Sixth Reaction

The ending of NFTU is definitely not what I expected. To start off, I was surprised at the events concerning Liza; she ended up comforting the narrator until he realized he did not want to be the ‘weak’ one. His poor decision to demean her by ‘paying’ her was rejected respectably by Liza, a character who I thought shone with her understanding of the narrator’s complicated nature. That being said, however, the ending also put the spotlight on the narrator’s insecurities. I disliked his interactions with Apollon, which were again instances to prove his own superiority; the narrator’s eventual attitude in handing in the money and asking for favors, which Apollon performed out of pity, was representative of his desperation to appear great by even throwing his pride out the window. By confessing to numerous faults, but blaming them on Liza, the narrator and his attitude also reminded me heavily of the psychology defense mechanism term projection; he is so consumed with guilt and can’t accept his own vices that he projects them onto Liza as if she is the bad one. All in all, NFTU was not my favorite book we’ve read this school year, but it is certainly one that I see the immense value in reading.