The Falling Girl

All poems and short stories raise questions among its readers, but I have never seen so many possibilities with this one. The story "The Falling Girl" by Dino Ruzzati is one about a young girl who seems to of jumped off the top of a skyscraper and by the time she gets to the bottom she is an elderly women. I love that idea by the author and really enjoyed reading this story. As the girl is falling off this rooftop to her death, the author actually gives you a few hints that the fall is taking a lot longer than we might think. I feel this is a way for the author to symbolize how some people want to "live the fast life" and never stop to really enjoy it.

With reference to time the author gives the reader clues about how this plays a factor. When the girl initially jumps off the rooftop the sun is out and there is light. However, by the time she gets to the bottom the sun is set and nowhere to be seen. So it seems that this fall is stretched out over an entire day, but actually it is over her entire life time. By the time the girl gets close to the ground, and we never find out if she hits, she is an old women and has gone through her life. As she is falling she also mentions past lovers, friends, parties, and aspects of her life as she is going through them. The "falling" concept can be seen in this way as the girl going through her life in a way of no control or slowing down because when you are falling you can't control your falling or chose what speed to fall at.

When the girl also initially jumps she sees a party at the bottom that she wants to go to. I liked this idea because to me it shows that a lot of people will do anything just to be partying or trying to always have fun and do anything to get there. This raises the question of why didn't she just take the elevator down? Or even the stairs if you needed to, why jump off the building when you know what price you have to pay that comes with it. Also at the end of the story a man named Roberto mentions an advantage to jumping from the bottom when you are already old, "...you can hear the thud when they hit the ground." This to me was saying that when you are old you can see your death coming and it's not as much of a shock, but when you are young and take the leap, you have no idea what will happen.