ENG125: Introduction to Literature (GSH1346A)
Title: Death and Impermanence
Instructor: Emily Benson
Student: Nicholas Kalonda
There’s a wealth of life changing experiences from the two stories chosen from the topic, death and permanence, namely, “A Father’s story ( Dubus) and “ I used to live here Once” (Rhys).These two literary works would be the basis upon which this paper will be developed , comparing and contrasting their themes. Although each of these stories were written by different authors with no literal similarities, the two stories both portray similarities in theme and both share in similarities through the use of symbols. In all essence both stories give a glimpse of human life perplexities and the undying will to survive and overcome these life perplexities- though some may be resolved in one’s lifetime there are some other life perplexities that can only be attended to or resolved only in the passing of time if to include the passing of life itself of an individual.
In comparing the two literal works contained in, “A father’s story” (Dubus) and “I used to live here Once” (Rhys), the striking similarities of the two is revealed by the insidious undertone of a hanging cloud of gloom in characters in each story. In “A father’s story” the annunciation of the character opens with a melancholy personality, and carries on with a habitual gloomy state of mind, as the following extract would suggest.” My name is Luke Ripley, and here is what I call my life: I own a stable of thirty horses… I call this my home because it looks like it is, and people know I call it like that, but it is a life I can get away from…after dinner when I sit in the dark in front of room and listen to opera. The room faces the lawn and the road, a two- lane country road. When the cars come from around the curve northwest of the house, they light up the lawn for an instant, the leaves of the maple out of the hemlock closer to the window. Then I’m alone again, or I’d appear it someone crept up to the house and looked through the window and smoking cigarettes, starring out at the dark woods across the road, listening to a grieving soprano. In comparison to the story, “I used to live there Once” the story opens with the somber tone, somewhat dark and gloomy. The woman appeared to be a solemn state as the story unfolds. “She was standing by the river looking at the stepping stones remembering each one .There was round unsteady stone, the pointed one, the flat one, the safe stone where you could stand and look around .The next wasn’t so safe for when the river was full the water flowed over it and even when it showed dry it was slippery…and she was standing on the other side as if in face of some new chapter of life or unfamiliar territory, except even this sublime pinnacle of life, there are still a few patches of to trace to her past.”
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This remarkable similarity of literal mechanics descriptive usage of imagery and metaphoric terminologies sets a convincing tone to suggest that both characters in the story –A father’s story and – I once used to live there, suggest to the reader the vulnerability of human frailty in coping with life’s uncertainties through the life’s perilous journey of life. Life at its best provides, graceful but fleeting moments of tranquility which quickly becomes overshadowed with other life perplexities. Thus the tone and the use of metaphor creates a recurring theme the characters adapting to the unavoidable changes that they have to accept or settle with at a later stage in life or in another life, in case of the woman in the story, “ I once used to live here” ( Rhys).
With this somber theme of looming fears of uncertainty, the two stories are stretches through the pages as a unifying idea in the two artistic works. In each of these literary works the authors diverge extensively in the use of symbolic expression, tone, character, setting and point of view that seem to haunt and dictate the fate of Luke Ripley and the woman as it were by some forces bigger than they could restrain except but to follow the whole course, even if it meant taking a trip to perdition.
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The environment which the two stories were narrated helped to enrich the reader’s anticipation. Through a care careful mastery of setting, the narrator in each story succeeds in isolating the reader from the hustles and distraction from the reader’s mind and helps them to personalize and anticipate what was further ahead in the story’s entirety. In the story “ I used to live here once” the sentence, “She was standing by the river and looking at the stepping stones and remembering each one.” Couldn’t have been more classical in drawing the reader’s attention and gravitate at what was to follow in the succeeding pages. Equally in the story- A father’s story, we read, “The room faces the lawn and the road, a two- lane country road. When the cars come from around the curve northwest of the house, they light up the lawn for an instant, the leaves of the maple out of the hemlock closer to the window. Then I’m alone again, or I’d appear it someone crept up to the house and looked through the window and smoking cigarettes, starring out at the dark woods across the road, listening to a grieving soprano.” They are both rich with and exemplify the attitude and presuppositions of both narrations towards their work.
The two stories also share their similarities in that each one has some sporadic pockets of warmth, peace and serenity, though these blissful moments quickly dissipates and fades away under the lingering theme of death and impermanence as we read in the character of Luke Ripley,” they light up the lawn for an instant, the leaves of the maple out of the hemlock closer to the window. Then I’m alone again…” Similarly, the woman in the story – I used to live here Once,” in a statement such as, “There was the round unsteady stone, the pointed one, the flat one in the middle, the safe stone where you could stand and look around.. The next one wasn’t so safe for when the river was full the water flowed over it and even when it showed dry it was slippery but after that it was easy…yet it was the same road and she walked along feeling extraordinarily happy….She came to the worn stone steps that led up to the house and her heart begun to beat.” Here we find a unifying caption similar to Luke Ripley’s.
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The difference in two stories is strongly reflected in Rhys’ story by the succeeding clues that the narrator gives through symbolic description after the woman crossed to the other side of the river. There the narrator creates two perspectives of the woman’s life. The first one before she crossed the river was more literal and easy for the reader to imagine that the description about the woman was literal as an event that happened in one’s life time, especially in reading the following phrase, “There was the round unsteady stone, the pointed one, the flat one in the middle, the safe stone where you could stand and look around.. The next one wasn’t so safe for when the river was full the water flowed over it and even when it showed dry it was slippery but after that it was easy…” Further reading that suggest that the description of the events surrounding the woman was literal is contained in the next sentence, ”She was standing by the river looking at the stepping stones and remembering each one.” The reader assumes the woman had been a familiar traveler on this path as in a literal sense. However there is a sudden shift after the woman crosses the river. It appears that the narrator had succeeded in eluding the reader in connecting to this literal discourse ( from the narrator’s point of view) while setting up the plot which later reveals that the woman was in a place that she has never been before, contrary to the title- I used to live here once.
The irony of the story reveals that after some leading clues with symbolic meanings, it becomes apparent that the woman after crossing the river the author’s begun to use some celestial terms such as “glassy” symbolic of reflections in the woman’s previous life or in the most suggestive of a spiritual journey.
Several other clues from natural elements is used repetitively that holds a symbolic meaning of death. For example, crossing the river is symbolic of death, the calling of children from the distance who appeared showing a coldness in the their faces, she said “hello” but they did not answer or turn their heads, the grass was yellow (sign of life fading in decay), the cold straight look from the boy deep into her eyes, her alms instinctively longing to touch them and finally the statement from the boy broke the ice and brought the story home. “Hasn’t it gone cold all of a sudden, D’ you notice? Having embellished all these leading pieces across to the reader, the narrator didn’t feel compelled the close say any more than allowing the reader to push the nail in the coffin. Suffice to say,” That was the first time she knew that she was dead.”
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In returning to A Father’s story contrast is that in Luke Ripley, the surrounding circumstances of his life suggest that the author’s point of view would have the reader to perceive Luke Ripley, though humanly alive, that he suffered loss in so many things so dear to him that he’s life was almost out of normal existence. He had constantly struggled not only the losses of his marriage, but also the loss of his companionship with his children too. He struggled to stay alive and positive as a man at the constant barrage of the perils of life surrounding his life and family.
From the story we read, “But I cannot achieve contemplation, as some can and so, having to face and forgive my own failures…the most painful loss was my children, then the loss of Gloria, whom I still loved despite or maybe because of our long periods of sadness that rendered us helpless…I wish I had known what I know now…marriage like a bundle from a moving freight car was unjust, was intolerable, and I could have the strength to master it.. From the many events in Luke Ripley’s life there is a ceaseless tone of unpleasant life episodes that seemed to smolder Luke Ripley’s life away yet he lived.
As much as he could have tried to relearn a new course in his life journey, there was a persistence of the eminent forces of death and impermanence and as life has it, the frailty of human kind would naturally give way to the changes of life .If life has a beginning then life must also have an end. The end which is commonly known as death, if cannot be resisted, perhaps mortal men should find ways to accept that death is just another form of life, either in this life or another life to come.
References
1. Cluston, R.W.(2010).Journey into Literature.
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2. San Diego, California; Bridgepoint Education, inc
3. https://content.ashford.edu/books
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