The Falling Girl

Dino Buzzati's The Falling Girl is a strange, surreal tale. It depicts, sure enough, the journey of a girl named Marta as she falls from a sky scraper.

I interpreted this story as a representation of young people who want to grow up too fast. In the beginning of the tale, the girl is eager, self-assured. She often tells the people she passes on the way down that she can't talk, she's in a hurry. Meanwhile, the ground always seems very far away. This is much like life, especially for young people: we want to grow up fast. We can see the future, but it seems too far away.

"Down there opportunity was waiting for her, fate, romance, the true inauguration of her life." We always imagine what our lives will be like as adults; we hope for the best, for a family, a grand life. This is symbolized by the "party" Marta is trying to get to in such a hurry.

The closer Marta gets to the party at the bottom, however, the more she seems to regret her decision. "Marta now felt a tremor growing inside her; perhaps it was just the cold; but it may have been fear too; the fear of having made an error without remedy." Here we see the point where Marta begins to realize that there's no turning back; that she skipped all of her life just to wind up late to the party. In other words, she wasted her life trying to grow up; trying to reach the future.

I suppose the moral of the story would be this; live in the moment. Don't go through life looking to the future, or trying to get there faster. Slow down, because there's no turning back now.