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Essay Outline

Thesis:
Douglas Coupland¶s book {
 
 demonstrates that fear of the unknown
overpowers personal morals, and in an attempt to maintain relationships with loved
ones, people lose their ability to rationalize. Much of the loneliness and regret in the
world is caused by this love and the blinding fear of losing it.

Argument 1:
When Kent died in the car accident, Barb was desperate to keep a piece of him with
her, even if it meant incest. She was afraid of the thought of life without her husband,
and it caused her to make irrational decisions.
›c Barb said to Jason ³Kent was all I had, and unless I do this (have a baby with
you), there¶s no way I¶ll be connected to him.´(pg. 138, line 28-30) and her
logic was ³you (Jason) and Kent are pretty much the same thing.´(pg. 138,
line 20-21) Her love for Kent and the pain of losing him has made her
irrational and gave her the impression that sleeping with her husband¶s brother
is okay.
›c Barb did not change her mind even after Jason told her that he would do it on
one condition: that they would have to be married. Without realizing it, her
irrationality has caused her to throw away her marriage with Kent for Jason
instead, which was the opposite of what she was trying to accomplish.
›c Murder was another thing that Barb was willing to do to feel connected to her
dead husband. She was strangely calm about it too, she told Jason about it in
the most clear-headed way: ³So I went to his motel room with him and
cracked him on the back of his head with a forty-ouncer of discount vodka.
Done.´(pg. 144, line 28-30) The way she provided small details like the exact
type of bottle she used to murder Rick Kozareks downsizes the hugeness of
what she has done.
›c There is no way to know what effect these decisions Barb has made will have
on her in her future. She might grow to regret it. She might not be able to live
with the fact that she is married to both Kent and Jason, and her twins might
look more like Jason than Kent.

Argument 2:
Jason decided to not kill Yorgo when he was at Jason¶s mercy. One human¶s love for
another human being can be strong. Jason decided not to kill Yorgo because he could
not end another person¶s life after he ended Mitchell¶s in the massacre, even when he
knew that Yorgo has killed before and will probably keep killing. Killing Yorgo
would have been a rational decision ± Jason would be preventing more lives from
being harmed by Yorgo.
·c ³I (Jason) lunged for a river rock and«suddenly I had the option of
murdering again.´ (pg. 125, line 19,22-23) By ³again´, Jason was reflecting
on when he killed Mitchell in the massacre. He was recognized as a hero for
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it before, and he would be a ³hero´ for killing Yorgo too, because he would
be stopping him from killing others. Since Jason¶s first murder, he came to
cherish human lives more ± by the loss of Kent and giving Barb children ± so
he could not bring himself to kill a second time.c
·c Jason has always hated it when people prayed for the three killers in the
massacre, as illustrated when he writes ³I heard that people were praying for
the killers, and that make me furious.´ (pg. 125, line 24-25) In a way, he did
not want to be that killer who others would pray for, and that is why he did
not kill Yorgo. Although he has unconditional love for other human beings,
he rejects the love that others give to him, maybe as a result of Cheryl¶s
death.c
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Argument 3:
Although it may not seem like it, Reg loved his son Jason, and he only wanted what
was best for him. The way that he has tried to show his love did not register well in
other people¶s minds, and was often misread as hatred to all human beings.
·c Reg¶s reaction to the police when they told him that Jason was a hero for killing
Mitchell was angry instead of proud. He was angry that his ³son experienced
murder in his heart and chose not to rise above that impulse.´ (pg. 77, line 29-31)
Instead of acting grateful that Jason was not hurt in the massacre, he called Jason
a murderer.
·c Jason finds out that Reg loved him when he went to visit him at the hospital.
There Reg told him: ³Your soul was perfect«But instead you chose murder, and
now you¶ll never be totally sure of where you¶re headed.´ (pg. 101, line 15,16-18)
This is the first time that a reason was given for his irrational behavior and
readers finally get a glimpse of what is going on in Reg¶s mind.
·c Reg wanted what he thought was best for his wife, which was to send her to
heaven. He forced religion on her, becoming more and more bitter as he does so.
Now that they are separated, Reg must feel some regret for ruining his
relationship with his wife and Jason.

Conclusion:
Fear of losing relationships drives humans to make irrational decisions in order to
keep their existing ones, often resulting in the opposite of what they want to
accomplish.