4.3 Kennard. No One Cares That You Ran a Marathon later shows how bloodthirsty rebellion is simply part of his nature. While much of The Odyssey is narrated in the moment, this part is a rarer example of him reflecting on past crimes. This moment when Odysseus could choose to redeem himself by showing a purer true character ends up proving the exact opposite. On the other hand, when Makina arrives in Mexico City, she sees some coyotes trying to take advantage of the boys who had harassed her. Instead of walking on and letting them get what they had coming, she warns the boys of the danger they are facing. “Watch it, they’re out to screw you,” she says and then continues on her way (Herrera 36). This ability to switch between vengeful and empathetic illustrates how Makina has simply learned to adapt to a hostile world, but inside she has a kind heart. Being kind in the cruel world she is living in is a kind of rebellion too, even though it technically breaks no laws. These two glimpses into the characters’ inner personalities really bring home the monumental difference between the two, even if they have many similarities. Though the main characters of Signs Preceding the End of the World and The Odyssey are both defiant and unruly, their individual journeys, social status, and character make their acts of rebellion profoundly different. Makina must use stealthy ways of showing her worth, like pulling a transgressor’s finger back, whereas Odysseus gets to be very open and murderous to his opponents just because of their respective levels of power. In fact, Odysseus’ actions might not even constitute rebellion under a traditional def-
4.3
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inition. Odysseus must keep other people quiet in order to be kept secret upon returning home, while Makina must herself comply with powerful figures in order to get her job done. At the heart, though, Makina chooses to be much more empathetic, even to her foes, than the great hero Odysseus does to people who have done nothing wrong. Though the rebelliousness of many of the so-called rebellious acts of these characters could be disputed (Is the act rebellion if that rebellion is a societal norm? Is it rebellious to stop an act of generally accepted rebellion?), they reflect how even people who share the characteristics of a rebel can choose to and be forced to use that disobedience in different ways. Everyone has to start somewhere, and that’s never a choice, but what makes the biggest difference between rulebreakers – and between anyone – is how they choose to move forward. References [1]
Yuri Herrera. Signs Preceding the End of the World. Translated by Lisa Dillman. 2015 (cited on page 39).
[2]
Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by Emily Wilson. W. W. Norton Company, 2018 (cited on page 39).
[3]
REBELLION | Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary. URL: https : / / dictionary . cambridge . org / us / dictionary / english / rebellion (cited on page 39).
No One Cares That You Ran a Marathon By Cyd Kennard ’23 “Running in a tank top and shorts when there’s frost on the ground is a wearisome existence” is the paraphrased thought of one of my teammates. She came with us to the last meet of the season but wasn’t able to run, so was ironically anointed “bagman” for carrying the layers we discarded in a large yellow sack. I agreed, and wondered who in their right mind thought that long distances should be run in thirty degrees Fahrenheit—certainly spectators can’t enjoy our discomfort. For that matter, certainly spectators can’t enjoy running to any degree. But that thought is partly a fallacy; short-distance races have their moments. I would stand in the cold to watch three minutes of an 800-meter run. Longer distances, on the other hand, seem a lost cause. Who would wait for hours to watch a half-marathon? A full marathon? That brings up a seemingly simple, yet layered question: why are people so much more drawn to watching sprints than marathons?
tion will likely be that short distances just take less time to watch. This is entirely valid: even the longest shortdistance runs take a few minutes at most, giving spectators fast and easy entertainment. While with long distances, the reward is much more gradual. It’s not difficult to imagine why any accomplishment might lose its appeal to viewers (that is, after said viewers spend hours watching a competitor, only to witness the grand climax of them crossing a bright line on the ground).
But it’s more than the brevity that draws us into sprinting and away from marathoning, isn’t it? After all, some of society’s favorite sports take an hour or more to watch (soccer, basketball, football). And additionally, while sprints themselves may be brief, the meets that they are a part of last at least twice a marathon’s duration—a track and field meet of only four hours is not in many athletes’ vocabularies. The next, most obvious answer is the pain and tedium that simultaneously characterize a The first response that you might pose to this ques- marathon and drive viewers away. Even the best long-
