Kristy Chan

1155029579
Abigail Cheung
ENGE 1310
SSE Final Draft- Cold Pastoral
11 December 2012

Cold Claire in a Cold Pastoral

Have you ever dreamed for theabout a vigil of for a very close friend? How would
you accept the cruel fact you would never meet again? Is there anything you would regret not
doing during his or her life? What would you say about this person at his or her vigil? Would
you want to find out how important you are were to his or her life? Death has never been so
close to college students like the protagonist, Claire, until someone as close as her boyfriend,
Brian, dies. Before Brians death, they used to hang out together and Claire sometimes slept
at Brians place although they were not very sure about their relationship status. After Brians
death, Lauren, who was Brians ex-girlfriend, asked Claire to take Brians journal away from
his college dorm room because he would not want his parents to read it. Claire struggled very
hard to settle her emotions after reading the journal. Lauren, surprisingly, gave her some
ideas for the speech at the Brians vigil. At the end of the story, Claireshe hooked up another
guy but could not get over Brian. From various observations in the story, the adjective cold
in the storys title seems to characterizes Claire herself.
When describing a person as cold, he or she does not show much emotion,
especially affection, and therefore seems unfriendly and unsympathetic. He or she may also
lack passion and enthusiasm in certain aspects. Claire is characterized as a cold person
throughout the story at different points. She acts coldly nNo matter whether she is in her
family, hooking up with smug boys, hanging out with Brian or Brian is dead, she acts coldly
in all these situations. As she walks towards Brians home the morning after the accident, she
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feels weird and it reminds heris reminded of moments when I ought to be feeling like
something I dont (3) and that when she felt like an alien, in a lot of circumstances (3).
Therefore, not only is Claire cold, but she is also Claire herself is aware of her coldness in
personality.
In her family, she recalled herself being teased by her father as cold Claire (3) and
this made her feel bad in her family. When she compares herself to her older sisters, she also
found herself slow to smile and less affected than _____________ (3). Such selfaccounts reflect her lack of emotions and cold personality. Another clear clue of her coldness
can be found when she opened a present from her grandmother and declared I already have
this, showing her being too honest with her feelings (3). Her father teasing teased her and
her sisters humiliated her over her past events, which affects her self-confidence as a member
of her own family. Therefore, from descriptions of her family events, we can see that Claire
is a cold person.
At school, Claire hooks up with smug boys but treats them coldly afterwards because
she had no genuine interest in them. She is successful attracting smug boys by using her
verbal wit and text messages that made them feel I like you (3). However, after hooking up
with them and attracting their attention, she will does not take them seriously and keeps on
acting like that so as to keep her self-esteem. It can be observed that she does not have high
self-esteem and relies on the attention of smug boys. Consequently, after spending time
attracting smug boys, she turns out to be unable to reach her own goals like finishing
paintings and applying for funding. It can be observed that she does not have high self-esteem
and relies on the attention of smug boys. Therefore, her coldness can be clearly seen in such
her habit of hooking up with smug boys.

In her relationship with Brian, Claire treated him coldly and hence reflects on the
coldness of her personality. Claire recalled that she did not like him but rather enjoyed the
fact that I had someone on the other end of an invisible line (2) sheltering her (2). She used
to wake up in the morning and smiled first thing because he made me feel safe (1). She
even wants to text Brian and crawl into his bed when she almost collapses after reading
Brians journal because falling asleep with his arms pulled around me and my hair tangling
against his sheets would made her feel safe (9). She admitted that she was just eighty per
cent into Brian and even thought about ending the relationship so Brians reliability was the
only reason Claire kept the relationship. We can see that she was not entirely serious about
the relationship, and as a result, instead, she treated himtreated Brian somewhat coldly.
Therefore, in her relationship with Brian we can see her coldness.
After Brians death, Claires emotional reaction was colder than that of Brians exgirlfriend. Laurens relationship with Brian lasted two years and nine months. They went
through a lot in these years. There was once one time when Brian actually met Laurens
alcoholic mother on Thanksgiving and Brian held her and told her itd be O.K. and that hed
always be there (13). Brian also wrote in his journal about how much they loved each other
and how they always would (13). From these intimate descriptions in the story, we can see
that Laurens relationship with Brian was more profound than Claires. Lauren cries a lot in
the story. On the morning after Brians death in his house, [Laurens] face is swollen and red
and she was breathing in in staccato bursts (4). After the vigil, Claire thanks Lauren for the
materials but then Lauren starts crying again (13). In contrast, Claires reactions made make
her a comparatively cold person. On the night after Brians death, she surprises herself by
crying alone once my friends had left, my face pressed hard against my pillow (2). Two
days after Brians death, Claire goes to parties with her friends, where sheshe even drinks and
takes drugs. Although she and she also keeps telling her friends that she was fine, but
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apparently she was not as she was just attempting to be genuine [with what she said to her
friends](10). So we can see that Claire has been suppressing her feelings inside so as to
pretend to be cold with all her emotions. She is therefore viewed as a cold person without
much emotion.
Claires coldness can also be explained when tracing the origin of the storys title. The
title of the story Cold Pastoral is from a poem Ode on a Grecian Urn written by John
Keats, in which, one of the pictures on the urn with two lovers almost kissing impressed
Claire a lot. In John Keatss poem Ode on a Grecian Urn, there were two lovers on a cold
marble urn. The two lovers on the urn in Keatss poem were described to be, who are almost
kissing but who are frozen with their faces cocked beneath a tree (2). Keats wrote not only
about the scene where they were forever waiting and forever young, but also expressed his
emotions, saying that the lady could not fade and would always be fair. Cold Pastoral!
(Keats 45) was an exclamation in which the poet expressed his empathy and grief for the
lovers because they could not kiss each other as the picture was crafted onto the urn and the
lovers could never movesince the lovers were permanently stuck in time (Keats 45). The
protagonist of the story, Claire, read the poem in a seminar and it impressed her a lot. In
contrast to Keatss empathy for the lovers, she likes the way the lover got stuck on the urn.
She recalls finding John Keatss poem vaguely romantic and her ideal, after all, was
always before they walked home (2). Claire refers to the state of her relationship with Brian,
being as ambiguous and not describes herself as not yet being a hundred percentage into it.
From different accounts of the protagonist, she enjoyed the way she treated Brian which was
cold and not serious. The reason behind her cold treatment was that she likes the way it was,
being ambiguous and vaguely romantic (2). Therefore, while Keats expressed grief towards
the lovers on the cold marble urn in his poem, which is how normal readers of the poem feel,

Claire likes the way they froze and enjoys treating the relationship with Brian coldly. From
this contrast of attitude towards the lovers on the urn, we can see that Claire is a cold person.
To conclude, Claire was portrayed as a cold person throughout the story. The title
plays an important role in casting the a sad and cold atmosphere throughout the story as a
whole. Therefore, we can see that the use of this title is indeed very tactful and delicate. The
author has actually reserved rooms for thought when readers look back onto Claires
personality ies and this is worth pondering. The reason for Claire being cold was probably an
effect vicious cycle of her childhood events inhow she was treated by her family during
childhood. When her family members tease her over and over again, she will not get hurt or
feel bad anymore with her coldness. This is a vicious cycle because being cold to people
around her is a way of self-protection. Even if Brian dumped her, she would not get too much
hurt with her coldness. However, relationships are two-way and it is obvious that Claire
should not waste Brians devotion towards the relationship.

Works Cited
Keats, John. Ode on a Grecian Urn. London: Annals of the Fine Arts, 1819. Web. 19 Nov.
2012.
Keegan, Marina. Cold Pastoral. New York: The New York Times, 2012. Web. 19 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/10/cold-pastoral-by-marinakeegan.html>.