Rendezvous

The story ”Rendezvous” is written by Daniel Ransom in 1985, and throughout the story, the reader is brought through the different feelings of two young persons. Two persons with different views on life are trying to pursue different outcomes by acting in specifics ways. It is clear that the author is distinguishing between how to different persons cope with anger and desire to freedom. The story is split up in two. One part of the story is about a man called Payton and the other part of the story is about a girl called Kim. During the story no one says anything, and the story is told by a 3rd person unlimited narrator. The author only let the reader know about what they do and what they think and during the story we see that the narrator have the ability to switch between the characters. As we already know the story is written in 3rd person, which indicates that the story is written by the writer’s point of view. As mentioned, the story is split up in two parts and every time the story switch narrator it gets more exiting and the author has a tendency to increase the excitement, which keeps the story interesting. The author uses short sentences, and he often uses only one-word paragraphs, which is a tool used to keep raising the excitement of the story. Daniel Ransom is known for writing horror stories and thrillers, and it is clear that this story has a lot of inspiration from that genre.

The title of the story “Rendezvous” means a meeting between two persons, which is exactly what happens in the end of the story. Kim, the fifteen years old girl is meeting Payton in the interstate. Kim acts as a typical teenager, and believes that she is capable of living her own life without interference from her parents.
“She’s perfectly capable of running her own life without interference from them (the parents).” (S. 51 L. 25) This quote clearly indicates that she believes that she is grown woman that can take care of herself, and even this behaviour indicates how immature she actually is. And this immature behaviour ends up being the reason that she perhaps gets killed. Even though Kim acts as a rebellious teenager, in the moment of fear, she is actually considering calling home, but she changes her mind and starts walking up the interstate, trying to thump a ride. Here Payton comes into the picture. Payton is driving along the interstate and he was thinking back to the conversation he had with the priest. Payton was annoyed, and believes that he priest should be more sympathetic. “ The priest wasn’t even sympathetic about him sending flowers and visiting the funeral home. Which he’d done three out of five after he’d gone out of the interstate. To hell with the priest” (S. 52. L. 20-23). This quote obviously shows that Payton needs attention and that he is thirsty after recognition. Payton have a tattoo that looks like a cobra and it itches a lot and the tattoo need’s to be fed. “ Now, he rubs the Cobra. It needs to be fed.” (S. 53 L.5-6) This could mean that he needs to kill somebody to feed the cobra. Perhaps there is a connection between the cobra and Payton, and Payton might feel as if he is living the life as a cobra, meaning he lives on the edge where nothing is certain. Again the author uses short sentences and paragraphs to empathize the blurry and unknown aspects of the story, which helps the excitement throughout the story.

A theme in the text could be crime and running away from home. As we read the story, we read that Payton is a man, who likes to either kill or hurt other people. And Kim is running away from home. She is a typical teenager who thinks that her parent’s should give her more freedom. “But she needs to teach them a lesson – the lesson that at 15. She’s perfectly capable of running her own life without interference from them.” (S. 51 L. 24-25). She believe that her parent’s need a “lesson” and she want to show them that in a age of 15 she is capable to run her own life and take decisions by herself.

The story ends with an open ending, because we do not know what there is going to happen. These types of endings are always very interesting because it leaves the reader alone with his or her imagination to think about how the story could have ended. Perhaps she would get inside the car and drive away with Payton and then Payton would drive her to a wilderness place where he would kill her so he can “ feed the Cobra” he has tattooed on his arm. Horror stories and thrillers are often ended with open endings to leave it up to the readers to finish the story, and thereby leaves the readers with the responsibility to chose the ending they prefer.