This is a story about how the balloon explores the audience's response and the relationship with the narrator's consciousness. The balloon itself is the symbolic representation of the story, so the reader is forced to confront and react to the story in the same way that the citizens of New York City must confront and react to the ball. The balloon can represent any imaginary origin, as demonstrated by the audience. The mention of the ball as exhibiting a "deliberate lack of finish" which gave the "surface a forgotten rough appearance" reinforced the idea that the ball is an art object designed to provoke public and private reactions. A clumsy, aimless balloon that suddenly appears in New York City, covering almost the entire southern half of Manhattan and stretching for twenty-five city blocks. The balloon was inflated by the narrator one night while the people were sleeping. The narrator first refers to the appearance of the ball as a situation, but situations involve a set of circumstances that lead to a certain resolution that elicit various responses. The provo ball...