The Right Side of The Hand Accessible World
Favoring a hand is natural as human beings, we have a gravitational aptitude to one of our appendages. Howie from The Mezzanine is no different which is shown numerous times as his mind drifts to another realm of odd facts and superfluous remarks. When accepting a pencil offered by a peer, leaning towards taking a primal step up the stairs, or even merely selecting a fork nearest to your dominant hand to spear a piece of pineapple from a tray, the majority of humans have a preferred index. While reading the obscure journey of Howie’s trip up the escalator that slowly revealed other aspects of his life I wondered how “handedness develops and at what age adult-like handedness patterns emerge,” which was also a research question by the National Library of Medicine (Scharoun). The article of “Hand Preference, Performance Abilities, and Hand Selection in Children” goes on to elaborate that many professionals consider there to be a divide in preference of hands and performance with respect to direction and degree, deciding that environment, experiential, and biology all have weight in the ultimate end decision of which hand is superior. I would dispute that if many children had the knowledge that the hand that had unwittingly selected, a larger percentage of the population would in fact be on the left preferring individuals, but that is aside from the main point.
Howie never clarified which of his hands he did in fact prefer, he only constantly rambled on about the contents of what he carried and how everyone viewed him for said objects he had. He did not clarify if the text however, what people thought about him holding his belongings in a singular hand or which hand at that. Discussed was purely the benefit to him of holding his items in one hand to graze another figure that he was passing by. Howie analyzed a conceivably excessive amount but he did often acknowledge why he did what he did. The Mezzanine reads “It seemed that I always liked to have one hand free when I was walking, even when I had several things to carry: I liked to be able to slap my hand fondly down on the top of a green mailmen-only mailbox,” (Baker 7). Don’t the majority of humans like to do this though? Feeling the texture of your surroundings connects one to the environment that encapsulates you. Perhaps as children that are disposed to laying their grimmy fingers on everything, the hand that gets lucky enough to grace the greater amount of objects transforms into the one of subconscious usage preference.
In the streets isn’t the only place Howie takes a liking towards a singular hand, for the amount of times escalators are mentioned throughout the book he nearly every time discusses the gloss and wishes to not disrupt it with his hand. What a considerate human being our beloved insight to the (lack of that he actually discussed) corporate world is. Howie does state that he did indeed end up having “transferred my paperback and CVS bag to my left hand, so that I could take the handrail with my right, according to habit,” (Baker 3). Him selecting to take the escalator handrail with his right hand is unfortunately not a telltale sign of which hand he prefers to use due to the American adapted way of life: staying to the right. We can consider the fact that he was carrying the CVS bag in his right hand prior to the rotation of hand ownership over the bag as a sign that he naturally gravitated towards his right hand to hold the bag primarily. Later on, on the escalator again, Howie discussed how he “repositioned [his] hand in front of [him],” naturally allowing the readers to assume the hand being discussed is the right (Baker 100). Conclusively, Howie is just like the reader and the reader is just like Howie. We all tend to drift towards one side of the hand accessible world, and Howie’s may just be the right side.
Works Cited
Baker, Nicholson. The Mezzanine : A Novel. Grove Press, 1988, https://www.overdrive.com/search?q=354F93EE-B54E-418C-AE4F-2ABB64CDCCC6.
Scharoun, Sara M, and Pamela J Bryden. “Hand preference, performance abilities, and hand selection in children.” Frontiers in psychology vol. 5 82. 18 Feb. 2014, doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00082.
I think Howie would be really impressed with your research skills. Your insights perfectly align with the perceptions he hoped to instill in us through his internal monologues. Your blog instantly reminded me of the scene where Howie visits the library to find information on the inventor of Jiffy Pop, and also discovers that someone had already researched the topic of shoe lace wearing. I agree with you that many people appreciate having the freedom to move their arms while walking, and I believe that's precisely why Howie highlighted it. His aim was to make us more aware of the small, often overlooked actions that shape our daily lives.
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed a rather "Howie" detail that you were inspired to start thinking about handedness and typical adult practices around hand-preference while reading this novel--it seems like exactly the kind of sudden "question" that would be likely to occupy his attention when he's maybe supposed to be thinking about something else. And it is interesting (in the Bakeresque sense of the word) to note that Howie never does specify whether he is right- or left-handed. Should we assume therefore that he is likely right-handed? Since so much of our world is designed to accommodate the right-handed majority, would it be likely that, if he were a lefty, that he would be more compelled to mention it? It would "come up" more often as he moved through his daily routines--like, as he signs the card for Ray, would that be a natural occasion for him to consider whether his palm would smear another signature if he's coming at it from a left-handed perspective? Or when he recalls being taught to tie his shoes, would being left-handed have some effect on his mother's explanation of the method? I agree with Sasha that your approach to these questions itself is very reminiscent of Howie and his curiosity about everyday things we don't often consider.
ReplyDeleteWhat an analysis! I never once pondered which hand Howie preferred, rather, I automatically assumed he was right handed. I think that interestingly plays into the whole divide of left handedness. As you mentioned, most aspects of our world are centered around an idea of rightness (?) whether it's the handrails in The Mezzanine or what side of the road you're supposed to stay on. I remember hearing about how left handedness used to be associated with evil (The word sinister comes from the word for left in Latin!), and once stigma around left handedness decreased, there was an increase in left handed people. But in any case, I really enjoyed reading about this topic, albeit a rather odd pick! (In a good way)
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that you bring up this point, even while Howie himself did not. While we often take which hand we are dominant in for granted, it is a topic (that according to your research) that is much more complex than we initially believe, as it is a result of experience, environment, and biology. Because of this, I think it's strange that Howie never discussed this seemingly trivial yet in reality deep topic, but props to you for filling in information where it was lacking in the actual book (And with as much depth and interest as Howie would have shown for had Baker written about it)!
ReplyDeleteRegardless of which hand Howie favors, I think you have proved that Baker missed a prime opportunity to write a tangent about handedness. With the limited information that he provides about Howie's hand usage, there are compelling arguments to be made for both a left- and right-handed Howie. As Mr. Mitchell mentioned, it seems likely that Howie would mention his left-handedness either to flaunt its novelty or complain about the hardships of being a lefty. However, as a counterpoint I would argue that if he preferred his right hand, he would have made one his classic relatable comment about some sort of common right-handed experience.
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