Circles- Matthew O'Connor

A sign in Matthew O'Connor's hometown.

     As two people who grew up in tight-knit neighborhoods, we were attracted to this reading. Circles by Matthew O'Connor is about Matthew's childhood home and neighborhood. He starts by telling the readers how his family decided to move when he was eight years old. He describes being devastated and confused. He believed everything about the house and neighborhood was perfect for him and his family. He lived in Watertown, a small suburb outside of Boston and his family was planning to move to a more upper-class suburb called Newton on the other side of Boston. Although he was not moving very far away, as he describes later in the reading, the world he knew was strictly in the lines of this neighborhood. As the reading goes on, O'Connor describes the closeness of the neighborhood. He describes how the whole neighborhood is set around a grassy area, which the kids call "The Green." He describes how everyone can see the other houses and how a group of around 10 children all close in age generally hang out together. He classifies "The Green" as the center of the neighborhood and states how the children generally used this area for a wide assortment of activities. Although the group of kids will sometimes venture off to explore outside the neighborhood, they always end up retreating to the neighborhood where they feel safe. He brings this up again at the end stating when he was older, he ventured off back to his safe, comfortable neighborhood and hopes to provide a life like that for his future children. He declares this as a never-ending circle in life of people leaving their homes and comfort but always ending up back where they feel safest, hence the title.

Our hometown sign.

     One thing we liked most about this story is that is something just about everybody can relate to. After reading this, we actually started talking about how we sometimes drive by our old houses and communities doing the same exact thing.  Like for us at college, we get homesick just about every other weekend wanting to go home just like Matthew mentioned. Home is where we develop our imaginations, where we meet our first friends and grow our fondest memories that are the hardest to forget. Another reason why we felt that this is a perfect choice is because he is talking about how much a discourse community can mean to him, just like we have written about in the last few weeks of class.