The Fourth State of Matter by Jo Ann Beard is a novel written after a shooting in a physics department at the University of Lowa, where the author used to work as an editor of the physics journals. Beard is unique in the way she writes this story unlike the other reporters because she narrates the story in a comprehensive, reasoning and associatory manner to show that all the threads of a person’s life can be brought together and cut in a second.
The writer, Jo Ann Beard, who is also the narrator of the story, experiences tragic events in her life, which surprisingly relates to each other. For instance, her husband had reduced himself to a troubled voice on the telephone three or four times a day (Beard , 1991) . "My vanished husband is neither here nor there," Beard said. Due to this, Beard had a feeling that her husband was going to leave her. At the same time, Beard started having a sexual relationship with Chris who is a teacher and an editor in her department. She spends most of her time with Chris more than she ever did with her husband. The two usually read the paper together, congratulating each other about each issue in the journal (Beard , 1991) . Beard also shares all her life stories, including her marital stories but Chris always replies, you will do fine. Later on, Chris dies in a shooting at the physics department of which Beard suspects, Gang Lu to be the killer. Beard’s husband eventually comes home, and Beard accepts her regardless of the fact that Caroline was not okay with that.
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Beard's dog, Collie, was sick for a while. Beard and her husband used to call Collie, the face of love and coincidentally, she fell ill the same period Beard was not getting along with her husband. Also, Beard invited Caroline, an ex-beauty queen, to her house to get rid of the squirrels which had found a proper shelter for them in the upstairs of her house. Beard knew Caroline as an expert after she visited her one day at her home and she found her nursing a dead cat that was still breathing. On the same period, Chris’ mother was to visit him from Germany. She was depressed and hoped to be cheered up. In the last year, she had lost her one-hundred-year-old mother and her sixty-five-years-old husband, so she needed a lot of emotional support from her son too. Furthermore, Beard became a close friend of Chris, and the best friend of Chris was Bob whom they were not friends." Chris and Bob could spend half a day standing on a blackboard, writing equations and arguing about the outer space," Beard states. Therefore, Beard had a difficult time interacting with Bob because she had a great interest in Chris.
These tragic events on Beard life had a lot of negative impacts on her life. For example, the only thing she thought of doing during her free time was smoking cigarettes and maybe, taking coffee. She used to smoke with Bob in the office, with her friends like Caroline and when she’s alone too. Due to the problems in her own house also, that is, the sick dog, the squirrels which are all over the house at night and the absence of her husband made her think of leaving her home and never come back. One day, Chris found her in the office, and there wasn’t any work to do, and he enquired, and Beard replied that she was hiding from her life. However, Beard encourages herself to face all the challenges and move on in life. “I have propped myself, so I will be able to see when damn starts to arrive. For now, there are still planets and stars. Above the black branches of maple is the Dog Star, Sirius, my personal favorite” (1996).
In conclusion, it is crystal clear that at some point in life we must face ups and downs and it is upon us to deal with them accordingly. We might feel that it is too much for us to handle, but for the sake of our future, all we can do is accept the chances and try to get positive solutions, we should always have positive thoughts.
References
Beard, J. A. (1996). The fourth state of matter. The New Yorker .
