THE FOURTH STATE OF MATTER: ESSAY REVIEW
Read with calmness and sympathy, struck with disbelief. “The Fourth State of Matter” is a personal essay written by Jo Ann Beard for the New Yorker in 1996. The essay follows the life of the scientist and editor of a physics journal at the University of Iowa. This piece is a display of ordinary, yet dreary days, interrupted by an unsuspected, gut-wrenching event. However, until she builds up to that very specific event, there is much to appreciate in her ways of narration.
Many of us can relate to the gaping hole that the lack of someone’s presence in our lives often creates, someone that may have once been near and dear to us and essential to our day to day existence. In these moments of vulnerability, we may find ourselves clinging to every bit of hope we can find. Beard does a wonderful job of capturing the lonely yet hopeful stream of emotions that bud into each other: “I’m fine about the vanished husband’s boxes stored in the spare bedroom. For now, the boxes and the phone calls persuade me that things could turn around at any moment”. She even quotes his phone calls at one point. Sometimes even our most ordinary days can be dragged by an incessant issue that permeates our thoughts.
These personal events can bombard us in any instance. For Beard, it comes up at work, a place to practice balance amid chaos and calmness. Beard is open to sharing her day-to-day interactions, no matter how sensitive the subject is, even when it comes to marriage problems. Honesty is the core of her essay. I believe that Beard’s willingness to speak openly about her marriage especially in an environment like work that is often strictly professional, is an important case to be made about human connectivity. In spaces that are not suited for emotional bearing, we as individuals have the power to transform them into places of sympathy.
Repeated imagery of cigarettes and coffee appear throughout the essay, tying each part and adding to its overall cohesiveness. The repetition of “plasma” is also critical to draw readers’ attention to, for many reasons but one being its inherent connection to the title of the piece. Her narrative form adds to the richness of the essay. In even the dullest moments, she finds ways to make even the most simple moments so relatable. For instance, in one sentence Beard writes “Friday-afternoon seminar, everyone is glazed over, listening as someone at the head of the long table explains something unexplainable”. This line on its own is probably the most relatable sentence any student can find themselves reading. There are moments that seem so ordinary but reflective of all of our experiences implemented in her writing.
“The Fourth State of Matter” is literally jaw-dropping. The emotional response I had when reading this piece left me staring at my computer screen, mouth agape. It was unbelievable. And while I found myself reflected in the writer’s earlier descriptions and paragraphs, there is something so disheartening and dreadful that really grabs readers, reeling them into an unknown, lived reality of another individual.
