It took me a moment to realize she left without paying. But there
was no use, no one would come to help. WorldMart would go on without a few
beauty products. The shelves would stay stocked, the fluorescent lights would
continue to gleam their unnatural glow, and I would live.
I hang a left, a
right, and walk straight back to Home Entertainment. I grab the remote
concealed behind the electronics and turn off House of the Dead Two. Like
domino's, each tv screen goes black, one after another, after another. I stare
at my reflection. A grey hollow complexion appears on the black screen.
Why did Janine say
yes?
Am I beautiful?
Am I alive?
With a spark the
fluorescent lights begin to flicker into intermittent darkness. I make my way to
the front doors weaving in and out of aisles. Pass Housewares. Toiletries.
Firearms. Home and Bath. With a whoosh of the automatic doors. I exit. Falling
into silence, darkness, and bliss.
Analysis:
As a whole, I
really enjoyed Charles Yu’s short story “First Person Shooter”. A big part of
what made the story enticing was his writing style. It was conversational and
scattered all whilst drawing the reader in. I tried to convey some of his style
in my alternative ending. Jumping from mere thoughts to motion in the store.
However, in the end
I was longing for more reflection and humanity from the characters,
specifically the narrator. In this alternative ending I wanted to incorporate
the change in the narrator’s personality from his encounter with the Pretty
Zombie Lady. I wanted the narrator to see himself more than just a worker at
WorldMart. I did this by adding more direct thoughts into the reading. Charles
Yu did this with the sentence “Whatever flicker of awareness I might have seen
behind her eyes a moment ago isn’t there anymore”. Rather, I added personal
reflection of the narrator’s character.
I wouldn’t have
been able to do this without conveying the repetition and tediousness of a
workday at WorldMart. Incorporating key details of the story such as aisle
names helped relate this ending to Charles Yu’s original. In addition, giving a
first-person view to navigating the store made the ending more interesting.
Charles Yu used this tactic in the short story. Rather than saying I went to
Home and Bath he would explain the journey the character took to get there.
This could be in the form of thoughts or the turns taken to reach the specific
neighborhood of WorldMart.
Overall, my ending
is simply an alternative. Yu’s conveys the safety and comfort the characters
feel for WorldMart. My ending focuses on the repetition and the aspect of wanting
more. Each seek a different meaning that are equally impactful.
