Mrs. Right

            Burrowing beneath skin, voyaging across red canals of pulsing blood, beyond the framework of calcium and marrow, one finds the letter. It is a simple, unobtrusive character, yet it is responsible for so much. X or Y. Y or X. Whether determined during development in the womb, or preordained from a higher being, the outcome remains the same. The bearer of the X is female. The bearer of the Y is male. Although worlds apart, the two can converge and interact, create mutually benefiting relationships with one another and prolong the life of the species. Jacob, a member of the house of Y, has yet to find his X. His dealings with women are many, yet his successes can be counted on the hands of a paraplegic. How is this Y so lonely?.
             Jacob Flanders is an educated, well-traveled man with solid connections in major cities. Yet, at the same time, Jacob is but a mere man, bound by a genetically encoded imperative that drives into him the desire to pass his DNA along to the next generation of human beings. Indeed, this is a cold, harsh description for a novel such as Jacob's Room, where intelligent narration and ceaseless observations of life reign over all. However, one can still say that his DNA and hormones drove Jacob in his decisions and actions; this is just one out of any thousands of observations made in the book. Granted, it is unlikely that Virginia Woolf had any inking of what deoxyribonucleic acid is and the way it helps to play a role in our development and lives, but had she written Jacob's Room today, she may have made some mention to it.
             When one begins to notices the persons around him or her, several observations are made. Whether knowingly or not, these are the preliminary analysis in the search for a mate. For most people, the appearance of clean, unblemished skin is a sign which tells the observer that person is likely clean, healthy. For most women, muscles on a man indicate that he is potentially capable of protecting her.