My Response to A Story About the Body

Hass's story made me angry. The composer was so concerned about the exterior, but he could care less about the inside of a person. It also made me upset that the scene in the story was only taking place after the characters new each other for only a week. He didn't really know the Japanese artist, he just thought he loved her. This saddened me, because this kind of love is only lust, and it will never last. The fact that a young composer was in love with a sixty year old woman kind of grossed me out, too. She was probably old enough to be his mom.

The man made me angry, but the artist asked for it in a way. She flaunted her sexuality for the composer and put herself out there only to reveal that the had a double mastectomy. All the composer ever really noticed was the way she moved and her body. If I were the Japanese woman and if I believed in having premarital affairs, I would never suggest having one after only knowing someone for a week. I would have to know someone pretty well, and by that time, I would probably be able to know their character enough to tell that they were so superficial.

Both of them only seem to care about the surface, and then at the end the woman shows feeling. The bowl of rose petals and bees represents her own body. Perhaps the composer saw the bowl as a freakish bad omen, but I actually loved that she left the bowl. Bees represent something powerful. They are hard workers, and they produce something sweet. Although they sting, they are beautiful creatures and the world would not survive without them. The roses are both beautiful and delicate. I think the Japanese woman is all of these things. I just wish she could find a man who would truly cherish her, but that would take her valuing herself to not just flaunt her body to anyone.