Short Response 5 English

“Have you ever grooved heavy behind anything except love?” (Ellison 323).

In Harlan Ellison’s “Shattered Like a Glass Goblin,” Rudy decides to travel to Los Angeles in search of his ex-fiancée, Kris, who ran off with a man named Jonah while he was deployed in the military. When he arrives after being released on medical, it is apparent that Rudy is still in love with Kris. He has a strong desire to be with her again, since he “could only go forward,” thinking “Kristina was in there” when facing the daunting old house, like an invisible force was dragging him inside (Ellison 315). He discovers the large amount of drug use the commune members were participating in from their appearances and behavior alongside the stench of marijuana, but his feelings push him to speak to Kris anyway.

Upstairs Rudy sees a confused, drowsy Kris, his “heart grown twice its size in his chest,” obviously feeling something he’s missed for some time (Ellison 316). When he accidentally crushes a rabbit, he throws it in a corner with no concern about it, focusing on his one true need, Kris. She continues to ignore his expressions of love and pleading. A song played by Stevie Wonder called “I Was Born to Love Her” had alluded toward how intense his feelings for her were (Ellison 318). Rudy states he had waited eight months to marry Kris, but “he’s out of the army now” (Ellison 318). The moment he could satisfy his need for love, he tried, like someone who waits to snort a round of cocaine or shoot up some heroin. The commune allows Rudy to move in for his ability to keep the cops away—another way for him to stay longer and plead for Kris. He had exchanged providing food, paying rent, and handling the police for Kris’ attention like a poor person gives money to a drug dealer, or a prostitute trades sex for drugs. At one-point Kris asks Rudy the main quote above, at which point he responds with more begging.

It is evident that getting heavy behind something refers to addiction when Kris persuades Rudy to “make it, heavy behind acid” (Ellison 321). When Rudy begins to trip from the acid whilst seeing all these creatures and disgusting, terrifying images, he discovers Kris as a werewolf. She was his addiction, and in the end she tears him apart. All the begging in the world couldn’t save him from her shattering his heart.

In this depressing short story and life in general, people obsess a lot over love and emotional connections with people. Rudy is addicted to love like Kris and commune members are addicted to drugs. Rudy put his life on pause to find Kris for the sake of love. At first he agreed to protect her by fooling the police with a put-together appearance and completed many chores and activities for the commune. Shortly after he caved in to Kris’s urging for him to use drugs to make her happy. He fell victim to their addictive properties causing his life to feel repetitive and meaningless like all the other’s. For Rudy, Kris was toxic, ruining his life and shattering his heart. For her and her love he would have done anything, even destroy his life and future. I believe the moral of the story in relation to the quote is, no matter what your passion is, you can let it get too far. Balance is key, and you can’t let anyone, or anything take control of your life, even something that appears as harmless as loving someone. Rudy grooved too heavy behind love, allowing his addiction over his love for Kris to consume him to where there was “nothing inside him” anymore (Ellison 323).

Source:

1. “Shattered Like a Glass Goblin" by Harlan Ellison. 1975.