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Analysis Of The Man Who Jumped Into The Water By Laurie Colwin

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Laurie Colwin (1944-1992) was born in Manhattan, New York. She was a prolific writer and her very first works were published in the New Yorker. Her first short story collection was published in 1974. Her stories were written about love, relationships, and being happy in general, however, this story “The Man Who Jumped into the Water” is quite a bit different from the others. Hiding behind a persona to get away from reality can lead someone to a breaking point because a person 's troubles catch up to them. In the short story “The Man Who Jumped into the Water” by Laurie Colwin, Charlie Hartz, who is a rich man builds a swimming pool that’s shorter than the size of an Olympic pool. The neighbors are always over and swimming with him or just sitting by the pool. He is always involved in the neighbor’s lives including the narrator’s sister, Willis, Jeremy, and the narrator herself. Throughout, the story Charlie tries to help the kid 's situations as they come up. However, at the end of the story, Charlie commits suicide in his car and no one understands why because he didn’t leave a note. Charlie Hartz is the character the story has the most focus on throughout the whole story. However, he is the most mysterious character since there isn’t much depth of his life told to the readers. The narrator describes him as “very determined”, “vaguely soft”, and “condescending and insensitive”. Charlie tries to be there for his neighbors when they’re faced with problems and helps them
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