The Contestant
One argument presented by Alarcon in his piece is that the media has resorted to sensationalized reporting and presenting, even if the private lives of the people involved in the news are trampled on already. The media has become an unforgiving monster that in fact apparently did not want to have anything to do with Ruth Thalia after she disappeared. The parents’ interviews and appeal suddenly were being rescheduled, and only when the mother of Ruth Thalia revealed that the missing girl was the one from the reality show, it was only then that the media began to provide coverage for the parents’ appeal. Alarcon does this perhaps in order to make the readers or viewers know how to discern whether a piece of news has been sensationalized too much.
A second argument is that of the Latino “macho culture” that prompted Bryan to murder his girlfriend, as opposed to the theory that she was robbed by Bryan before being murdered. The crime could certainly be classified as a crime of passion wherein Bryan could not accept that his masculinity was trampled upon by the entire nation, who thought of Bryan as a poor guy being cheated upon by his girlfriend. Alarcon presents this in order to magnify the role of culture in a Latino society such as Peru’s.
Finally, there is the argument that the poor will go to great lengths to seek ways in order to make a fast buck. Alarcon perhaps showed this in order to prompt Peruvian officials to not only regulate the media, but to educate them and the masses as well so that the media cannot be accused of lopsided reporting, and so that the media becomes more responsible when it comes to presenting their stories.
Chainsaw Fingers
Mills came home from Afghanistan broken both in the inside and on the outside. It is clear from the outset that he was suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) when he arrived home. He would have moments wherein he would clearly recall the night that their Humvee was hit with a rocket, how he and his buddies continued to receive fire while they were already gravely injured, and the noise was something that he could not get out of his head. From Mill’s point of view, the military seems to have a “cold heart”. They simply attached a new foot and it appears there was no monitoring of the fact that he was uncomfortable walking after he got his initial foot prosthesis. There is also no mention of the fact that clearly, there was a need for Mills and his buddies to undergo therapy for their PTSD, as they resorted to drinking binges the whole day and night when they could. Even when they were tired of running, they resorted to drinking once more to their hearts’ content and to their own self-destruction. The absence of therapy reveals a lack of compassion on the part of the military. Perhaps this is because the cases of PSTD especially from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have grown substantially, while the structure for treatment has not kept pace with this growth.
Mills shot himself once more in the hope that he would get better treatment, which he did, as he was more agile than ever. Again, however, there is no mention of the much-needed therapy; this time he goes on running binges and his always goaded by the children in the neighborhood. The doctor seems to try to make up for his earlier treatment by putting on the tiny chainsaws on his broken hand. His desire to please his patient this time is a small positive for the cold military he represents. The only saving grace is the nurse who seems to like him genuinely; she orders him that he should get out of the house (and perhaps get away from the neighborhood) and thus Crenshaw offers a glimmer of hope to a broken man such that he may lead a more peaceful and whole life, but sadly, the madness of the neighbors who see him only as a circus act takes this hope away too.
Works Cited
Alarcon, Daniel. The Contestant. 2014. Web.
Crenshaw, Paul. Chainsaw Fingers. In The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2015. 2015. Print.
