Intro. to Canadian Literature: Analysis of Robert Priest's ''Lesser Shadows''

Lesser Shadows – Robert Priest

The link for the text of the poem is given below:

http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/priest/poem2.htm

ANALYSIS

The poem is a reflection of the assassination of the 35^th U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1963. An assassin is a murderer of an important person in a surprise attack for political or religious reasons. The poem is a description of how the assassins operate and kill. Their actions are being described along with the surrounding environment to create the ambiance of stealth, suspense and terror. These assassins are like robotic killer machines, devoid of all emotions. 'The buildings wait for the assassins' is a transferred epithet, giving the impression that buildings are personified. The feeling being generated through words is that something insidious is about to take place, there is a sinister feeling about the way the assassins position themselves. The very first line of the poem is a foreshadowing of what is about to happen, it sets the mood of the poem. Imagery is very visual and graphic in nature, it helps to create intensity. Something is about to happen which will have a long-lasting effect. Mystery and suspicion continue to grow as the poem progresses. The questions that arise in the mind of the reader are that who is the one preparing the shadows for this task? Who wants someone killed?

The movement of the assassins is described in terms of fluidity and stealth, comparing them to dark sheets that flow soundlessly and easily. The number of assassins is not given definitively but the word 'many' is used repeatedly to create the sense of a large number of men with rifles. This also reveals that the person set as the target is a high-profile, influential person since a great number of assassins are sent to make sure the job is done properly. The magnitude of the task is exaggerated through the description of the numerous hideouts of the assassins. They are everywhere. 'There are assassins crouched/in the shadows of assassins.'

They are all tensed as this is not an ordinary killing. They are motivated by some sort of personal or political agenda. The plan for the killing has been laid out carefully. These men have lost all scruples to such an extend that they border sociopathic behaviour. They jostle around and push one another because each of them wants to be the one who lodges the first bullet in the target's body. The word assassin itself is an example of sibilance and creates a snake-like sound, generating the image of a deadly snake slithering the way the assassins move in the shadows undetected. They are no different than Satan who came as a serpent. These men plot, scheme and manipulate like Satan against mankind. It is also important to note that the great numerical value of the assassins makes it harder to tell who is friend or foe of the target. Are the men his bodyguards or killers for hire? It's hard to tell.

The climax of the poem comes where the 'triggers click' and the president dies. Not only the profession of the target is revealed (who turns out to be the most powerful man of any country), but the way he is killed is given a wildly grotesque shape. 'A thousand bullets meet/ inside a single head/ the skull explodes'. The president is a man who holds the most important office. He is the “head of the state”, and he is the brain of the country. The act of his head exploding is a metaphor for the dual meaning of the word head. Those who witness the killing are dazed by the sight and they run with their mouths hanging open from sheer shock of the sight. What has happened is unbelievable.

The shadows that are the assassins file out as quietly as they came. Like dark sheets slipping underneath doors they slip away unnoticed. They have no identity and no definite form, it is almost as if they melt into one another. They cannot be distinguished from one another. They are all the same. They leave the place as soon as the job is done. The country America itself is being accused of being the murderer. Those assassins came from America herself. They are not outsiders but one of our own. They belong to this same country. All the blame is shifted to the country and its people in general. The tone of the author becomes accusatory and angry.

The title of the poem 'Lesser Shadows' is relevant since the time chosen by the assassins was that between day and night. At sunset shadows become hardly discernible. Shadows become distorted and lacking in proper form or outline. This is how the assassins are described. The title creates the sense of mystery, suspense and insidious intent. The imagery in the poem is emotionless, detached and grotesque. All in all, the poet seems to blame and mock the people of the country. In the game of politics and power no one is innocent of despicable crimes and evil plots.

-Credit: Muneeza Rafiq 

Modern Poetry: Elements of Modernism in Yeats' poetry.

Discuss the elements of Modernism in Yeats' poetry.

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) stands at the turning point between the Victorian period and Modernism, the conflicting currents of which affected his poetry. Yeats started his literary career as a romantic poet and gradually evolved into a modernist poet. He shifted his focus from Irish folklore to contemporary politics. His connection with the changes in literary culture in the early twentieth century led him to pick up some of the styles and conventions of the modernist poets. The modernists experimented with verse forms, wrote about politics, shifted away from conventions and traditions, and rejected the notion that poetry should simply be lyrical and beautiful. These influences caused his poetry to become darker, edgier, and more concise.

Yeats abandoned the conventional poetic diction of his early work in favour of unadorned language, verbal economy and more direct approach to his themes and subjects. His critical attitude made him one of the moderns. His later poetry and plays are written in a more personal element, and the works written in the last twenty years of his life include his musings on growing old.

Yeat's 'A Coat' is a self-dramatization of a stylistic change, he is casting off the old, rhetorical, ornate style of 'embroideries' for a new, simple, realistic style of 'walking naked'. The coat is romanticism that he is abandoning, and the naked state is the state of modernism he is adopting. It was a liberating poem for Yeats, since it showed him moving resolutely in a single stride from one poetic age to the next. He became more direct, truthful, terse and realistic. This poem showed that he had become increasingly self-critical and disillusioned with others.

Yeats eliminated poetic language, easy rhymes and rhythm and what he put in their place were the qualities evident in 'A Coat' --- conversational speech, irregular rhythms and imperfect rhymes, startlingly frank imagery, and above all honesty and a humility of tone. The poem is a juxtaposition of the poet being adorned with a coat and being naked.

The metaphor of the coat is complicated in that it involves an ambiguity which the reader is bound to struggle with. His 'coat' is a complex, multi-layered metaphor for the kind of poetic style he had previously, 'covered with embroideries/out of old mythologies/from heel to throat;'. The poem is a good example of free verse, a style popularly known to be modern. There is a personal element to the poem as well. Yeats wrote the poem as a response to an argument with George Moore, who accused Yeats of pretending to support Irish culture. The 'fools' in the poem are those who copied Yeats' style and 'wore it' as it was their own creation.

“An Acre of Grass”, written in 1939 when Yeats was 71, is increasingly personal as it describes how Yeats felt about growing old. The authors personal experiences form the center of this poem. Yeats is markedly preoccupied with the flesh and the decay,desolation and dullness that accompanies old age. The poem consists of several modern features such as unconventional metaphors, references such as Michelangelo and William Blake, and simple diction. There is a juxtaposition of ideas, such as 'old man's frenzy', and 'old man's eagle mind'. The tone of the poem is confessional.

Some of the examples of unconventional metaphors are the use of the word 'midnight' to refer to the end of days, end of life and darkness in life. Similarly, by 'an old house', Yeats means his own body which has suffered senility, it can also mean Yeats' life which has now come nearer to its end as the poet has grown old. The 'wall' that is mentioned in third stanza can mean the wall of classicism and tradition which limits the minds of men to following of rules and regulations. In the last line of the poem, the use of the word eagle is metaphorical since it represents clarity, sharpness of vision and goals of life, it is synonymous to the frenzy that the poet refers to. It can also mean that an old man's mind is as sharp as an eagle in the sense that he remembers every moment of his past, memories and regrets. 'The words 'picture' and 'book' refer to the peace, rest, poise, calm and serenity that was a part of his happy conjugal life with George Hyde-Lees in the Norman Towers. The word 'acre' has several meanings, it can refer to to the small plot of green land for fresh breath and exercise, it can also suggest confinement to a small space, metaphorically speaking, the confinement of the mind and body. It can also be taken as a reference to a grave, the final destination for someone who has reached old age like Yeats. The old house may recall the mind which has now become old due to the rest and calm. Timon, Lear and William Blake are the men who 'can pierce the clouds'. 'Pierce' is the antithesis of the diffuse, ineffectual thought of the 'loose imagination' of old men who do not possess frenzy. 'Mill' is reference to Blake's symbol of the mill which stands for the mechanical, repetitive routine of the industrial machine, but Yeats extends it to 'mill of the mind', that mode of habitual and uncreative thinking which he despised. The allusion of the word 'truth' is the understanding of the true spirit of the mind, it is the ability to do something new and inspiring, gain recognition or critical acclaim. Truth can also mean a position with the great frenzied minds of the past 'forgotten else by mankind'.

Most notably in his poems of 1920's, such as “Sailing to Byzantium”, Yeats displays many of the characteristics of modernist disenchantment: skepticism towards the notion of 'truth', a sense of the individual's disorientation within modernity and a pessimism over contemporary life combined with an understanding that the modern world has become spiritually bankrupt and culturally fragmented. Sailing to Byzantium proves to be the poet's long entertained concept of art by which he seeks to cure the malady of the 20th century life. The poem is an evidence of Yeat's excellence of art and symbolic interpretation of modern life . It contains subtle symbolism and a complexity of thought and style. The juxtaposition of concepts like nature vs. artifice, art vs. nature is apparent in the poem. The tension between art and life is a dichotomy in Yeats' poetry. The poem has many symbols, for example, the symbol of the 'gyre' in Yeat's poem shows his philosophical belief that all things could be described in terms of cycles and patterns. Similarly, the mackerels, salmons, fish and fowl symbolize morality and transience of life. The metaphors used for an aging body numerous, such as, 'a tattered coat upon a stick', 'tatter in its mortal dress', 'fastened to a dying animal'.

There is a political and personal reference of Ireland, the poet wishes to go back to a time when Ireland was a peaceful and economical country. “That” in the beginning of the poem is a reference to the Ireland of the contemporary time, or the modern era. The poem traces the speaker’s movement from youth to age, and the corresponding geographical move from Ireland, a country just being born as Yeats wrote, to Byzantium. Yeats felt that he no longer belonged in Ireland, as the young or the young in brutality, were caught up in what he calls “sensual music.” This is the allure of murder in the name of republicanism, which disgusted Yeats. 'The young/In one another's arms' and 'dying generations' possibly refers to the Irish Rebellion, when people suffered deaths and losses and had to part with their loved ones, thus saying goodbye through a last embrace.

Byzantium was the center of a successful civilization in the 6th century, it is a reference to the ancient city (previously named Constantinople) built by the Roman Emperor Constantine, it was the headquarters of Eastern Christianity. The city was believed to be a place where God existed. It was a place culturally rich and artistically Utopian in nature. Byzantium is far away, remote, exotic and has an added connotation of a spiritual and artistic center, it is also a metaphor for creativity or a platonic heaven of ideal forms of art.

The main theme of the poem is 'aging', a theme quite personal and common for Yeats' later poems. "An aged man is but a paltry thing,/ A tattered coat upon a stick." He renounces his almost-dead state and imaginatively "sailed the seas and come to the holy city of Byzantium."The speaker thinks that by escaping to Byzantium, he can escape the conflict between burning desire and a wasted body. The modern feature of realism is apparent here when Yeats likens an old man's body to a 'dying animal'.

Through his unceasing desire of escaping to the perfect land of Byzantium, Yeats is indirectly pointing at the imperfect land that he wishes to leave. One of the most common and important themes of Modern poetry, the degeneration and chaos of modern life is evident in this poem. Yeats is saying that the “Monuments of unageing intellect” cannot be produced in modern chaotic times. Line 6 of the poem, 'Whatever is begotten, born and dies' conveying the feelings of loss familiar to the modern poetry. Waste, death, decadence and crumbling of mortal beings is prevalent throughout the poem especially in association with old age.

Yeats invokes the holy "sages" to transform him, to "Consume my heart away; sick with desire/ And fastened to a dying animal" and "gather" him into the "artifice of eternity." Art (artifice) is the only thing that is immortal or eternal; human life is not eternal. It is thus the poet’s wish to be granted a body immune to death and to sing forever. Yeats' own note said: "I have read somewhere that in the Emperor's palace at Byzantium was a tree made of gold and silver, and artificial birds that sang" which would keep the Emperor awake. (2040) A fascination with the artificial as superior to the natural is one of Yeats' most prevalent themes. Yeats says that once he is out of his body he will never appear in the form of a natural thing again. The artificial is seen as perfect and permanent, while the natural objects or human body can decay and become ugly. At the same time Yeats is praising the 'Grecian goldsmiths' and the artisans of that time for creating such perfect and immortal golden birds that inspired him.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the modernism in Yeats' poetry is clear mainly through his use of simple language, metaphors having several interpretations, smybols, political references, allusions and juxtaposition of ideas. His themes, subjectivity and realism reveal his modernist style. Though Yeats straddles the line between Romanticism and Modernism, some of his later poems are considered the best representations of modern poetry.

REFERENCES

1. Pratt, William (1996); “Singing the Chaos: Madness and Wisdom in Modern Poetry”; University of Missouri Press; Columbia, USA. p.65
2. Childs, Peter (2008); “Modernism” ; Second Edition, Routledge, NY
3. http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/yeats/themes.html
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._B._Yeats
5. Koch, Vivienne (1969) “W.B. Yeats: The Tragic Phase ; a Study of the Last Poems”; The John Hopkins University Press, U.S.A pg. 43
6. Yeats, William Butler; (2006) "Sailing to Byzantium." The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Twentieth Century and After. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: Norton. 2040.
7. http://www.gradesaver.com/poems-of-wb-yeats-the-tower/study-guide/section1/
   
   
   -Credits: Muneeza Rafiq

Introduction to Canadian Literature: Humor and its Function in the light of short stories by Stephen Leacock

What is humour and what are its functions? What strategies has Stephen Leacock used in the short stories 'The Errors of Santa Claus' and 'Lost in New York: The Visitor's Soliloquy'?

Humour and its Function

Humour or humor is the tendency of certain experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoural medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as humours control human health and emotion. It was believed that the excess or deficiency of four distinct body fluids in a person influences their temperament. Irony, pun, hyperbole, farce, metaphor, being imitative of reality, surprise, shock, paradox, ambiguity etc are all considered to be the methods of creating humour.

Stephen Leacock (1869-1944) was the English-speaking world's best known humorist. The unique alchemy of compassion and caustic wit remain the elements which accord his humour a timelessness few Canadian writers have achieved. His two masterpieces are Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912) and Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich (1914). According to Leacock, in his Further Foolishness:

“The world's humour, in its best and greatest sense, is perhaps the highest product of our civilization.”

Leacock had written much about humour, especially in his books Humour: Its Theory and Technique (1935) , and Humour and Humanity (1937) . In the latter, he talks about the functions that humour serves and what it entails. Humour can be of service in the moral melioration of mankind, it can offer a reprive from disillusioning reality. Leacock held that humorous literature serves a more private purpose: it provides temporary, illusory respite from a life that is fundamentally disillusioning. By providing temporary escape from disillusionment, humour functions as a kind of enchanting spell to charm hard reality. In Leacock's view, disillusionment is the truth about 'human life' which is perceived by the humorous vision and which humour makes bearable. In Chapter 17 of Further Foolishness Leacock says:

“But the deep background that lies behind and beyond what we call humour is revealed only to the few who, by instinct or by effort, have given thought to it. It is no longer dependent upon the mere trick and quibble of words, or the odd and meaningless incongruities in things that strike us as "funny." Its basis lies in the deeper contrasts offered by life itself: the strange incongruity between our aspiration and our achievement, the eager and fretful anxieties of to-day that fade into nothingness to-morrow, the burning pain and the sharp sorrow that are softened in the gentle retrospect of time, till as we look back upon the course that has been traversed we pass in view the panorama of our lives, as people in old age may recall, with mingled tears and smiles, the angry quarrels of their childhood. And here, in its larger aspect, humour is blended with pathos till the two are one, and represent, as they have in every age, the mingled heritage of tears and laughter that is our lot on earth.”

Humour is for Leacock the literary manifestation of humanism. It is the literary vehicle of the middle way. Humour exists midway between caustic satire and sentimentality, softening satire with pathos. The final stage of the development of humour is reached when amusement no longer arises from a single 'funny' idea, meaningless contrast, or odd play upon words, but rests upon a prolonged and sustained conception of the incongruities of human life itself. The shortcomings of our existence, the sad contrast of our aims and our achievements, the little fretting aspiration of the day that fades into nothingness of tomorrow, kindle in the mellowed mind a sense of gentle amusement from which all selfish exultation has been chastened by the realization of our common lot of sorrow. On this higher plane humour and pathos mingle and become one.

Thus, it can be said that humour and pathos go hand in hand, and that humour gives a deeper and better understanding of life and stimulates the reader to look at the harsher realities of life in a light and amusing way. The main function of humour is to relieve the reader of the heaviness and anxieties of daily life and thus feed the soul with positive energy. Pain and sorrow are mitigated through humour.

Humour in the Short Stories by Leacock

The two short stories “The Errors of Santa Claus” and “Lost in New York: A Visitor's Soliloquy” were published in 1918 in a book entitled Frenzied Fiction. Leacock's style in these stories involved a simplicity in language. Besides the careful selection of language, said Leacock, humor demanded a "great naturalness" of language, the use of phrases and forms so simple that writers straining after effect would never get them. [Critics] felt that one of the main reasons for Leacock's success was that his style was that of "a talker rather than a writer". Another said..."He talked to the world. And the talk was good." (Curry. p.242-243)

As for the technique of humour that Leacock uses, reference to Further Foolishness can be of some help. Leacock says:

“But I am willing to admit, since the truth is out, that it has long been my custom in preparing an article of a humorous nature to go down to the cellar and mix up half a gallon of myosis with a pint of hyperbole. If I want to give the article a decidedly literary character, I find it well to put in about half a pint of paresis.”

Myosis can be taken to mean an understatement, while hyperbole is the technique of exaggeration or deliberate overtstatement. Although these two techniques are a crucial part of humour and must be taken under consideration, humour does not merely end here.

In “The Errors of Santa Claus”, the title itself points out where the gist of the whole story lies. The adults, in the story, the Browns and the Jones, enjoy Christmas gifts which are unfit for them and should have gone to their children. The children, on the other hand, the daughters and sons of the Browns and Jones, relish the items that are clearly restricted for adult use only, and should have been gifted to their parents, as the story initially suggests. Grandfather Jones is a part of this bizzare switch of gifts; the Jew's harp and the whiskey meant for his grandson and son respectively, are being enjoyed by the grandfather himself by the time the story reaches its close.

The humour in the story, indeed, is that Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Brown are indulged in child's play as if that is the sole task worthy of their full attention, and their husbands play with toy trains completely oblivious to their surroundings. Leacock writes the story with such ease that the readers feel completely relaxed and amused with the way the story progresses. It is absurd that adults should indulge in childish activities, and this absurdity is what brings out the humour. Exaggeration reaches its height from the sentence “Nor did the children miss their mothers.” Here, the readers are taken to the children to see what they are up to. Their activities come as a shock to the readers. Edwin Jones and Willy Brown, sons of the respective families, are indulging in smoking expensive cigars. Willie says, “I only started smoking last month-- on my twelfth birthday. I think a feller's a fool to begin smoking cigarettes too soon, don't you? It stunts him. I waited till I was twelve.” The reader is not only appalled by the statement, but the heightened irony is obvious too. The story can be said to switch between irony and exaggeration.

While the mothers play with dolls meant for their daughters, the daughters play cards and gamble with money. Clarisse Jones thinks that it is “too utterly slow playing without money.” Ulvina Brown believes that her mother is far too slow for playing money. The girls seem to have a lot of knowledge of gambling, for someone their age.

The reader realizes the irony of the fact that each member of the family believes other to have a firm belief in the existence of Santa Claus. In reality, none of them believe in Santa Claus. “Later on, far in the night, the person, or the influence, or whatever it is called Santa Claus, took all the presents and placed them in the people's stockings. And, being blind as he always has been, he gave the wrong things to the wrong people-- in fact, he gave them just as indicated above. But the next day, in the course of Christmas morning, the situation had straightened itself out, just as it always does.”

Leacock's strategy for humour here is the ultimate switch of presents. This switch, although, is not really a switch, since the recipients of the gifts are perfectly happy with what they got. But the image of twelve-year-olds smoking cigars and of adult parents playing with toy trains and clothes for dolls, is so absurd that Leacock's story relies on this to mask the seriousness of the topic. The technique works its charm with such a smooth flow that by the end of the story when the predicament of the situation fully reveals itself, the readers find themselves contemplating not with an alarm or horror, but with a light mood. It is through humour that Leacock succeeds in getting his readers to think, by painting not a bleak or shameful picture of the family, but a light-hearted and mild one.

“A Visitor's Soliloquy”, as the title says, is the first person perspective of a visitor in New York who hasn't been there since the “fall of '86”. The story reminds the readers of another by Leacock, “My Financial Career”, which is the personal narrative of a man 'rattled' by his visit to the bank. The confused, baffled narrator who has no notion of what he is doing or what he is supposed to do, is common in both stories. The actions of the narrator are what center the humour in “A Visitor's Soliloquy”.

The story begins with what could be called the topic sentence of the whole narrative. “Whatever has been happening to this place, to New York? Changed? Changed since I was here in '86? Well, I should say so.” The visitor remains unnamed throughout, and the kind of New York that is painted through his words could be considered a gross understatement of the New York of today.

The rudeness of the “cut-throat” taxi-driver, the hotel manager and the other people that the visitor comes across drives the humour of the story. Through the discourse of the visitor it is also hinted that either the visitor has difficulty with his hearing or he is just ignorant. Like a fish out of water, the visitor fails to adjust to the drastic changes that the city has undergone. He is a chatty person and loves to talk with anyone who is listening, but the irony is that no one listens. The readers find the old-fashioned personality of the visitor as amusing. He has no knowledge of taxis, elevators, breakfast schedules and in general, the way things work in the city.

As an example of the humour in the story, one particular scene is that in which the visitor becomes overly excited when he finds out there is a call for him. “Here I am! Here it's Me! Here I am-- wanted at the desk? All right, I'm coming. I'm hurrying. I guess something's wrong at home, eh! Here I am. That's my name. I'm ready.” the anti-climax of his enthusiasm is that it turns out the hotel has a room available for him. This discrepancy between what the visitor expects and what actually happens, irony, makes the visitor seem foolish. His foolishness is apparent when he thinks should not go near the window lest he should fall out, and so he sits further back from the window.

There is, of course, an element of pathos attached to the humble simpleton visiting the city of New York. The readers not only laugh at his foolishness, they sympathize with him as it is not his fault that the city's immensely fast-paced, being a major metropolitan city. The visitor's constant lack of knowledge provides enough material to generate humour in the story. As the reader laughs his way to the end, the story comes to a close with a gentleness but on a rather serious note. “Say, I just feel as if I'd like to take my satchel and jump clean out of that window, It would be a good rebuke to them. But, pshaw! What would they care?”

the implication here is that the hotel staff and management would not bother the least bit even if the visitor committed suicide. The story at its conclusion seems to be bordering on dark humour. It could be considered an exaggeration, of course, that the hotel management of the New York city do not care for their guests. But that is not the point that Leacock wishes to make. It is the lack of humanity in general, which the city has suffered as it climbed its way to the pinnacle of advancement, success and greatness. The point being made, then, behind the mask of mild humour, is that the metropolitan city has lost its morality, humanity and the general spirit of caring for each other and helping each other. But this is not something that is explicitly stated, since the story is humorous, the reader comes to understand the underlying gist on his own.

Conclusion

In conclusion, humour not only makes the appalling realities of life bearable in an appeasing manner, but sketches out an amusing contrast between different things. Humour is an important genre of literature and Stephen Leacock's works can be taken as the epitome of humourist fiction writing.

References

• Leacock, S. (1917) Further Foolishness: Sketches and Satires on the Follies of the Day. John Lane Company.
• Lynch, G. (1988) Stephen Leacock: Humour and Humanity McGill-Queen's University Press. Canada.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humour
• http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/stephen-leacock

- Credit: Muneeza Rafiq.

Introduction to Canadian Literature: A comparison of the short stories 'A Cap for Steve' by Morley Callaghan and 'Shahrazad's Golden Leopard' by Muneeza Shamsie

Compare and contrast the parent-child relationship in the stories A Cap for Steve and Shahrazad's Golden Leopard.

Morley Callaghan was a Canadian novelist and short story writer. His A Cap for Steve is a story about a boy's deep longing for a father that he can look up to and emulate. This craving of Steve's is expressed symbolically in a baseball cap. Steve is the son of a man who had 'learned how to make every dollar count in his home'. Dave Diamond had been taught the value of money and its importance in life. For him, the power of money and pride was something that he coveted. Being a money-oriented person, Steve's unrelenting obsession with baseball was beyond Dave's understanding. Every moment that Steve spent on the game was a disappointment for Dave, because Steve could be using that time to earn money for the household. Since the importance of money had been 'ground into' Dave ever since he was a child , he expects the same to be for his son. The discrepancy between reality and expectations is what causes the major conflict between father and son. Dave expected his son to be earning when it was his time to be playing games and enjoying life as a child. On the other hand, Steve expected his father to understand what was important to him. Steve expresses his feelings through his gestures and body language and Dave is non-vocal about his true feelings as well. This lack of proper communication adds to the tension between the two.

The relationship between father and son unravels quickly with the acquisition and loss of a prized baseball cap. The cap of a famous baseball player makes a dramatic change in Steve's personality. He feels as though he has gained some source of power that can change his status among his peers. He becomes confident and his self-esteem augments. The very thing that Dave coveted, power, is now in the possession of his son. This fact makes Steve proud of his son for the first time, although he doesn't openly show it till Steve loses the cap. Dave's anger at the loss of the cap is enough to reveal his true feelings.

Steve's gestures at the sight of his cap being worn by someone else hint to the fact that Steve was ready to do anything for the cap that had brought glory to him. The cap was priceless to Steve, not only because of where it came from but for what it meant. With the cap came power, authority and leadership, and Steve, for the first time, had these three things. Dave is proud of his son for being ready to fight for the prized cap that once belonged to him. The cap brings pride to not only Steve but also his father. Both of them attain courage through the possession of the cap. Seeing Hudson display confidence and boldness because of his father, Steve automatically looks to Dave for the same source of confidence. Just as Hudson had a blind faith in his father, so did Steve, who expected his father to be well-aware of the importance of the cap.

The power of status and money displayed at the Hudson house dazzles both Dave and Steve. Money makes Dave lose sight of the value of the baseball cap, or the value of his son's passion. As Steve's expectations of his father rose to a pinnacle, Dave's expectations rose as well. Dave started believing that the sight of the money being offered would somehow make Steve realize how much they needed it. Dave expected Steve to make a grown-up decision and denounce his possession of the cap. But he failed to see that it was an unfair expectation of a child like Steve who had never before achieved what the cap had given him. The happiness, pride, and status in the neighbourhood was all that the cap brought with it, and Steve relished every moment of it. Steve lacked a father who understood him and who would serve as a role model for him. Dave did not understand his son's true passion for the cap until the end. Money was not a replacement for all that Steve had achieved with the possession of the cap.

In the end, the lack of understanding on Dave's part led to Steve's loss of both trust in his father and his prized possession. Steve is let down badly by his father's decision and is hurt that his father failed to protect what was valuable to his son. For the failure had been his, and it had come out of being so separated from his son that he had been blind to what was beyond the price in a boy's life. However, Dave learns from his mistake and comes to terms with the expectations a little boy has of his father. He immediately struggles to make amends and re-establish the bond of trust with his son. 'The price a boy was willing to pay to be able to count on his father's admiration and approval' was suddenly apparent to Dave and he grew into a caring and loving personality who respected and supported his son in his decisions and passions. In this way, what starts to be a series of wrong expectations and lack of communication and understanding between a parent and child resolves into a positive development and reconciliation.

Where A Cap for Steve is mild in its impact and leads to the resolution with relative ease, Shahrazad's Golden Leopard is extreme in its lack of understanding and trust between parent and child. Written by Muneeza Shamsie, a Pakistani writer, the story is about a complete absence of trust, mutual understanding and genuine care between a mother and her daughter. In the very beginning of the story, it is revealed that 'Shahrazad longed to please her mother'. Throughout the story, Shahrazad follows her mother's orders and does as she is told even if she hates it. She longs for the motherly affection and care that is expected in the relationship. Her mother scolds her ruthlessly in public for every mistake or error that Shahrazad makes. 'You're such a stupid, stupid girl', her mother would screech at her without a thought of the impact it would make on the little girl's mind. A series of small incidents build up together to create a large crack between the mother-daughter relationship. The mother praises her son more than her daughter and openly declares her partiality. She expresses her dislike for Shahrazad's lack of proper friends and even goes to display doubt on her daughter being mentally sound. She shows no concern on the nickname that Malcolm has for her daughter. The continuous chant of 'Fatty-ma' adds to Shahrazad's inferiority complex and her confidence drops drastically. She feels isolated from her family and believes that there is no one who understands her or gives her importance.

There are several moments where Shahrazad is scolded and made a fool in front of other people by her own mother. Shahrazad works hard to gain some approval from her mother but all in vain. Although her father is a passive character who does not express his affection for his daughter, he does not fail to hint the readers from time to time that he disapproves of his wife's treatment of their daughter and that he pays more attention to Shahrazad's merits than her. The fact that Shahrazad comes top of her class is of no significance to the mother, as it means she only remains buried in her books and doesn't play with other children. Shahrazad is a symbol of shame and disgust for the mother and this is revealed throughout the story.

The leopard in the story is a symbol of passion for Shahrazad. It is a symbol of something she can look up to and feel hopeful for. Since her mother has let her down time and again, she feels that everything bad that happens in her life will go away if she finally gets a chance to play with the leopard. The leopard was something she owned all by herself and it had no share in anyone else's life. It was her one possession she was proud of that made her feel worthy and confident. The leopard exuded self-esteem and self-worth for Shahrazad. 'He could read her thoughts. He understood her every word. He had the power to take away her pain'.

Shahrazad longed to have such beauty and admiration that her mother held, she wished to be admired in the same way. The golden leopard was her source of confidence and of satisfaction. What the people in her life failed to give her was provided to her by the leopard. Her mother's constant scathing criticism slowly chipped away parts of her self-esteem. Shahrazad's mother is different from Steve's father as she does not even attempt to understand her daughter or support her in her passions and hobbies. She even keeps the leopard away from her on the pretense that she is too young to play with it. If Dave felt proud of his son for his cap, Shahrazad's mother shunned and disapproved of everything that could make her feel proud of her daughter if she became open-minded. Unlike her, Dave did not thrust his own desires and orders on his child, he did not force Steve to work for earning money. The mother in this story (Mehru), however, forces Shahrazad repeatedly to do things that would benefit her (the mother) and become a source of agony and embarrassment for her daughter.

More than once Mehru fails to support her daughter and take her side. She prefers to demean her own child than exhibit some faith in her. Shahrazad is let down by her mother repeatedly in the story, and this repetition of mistrust and lack of support creates a massive rift between the mother and child. These feelings of mistrust are much more potent than what Steve felt when he had been let down by his father.

'Shahrazad had been left behind with Kishwari Bua for being a naughty girl and a liar. Shah Rukh had been taken out for a drive. The mere memory brought tears to Shahrazad's eyes. How she hated Malcolm's parties'. In these few lines the daughter's feelings are visible. Mehru's sheer disapproval and her angry retorts are piled by the unjust and almost cruel difference of treatment between herself and her brother, which in return is topped by Malcolm's savagery. To add fuel to fire, Shahrazad's mother gives away her most beloved and prized possession, the leopard, to Malcolm as a birthday gift. The mere act in itself breaks Shahrazad's spirit and her heart. 'You can't have him! She wanted to cry. You can't have him! He's mine!'

Malcolm's parents and friends loved him and supported him even in his faults. 'Everyone wanted to be on Malcolm's side, the winning side', Malcolm has the status and position that Shahrazad could never have because nobody loved her and nobody was willing to support her or put their faith in her. The feeling of abandonment and isolation made her feel miserable. Her mother failed to understand the importance of the leopard in Shahrazad's life even when she voiced it. Even her nightmares are imbued with the loss of her prized item and Malcolm's cruelty. In her isolation she creates an imaginary friendship with the leopard that was no longer hers and held long conversations in solitude with it. She even looked forward to visiting Malcolm for the sake of seeing the leopard. Her extreme obsession with the toy leads to an immense feeling of absolute loss when she realizes that Malcolm and his friends broke the leopard during a game. 'His tail was broken, his luminous eyes had been pulled out. There was a slit down the center of his stomach; straw and stuffing were hanging out. Her leopard had been murdered.'

The shock that Shahrazad feels on the loss of one good thing from her life drives her to extremities. Since her whole being relied on the ecstatic utopia that the leopard created for her, its loss drives her into action. The way Steve was willing to fight Hudson for the cap that he cherished, the same way Shahrazad is ready to fight, however, she fights not for possession, but for revenge. She wanted to punish Malcolm for being the reason of the loss of the one thing that she loved in her life. All the anger that was building up inside of her because of her mother's attitude and injustice came crashing out on Malcolm. The complete lack of reconciliation and re-establishment of trust and understanding between the mother and daughter led to a dangerous and extreme end.

CONCLUSION

A Cap for Steve is a story where if something is lost, something is regained as well between father and son. Shahrazad's Golden Leopard is a story based on utter loss and abandonment of all feelings and emotions between mother and daughter. The mother is responsible for instigating negative and dangerous feelings in her daughter's mind and for the outcome in the end. Shahrazad's extreme obsession with the leopard and detachment with the human figures in her life should have been checked by her mother. The hatred that Mehru exhibited of her daughter led to a wild frenzy on Shahrazad's part and as a result the outcome of the story was ghastly. Both stories are poles apart in their resolution and represent two different sides of treatment of the parent-child relationship. 

Credits: Muneeza Rafiq

A Comment on Suleri's portrayal of women in the first chapter of her novel Meatless Days

Comment on Sara Suleri's potrayal of women in the chapter 'Excellent things in Women' of her novel Meatless Days.

Sara Suleri is an author and, since 1983, professor of English at Yale University.Her memoir, Meatless Days (1989)is an exploration of the complex interweaving of national history and personal biography which was widely and respectfully reviewed. She encapsulated the memories of her Lahore childhood, at the heart of which were the tragic accidents that killed her mother and sister. Furthermore, she observed political events and political opinions being forged from close quarters and wove the story of Pakistan into her narrative.

The first chapter of her book Meatless Days is titled Excellent things in Women, in which she chiefly talks about all the women she had the company of back in Pakistan, before settling in New Haven. The woman who's account is given a generous space in the chapter is Dadi, the narrator's father's mother. She was a woman married at sixteen and widowed in her thirties, a woman who slowly evolves into a pitiable character, arousing the reader's sympathy. Dadi is portrayed as a woman whom no one understands, who often annoys the family members, who has a contradictory countenance with her son, and who has suffered both physical and emotional pains in her life. However, she is a notable family member, whose presence is not forgotten by the author and who's character is etched with minute details. Dadi's two favorite indulgences, food and God, make her a typical Pakistani elderly female. The elderly always become more religious when they age. Dadi is allowed to do as she pleases, be it stopping cars on the street and preaching them God's word, or bringing a butcher for the family's beloved pet goat. Perhaps because she is an old woman who's life is spent, and out of respect, she is never stopped, rebuked or blamed for her actions. Her loneliness too, is described with detail. She was alone in saying prayers in the house, alone because her husband had died a long time ago and she had lost her children in one way or the other, literally and figuratively. Her daughter had died in childbirth, her youngest son had never returned from Switzerland and her older son, the author's father, had married a Welsh woman. Dadi had her own little world, with rituals and habits no one else shared. She represents the kind of women who, after dedicating their whole lives to maintaining relationships, slowly become an invisible ghost when those relationships disappear and dwindle. Dadi was nothing without her husband and her children. This was her reality. Even though she had her grand-children, her older son and daughter-in-law, yet she was alone. She was seen by all but she remained invisible. Her invisibility reached its pinnacle when she died and no one came to her funeral or even bothered to remember her with respect or love; “she too ceased being a mentioned thing.”

The author's Welsh woman is shown as a reserved woman who suffered a cultural clash. She did not understand the religious rituals of the Eid which celebrates Abraham's sacrifice. The author's father was more harmonious with his wife's mindset than his mother's. The author's mother too, suffered a departure from her oldest son, just like Dadi. She felt disconnected with her grand-children because of a language barrier. Her influence on her children's and grand-children's lives slowly receded and she assumed a more private space. After the departure of her son, she turned her attention to her daughters, Tillat and the author. She shares a mother's grief of losing children with Dadi, and this grief is also shown in the life of the cleaning woman, Halima, who lost an older child as she gave birth to one. It seems almost as if this is the fate of motherhood, giving birth to children and watching them leave; this grief knows no boundaries of age, race or social standing. However, these mothers put on a brave face and swallowed their pain, they did not turn away from their other responsibilities, and this is the noteworthy thing in women, as the title says. Mamma went back to Wales when her own mother was about to die, and there she realized she felt no familiarity with her childhood dwelling. Her unfamiliarity with both Wales and Lahore did not matter to her, because familiarity did not come with places, it came with people. And she did not have the people. This loneliness of Mamma is not so different from that of Dadi. Mother's behavior was admirable when her husband took to prayers, after Dadi quit praying when she suffered serious burns due to a conflagration in the kitchen. The mother's deep love for her family is portrayed when she did not mind her husband's recent inclination towards religious duties, and when she decided to do a task for herself when her obstinate daughter Ifat refused. The author's mother showed the support and love for her children when the author decided to move to America, and Tillat to Kuwait. Showing great patience and courage, she helped her children take flight and leave her to pursue their own destinies. She accepted the fact that her eldest son would not return and that she had to support her daughters in embracing a change in their lives. This was the duty of a mother, no matter how painful or heartbreaking it would be. “Mamma and Daid remained the only women in the house, the one untalking, the other unpraying.” This unexpressed tragedy of the mother's life was not appeased by her sudden death after becoming a victim of a hit-and-run. It is ironic that despite all her sacrifices for her family, her tombstone bore Urdu poetry, a language she had always been shy of, and a completely counterfeit place of birth, as the father tended to forget these sort of things.

The author's relationship with her sister Tillat and her little brother Irfan is recited too. Being an elder sister the author felt a sort of parental responsibility over her younger siblings. The author always tried to exercise a control over Tillat, as she felt fearful of what the world might to do her, but she did not realize that her behaviour could prove to be more damaging to Tillat's upbringing. This set a sorrowful bond between the two, however, the sisterly love between them and the rest of the sisters did not altogether diminish. The author too, like her mother and grandmother, suffered loss of familial relationships due to the deaths of her mother and sister. Their deaths resulted in a loss of familiarity and connection with Pakistan. Like her mother, the author had lost the people that would cause familiarity with a place.

CONCLUSION

The author portrays the women from her past life in the way she saw them, engrossed in their roles of being a mother, a grandmother or a sister. Each and every thing she described about them was attached with these roles that become a source of their recognition. These women are important for the author and thus become a part of her memories. The author did not tell what every woman had felt when she underwent 'trying times' because none of those women expressed their pain transparently. Even Dadi had a secret place inside of her that no one could reach. And this is what the author tries to point out throughout the chapter. The sufferings and the exhibit of patience through the trying times is what is noteworthy about women, and even if women do not exist on their own as individuals in Pakistan, their reality does have something worth mentioning and remembering. 

REFERENCE: Suleri, S: (1987) Meatless Days ; The University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Ch 1.pp.1

Credits: Muneeza Rafiq

Fifteen: 'Overcoat' by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

~Overcoat~

The text of the story is given here:

http://www.classicreader.com/book/2026/1/

Fourteen: 'The Falling Girl' by Dino Buzzati

Dino Buzzati

Dino Buzzati was a master fantasist of the twentieth century who is famous in Italian Literature. His specialty is that he combines realism with fantasy.

~The Falling Girl~

The text of the story is given below:

https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1tb7kGoJ3mhP0NLlMeWj7ugYJGpJt1Ly3C5o2uHCQj4k&hl=en&pli=1

NOTES

http://wwwrizafallinggirl.blogspot.com/2010/04/critic-on-buzzatis-falling-girl.html

http://cafeirreal.alicewhittenburg.com/review2c.htm

Thirteen: 'The Revolver' by Emilia Pardo Bazan

Emilia Pardo Bazan

(1857-1921)

Spain

Although not widely known in the United States, Emilia Pardo Bazan is a central and influential figure in nineteenth-century Spanish literature, the author of more than twenty novels as well as a number of short stories and critical essays on literary and other subjects. The only child of titled Spanish royalty, Pardo Bazan inherited the title of Countess. Yet despite her aristocratic background, her political views were scarcely traditional. An early feminist, she expressed in a variety of writings her profound objections to the oppressive conditions for women in Spanish society. Her fiction is in the tradition of the naturalism practiced by her French counterparts, Emile Zola and Gustave Flaubert, although Pardo Bazan distinguished Spanish naturalism as less deterministic than that of her French contemporaries.

'The Revolver' first appeared in a Spanish newspaper.

~The Revolver~

In a burst of confidence, one of those provoked by the familiarity and companionship of bathing resorts, the woman suffering from heart trouble told me about her illness, with all the details of chokings, violent palpitations, dizziness, fainting spells, and collapses, in which one sees the final hour approach... As she spoke, I looked her over carefully. She was a woman of about thirty-five or thirty-six, maimed by suffering at least I thought so, but, on close scrutiny, I began to suspect that there was something more than the physical in her ruin. As a matter of fact, she spoke and expressed herself like someone who had suffered a good deal, and I know that the ills of the body, when not of imminent gravity, are usually not enough to produce such a wasting away, such extreme dejection. And, noting how the broad leaves of the plane tree, touched with carmine by the artistic hand of autumn, fell to the ground majestically and lay stretched out like severed hands, I remarked, in order to gain her confidence, on the passing of all life, the melancholy of the transitoriness of everything...

“Nothing is anything,” she answered, understanding at once that not curiosity but compassion was beckoning at the gates of her spirit. “Nothing is anything... unless we ourselves convert that nothing into something. Would to God we could see everything, always, with the slight but sad emotion produced in us by the fall of this foliage on the sand.”

The sickly flush of her cheeks depened, and then I realized that she had probably been very beautiful, although her beauty was effaced and gone, like the colors of a fine picture over which is passed cotton saturated with alcohol. Her blond, silky hair showed traces of ash, premature gray hair. Her features had withered away; her complexion especially revealed those disturbances of the blood which are slow poisonings, decompositions of the organism. Her soft blue eyes, veined with black, must have once been attractive, but now they were disfigured by something worse than age, a kind of aberration, which at certain moments lent them the glitter of blindness.

We grew silent, but my way of contemplating her expressed my pity so plainly that she, sighing for a chance to unburden her heavy heart, made up her mind, and stopping from time to time to breathe and regain her strength, she told me the strange story.

“When I was married, I was very much in love... My husband was, compared to me, advanced in years; he was bordering on forty, and I was only nineteen. My temperament was gay and lively; I retained a childlike disposition, and when he was not home I would devote my time to singing, playing the piano, chatting and laughing with girl-friends who came to see me and envied me my happiness, my brilliant marriage, my devoted husband, and my brilliant social position.

“This lasted a year- the wonderful year of the honeymoon. The following spring, on our wedding anniversary, I began to notice that Reinaldo's disposition was changing. He was often in a gloomy mood, and, without my knowing the cause, he spoke to me harshly, and had outbursts of anger. But It was not long before I understood the origins of his transformation. Reinaldo had conceived a violent, irrational jealousy, a jealousy without objection or cause, which, for that very reason, was doubly cruel and difficult to cure.

“If we went out together, he was watchful lest people stare at me or tell me, in passing, one of those silly things people say to young women; if he went out alone, he was suspicious of what I was doing in the house, and of the people who came to see me; if I went out alone, his suspicions and suppositions were even more defamatory...

“If I proposed, pleadingly, that we stay home together, he was watchful of my saddened expression, of my supposed boredom, of my work, of an instant when, passing in front of the window, I happened to look outside... He was watchful, above all, when he noticed that my birdlike disposition, my good, childlike humor, had disappeared, and that on many afternoons, when I turned on the lights, he found my skin shining with the damp, ardent traces of tears. Deprived of my innocent amusement, now separated from my friends and relatives, and from my own family, because Reinaldo interpreted as treacherous artifices the desire to communicate and look at faces other than his, I often wept, and did not respond to Reinaldo's transports of passion with the sweet abandonment of earlier times.

“One day, after one of the usual bitter scenes, my husband said:

“ 'Flora, I may be a madman, but I am not a fool. I have alienated your love, and although perhaps you would not have thought of deceiving me, in the future, without being able to remedy it, you would. Now I shall never again be your beloved. The swallows that have left do not return. But because, unfortunately, I love you more each day, and love you without peace, with eagerness and fever, I wish to point out that I have thought of a way which will prevent questions, quarrels, or tears between us-- and once and for all you will know what our future will be.'

“Speaking thus, he took me by the arm and led me toward the bedroom.

“I went trembling; cruel presentiments froze me. Reinaldo opened the drawer of the small inlaid cabinet where he kept tobacco, a watch, and handkerchiefs and showed me a large revolver, a sinister weapon.

“ 'Here,' he said, 'is your guarantee that in the future your life will be peaceful and pleasant. I shall never again demand an accounting of how you spend your time, or of your friends, or of your amusements. You are free, free as the air. But the day I see something that wounds me to the quick... that day, I swear by my mother! Without complaints or scenes, or the slightest sign that I am displeased, oh no, not that! I will get up quietly at night, take the weapon, put it to your temple and you will wake up in eternity. Now you have been warned...'

“As for me, I was in a daze, unconscious. It was necessary to send for the doctor, in as much as the fainting spell lasted. When I recovered consciousness and remembered, the convulsion took place. I must point out that I have a mortal fear of firearms; a young brother of mine died of an accidental shot. My eyes, staring wildly, would not leave the drawer of the cabinet that held the revolver.

“I could not doubt, from Reinaldo's tone and the look on his face, that he was prepared to carry out his threat, and knowing also how easily his imagination grew confused, I began to consider myself as dead. As a matter of fact, Reinaldo kept his promise, and left me complete mistress of myself, without directing the slightest censure my way, or showing, even by a look, that he was opposed to anything of my wishes or disapproved of my actions; but that itself frightened me, because it indicated the strength and tyranny of a resolute will... and, victim of a terror which everyday grew more profound, I remained motionless, not daring to take a step I would always see the steely reflection of the gun barrel.

“At night, insomnia kept my eyes open, and I imagined I felt the metallic cold of a steel circle on my temple; or if I got to sleep, I woke up startled with palpitations that made my heart seem to leap from my breast, because I dreamed that an awful report was ripping apart the bones of my skull and blowing my brains out, dashing them against the wall... and this lasted four years, four years without a single peaceful moment, when I never took a step without fearing that that step might give rise to tragedy.”

“And how did that horrible situation end?” I asked, in odrer to bring her story to a close, because I saw her gasping for breath.

“It ended... with Reinaldo, who was thrown by a horse, and had some internal injury, being killed on the spot.

“Then, and only then, I knew that I still loved him, and I mourned him quite sincerely, although he was my executioner, and a systematic one at that!”

“And did you pick up the revolver to throw it out the window?”

“You'll see,” she murmured. “Something rather extraordinary happened. I sent Reinaldo's manservant to remove the revolver from my room, because in my dreams I continued to see the shot and feel the chill on my temple... and after he carried out the order, the manservant came to tell me: 'Senora, there was no cause for alarm... this revolver wasn't loaded.'

“ 'No, Senora, and it looks to me as though it never was... As a matter of fact, the poor master never got around to buying the cartridges. Why, I would even ask him at times if he wanted me to go to the gunsmith's and get them, but he didn't answer, and then he never spoke of the matter again.'”

“And so,” added the sufferer from heart disease, “an unloaded revolver shot me, not in the head, but in the center of my heart, and believe me when I tell you that, in spite of digitalis and baths and all the remedies, the bullet is unsparing...”

[1895]

Translated by

ANGEL FLORES

NOTES

Few Important Lines:

1. “Nothing is anything,” she answered. “Nothing is anything... unless we ourselves convert that nothing into something.”
2. I began to suspect that there was something more than the physical in her ruin. As a matter of fact, she spoke and expressed herself like someone who had suffered a good deal, and I know that the ills of the body, when not of imminent gravity, are usually not enough to produce such a wasting away, such extreme dejection.
3. “an unloaded revolver shot me, not in the head, but in the center of my heart, and believe me when I tell you that, in spite of digitalis and baths and all the remedies, the bullet is unsparing...”

Some Important Points:

The story is written from first person point of view but the narrator is the listener and Flora is the one telling her story.

The lines 'Nothing is anything' suggest that perhaps Flora exaggerated her situation with her husband and mistook his actions for the worst. Perhaps her husband was not overly possessive and just a little concerned and her own imagination led her to believe the worst. Nothing is the way it seems and we ourselves turn it into something. Flora's own perceptions are important here.

After reading the story the readers realize there was a lack of communication between the couple. Flora loved her husband very much and her husband loved her back but they never tried to solve their differences through dialogue and understanding. Flora never seemed to complain or talk to her husband about his change of behaviour and Reinaldo too, perhaps never voiced his concerns or doubts about her. In this way both of them did not get a chance to explain their actions to the other.

People are not born bad, but certain situations and their reactions turn them into bad people. Perhaps Reinaldo was not a cruel and ruthless possessive lover, but we are unable to be sure because the story is one-sided. We do not get to hear it from Reinaldo's point of view. We only understand Flora's doubts, fears and imaginations. There is a possibility that Flora must have done something to pique Reinaldo's doubts about her actions. Perhaps she was too liberal and carefree which was intolerable for a man of Reinaldo's age and disposition. Therefore, it is not correct to label the two characters on the basis of this one-sided story.

Trust is very important in relationships and lack of trust leads to downfall of even the most sacred bond of marriage.

Nothing is good if it is in excess. Reinaldo's excess of love for his wife lead to possessiveness and jealousy. According to Flora, Reinaldo wished she would look at only his face and alienate herself from everyone else.

When something is lost only then one realizes the worth of that thing. Flora realized how much she was in love with her husband only when he died. She should have valued his love and taken him into confidence through her love and trust. It is the characteristic of a good wife that she considers the likes and dislikes of her husband and tries not to upset him through her actions. Flora should have considered Reinaldo's tastes and molded herself accordingly for a harmonious living. Reinaldo too, should have trusted his wife and tried to tolerate things which make her happy.

Your perceptions matter the most in any situation. Both thought that they were not loved by the other, but in the end it is made clear that they both loved each other very much. But they did not share their assumptions. It was very explicit that Reinaldo's threat was an empty threat, Flora should have realized that if he had not made a move to harm her in four years he never really meant to hurt her at all. She should have approached him and talked to him reasonably through sensible dialogue about their situation. She should have expressed her mortal fear of firearms and tried to reduce the distance between them.

Age could be taken as a factor for the differences between the couple. Being a teenager Flora's activities and interests were contrary to those of a forty year old man who has lived his life and gathered enough experiences to make him a sober individual. Reinaldo should have known that a woman of Flora's age is bound to have social habits and he should have given her enough time to mold herself into the woman he wanted her to be. Flora was too busy carrying on with her lifestyle to realize that perhaps some of her habits were disliked by Reinaldo. The lack of understanding and high expectations on both sides can be attributed to an age barrier.

The 'revolver' is a symbol of fear, danger and killing. From the first sight of the revolver Flora's inner carefree and birdlike personality died and fear took its place. The revolver also represents loss; loss of confidence on part of Flora, loss of love, trust and loss of desires and dreams. For Flora it was a symbol of death and fear of death, considering her past experience about the weapon. It was also the symbol of death of their marriage when Reinaldo died. In the end it represented an empty threat from Reinaldo as an empty weapon. Flora lost her health after she was exposed to the weapon by Reinaldo. She lost her fairness, her youth, her liveliness, her charm and her beauty. Everything withered away and she slowly became an ailing woman.

Main Themes:

• Different facets of love.
• Age Barrier.
• People and their responses to different situations.
• Psychological Analysis of married couples.
• Lack of communication.
• Jealousy and possessiveness.

Questions:

1. What is the exact nature of Flora's illness? Why does she continue to suffer?
2. How would you describe the relationship between Flora and Reinaldo?
3. What is the theme of the story?
4. What does the Revolver symbolize in the story?
5. How do the images of the story contribute to its tone and theme?
   
   
   Credit-Muneeza Rafiq