Reflection on Jack Hodgins ”By the River”

In the story of By the River, the author relates the love story between the young woman, Crystal Styan, and her husband, Jim Styan, in the terms of faith, responsibility and dream. After reading this story, I wonder that why Jim chose to leave and why Crystal still believed he will come back, even though she realized that her dream of the life with him would not come true.

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When Crystal was in grade ten, she gave up the opportunity of studying further and chose to live a wonderful and idyllic life with Jim.

After they moved to the log cabin which sits on the edge of river, they began to build a farm. Since Jim was lack of farming knowledge and had no any experience before, six chickens were frozen to death in the cold winter and the cow that he has just bought stepped off the train and ran away.

He eventually abandoned his house and wife irresponsibly and left on the train after he cannot accept the fact that the dream of becoming famer will not come true. In contrast, Crystal always believed his husband and tried her best to help Jim realize his dream, even though sometimes she understood the decision that living with Jim was wrong. Crystal has always loved Jim so that she trusted her husband will be on the way home one day and came to the station to wait him for the past six month. But all are delusional and impossible, her husband will never return on the train, because the conductor told her that he was not on board.

In conclusion, this kind of woman, Crystal, is frankly pathetic because her husband ruthlessly abandoned and left her without any words, while Jim is certainly looked down upon by others, because he is self-concern and irresponsible for their love and relationship.