Prompt: Read Brandon Hobson’s Escape from the Dysphesiac People. What was interesting/compelling?

Response: There were many aspects of Hobson’s short story that I found particularly interesting. For starters, his use of allusions to historical figures and events was done well, given that he was writing about a particular time in American history. From character names like “Andrew Jack”, referencing Andrew Jackson, and the countless references to the Trail of Tears, the audience is given context clues about when this story takes place, rather than Hobson flat out telling them. Hobson’s use of monster theory also compelled me. There is a set of ‘theses’, more of a criteria actually, created by a man named Jerome Cohen regarding what makes a monster a monster in literary works. Hobson’s description of some of the characters, specifically the white non-native Americans, fit well into this set of theses. On page 59, the characters describe Carl as a “cockeyed, pale, and ten-foot-tall beast”. As Carl is a white ‘American’, he physically looks nothing like the Native American characters, and his exaggerated appearance fit into the thesis stating that monsters must look inhuman. The white ‘Americans’ also fall into the thesis that states that the monster must dwell at the gates of difference, meaning that they act as a divide between one group of people and the next. Whether Hobson knowingly made use of monster theory is debatable, but I found that connection to be interesting. On the topic of craft, I enjoyed how the ending is somewhat open ended, as he doesn’t explicitly state the fate of the main character. This gives the audience room for interpretation. Did our main character follow the trail to a new life in America or did he follow a cherry-blossom trail to an afterlife. The latter of the two explanations brings another question. If the main character died, then who are his ‘grandchildren’ that he was writing to? Native-American society as a whole? Open-ended stories like Hobson’s relies on interpretation, which is compelling to the audience as driving force of this story takes place during discussions when each reader can explain their own interpretations.