Colleen Murphy’s “The December Man”

Citlalli Elizalde Zepeda

G. Guth

Lit and Comp        

9 December 2015

Every project planned in our life has a history:

Colleen Murphy’s “The December Man”
        

        It was on a cold Wednesday on December 6, 1989 when Mark Lepine walked into the École Polytechnique de Montréal to kill sixteen women because he was against feminism. Lepine justified himself by saying he believed women had no place in engineering because they would take jobs from man. The December Man is a play written by Colleen Murphy in May 2007. This play makes reference to how an event in a person lives can change the way of thinking and viewing life. It is surprising how a family can go from being a strong, independent and united family to a weak, fearful deteriorated one. Jean’s family must go through different stages after day of slaughter: starting as a family that is always connected the to the family who tries to go through difficult moments but starts loosing hope and the situation is very difficult, and eventually discarded in a family where hope is lost and the last remains of this family are wastes. In the play the structure is symbolic of Jean's family and the toll that the massacre takes on that family.

At first, Jean’s family was united. His parents always supported him with their studies because he was his only child and the first of the family of his mother to have the opportunity to study at a university, he would be the first to get a college diploma. Her mother always told him she would always be there to encourage Jean to get his degree  ̏ You are gonna finish this and I am gonna help you because you’re going to get your degree ̶ now let’s straighten it up   ̋  (Colleen 25). Jean had started a project that was to build a skyscraper. The day the massacre happened, Jean came home and told his mother what had happened. In this last scene, in the corner of the room is a model of the skyscraper. The skeleton of the model with a well-made base is observed. The frame of the skyscraper model represents the mother and the father while Jean represents the base   ̏In the corner stands the first incarnation of JEAN’s design project, a meticulous model, an austere miniature skeletal frame for a tall, ultra-modern building (Colleen 52). After the massacre Jean is really scared but her mom takes care of him and the family is together, everything seems to be going as usual.

        Secondly, as the days go by, Jean fails to forget what happened the day of the slaughter. He start having dreams about what happened at school when Mark Lepine killed these innocent women and feel guilty for having done anything other than call 911. In scene seven Jean describes how he feels like a coward    ̏ lambs sleep on this side, wolves on that side, cows on this side, chickens on this side   ̋ (Colleen 52). The fact that he did not help the women makes him feel like he is the cause of the massacre. In consequence of the slaughter, the family of Jean begins to separate. Jean begins to miss school and he starts taking walks in the mountains. Kate starts thinking he is into drugs and Benoit tries to calm her down. Kate starts yelling at Jean because he is missing classes and she wants Jean to get his degree nore than anything else   ̏ What’s more important- getting confidence or getting a degree? He’s gonna be fine, Kate […] -Maybe he is gone into the dope- He’s not into the dope   ̋ (Colleen 32). Jean’s family is going through lot of things and they do not know how to manage them. Everything is getting more and more difficult every day. In scene five, because no one takes care of Jean’s structure it is getting imbalanced just like the family   ̏ the structure stands in one corner still leaning noticeable to one side as if the load it bears is either imbalanced or too heavy   ̋ (Colleen 30). The family situation is getting hard because they only thing about their selves and not about the family as a group.

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