Reading and Sharing around the Globe
Jul 28, 2013
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage - Family Furnishings
How do you like this story? What about the relationships in it? Alfrida and the father? Alfrida and the main character (I can't think of her name now!)? Conservative versus modern, more open? Have you had any situation that makes you think of this a familiar story? Some person that you knew and admired at a time and that then, you grew to dislike...
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I very much enjoyed this story. I probably feel more empathy for a younger characters :-)
ReplyDeleteThis feeling of admiration for someone when you are young and later in life disliking them or feeling embarrassed about their presence is as real as life. We all evolve and so does society.
I have a somehow similar story of admiration. I remember when I was little, one of my mother’s friends often visited us on Sunday: she was single, she worked, she traveled (I clearly remember when she went to Egypt and I was astonished by her stories), she was elegant and modern … She also smoked. Reminds me so much of Alfrida. The difference is I never got to dislike her afterwards, but she is not family, and that probably makes a difference.
There are so many sides to this story: how openness can be as stubborn and intolerant as more conservative attitudes, how some people feel embarrassed about their family, how the role of women in society changed over time (she takes her grant instead of taking care of her ill mother), the importance of family in our lives. The comparison between the family load and the heavy old furniture feels very appropriate sometimes.
At some point I thought the story was autobiographical, especially when the main character (does she have a name?) explains that she wants to be a writer. I read an interview with Alice Munro (I am unable to find it again) where she is asked this exact question, but she denies it is her.
I was puzzled by the end: what does it mean that she meets Alfrida’s daughter at the funeral? I was shocked by that situation and by the confession of what Alfrida thought about her niece. It was eye-opening: sometimes we think we are seen by others the way we see ourselves.
I also liked this story, though I did not like the main character (I don't think we have a name?).
ReplyDeleteI liked her at the beginning, or at least how she describes herself when she was young, and how she presents the situations, admiration and interest she had for somebody she thought to be different. The story made me think about those stories of admiration Arantxa mentions, but also how perceptions change when we mature. In this story, I actually think Alfrida was different. For how she is presented, she had something other women did not have at that time.
However, I don't like how the main character evolves and matures. She seems to be selfish, arrogant and superficial. I recall that I was shocked by what she said about her fiancé: "he admired opera and Hamlet, but he had no time for tragedy in real life". What does that mean? Then, she continues: "his resolute approval of me" what kind of relationship's term is "approval"? For me, those sentences show what she has turned into. It is also enlighting of her lack of empathy how she says she did not give much thought about how Alfrida felt after she wrote that piece about her. Even when she knew, she did not care much.
I liked the end of the story. How it is shown to the protagonist that she did not know that much about Alfrida as she thought. I also like what Arantxa wrote: "sometimes we think we are seen by others the way we see ourselves". Finally, I like how it took me to think about how I felt about people when I was a kid and how those feelings changed, or not, with the years.
I agree with Macarena, I don't like the main character either. But I can't help wondering if I haven't been a little bit like that at some point in my life, especially as a teenager when most of us are selfish and arrogant and superficial; when you need that ‘approval’ from your peers.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, also for most people, ‘teenageritis’ is a disease that cures with time…
I see what you say and I have to agree that teenage years are another story when it comes to valuing people and defining ourselves.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, for our protagonist, I feel it is a matter of personality rather than momentum.