At Hiruharama by Penelope Fitzgerald Analysis

The short story "At Hiruharama" was written by British writer Penelope Fitzgerald. Some interesting facts about her as a writer:

- she started publishing her works at the age of 60;

- she was one of the most awarded English writers.

The style of this story is rather specific: it focuses more on describing life in general rather than revealing the plot of the story. The narrator, who was the grandson of the main character and had the same name, used a pretext for describing the life of the first migrants in New Zealand from England. This is the first paragraph:

"Mr. Tanner was anxious to explain how it was that he had a lawyer in the family, so that when they all decided to sell up and quit New Zealand there had been someone they could absolutely trust with the legal business."

The plotline of the first paragraph has very little in common with the main plot line. It is quite a usual situation when somebody had suddenly seen something and it aroused the memories in somebody's mind and we could hear a vivid, detailed story about the past. The author used the short introduction "That meant that he had to say something about his grandfather" and started telling the story about the life of the new settlers in New Zealand.

This is a story about the first settlers in New Zealand from England. Mr. Tanner worked for a well-to-do family in Auckland. He met a 16-year-old girl, Kitty, who worked for another family. They married and started their life in quite a remote place, named Hiruharama which means Jerusalem.

There were no people in that place. When Kitty said that she was expecting a baby, Mr.Tanner rode to Auckland city, where he found a doctor. On his way back to Hiruharama he was given a few post pigeons which he wanted to use to call the doctor when his wife would be about to give birth. The language which the author used, drew out the vivid picture a simple life. A lack of convenience, the absence of civilization and strong character of people - it is what Penelope Fitzgerald presented to the readers.

At Hiruharama by Penelope Fitzgerald

Text:

http://www.jamesafarley.com/uploads/2/6/7/0/26702714/at_hiruharama.pdf

and here “it needs to extract”: http://tubibliotecauniversal1.blogspot.ru/2017/09/the-means-of-escape-english-penelope.html

Audio

https://www.theguardian.com/books/audio/2012/dec/29/as-byatt-penelope-fitzgerald-hiruharama

"Do You Speak English?" by Simon Collings Review

The short story "Do You Speak English?" was written by Simon Collings and was first published on the free web-resource www.short-stories.co.uk

The plot includes only one scene. The main character Manuel watched mechanically (it didn't bother him so much) the process of catching fish by a ten-year-old boy. One fish leaped out of something like a bucket and was gasping in convulsions. Manuel thoughts were mostly about some issues from his everyday life (about paying rent etc). Manuel saw two tourists, a woman and a man, who must have got lost because that poor district was of no interest to visitors.

The author described the scenery in a very rich style, he drew an ugly picture of personalities and an everyday life:

• for fish "The gill flaps opened like two gash wounds on the sides of its head as it thrashed helplessly in the gutter.";
• for the boy who was "barefoot and grubby, and his skin was marked with insect bites"
• for the woman who "had shoulder-length reddish hair and pale freckled skin".  
• for the man who "was tall and flabby, his stomach protruding from under his T-shirt."

People used to be composed seeing caught fish. "Fish is what we eat" - this is a usual attitude of people towards caught fish. This was another case. "Look at the   poor   thing,' said the woman, stopping beside the fish, which lay where the boy had kicked   it, probably now gasping its last breaths." Her partner tried to persuade her to avoid being involved in any actions here, but without any results.

She asked the boy about this fish but he didn't understand her. And then she saw Manuel and asked him if he spoke English. She said: "Can you ask this boy what he means to do with the fish? It seems so cruel, it ought to be thrown back". Manuel thought that she wasn't able to understand the boy who lived in the squalid shacks as if she was from another planet. He translated that the boy intended to sell the fish. Persisting in her strange wish, she asked how much the boy wanted for that fish. Even the overrated price didn't stop her. She paid, the fish was thrown back into the water and as it had been already dead, it was grabbed again by the boy after the couple had gone.

This story conveyed the idea of the remoteness of people from each other. The contrast between people was in the focus of the writer's attention in this story. Not only the language separate people, but most important is the fact that they belong to different social groups.

The author drew a very clear picture of the place where this story occurred. He used a lot of adjectives with a mostly negative connotation. Surfing the Internet I’ve seen that this story has been chosen a lot of times as a class material for English lessons. Probably one of the reasons is a very rich vocabulary which the author used. In a brief manner this story raises very actual questions, they give good food for thoughts.

I found out that the author had published this story on his blog https://simoncollings.wordpress.com/do-you-speak-english/

This resource for blogging is similar to the platform which I use for my blog (blogspot.com). Maybe someday I will write my own short story and will publish it on my blog ...

Simon Collings Do You Speak English?

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/SpeaEngl794.shtml#viewaddcomments

Life As I've Seen It by Laya Bajpai Analysis

Reading the book "Life as I've seen it" by Laya Bajpai allows readers to download in the atmosphere of modern India. The book includes several short stories each is with an independent plot. Each of them looks as a glimpse into the life of person, group of people or society. The reading would be compared with watching documentary but reading gives a better feeling of being there.   

The first story was named "The Guilt". It tells the story of a person who betrayed his first love in a dangerous situation, he ran away when the couple met the gang in the Indian town. We don't know what happened with his girl, the author focused on the life of the main character. After his life changed and he moved from India to the USA, the story erased in his memory when he saw the TV program about riots in India. It seems that Laya Bajpai avoided judging him, the author left this to readers. The current life of the protagonist seems unclouded but the guilt of his treachery will stay with him for all his life.

My favorite story from the book was the second one with the title "A strange Occurrence". This story was written from the first face of the narrator. It was her reminiscences of the girl 9 years old who lived in a small town in the state of Maharashtra, in India. The author described the society pointing out the belonging to definite religious group (Parsi, Catholics) and according to their occupations and origins (staying in Sanatoriums, arriving from Bombay). The girl usually came back home from the school with her father on his scooter. Once she said that she was going to stay in school longer and she would come back home alone, by herself, even it was a long way and her father agreed with it. While she was walking home the heavy rain started. This is how it was described by the author:

"Suddenly it started raining heavily and as I had no raincoat or umbrella, I started getting drenched. The distance was long and in-between there was a nullah that had started overflowing and water was coming on to the road. I was terribly scared and also had no money in my pocket to catch a bus, nor did I know anything about the bus routes, so, I started crying."

This passage gives readers a vivid picture of the girl who appeared in the situation where she was not familiar with. Unknown three ladies were sitting on their verandah watching the rain, they asked the girl what happened and invited her to stay for a while with them. They suggested to sit on the veranda and to wait while they prepared something to eat and left her. The girl thought:  "I had heard stories of people who steal children by giving them good food to eat. I was suspicious. So, when nobody came out of the house for quite some time, I quietly slipped out and as it had stopped raining, I walked home.".

The childish imagination often draws in the mind the mixture of fantasy and reality. This feeling is very recognizable and it is what attracts me in this story. This style of writing reminds me the advice given by one very famous author. He advised to write about what you feel and do it sincerely. It is what readers eager to read and this was implemented perfectly in the book "Life as I've seen it".

I had a chance to discuss this story with the author- Laya Bajpai, with whom I had a lesson about English literature.

This book is available for buying on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M8AZCHG

The Happy Failure by Herman Melville Analysis

"The Happy Failure" by Herman Melville is a short story not about success or failure. It is more likely that it is a story about man's attitude to life.

Herman Melville is an American writer of the eighteenth century, well known for his novel "Moby-Dick".  When I read this story and especially when I listened to the audio (both links for these resources put here after the essay) I had a feeling of that epoch. That was a time of great inventions, when the terms of New World (referring to America) and Old World (Europe) were commonly used. But nevertheless, I keep repeating that this story was not about inventions. Let's look to the plot of this story.

The narrator (he was called youngster in the story), a very young man, was called to help his uncle. After the short riding on the boat, the narrator saw his uncle and the servant of the uncle, Yorpy, who carried a heavy, big box.  Yorpy put the box in the boat under many instructions given by the uncle such as "Put it in, you grizzled-headed cherub--put it in carefully, carefully! If that box bursts, my everlasting fortune collapses."

The uncle said that this a deal of lifetime -device for draining swamps-  and he is going to test it on the island located about ten miles up the river. Youngster expressed some doubts about the necessity of such a long trip under a scorching sun and the uncle demanded that he would put him ashore. The major turn of the story happened when the narrator realizes his mistake, expressed support of the uncle's intentions and continued to help his uncle.

When they came to the island, the uncle seemed to notice somebody in the bush, but he was mistaken. The narrator and Yorpy cooperated with the old man and made a deal about searching for strangers on the island. Afterwards, they started an experiment with the new invented device. They continued their actions in that time even though the uncle understood that this experiment was going to fail. The uncle gave for youngster one advice "Boy, take my advice, and never try to invent anything but--happiness." and he said "Boy, I'm glad I've failed. I say, boy, failure has made a good old man of me. It was horrible at first, but I'm glad I've failed."

The last statement was said by the narrator after the death of his uncle with a great respect:

"I seemed to hear again his deep, fervent cry--"Praise be to God for the failure!"

My interpretation of the moral of this story, that action, aspiration is more important than results. The energy of an elderly uncle, this is what moves the progress. We see this energy from the beginning when he exclaimed "Come, hurrah” when the uncle refused the skeptical mood of his nephew when the old man passed his failure and concluded that it is not the end of the world and so on.

It often happens when the elderly people who worked with a great enthusiasm, begin to be ill as soon as they retire. But if they have hobbies, everything changes - they continue living active and happy life.

The importance of being involved in something interesting was illustrated through the statement which the old man said: "Boy, take my advice, and never try to invent anything but - happiness."

These are the links to the text and audio of the story:

https://www.accuracyproject.org/t-Melville-TheHappyFailure.html

http://www.morningshort.com/listen

Notes from the House Spirits by Lucy Wood Analysis

The short story "Notes from the House Spirits" by Lucy Wood was written in a unique style. While I was reading I had a feeling that the words were flying around. This effect was achieved by using simple sentences, repetition, describing the very recognizable things like dust or sound like the creak of floors.

The storyteller here is the House Spirits, the narrator uses the pronoun "we" (in plural). The narration stretched in time for the period of the time of exiting the house. The reader sees how time is going by, tenants replace each other, the House Spirits adopted to them, estimated and express own opinion about them.

Let's see how the state of silence was described in the story:

"Dust drifts across the room and settles on skirting and curtain rails. We can see it, every single piece, as it piles up and no one brushes it away. Dust is static and lazy; it lands on the first thing it sees. It fills the house bit by bit and no one brushes it away. It is not our job to brush it away." Reading these lines I felt such as my thoughts were described in this paragraph. There are some moments probably in everyone’s life when things which we didn't notice in usual circumstances became very tangible and real. Lucy Wood was able to describe it and make it recognizable.

The Notes includes a number of memories about dwellers of this house. The lonely woman was the first. She left the house suddenly leaving off her belongings. My impression was that the House Spirits described it without emotions: "It is rude to leave suddenly, without any notice. She didn't give us any notice. There weren't any boxes. She didn't take any of her things away. Didn't she like it here? She left all her things behind. What does she expect us to do with it all? There is nothing that we can do with it, except count it, except look carefully through it, and we have done that already."

The author used a good method to summarize each part of the story - putting the paragraph with its own title:

"Things we miss about the one who left suddenly in the night:

Her laugh, which was as loud and sudden as the gas flame igniting in the boiler. ... The way she jumped when the doorbell rang."

More and more new people came and left the house, the emptiness, the details - all these things were described consecutively and thoroughly: "Now we notice what we didn't notice before: that the paint is actually a strange blue, a cold blue, a blue that wasn't the right decision. We don't want that blue anymore." The narrator estimated people, things, animals: "There is a spider's web behind a door handle and one under a light switch. We like spiders; they are quiet and make good use of the space."

The Spirits gave them-self a modest role in explaining their attitude to everything: "we think the voice is familiar – we are not good with voices" or "We think they are the same people but we are not sure. We are not good with faces"

Many characters go through the story and drift away. The time of being in the house was described by a few glimpses, very shortly. This way of writing highlighted the fact of temporal quality of everything, readers can see how time is going by scene by scene, as slides in the presentation change one after each other without any of our participation. People experience the same during pivotal moments of their lives or on the deathbed when reminiscences from childhood, youth, and adulthood are passing in memory for a few minutes.

The separated plotline of the story is growing of the buddleia. This is a quote about this plant from BBC: "More people are buying buddleia for their gardens, but it's classified as an invasive species and is a problem on British railways. It's hard to walk by a railway line in Britain and not see buddleia." I admit that it is a way to represent the flow of time: it never stops.

Lucy Wood was so verisimilar in her story that readers would believe in existence of the spirits, these wonderful creatures who it seemed are interested in all our deals. I noticed this treat in my cat. His name is Lastic and he always comes to the room where something happens: a gathering of family members and so on. We often discuss what could be his thoughts about us, the version of "Notes" from Lucy Wooden could be appropriate.



Lucy Wood is a very young writer, she was born in 1990. There is no Wikipedia page about her, no youtube channel, it seems that she does not care about promoting her works. But she was noticed by The Guardian and she received the​ very positive replies about her literary style. I expect that the Google engine machine will guide the future readers, who will start reading her story, for this analysis and I will take a part of in the distribution of this talented author - Lucy Wood.

Notes from the House Spirits by Lucy Wood

Text:

http://booktrustadmin.artlogic.net/usr/resources/1173/houseofspirits_woodlucy.pdf

Audio:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/audio/2012/dec/31/jon-mcgregor-lucy-wood-house

The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant Analysis

A very famous French writer Guy de Maupassant described in the short story "The Necklace" the incident which changed the life of a person. It's interesting that it was the second story which I had read in English of this author where one event that had a crucial influence on the future life of the protagonist. The first was "The Log", I have already published the analysis of that story on my blog.

The plot of the short story "Necklace" is about a young woman, Mathilde, who was rather pretty and her prospects in life should have been good and bright. The author believed that "Women don't belong to a caste or class; their beauty, grace, and natural charm take the place of birth and family". But she "had no dowry, no expectations, no means of becoming known, understood, loved or wedded by a man of wealth and distinction; and so she let herself be married to a minor official at the Ministry of Education." Mathilde dreamed about a charming style of life, about beautifully furnished rooms with luxurious chandeliers, about elegant cavaliers who would appreciate and admire her beauty.

Once her husband brought home an invitation for a ball in the Ministry, instead of being glad, she started crying. Mathilde complained to her husband that she didn't have the clothes for the party. For his question how much money for buying appropriate clothes she needed, she answered calculating the price equal to all their savings. Her husband approved it, but it wasn't enough. She felt the need for a piece of Jewellery to go with the dress. Her husband advised her to borrow it from her former rich friend Madame Forestier. So she did as advised, she asked to borrow it for a short period of time and in return to her request received a beautiful necklace for the ball.

Mathilde has a great success during the ball. Every respectable man wanted to dance with her, she was noticed by the Minister. When the party was over the spouses came home and suddenly Mathilde saw she had lost the necklace. This fact terrified the couple. They tried to find the jewelry but without results. They decided to replace the necklace by buying a similar item.

The husband gathered all savings what he had, he borrowed money from all his acquaintances and they bought the necklace which looked similar to the original one. Mathilde returned this replacement to Madame Forestier, she noticed nothing.

Next ten years the spouses struggled to gain money for returning borrowed money. Mathilde "looked old now. She had become strong, hard and rough like all women of impoverished households."

It is how Guy de Maupassant described the climax of the story: "One Sunday, as she was walking in the Champs Élysées to refresh herself after the week's work, suddenly she saw a woman walking with a child. It was Madame Forestier, still young, still beautiful, still charming." Mathilde decided to disclose the story of replacement. Madam Forestier didn't recognize her at first and when Mathilde explained that her exhausted looks were caused by the tremendous efforts to arrange the money for buying the necklace: "Madame Forestier, deeply moved, took both her hands. "Oh, my poor Mathilde! Mine was an imitation! It was worth five hundred francs at most! ..."

This story could be interpreted differently but I'd highlight one very important idea. People could have positive and negative attitudes to the fate and their choice defines the quality of their lives. Imagine the beauty of Nature, a freshness of the air, magnificent Parisian streets (Champs Élysées was mentioned in the text), they are equal for everyone: for rich and poor people. Mathilde could enjoy her life having the husband who loved her, living in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. But no, she separated herself from her family and friends once concluded that she is different.

It is interesting to think about the author's opinion about her. It seemed that Guy de Maupassant sympathized with her (he described her beauty), but I discerned in many details of the story that the author tended to appraise her character as a selfish, egoistic person. In contrary, her husband was looked at by Mathilde as a minor official, good-for-nothing man. After attentive reading, I drew an opposite conclusion.

"The Necklace" might be used as a didactic story for motivating people to avoid focusing on negative circumstances and paying more attention to the positive side of the life.

The story has a surprise ending, almost a twist in the tale which adds to the interest of the reader.



The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
Text:
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Neck.shtml
Audio:
http://mp3fut.site/MP3_Download_74C00/The_Necklace_By_Guy_De_Maupassant

A Cup of Tea by Katherine Mansfield Analysis

The short story "A Cup of Tea" was written by a prominent New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield. Before reading I listened to the audio of the story from Youtube (the link is posted in the ending of this review). The tone of voice in the recording was quite ironical, even flippant, obviously, it was made for purpose because of the similarity of literary style of the story. That was a right method indeed, how else can we read this passage: "Rosemary Fell was not exactly beautiful. No, you couldn't have called her beautiful. Pretty? Well, if you took her to pieces... But why be so cruel as to take anyone to pieces?".

The story tells us about one episode in the life of a very rich woman Rosemary Fell. She was used to spending money for any whims of hers. Katherine Mansfield described the scene how the shopkeeper flattered her taste of beauty: "You see, madam," he would explain in his low respectful tones, "I love my things. I would rather not part with them than sell them to someone who does not appreciate them, who has not that fine feeling which is so rare...". The seller asked for the thing (animated composition in the box) at a very high price and Rosemary espoused that the price didn’t shock her, she was able to buy everything that she wanted. Let's look at the text:

"Charming!" Rosemary admired the flowers. But what was the price? For a moment the shopman did not seem to hear. Then a murmur reached her. "Twenty-eight guineas, madam." "Twenty-eight guineas." Rosemary gave no sign. She laid the little box down; she buttoned her gloves again. Twenty-eight guineas. Even if one is rich...

She looked vague. She stared at a plump tea-kettle like a plump hen above the shopman's head, and her voice was dreamy as she answered: "Well, keep it for me - will you? I'll..."

This was a long introduction which was necessary for understanding the moral of the story. The key moment of the story occurred when Rosemary went out of the shop and a young girl asked her some money for a cup of tea. In response Rosemary acted unpredictably, she invited the girl to her home for a cup of tea.

While I was reading this part of Katherine Mansfield's story, another story appeared in my mind. It is a satirical story written by one of the most well-known and recognizable Russian writers Fyodor Dostoyevsky. "A Nasty Story". The story told how one very high-level person, the general, decided to visit the wedding of one of his subordinate and how bad it turned: the tension of awareness having so high boss ruined the celebration. The true intention of the participating in the wedding for the boss was probably the attempt to increase his self-appraisal. I think that Rosemary had the same motivation.

After Rosemary brought the girl to her house, Philip, the husband of Rosemary, came home. He was very surprised, even shocked by the fact of seeing such an unusual visitor. Rosemary insisted that it is not her whim, that she would care about the future of that stranger - the young girl, who introduced herself as Ms.Smith. But the attitude of Rosemary in terms of Ms. Smith was changed dramatically when Philip said that Ms. Smith is pretty.

Rosemary went to her writing-room. "She opened a drawer and took out five-pound notes, looked at them, put two back, and holding the three squeezed in her hand, she went back to her bedroom."After Rosemary removed the threat of having a pretty girl in her house giving three-pound notes and returned back to Philip, she asked: "Do you like me?". He answered, "I like you awfully". "Then Rosemary said dreamily: "I saw a fascinating little box today. It cost twenty-eight guineas. May I have it?" Philip jumped her on his knee. "You may, little wasteful one," said he. But that was not really what Rosemary wanted to say. "Philip," she whispered, and she pressed his head against her bosom, "am I pretty?".

The last question in the story raised doubts about self-confidence of Rosemary. She depended on the money of her husband she wasn't sure about her attractiveness. The last question reminded the humorous episode mentioned in the beginning of the story: "Rosemary Fell was not exactly beautiful. .. Pretty? Well, if you took her to pieces...". One conclusion may be that the theme of insecurity, even for so extremely rich person, was highlighted in the story.

The story may give a lot of subjects for discussing: about relationships in society, about the definition of good and bad, about begging and so on. It is why this story is used as a class material for literary classes and why the name of the author is well known. Katherine Mansfield drew a picture of life in society and made it very well.



A Cup of Tea by Katherine Mansfield links:
Text:
http://tvtolstova.narod.ru/olderfiles/1/A_Cup_of_Tea.pdf
Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgBvzLVGD3g&t=198s