Jaylen Cain
27 February 2020
RD2
Word Count: 1007
In the poem Chrome, by Mark Rudman, he describes the thrill he gets from riding his motorcycle though it presents a dangerous experience. The danger and the thrill go hand and hand and you can’t have one without the other. The main point of the poem is knowing when to let go. As he describes was the key to his survival. He makes it easy to understand the risk he’s taking as he rides by using harsh conditions and grit while pointing out soft surroundings he’s passing as he goes faster through the desert. He uses rough terrain and his elated emotion to describe the thrill and the danger of his actions. When Rudman said “bloody but happy,” he had fallen victim to the natural element of his surroundings but the adrenaline he got from the experience made it worth it. He goes into detail about his surroundings and what he sees when he’s riding. He uses texture and grit to help you visualize everything he’s passing. He also has a unique way of making the poem fast pace, almost as if you’re the rider, and you’re experiencing what he is at the same speed he is. However, he writes that even though he’s moving fast, he felt that time was moving slowly. Almost as if he’s experiencing everything in slow motion to appreciate it more. He used the sky and other vast landscapes to describe his feeling of freedom. That feeling of excitement and freedom mixed with the fear of not knowing what could happen made riding that much more exciting. [THESIS] Ultimately, the biggest risk you could take is letting go of risk itself.[THESIS]
One thing I noticed that he did was writing as if his motorcycle was a living thing. He described it as if it was living and acting on its own instinct. The description he gave about his handles being horns made it seem as though his motorcycle was part of the danger. I feel like this was a portrayal of how much he controlled his actions versus how much control he actually had. He was connected deeply with his motorcycle, so ultimately watching his motorcycle crash into the cliff was like watching a part of himself die. As I read through our class’ discussion posts, I noticed that Christine had said something interesting. Christine said, “letting go is like saying goodbye,” and this is true on a multitude of levels. Letting go is hard as an emotional and physical response, and in Rudman’s case, he experienced both. He had to physically let go of his bike to save himself from ending up dead, and he had to let go emotionally to something he held close to him almost as if the bike was a part of himself. He said, “I could feel my soul leave my body,” and though this is not directly what he said about his bike when he let go, I feel like this is a similar sensation that he was going through when he made the decision to part with the motorcycle. He used this line in anticipation of what he knew had to be done. In order to survive, he had to let go of a part of his soul, and that is something I can relate to.
I had gotten my dog, Max, from my parents for my tenth birthday. I can’t put into words the feelings I had when they brought him home. I became obsessed. I gave him baths, took him for long walks, played with him, and slept with him. I spent so much time just being with him. I had no idea I could feel so much for something so simple as a companion to spend each day with. Every time I got home, I’d sit down and he would pop up from whatever or wherever he was and rest on my chest. We developed a bond instantly and he became such a big part of my everyday life and in essence, a part of me. My mother is from Osaka, Japan and Japanese is her first language. I think something that made Max special was his ability to understand not only English commands but commands in Japanese as well. He enjoyed the beach despite being small and getting covered by each wave that hit the shore. We had endless amounts of fun for the next nine years and I never wanted it to come to an end. At the beginning of 2019, I started noticing a change. It started off small. He was no longer getting up to greet me when I came home. We started figuring out something was wrong when he had trouble moving around. He wouldn’t jump up on my knees to greet me, didn’t try to climb to the top of the couch to lick my face, and didn’t seem to have the energy to do anything but lie in his bed. I already had a sense of dread when my family decided to take him to a veterinarian. The veterinarian told us the heartbreaking news that Max, my best friend had Osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer. At first, I was angry, not only at the Veterinarian who’s only crime was delivering the bad news. But also at myself for not realizing it sooner. All I could think of was I should have noticed something was wrong a lot earlier. Now my family was faced with a tough decision because cancer had spread throughout most of his body. We needed to decide if it was time to “let go.” For months, I was devastated by my dog’s passing. The house felt so empty without him. I would just lay in bed and not feel like doing anything. The hardest part was coming home and not getting his greetings, feel his kisses, or pet him while he laid on my chest. I finally realized that it was time to let go. I began to understand that he was in a better place.
Works Cited
Rudman, Mark. “Chrome.” Reading and Writing from Literature, 2nd ed. Ed. John E. Schwiebert. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. 473-4.
Gieseckie, Marina. “RD2: Discussion 1.” Online Posting. 20 February 2020. Laulima Discussion. 27 Feb. 2020. [https://laulima.hawaii.edu].
