Fiction Packet #3 Response

In Falling Girls, the scene begins with a young girl on a sky scraper and the sun is setting. She jumps off and initially it seems the story is about suicide, but it becomes clear that the fall is metaphorical and not literal. The possible comparison to the girls jumping off buildings and committing suicide is likely a supplement to demonstrate the gravity of this situation, the situation being how women are bound to certain social constructions, which is the cause of their rapid and figurative demise.  Initially, I thought that the theme of the story was about the wasting away of youth due to a generation of youth’s obsession with excitement, represented by the girl’s journey towards the parties below and the adrenaline accompanied by jumping from a skyscraper. But, it struck me as slightly odd that the narrator was male, meaning that the protagonist was likely not modeled after himself; the short story also makes some specific comments towards woman, such as that women are more powerful than men. I attempted to find out when the story was written for a historical context, but I was unable, however the author lived from 1906-1972, which leads me to assume that the novel was written from 1930 to 1970, meaning that gender equality had not been widely established at this point. It is also relevant that the person that reached out to help the woman was a male. The male here could be interpreted as Buzatti reaching out to help the girl from her destructive fall through the means of writing this short story as a critique. The male was able to help as men, more so than woman at the time were less dependent upon social constructs, namely class level and appearance. It is all of the women who are competing against each other to get to the finish line, the party below, their destruction. The protagonist is falling much slower to the other girls who are falling for they are of a high social stature; they are more readily consumed by the societal construct of appearance. Those girls may make it to the party on the ground, but it doesn’t change the fact that all of the girls falling are trapped by social constraints. The protagonist wants to be like the girls falling fast, but she can’t and she’ll never get there due to being unable to ascend the socio-economic ladder. The girl is clearly pursuing a destructive end. She begins the story young, at the peak of her life. The events going on the terraces and balconies below are also at their peak level of excitement. As the sun sets its shape is described to change to that of a red mushroom, representative of a nuclear bomb going off which shows the destructive end of the girl’s pursuit. She will tire herself out trying to climb the ladder, but to no avail. Her descent characterized by her failure to fall quickly, her failure to live the life she wants will ultimately ruin her life (represented by her rapid aging).