Free Custom «Let the Great World Spin» Essay Paper

The book titled “Let the Great World Spin” by Colum McCann worked exquisite magic in conjuring electromagnetic forces that defied all novels gravity. The story revolves around a summer season that was serous and hot full of betrayal and death. At that same time, the Vietnam War and the Watergate were making the world feel like precarious. Centered in the city of New York that had been stunned with hush pauses, a young man steals the show as he repeatedly walks on a cable crossing the World Trade Center (Colum McCann pg 45). The novel also touches on other allegory events that occurred in the on September the year 2011. The plot of the book hopes from love, death, life, hope and grief all taking place in New York City. The main event of the book occurs when Philippe Petit crossed between the World Trade Centre on a tightrope. To bring out his themes and motif clearly, Colum makes use of different characters with different character traits who are some how related while others seemingly unrelated. All the related characters are in one way or the other touched by all the events taking place on the two towers.

 

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Corrigan who can be regarded as the main character in the book is a radical young monk who struggles with his personal issues brought about has he lived among prostitutes. He makes it in life through finding his equilibrium in the most dangerous and riskiest places and situations. Colum brings out his trait as a soul pragmatic saver by the way he puts his faith in trials as he lives among the prostitutes and his derelicts concerning a grim housing project situated in Bronx. He is seen to give up anything so long as he achieves what he wants. He gives away his bathroom to the prostitutes, leaves his kettle on for them, he is once beaten by some pimps and girls’ pimps to the extend of martyrdom and also extends the possibility of having lighter lives. As witnessed in the text, Corrigan can be termed as not being that of this world, however considering what he has lost and his lowest moments, he always manages to dance his way above all that (Colum McCann pg 67).

Most of the other characters revolve around him to some extend. Like for Ciaran, She is in love with him though she fails to fathom him. This is the role that she assumes in the rest of the book as she tries to win him over. Petit on the other hand is fully manipulated by Corrigan. His mission is to lure her to walk across the two towers and he manages to achieve that through both beauty and contrast. She is initially a young artist who finds herself in a hit and run sin that leaves her life in careening sideways. The events following the scene make her the touchstone of the book as she defied all odds to live her life the way she wanted. The are other characters who are not directly related to Corrigan like Tillie who was a grandmother aged thirty eight years and is conspicuously seen turning tricks together with her teenage daughter who is determined both to prove her worth and take good care of her family (Toibin Colm and McCann Colum, pg 23).

The most striking event in the book is when petit finally decides to take a walk across the two towers under the influence of Corrigan. The scene was so scary and viewed by all sorts of people. The two left the crowd bellow breathless as he put his better foot on the wire, beginning with his toes, then followed by his sole, after which his heels followed. He had his cable strongly nested between his second and toes for grip. He paused for a moment giving the crowd time to absorb whatever was happening while pulling the line tighter using his eyes strengths. He had the aluminum pole play along his hands as the coolness rowed on his arm. The pole was half the weight of Petit who moved like water on his skin as he had the bar held in macular memory as he went forward in one flow (Colum McCann pg 58). The event clearly indicates the determination Corrigan had to achieve his will. He says that he has never failed even while going across the tallest buildings, that accidentally happened only once while he was in training but goes ahead to justify that by claiming it was necessary. He believes that in any event, despite its magnitude, there is always a thin invisible thread left for him to hang on and he had a special way of bouncing back even when he falls and smashes some of his ribs.