In Jill McCorkle's short story “Snakes”, it is said that “a marriage that never takes a dive is like skimming the surface of life … sooner or later you have to suit up and dive to the bottom” (McCorkle 167). The meaning being that no marriage is going to travel the high road the entire time, and if one is, it won't have much depth. The statement made in “Snakes” is very true. A marriage needs to have its ups and downs to be balanced. There are many themes explored in the stories of Jill McCorkle's Creatures of Habit: Stories. The theme of marriage is addressed in both “Snakes” and “Chickens”, and it is enhanced by symbolism.
“Snakes” is focused around the marriage of a middle aged couple. Every year, the couple writes down their grievances, they read them and they burn them (McCorkle 166). The couple hit a dark patch in their relationship. They called this “The Dark Ages” (McCorkle 166). During this time they were angry with each other and had to face many problems between them. “The Dark Ages” was the dive they took. It made them appreciate the lighter, more easygoing times in their relationship. By knowing what it was like to go through such a arduous time, it was easier for the couple to overlook the smaller things instead of making a big deal of them. That dive into the darker parts of their marriage gave them a balance to the lighter times. It gave their marriage depth and meaning.
“Chickens” is a story that is focused around the main character Lisa. Lisa has just married Alan. Lisa rushed into marrying Alan after a bad breakup with her long term boyfriend, Randy, because Alan was everything that Randy was not. Although Lisa and Randy were not married, the principle of “the dive” could still apply to them. When Lisa fo...
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...McCorkle 167). The married couple in “Snakes” had already dove to the bottom of their marriage, and it gave their marriage meaning and helped them to appreciate the lighter times. In the story “Chickens”, the newly married couple just skims the surface, but it is evident that when they make the necessary dive in their marriage, Lisa could find out she married the wrong marriage. The analogy used in “Snakes” just means that in order to be with each other at their best, a couple has to go through their worst and stay together through it all. In both stories, characters were symbolic of the animals in their titles.
Works Cited
McCorkle, Jill. "Chickens." Creatures of Habit: Stories. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin of Chapel Hill, 2003. 47-76. Print.
McCorkle, Jill. “Snakes”. Creatures of Habit: Stories. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin of Chapel Hill, 2003. 163-184. Print.
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