Finishing the Maps: Maps To Anywhere- Final

This will be the final section of Bernard Cooper's Maps To Anywhere, at least I believe this will be. During the reading for this part of the book (approximately page 67 through 128), the reader will be met with a different topic. Within the long essay of "The House of the Future," we are brought to the attention of Bernard's brother and his death. Though, there are still pieces within that longer essay which does not mention his actual death. I'm going to first talk about this particular essay since it was a larger part of the book.

The question to start us off with will be: what does Cooper mean when calling it the house of the future? For some maybe it was representing his love for architecture and how he uses it a lot to seemingly cope with what is happening within his real world. Though for me, I think it means something totally different; I think it is talking about how his brother, Gary, will not be in the future anymore. That he will not be living the same house that he was living in. This section (though you can see some more aspects of his brother throughout the rest of the book), you see him essentially dying, more like withering away. Cooper, along with his parents, will not see them in their house in the future when he ultimately goes, so that could be a way to describe their life after the fact. Though it is still up for interpretation...

Throughout "The House of the Future" Cooper barely touches upon relationship between his brother. I mean, that he shows him trying to keep him occupied on Saturdays, and how he was getting sicker, which would signify that he does miss his brother quite a bit. However, Cooper is always thinking of past memories of Gary, how he used to look like prior to him getting sick, as if he is trying to cling on to him before he got sick. At one point, Cooper mentions that he started to think that Gary's sickness was contagious, and so he would disinfect everything just like his mom. I feel like this is him trying to keep this hope that his brother would get better.

When Gary died, I expected Cooper to talk about himself crying, he did not though. It was a painful time during Cooper's life, I understand that. I have moments in my life that are painful to relive. But mentioning how much it pained me, mentioning how much I cried helped. I feel better everyday, though I know it will still be hard to bring up. I respect Bernard Cooper's journey through writing this essay, and I wish him the best of luck on his endeavors.