Brittany Coppinger - Post 4

This week we read two amazing stories by Aimee Bender: "Ironhead" and "Motherfucker". Reading and reflecting on these stories made me think a lot about emotions, and just how much one person can hold. Ironhead died because his head was too heavy. Not just because it was made of iron, but because it was so heavy with all the emotions he held in because he couldn't let them out. This suggest that we need a release for our emotions, that sometimes there is such a thing as too much emotion. But the motherfucker taught the scarlet to embrace her emotions. He taught her to let the longing and desire fill her shrinking house until it fit snug like a coat. It was embracing this emotion that gave her a new level in her acting. She was even better then before. So on one hand we have a boy dying from keeping his emotions too close, and on the other we have a scarlet reaching a new level of greatness by surrounding herself in the emotions she tried to push away.

Maybe the difference is that while the scarlet learned to embrace her emotions, the ironhead boy let his consume him. Is there such a thing as too much emotion? Where is the line between embracing and consuming. Can you come back from that line once you've crossed it?