"Chase" is about a woman named Caroline. Caroline has human cytomegalovirus, and she's very jaded due to this infection. She is meeting up with the man that infected her, the ex-boyfriend Chase. Chase was one of those men that you'd call a player, a man that gets laid and moves to the next girl, a sister-chaser, the kind of man that would sleep with a girl's best friend the day after taking her virginity. That's Chase. Caroline, on the other hand, was a good girl. She never slept with anybody before Chase, and there was no way for her to get her disease from anybody. Anyway, they're meeting, and through flashbacks, we get an idea of what has created the jaded demeanor of the character.
The parts of this story that really work include the voice of Caroline. The way that she looks back upon her relationship seeps with "What the fuck was I thinking?" and "Boy, he was a jerk." She makes little comments here and there, such as "There was no question along the lines of, 'Are you in love?'", that makes it clear to the reader that she wasn't sure why she allowed this relationship to continue happening. Interestingly, the sarcasm seems to get both heavier and darker as the story continues. By the time she begins naming the zombies in the tattoo parlor, you know that she's regretting everything she did with him.
Another place where I think the piece shines is in its use of subtle characterization to make the reader have strong feelings about the characters in the piece. I don't know about anybody else in the class, but by the second time Felicia was speaking, I wanted to wring her neck and KILL THE WOMAN. The characters that I was supposed to dislike, I disliked strongly (while still recognizing in Chase mild redeeming qualities that prevented him from being a demonized character; there was no hope for Felicia). I also like how the morals of the protagonist are left completely ambiguous. The reader is left disgusted with the idea that she purposefully infected another to get back at somebody, while at the same time feeling the cynicism that led to the action.
However, there are plenty of areas in which the piece can be improved as well. One of the most noticeable examples comes in the use of syntax and grammar. There were a lot of areas where the wording seemed somewhat awkward, and it was ambiguous what the subject of a few pronouns were (that could dramatically change the meaning of the sentence). Jung's theory is left with no real explanation for the reader, and I had no idea what it meant in the meaning of the piece.
The character of Caroline also seemed to go through an informed change more than a noticed change. We are informed how she used to be this "good girl," but we're never shown it nor are we ever given any indication of a real change at the end. She made this action of revenge before the piece took place, and because of the viewpoint we're given of the character, the act of revenge isn't really unexpected, except for the fact that we're told that Chase was her first and that she got herpes from him. On that informed note, how did she get herpes from him but not Felicia? When did Chase get herpes? While cheating on her in the relationship? From the person right before her?
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