Cinnamon Skin Analysis
Boyhood In both Adam Haslett’s “City Visit” and Edmund White’s “Cinnamon Skin,” foreign cities awaken internal conflict and disrupt ideal expectations of romance and the world. Foreign cities invite tourists to explore, discovering different culture and scenery. In turn, this diverse landscape invites the possibility of self-exploration and self-identity. Most travel to exotic, faraway places with the idea that they will come back positively changed and transformed for the better. For some, these expectations exceed reality. Brendan Blankenburg anticipates an ideal encounter of romance with his online love under the New York towers, in Haslett’s story, just as Eddie, in White’s, recounts his yearn for a loving interaction with a piano player
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The virtual world Brendan lives in hypnotizes his notions of love into unrealistic ones. Brendan spends his free time looking at pictures of sex, looking for the right image to make up for all the “dirty lines” men send him (374). He looks for the perfect profile that fits his standards. After being duped, Brendan settles for the reality realizing his fantasies are just that, fantasies, much like how he settles in finding the perfect picture online after a long night’s search. Brendan realizes New York is not anything different from his home in Missouri: “block after block of restaurants, pet stores”, and “pharmacies” remind him of the “strip malls out on the highway near his school” (377). New York appears ordinary. This realization of New York’s mundane scenery leaves Brendan in a blank state. He fears that he will now be “departing forever a world he understood” (378). A world that consists of manipulating realistic situations into perfect ones, just like Brendan wanting to “pretend” Tom was the man he claimed to be online (376). Equally, Eddie’s experience in Mexico affects his life in adulthood. Eddie remembers his first visit to Mexico: full of hope, beauty, and astonishment. Mexico’s current state of chaos, due to an earthquake, parallels Eddie’s current state of emotional chaos. Just like Mexico City has changed from the “beautiful town of two million” into
The virtual world Brendan lives in hypnotizes his notions of love into unrealistic ones. Brendan spends his free time looking at pictures of sex, looking for the right image to make up for all the “dirty lines” men send him (374). He looks for the perfect profile that fits his standards. After being duped, Brendan settles for the reality realizing his fantasies are just that, fantasies, much like how he settles in finding the perfect picture online after a long night’s search. Brendan realizes New York is not anything different from his home in Missouri: “block after block of restaurants, pet stores”, and “pharmacies” remind him of the “strip malls out on the highway near his school” (377). New York appears ordinary. This realization of New York’s mundane scenery leaves Brendan in a blank state. He fears that he will now be “departing forever a world he understood” (378). A world that consists of manipulating realistic situations into perfect ones, just like Brendan wanting to “pretend” Tom was the man he claimed to be online (376). Equally, Eddie’s experience in Mexico affects his life in adulthood. Eddie remembers his first visit to Mexico: full of hope, beauty, and astonishment. Mexico’s current state of chaos, due to an earthquake, parallels Eddie’s current state of emotional chaos. Just like Mexico City has changed from the “beautiful town of two million” into