with a symbolical meaning, wishing for Laurel to still be with him. He lives his life by recalling the past and it is mainly in the flashbacks we are learning about him. In the text we are presented with a great deal of flashbacks. These flashbacks could be a way for Gerard to distance himself from his present state of mind. We experience this especially in the first part of the text where the verb "imagines,

"Remember" and "pictures" are used. These verbs makes him seem very detached from reality as he instead of living life either recalls his past or tries to make up a new reality in his head.

The author, Simon Van Booy uses the weather mainly the snow to create a certain mood throughout the story. When Gerard leaves his office it has just stopped snowing but as he walks through the city he begins