FBB #6 Chad Renner

After reading the chapter I was similarly astonished to find that Kristen had decided to work at Rocky Flats despite her reservations about the activities which occurred there. Kristen says “I’m not sure the jobs worth the risk. Mark’s warnings about Rocky Flats float back into my thoughts and dreams (248)”. Here I believe is an excellent indication of how alluring Rocky Flats is. Kristen is acutely aware of the risks associated with working at Rocky Flats and still possesses lingering doubt as to whether it is truly worth it. However the necessity for a job makes the prospect of working at Rocky Flats irresistible (It has been noted frequently throughout the memoir how good the pay is at the plant). Indeed, the prospect of financial stability has drawn many people to the plant and for Kristen it seems to have negated all the salacious conjecture and the crimes Rocky Flats has already been prosecuted for. However, as we discussed in class today, I believe her underlying motivation was not simply because of the enticing pay or because she is a desperate single mother of two boys. The impetus may have been something entirely more profound. Professor Ulmer speculated that perhaps as a writer she unwittingly, almost instinctively, was drawn to a place which has invariably elicited such fascination from her as a child. While I agree she may have been unknowingly seeking some sort of reconciliation by working at Rocky Flats, I also believe there is an element of curiosity in her desire to work at Rocky Flats. This is illustrated by Kristen driving aimlessly around the plant surveying the various buildings and offices which she later describes as “terribly mundane (Iversen 250)”. This chapter, moreover, seemed to embody the theme of denial, and especially, the ability to contrive an illusory reality. Time after time in this chapter does Kristen display the potency of illusions however absurd they really are. For instance when Kristen visited her mother with her two sons, her mother (who smoked profusely) would often attempt conceal her habit of smoking. One day her grandsons bluntly informed her that there was no need to hide her smoking and henceforth she smoked in their presence but she would say, admonishingly, that it was an awful habit. This is a rather trivial example but it nonetheless demonstrates the compulsion of Kirsten’s family to immediately, almost viscerally, to conceal things.