Free Essay On The Balloon

The theme of identity and existence is echoed in the poems and the story. However, The Balloon, a story penned by Donald Barthelme, differs from the thematic consistencies found in the four poems in its approach. In the four poems, the poets delve into the theme of existence and identity by placing the characters in situation of life.
We Real Cool portrays the sense of identity among the young lads achieved through their rebellious acts which they take pride in. Love Calls Us to the Things of This World deciphers the comprehension of the temporal human world through understanding the exquisiteness of the spiritual realm. The poem, A Supermarket in California, brings forth the sense of being an outsider for a person who has an alternative sexual identity. The poem talks of the sense of existence of this person. John Donne in his poem, A Valediction Forbidding Mourning, shows how love engrosses the individual to weave the sense of existence and identity in oblivion of the entire world.
The Balloon echoes the theme of existentialism and the author delves deep into the individual’s struggle to find his identity and the paramount meaning of existence. The story portrays the author’s struggle with the quest for finding individuality and the requirement to relate to others. The author deals with an impediment where every man’s endeavor to find identity makes all man unknown but interchangeable, paradoxically. The men are left to be similar by their identical wish for individuality.
The story actually creates life and the way in which the avid reader interacts with the fiction parallels a conversation with the world in totality. The balloon does not attain a definitive meaning, but its purpose actually altered with every individual who came across it. This is actually a resultant of the person’s imaginative conversation with the balloon’s surface.
The sheer quintessence of the text lies in the fact that the purpose gets transformed with the reader. The author scraps the teleological conception regarding meaning. He also denounces the social forms which are meant to ascribe meaning for every individual. The story brings forth the idea that meaning can be attained through farfetched response.
Thus, this story differs in its approach from the other poems and caters to the avid reader as a fuel for ignition of imagination and stirs the soul to be insightful about the sense of existence and truth of life.