Special Exits (Raymond Jeong)

Joyce Farmer was extremely lucky. Yes, it is very painful to witness your parents’ slow departure from the physical world, but to spend your parents’ last years with them can be only gratifying. Initially appearing to be a story of misery, Special Exits quickly proves to be an extraordinary balance of two parents’ struggles and Laura’s lucky chance to spend time with them.

As a narrative, Special Exits first appears to be extremely bleak. It does an excellent job of employing a very depressing Ticking Clock. Although the very first page of the book is deceiving with Ching’s mildly violent antics, the reader eventually realizes that Lars and Rachel’s deaths are inevitable. By the last panel on page five, he/she understands that Lars and Rachel are extremely old, and the look of desperation on Rachel’s face in that panel allows the reader to know that only death can end Lars and Rachel’s story. The reader becomes tense with anticipation of Lars and Rachel's fates. In the second-to-last panel on page 6, my understanding of what filmmakers call The Act One Lock, the point of the movie where the character is forced to take the hardest path toward restoring his status quo, compounds the despair that I feel for Lars and Rachel. I see that Lars and Rachel’s lives will become only harder and possibly more miserable. Such a realization powerfully adds to the amount of tension that the Ticking Clock has already created for me, and I expect to experience a difficult ride before I reach the end of the book.

However, soon, I see that the book has a much more hopeful trajectory. Laura’s constant visits prove to be very meaningful for her. Laura learns of their pasts and, from their stories, gains a deeper understanding of her parents. She had zero idea that her father owned guns, and her discovery of them in the garage brought her ancestors into light. Lars’ adjustments to his will resulted in Laura’s appreciation for Rachel as a stepmother. Laura’s involvement with her parents’ steady decline deepens as her visits become more frequent. By the end of Special Exits, Laura experiences an incredible journey, during which bathing Rachel and debating with Lars are only two ways that she expresses how much she cares for her parents. In addition to Laura’s efforts, Joyce Farmer puts an immense amount of detail in each panel’s imagery. The characters’ faces are very distinct from each other, void of the cartoonish characteristics that allow readers to identify with the characters. My guess is that Farmer wants the reader to know that her experience with her parents is a significant period in everyone’s life with which nobody can identify until the time arrives. Although the illustration of each character is intensely individual, I don’t believe that Farmer wants to claim that her experience with her parents before their deaths is particularly unique. I think that she wants the reader to know that her experiences cannot be understood until the reader experiences a similar journey. Farmer also uses an immense number of details to show how dedicated Laura is to her parents. The hypnotizing mess in the rooms that she cleans, the overflowing pile of groceries in her shopping carts, and the towering stacks of dishes highlight the phenomenal amount of effort that Laura gives to taking care of her parents. By the end of Special Exits, I can tell that Laura has accepted her parents’ fates and has extensively grown as she developed that acceptance. In fact, she originally says that she “always kept mother on too high a pedestal” and “couldn’t allow [herself] to love [Rachel]” (72). However, in the second panel on page 146, she refers to Rachel as her “mother” when she asks for her whereabouts. I’m not sure whether such a subtle contradiction holds significance, but I found the occurrence to be extremely strange, considering the fact that she still refers to Rachel by her first name in the next panel. Even if the instance of Laura using mother to refer to Rachel isn’t an indication of her development, the single panel on page 196 of her saying good-bye to her father is definite proof. Dedicating only one panel to Laura’s good-bye shows that Laura has expressed most of her farewell long before her receiving the news of her father’s death. I originally have found that panel to be extremely sudden and too abrupt, but I realize that the use of only one panel is appropriate. Ultimately, Special Exits is a beautiful story that expresses Joyce Farmer’s last heartbreaking memories of her parents. Farmer provides a wonderful account of returning the care that her parents have given to her, in an ironic but lovely way.

I don’t know whether I can be a Laura for my parents. When I graduate from college, I will face the same problems that my parents faced. My parents will return to their homeland and be located 7,000+ miles away from me, and I won’t be able to be by them as frequently as Laura was by her parents when they become old. Joyce Farmer is extremely lucky to have had the opportunity that I will probably miss.