Assignment Task:
In Chapter 2, Ng writes on page 37-38: "And James? What had he thought of her (Marilyn)? He would never tell her this, would never admit it to himself: he had not noticed her at all, that first lecture. He had looked right at her, over and over, as he held forth on Roy Rogers and Gene Autry and John Wayne, but when she came to his office he had not even recognized her. Hers had been just one of the pale, pretty faces, indistignuishable from the next, and though he would never fully realize it, this was the first reason he came to love her: because she had blended in so perfectly, because she seemed so completely and utterly at home."
1. Why do you think that James' love for Marilyn starts with this? Think about James' childhood/young adulthood. What has he always yearned for, and how does Marilyn serve as a proxy for this desire?
2. In what other ways does love or absence of love show up in either chapter 2 or 3? What do these moments tell us about the characters involved?
Reference: Everything I never told you by celeste ng