The Order of Things

This will be an analysis and interpretation of Judy Troy's short story "The Order of Things", which is about love.

Anyone can fall in love, even people with a wife and children who seem to be happy, can fall in love and feel like teenagers again. Everyone wants to try something new, something that takes you away from the everyday life, to get that goosebump-feeling of being in love. Sometimes this feeling can be so strong that two people can find it okay to cheat on their spouses, at least Carl and Lily found that okay.

The story takes place in a church, at Carl's house and in different motels and hotels. The story seems to take place in a normal environment with nuclear families, but the town is a Lutheran religious town, not only because Carl is a reverend but also because of the name of the softball team, "During the first inning of the Worland Lutheran softball game" (l. 1). The setting is actually a central understanding of Carl and Lily's feelings for each other. Every time Carl and Lily are together they take trips up north and on the second trip they go further north. We can interpret this as the further they go away the deeper their relationship comes.

Carl is the subject of the narration because the narrator narrative because the narrator can go in and out of his internal thoughts. The whole entire story is seen through his eyes, "Carl forced himself to say, although he couldn't imagine getting back into his car" (l. 21-22). So we have a third person narrator who tells the story in the past tense, but the narrator is bound to Carl.

Carl is in the early forties and works as a reverend. He has lived in Worland for a year now with his wife and daughter. Carl has an affair with a married woman called Lilly Forrest. Carl has completely fallen in love with Lily, he has never felt the way he feels, not even for his own wife. Lily and Carl has agreed to get married when Carl's daughter has finished High School in two years, but this never happens because Lily is in an accident after a meeting with Carl. But why is Carl having an affair, when it seems like he has "the perfect life"? I think he is tired of the same boring life and wants to try something new and exciting.

Carl and Lily have fallen in love. As long as they are together they think everything will be okay. Carl has never have easy touching another person,