Music For Torching by A.M. Holmes Essay -- Music Torching Holmes Essay

Music For Torching by A.M. HolmesA.M. Holmes critique of the American stargazes mal wait on in modern suburbia examines contemporary municipal life through a variety of socially realistic metaphors. No metaphor is a stronger critic of the dark domestic world she presents than the occur theme of robes as a mask which her reputations use to track their true identities. The novel focuses on the importance of socially acceptable clothing as an expression of each characters overall need to reach a state of normalcy, if not perfection. Yet irony arises expose the representation of clothing as both filling its customary reference as a cover-up, and simultaneously being used as a medium of exposure. This ironical situation of clothing as a oral and abstract costume to hide natural and mental disfigurement reinforces the financial statement that the real desires of Homes characters are often shielded from themselves and from others, and yet are eventually revealed through what t hey wear. The juxtaposition of the clothing motif is that clothing, or the lack thereof, serves as to conceal as well as reveal inner conflicts of informality, discontentment, or personal esteem.The use of clothing as a disguise is mainly apparent in its role of covering up the secret sexual lives of the characters. Each time she calls, Henrys date asks the person on the other line, What are you wearing? Her constant desire to know the characters clothing reveals the importance that outward appearance holds in a sexual connotation the characters are repeatedly in various states of set up and undress. Nates mother, whom Paul refers to as Mrs. Apple, answers her door wearing her husbands shirt. The incongruity lies in the seeming normalcy of her appearanc... ...ugged off especially by his mother Mrs. Apple, who excuses his frequent absences to rulers and war games as if they were trivial and acceptable expression for men. Nonetheless, his fathers absence compels Nate to mimic an d adopt his fathers appreciation of guns and ammunition with a warped sense of masculinity, concluding in the death of Sammy and the death of the novels innocence as a whole.Music For Torching inverts many societal conventions as satirical commentary on the secretly flawed world of American suburbanites. The typical societal convention for clothings purpose is covering up ones own body however, in Holmes novel, clothings accepted function is elongated and also reversed. Clothing not only covers up the physical body as well unspoken thoughts and entities, but also reveals much(prenominal) entities through a mixture of subtle and thematic details.