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Ruth Goldberg Ives
English 255
Fall 2012
Professor G. G. Patthey
Analyzing Fiction #1 Ana Maria
1. Protagonist descriptions.
The first protagonist “The Old Man†has difficulties on three levels: 1. His wife 2. His livelihood and 3. His advancing age.
“Even after thirty-odd years of marriage he could never be sure what things it was possible to tell his wife without her flying off the handle, although for a long time he’d been indifferent to his wife’s fits of anger.
“As there was no one else he could talk to about it, on several occasions he found himself saying something about the girl to his wife, whose spirits were getting lower and lower, until there was no longer even bitterness between them.†P 87
“Some time passed and the building the old man was working on was completed. They laid off the men, who soon found another employer but nobody wanted to give work to a creature as frail a the old man.†P 94
He was getting so old, getting wearier by the hour, that walking to the other side of the city was almost impossible for him.†P. 97
“Perhaps the best thing would be to go off to some deserted place, to a hill, perhaps, and wait for night-time to lie down and die. He was sure that just by curling up on the ground and wishing for it, death would come..†p 97
By the end of the story Protagonist #1 is changed in status. Separated from his job because of lay off and old age. Separated form his wife because she leaves him. He becomes attached to Ana Maria. He has learned that Ana Maria is a waif. He has learned that he is no longer physically capable of doing hard day labor because of his advancing age. He has learned that he is needed to nurture and care for a neglected child.
Protagonist #2 Ana Maria
Ana Maria’s difficulties are her parents lack of parenting skills.
“The girl was, in fact very little.â€
“She could hardly have been three years old.†P. 85
“Poor little thing.†P. 85
“How odd for them to leave such a little girl all on her own in such a big garden!â€
That was the last thing that she took out of the bag as if she did not want her friend to see it, as if she herself did not want to see it.
“Ana Maria’s eyes, suddenly filled with tears, which trembled inside but didn’t fall, magnifying her eyes prodigiously.â€
“Bad girl .. .. muttered the girl.â€
“Why?
“Then she shook the broken toy vigorously, crying†“Bad girl, bad girl, bad girl . . .â€
“And threw it into the undergrowth. At that moment her eyes over flowed and she remained still, looking at the old man, her cheeks streaming, her eyelashes soaked.â€
By the end of the story Ana Maria, between ages 2 and 3 years, has found another person to take care of her needs for nurturing, affection, sustenance, belonging, safety and shelter (Abraham Maslow) in her friend, the Old Man who becomes here new parent, guardian, provider and caregiver.
Antagonist #1 The Old Man’s Wife
The old man’s wife’s difficulties, sadly are 1. Her marriage. She is the scapegoat of her husband. 2. Her community . She the scapegoat of her community. She is the scapegoat of society. 3. Causeless hatred.
Fits of anger, hardness, certain of her husband’s contempt,
“Thirty odd years of marriage†p 86
“ her husband weary of silently hating her failure as a wife, would call her a “muleâ€. P. 87
“The women in the district all proudly called her thisâ€. P. 87
“Woman who overwhelmed by the need to feed scores of children, would always avoid any contact whatsoever with her, as she was so bitter and silent.†P. 87
“Over the course of the years she had hidden herself in a cloud of ill-humor and anguish waiting for the moment to retire and cede her place to another woman who would be more deserving of it.â€
“And as they had grown old so much distance had come between them, that the only tangible part of their relationship was one of silent bitterness.â€
“Suddenly she caught sight in the distance of the little girl splashing about in the irrigation ditch, her white body cut up by the reflections of the water. P. 96
Upon this discovery, a tangled knot of amazement and hatred came together with the woman’s heart.†P. 96
“Finally, the whole mask of anguish and failure collapsed upon the face of the woman. She got ready to leave. At that moment the little girl took a few steps forward.:†p 96
“Bad girl! Bad girl! Bad girl! She cried, staring at her. And the woman slunk off in defeat.â€
From a strictly Feminist perspective, by the end of the story the wife has discovered that the marriage is a farce. She emancipates herself from the further suffering in the underdog position in a loveless marriage. She becomes a self-supporting, single woman again. She ditches the shack. She ditches the husband who hates her and disrespects her.
Antagonist #2 The Parents of Ana Maria
The difficulties of the parents seems to be that they are very self-absorbed people, very much in love with each other, and they are bewildered by their child. The parents consider the child an unwelcome intrusion upon their relationship. There is no room in their lives for a child.
“It’s two in the afternoon! I’m hungry!â€
“I don’t think I’ve got anything to eat. . . “
“Seeing the dirty dishes from that morning’s breakfast and the previous night’s meal, she gave a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders and took out some clean plates so that she didn’t have to was the others. “ p. 90
“As she cooked she put the radio on , a program playing dance numbers.
She tapped along to the rhythm of the music with her high heels and swayed her naked body as she beat the eggs.†P 90
“Hey where’s the little’un got to?â€
“She’s around somewhere .. replied the woman. “It’s Sunday, so she knows she mustn’t bother us . ..â€
“She’s too little to know it’s Sunday.â€
“But she knows she mustn’t disturb us when your’ here.â€
“The wife served up a dish full for her husband and one for her daughter. She poured her own into a cup because she couldn’t find another clean plate and she couldn’t bring herself to wash the others.†P. 90
“She put on a dressing gown, her husband some underpants, and after shouting to Ana Maria from the entrance to the house, all three sat down to the little table in the living room where they generally age. P. 90
“But they didn’t listen as they laughed together at the jokes in a magazineâ€
“Later the woman saw that Ana Maria hadn’t eaten and that she was staring at her with her huge blue, oh-so-transparent eyes. She felt uncomfortable and told her dryly†“Eat up . .!
Did she eat this morning?†asked the man.
“Yes, I thik so. I was in a bit of a daze, so I didn’t really notice . .â€
Can’t you wash the plates up . . .â€
“I don’t think so. Do you think I married you so I could be a servant to you and the little’un?â€
Leaving everything in the same mess as before, they went back to the bedroom. After a few moments of suggestive games and dozing , the man came up with an ideaâ€:
“Hey, shall we go to the pictures tonight?
“Okay, but we’ll have to make sure the little’un’s asleep first and locked in.â€
Well . . just like normal then.â€
“until finally I picked her up. Then she started to hug me and laugh and be all affectionate, but in a claying sort of way, that it made me feel I don’t know . . sort of scared or disgusted. But sometimes she’s lovely too, ah. She was saying “My lub’ and “pwettie to me, you know, the first things she learned to say, goodness knows where, because you never say that to me. . .â€
Never? What do you mean?
“No. Never . .â€
“But I say better things to you.â€
“Okay, but not those. So, she was being all lovely and affectionate and I was getting really very worried, when, do you know what she did?â€
“No . .â€
“She bit my ear.†P. 92
“She bit your ear? And how did the little devil know you like that?â€
“Don’t be silly, not like that. Don’t laugh, she didn’t nibble it. She bit it really hard, as if she wanted to tear a slice off with those little sharp teeth of hers. It hurt so much I yelped and let go of her. And she raced off as if she know she’d done something wrong. P 92
“That was in the morning. She didn’t come back at lunch time, or for the rest of the day†p 93
“And as you know I cant stand going out into the garden, the other side of the trees, I didn’t go looking for her. But when she came back at night, looking scared stiff, I punished her . . .â€
“And what did you do to her?â€
“How should I know? How do you expect me to remember?†p. 93
The reader learns that the father is actually more parental and concerned about Ana Maria’s welfare than her mother is. We can tell by his inquiries that he wishes that the mother was more attentive to the needs of the child and the household, he is also contented that she is totally focused on him to the exclusion of the child. The author leave us hanging as to what, in the end the parents will learn from little Ana Maria’s escape.
Antagonist #2 Society The World Outside the Community
Society is antagonistic towards both the protagonists and the antagonists.
There is no evidence that society ever learns to check ill-will, jealousy, envy etc. People are perpetually engaged in gossip, repetition and slander. It’s their way to abuse whatever people they are around.
“A workman from the site happened to overhear the old man’s conversation with Ana Maria. From then on his workmates didn’t give him a moments peace. P 93
“Hey, old lover! Come on! How’s your love life getting on? P. 93
“He would hear out their laughter patiently.†P. 93
“As he trundled the morning barrow, his legs, quivering with age, would barely support him on his route down the plank. His eyes blurry with dirt and sweat, could scarcely make out the young workers who gibed at him from the scaffolding. P 93
“Hey, you little old devil! You’d better be careful, they’ll lock you up!†p 93
“The people who were sheltering in the shade of the trees in the parks did not look at him, just as if he no longer existed.†P 97
“The women in the district all proudly called her thisâ€. P. 87
“Woman who overwhelmed by the need to feed scores of children, would always avoid any contact whatsoever with her, as she was so bitter and silent.†P. 87
3 Plot Summery.
The plot of the story is how the tension is resolves between the protagonists (which is the old man, and the little girl) and their antagonists, (the wife of the old man, and the parents of the little girl respectively). At stake for the old man is a marriage that he doesn’t regrets, to a wife that he doesn’t like, and a livelihood that he no longer has or can employ. At stake for the Wife protagonist is a marriage that is unsatisfying and unfulfilling in any way for her. She’s getting nothing out of that marriage, not even children to comfort her. (It could be that the husband is the one who can’t conceive but the village blames the childlessness on the woman automatically. This causes her great sorrow and suffering for something that may not even be her fault.)
The result of the action is a transition for the Old man from married to single. A transition for the Old women from married to single. A transition for Ana Maria from a neglected semi-waif to a little girl who is cherished and cared for.
4. Description of the conflict (s)
Ana Marias infancy is a conflict. She is endangered by her parents ostracism of her.
The Old mans age, he is endangered because of his advancing frailty and feebleness.
The Old woman’s unfortunate bitterness, hatred and jealousy of the little girl. I would have thought that being childless, that she would embrace the little girl as a ‘God send†(I was thinking of the story of Moses being found on the Nile by Pharaoh’s daughter and adopted as her son), and possibly a solution their childlessness. But no, neither of the women in the story could see beyond their own neurotic, selfish needs. That is what the two women had in common, they were both extremely selfish and possibly neurotic and dysfunctional women.
The Parent’s conflict was their selfishness, their excluding their daughter form their nurturing, actually their fear that the child was an impediment to their relationship.
Ana Marias conflict was that she is a baby who needs real, nurturing, and loving parents all of the time. So the conflict is whether the protagonist will lose each other, by hanging on to their situations, or venture into a new realm of emotional satisfaction, and meaningful psychological fulfillment. Both the protagonists and the antagonists have in common “the human condition†of conflict of interest. The old man is considering dying. In a sense he is asking himself the same question as the Hamlet character in Shakespeare:
“To be or not to be that is the question
Whether it is nobler in the minds to take arms against a sea of troubles and end them.
To die to sleep to sleep perhaps to dream.
5. Identify one scene or chapter that is the climax. I think that the climax is when the old man’s wife goes to the garden for a confrontation and sees the little girl. Page 96
“She sat down to wait
.†What will she do? Will she harm the little girl who has apparently alienated the affections of her husband?
“Suddenly she caught sight in the distance of the little girl . . . .â€
“The woman made out the deep, blue eyes gazing harshly at her from the shade, trapping her in their hostile blueness. With a final effort , the woman from somewhere inside herself unearthed a smile.†“The woman began to flag.†“It all seemed in vain.†“All of it, forever in vain.â€
“Finally the whole mask of anguish and failure collapsed upon the face of the woman.â€
“And the woman slunk away in defeat.â€
6.There are four settings. The Garden, the Shack, The Prefabricated House
The setting kinds of signals the reader about the social standing of the people involved. The shack is obviously a place where poor people live, day laborers, and domestic servants. The Garden, which is more like a park, is part of the environment of the prefabricated house where Ana Maria Lives The Prefabricated House is a bit higher on the social scale.
7. Connotation, Metaphor
The image that I see in my mind when I picture the old man is the Michaelangelo painting of God and Adam on the ceiling of the Cistine Chapal. God with the long white beard, reaching out in, gentleness, loving kindness and benevolence with his finger to communicate with Adam. The other image or image or metaphor is that of the story of the Good Samaritan who stopped to aid a victim by the side of the road.
Little Ana Maria was surely a victim or her parents thoughtlessness.
8. Cultural Information. The author does not volunteer any information about the cultural aspects of the situation. The people could be Jews or Gentiles, they could be religiously Protestant or Catholic, or they could be Buddhist or Islamic. To have known what the prevailing religious beliefs were might have given some clue as to some of the intractable attitudes of the society regarding women’s roles and worth only being a by-product of their function as wife and mother. And also the contrast between the two women in the story, the mother of Ana Maria, and the Old Man’s wives lends some irony to the idea that mother hood defines women. Ana Maria’s mother is determined not to be defined by her role as cooks housekeeper, wife and mother. On the other hand, the Old man’s wife has capitulated to the role imposed upon her by society, and her continued failure to meet the expectations of that role in the eyes of her husband and in the eyes of society prevails such that she is unfulfilled throughout the thirty odd years of their marriage. No religious affiliations are designated. The old man’s wife does everything on the to-do-list that a wife should do according to her culture and still she is a pariah, no matter what she does. No wonder she is so bitter. Anyone would be bitter in a situation like hers.
Anna Maria’s mother is not bitter, and is not a pariah in the community although she is neglectful of her child, and the housekeeping, and laundry, but not neglectful in keeping her husband satisfied with their connubial activities. Feminism seems to have begun to appear. Ana Marias mother, it seems did her duty. She had a baby to prove her womanhood, and having done that task,
Ruth Judith Goldberg Ives
English 255
Fall 2012
Professor G. G. Patthey
Analyzing Fiction #1 Ana Maria
2. Protagonist descriptions.
The first protagonist “The Old Man†has difficulties on three levels: 1. His wife 2. His livelihood and 3. His advancing age.
“Even after thirty-odd years of marriage he could never be sure what things it was possible to tell his wife without her flying off the handle, although for a long time he’d been indifferent to his wife’s fits of anger.
“As there was no one else he could talk to about it, on several occasions he found himself saying something about the girl to his wife, whose spirits were getting lower and lower, until there was no longer even bitterness between them.†P 87
“Some time passed and the building the old man was working on was completed. They laid off the men, who soon found another employer but nobody wanted to give work to a creature as frail a the old man.†P 94
He was getting so old, getting wearier by the hour, that walking to the other side of the city was almost impossible for him.†P. 97
“Perhaps the best thing would be to go off to some deserted place, to a hill, perhaps, and wait for night-time to lie down and die. He was sure that just by curling up on the ground and wishing for it, death would come..†p 97
By the end of the story Protagonist #1 is changed in status. Separated from his job because of lay off and old age. Separated form his wife because she leaves him. He becomes attached to Ana Maria. He has learned that Ana Maria is a waif. He has learned that he is no longer physically capable of doing hard day labor because of his advancing age. He has learned that he is needed to nurture and care for a neglected child.
Protagonist #2 Ana Maria
Ana Maria’s difficulties are her parents lack of parenting skills.
“The girl was, in fact very little.â€
“She could hardly have been three years old.†P. 85
“Poor little thing.†P. 85
“How odd for them to leave such a little girl all on her own in such a big garden!â€
That was the last thing that she took out of the bag as if she did not want her friend to see it, as if she herself did not want to see it.
“Ana Maria’s eyes, suddenly filled with tears, which trembled inside but didn’t fall, magnifying her eyes prodigiously.â€
“Bad girl .. .. muttered the girl.â€
“Why?
“Then she shook the broken toy vigorously, crying†“Bad girl, bad girl, bad girl . . .â€
“And threw it into the undergrowth. At that moment her eyes over flowed and she remained still, looking at the old man, her cheeks streaming, her eyelashes soaked.â€
By the end of the story Ana Maria, between ages 2 and 3 years, has found another person to take care of her needs for nurturing, affection, sustenance, belonging, safety and shelter (Abraham Maslow) in her friend, the Old Man who becomes here new parent, guardian, provider and caregiver.
Antagonist #1 The Old Man’s Wife
The old man’s wife’s difficulties, sadly are 1. Her marriage. She is the scapegoat of her husband. 2. Her community . She the scapegoat of her community. She is the scapegoat of society. 3. Causeless hatred.
Fits of anger, hardness, certain of her husband’s contempt,
“Thirty odd years of marriage†p 86
“ her husband weary of silently hating her failure as a wife, would call her a “muleâ€. P. 87
“The women in the district all proudly called her thisâ€. P. 87
“Woman who overwhelmed by the need to feed scores of children, would always avoid any contact whatsoever with her, as she was so bitter and silent.†P. 87
“Over the course of the years she had hidden herself in a cloud of ill-humor and anguish waiting for the moment to retire and cede her place to another woman who would be more deserving of it.â€
“And as they had grown old so much distance had come between them, that the only tangible part of their relationship was one of silent bitterness.â€
“Suddenly she caught sight in the distance of the little girl splashing about in the irrigation ditch, her white body cut up by the reflections of the water. P. 96
Upon this discovery, a tangled knot of amazement and hatred came together with the woman’s heart.†P. 96
“Finally, the whole mask of anguish and failure collapsed upon the face of the woman. She got ready to leave. At that moment the little girl took a few steps forward.:†p 96
“Bad girl! Bad girl! Bad girl! She cried, staring at her. And the woman slunk off in defeat.â€
From a strictly Feminist perspective, by the end of the story the wife has discovered that the marriage is a farce. She emancipates herself from the further suffering in the underdog position in a loveless marriage. She becomes a self-supporting, single woman again. She ditches the shack. She ditches the husband who hates her and disrespects her.
Antagonist #2 The Parents of Ana Maria
The difficulties of the parents seems to be that they are very self-absorbed people, very much in love with each other, and they are bewildered by their child. The parents consider the child an unwelcome intrusion upon their relationship. There is no room in their lives for the a child.
“It’s two in the afternoon! I’m hungry!â€
“I don’t think I’ve got anything to eat. . . “
“Seeing the dirty dishes from that morning’s breakfast and the previous night’s meal, she gave a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders and took out some clean plates so that she didn’t have to was the others. “ p. 90
“As she cooked she put the radio on , a program playing dance numbers.
She tapped along to the rhythm of the music with her high heels and swayed her naked body as she beat the eggs.†P 90
“Hey where’s the little’un got to?â€
“She’s around somewhere .. replied the woman. “It’s Sunday, so she knows she mustn’t bother us . ..â€
“She’s too little to know it’s Sunday.â€
“But she knows she mustn’t disturb us when your’ here.â€
“The wife served up a dish full for her husband and one for her daughter. She poured her own into a cup because she couldn’t find another clean plate and she couldn’t bring herself to wash the others.†P. 90
“She put on a dressing gown, her husband some underpants, and after shouting to Ana Maria from the entrance to the house, all three sat down to the little table in the living room where they generally age. P. 90
“But they didn’t listen as they laughed together at the jokes in a magazineâ€
“Later the woman saw that Ana Maria hadn’t eaten and that she was staring at her with her huge blue, oh-so-transparent eyes. She felt uncomfortable and told her dryly†“Eat up . .!
Did she eat this morning?†asked the man.
“Yes, I thik so. I was in a bit of a daze, so I didn’t really notice . .â€
Can’t you wash the plates up . . .â€
“I don’t think so. Do you think I married you so I could be a servant to you and the little’un?â€
Leaving everything in the same mess as before, they went back to the bedroom. After a few moments of suggestive games and dozing , the man came up with an ideaâ€:
“Hey, shall we go to the pictures tonight?
“Okay, but we’ll have to make sure the little’un’s asleep first and locked in.â€
Well . . just like normal then.â€
“until finally I picked her up. Then she started to hug me and laugh and be all affectionate, but in a claying sort of way, that it made me feel I don’t know . . sort of scared or disgusted. But sometimes she’s lovely too, ah. She was saying “My lub’ and “pwettie to me, you know, the first things she learned to say, goodness knows where, because you never say that to me. . .â€
Never? What do you mean?
“No. Never . .â€
“But I say better things to you.â€
“Okay, but not those. So, she was being all lovely and affectionate and I was getting really very worried, when, do you know what she did?â€
“No . .â€
“She bit my ear.†P. 92
“She bit your ear? And how did the little devil know you like that?â€
“Don’t be silly, not like that. Don’t laugh, she didn’t nibble it. She bit it really hard, as if she wanted to tear a slice off with those little sharp teeth of hers. It hurt so much I yelped and let go of her. And she raced off as if she know she’d done something wrong. P 92
“That was in the morning. She didn’t come back at lunch time, or for the rest of the day†p 93
“And as you know I cant stand going out into the garden, the other side of the trees, I didn’t go looking for her. But when she came back at night, looking scared stiff, I punished her . . .â€
“And what did you do to her?â€
“How should I know? How do you expect me to remember?†p. 93
The reader learns that the father is actually more parental and concerned about Ana Maria’s welfare than her mother is. We can tell by his inquiries that he wishes that the mother was more attentive to the needs of the child and the household, he is also contented that she is totally focused on him to the exclusion of the child. The author leave us hanging as to what, in the end the parents will learn from little Ana Maria’s escape.
Antagonist #2 Society The World Outside the Community
Society is antagonistic towards both the protagonists and the antagonists.
There is no evidence that society ever learns to check ill-will, jealousy, envy etc. People are perpetually engaged in gossip, repetition and slander. It’s their way to abuse whatever people they are around.
“A workman from the site happened to overhear the old man’s conversation with Ana Maria. From then on his workmates didn’t give him a moments peace. P 93
“Hey, old lover! Come on! How’s your love life getting on? P. 93
“He would hear out their laughter patiently.†P. 93
“As he trundled the morning barrow, his legs, quivering with age, would barely support him on his route down the plank. His eyes blurry with dirt and sweat, could scarcely make out the young workers who gibed at him from the scaffolding. P 93
“Hey, you little old devil! You’d better be careful, they’ll lock you up!†p 93
“The people who were sheltering in the shade of the trees in the parks did not look at him, just as if he no longer existed.†P 97
“The women in the district all proudly called her thisâ€. P. 87
“Woman who overwhelmed by the need to feed scores of children, would always avoid any contact whatsoever with her, as she was so bitter and silent.†P. 87
4 Plot Summery.
The plot of the story is how the tension is resolves between the protagonists (which is the old man, and the little girl) and their antagonists, (the wife of the old man, and the parents of the little girl respectively). At stake for the old man is a marriage that he doesn’t regrets, to a wife that he doesn’t like, and a livelihood that he no longer has or can employ. At stake for the Wife protagonist is a marriage that is unsatisfying and unfulfilling in any way for her. She’s getting nothing out of that marriage, not even children to comfort her. (It could be that the husband is the one who can’t conceive but the village blames the childlessness on the woman automatically. This causes her great sorrow and suffering for something that may not even be her fault.)
The result of the action is a transition for the Old man from married to single. A transition for the Old women from married to single. A transition for Ana Maria from a neglected semi-waif to a little girl who is cherished and cared for.
4. Description of the conflict (s)
Ana Marias infancy is a conflict. She is endangered by her parents ostracism of her.
The Old mans age, he is endangered because of his advancing frailty and feebleness.
The Old woman’s unfortunate bitterness, hatred and jealousy of the little girl. I would have thought that being childless, that she would embrace the little girl as a ‘God send†(I was thinking of the story of Moses being found on the Nile by Pharaoh’s daughter and adopted as her son), and possibly a solution their childlessness. But no, neither of the women in the story could see beyond their own neurotic, selfish needs. That is what the two women had in common, they were both extremely selfish and possibly neurotic and dysfunctional women.
The Parent’s conflict was their selfishness, their excluding their daughter form their nurturing, actually their fear that the child was an impediment to their relationship.
Ana Marias conflict was that she is a baby who needs real, nurturing, and loving parents all of the time. So the conflict is whether the protagonist will lose each other, by hanging on to their situations, or venture into a new realm of emotional satisfaction, and meaningful psychological fulfillment. Both the protagonists and the antagonists have in common “the human condition†of conflict of interest. The old man is considering dying. In a sense he is asking himself the same question as the Hamlet character in Shakespeare:
“To be or not to be that is the question
Whether it is nobler in the minds to take arms against a sea of troubles and end them.
To die to sleep to sleep perhaps to dream.
5. Identify one scene or chapter that is the climax. I think that the climax is when the old man’s wife goes to the garden for a confrontation and sees the little girl. Page 96
“She sat down to wait
.†What will she do? Will she harm the little girl who has apparently alienated the affections of her husband?
“Suddenly she caught sight in the distance of the little girl . . . .â€
“The woman made out the deep, blue eyes gazing harshly at her from the shade, trapping her in their hostile blueness. With a final effort , the woman from somewhere inside herself unearthed a smile.†“The woman began to flag.†“It all seemed in vain.†“All of it, forever in vain.â€
“Finally the whole mask of anguish and failure collapsed upon the face of the woman.â€
“And the woman slunk away in defeat.â€
6.There are four settings. The Garden, the Shack, The Prefabricated House
The setting kinds of signals the reader about the social standing of the people involved. The shack is obviously a place where poor people live, day laborers, and domestic servants. The Garden, which is more like a park, is part of the environment of the prefabricated house where Ana Maria Lives The Prefabricated House is a bit higher on the social scale.
7. Connotation, Metaphor
The image that I see in my mind when I picture the old man is the Michaelangelo painting of God and Adam on the ceiling of the Cistine Chapal. God with the long white beard, reaching out in, gentleness, loving kindness and benevolence with his finger to communicate with Adam. The other image or image or metaphor is that of the story of the Good Samaritan who stopped to aid a victim by the side of the road.
Little Ana Maria was surely a victim or her parents thoughtlessness.
8. Cultural Information. The author does not volunteer any information about the cultural aspects of the situation. The people could be Jews or Gentiles, they could be religiously Protestant or Catholic, or they could be Buddhist or Islamic. To have known what the prevailing religious beliefs were might have given some clue as to some of the intractable attitudes of the society regarding women’s roles and worth only being a by product of their function as wife and mother. And also the contrast between the two women in the story, the mother of Ana Maria, and the Old Man’s wives lends some irony to the idea that mother hood defines women. Ana Maria’s mother is determined not to be defined by her role as cooks housekeeper, wife and mother. On the other hand, the Old man’s wife has capitulated to the role imposed upon her by society, and her continued failure to meet the expectations of that role in the eyes of her husband and in the eyes of society such that she is unfulfilled throughout the thirty odd years of their marriage. No religious affiliations are designated. The old man’s wife does everything on the to-do-list that a wife should do according to her culture and still she is a pariah, no matter what she does. No wonder she is so bitter. Anyone would be bitter in a situation like hers.
Anna Maria’s mother is not bitter, and is not a pariah in the community although she is neglectful of her child, and the housekeeping, and laundry, but not neglectful in keeping her husband satisfied with their connubial activities. Feminism seems to have begun to appear. Anna Maria’s mother had done her duty. She had a baby just to prove her womanhood. Having a baby, in that culture seems to be a badge of having arrived at full womanhood. And having accomplished that task, the woman had no more use for the child, and found that she didn’t like the having a child to take care of.
9. Themes
The themes are universal. Marriage. Aging, Livelihood. Empty nest syndrome. Social norms. Parenting. The quality of life for children, the quality of life for the aged. How life changes from youth to old age. And the needs of children and the aging for fulfilling and meaningful nurture, companionship, friendship, belonging, and how the denial of these needs can affect the people psychologically in a negative way. she had no more use for the child.
10. Themes
The themes are universal. Marriage, Aging, Livelihood, Empty nest syndrome, Social norms, Parenting, the quality of life for children, the quality of life for women, the quality of life for the aged. How life changes from youth to old age, the needs of children and the aging for fulfilling and meaningful nurture, companionship, friendship, belonging, and how the denial of these needs can affect the people psychologically in a negative way.
English 255
Fall 2012
Professor G. G. Patthey
Analyzing Fiction #1 Ana Maria
1. Protagonist descriptions.
The first protagonist “The Old Man†has difficulties on three levels: 1. His wife 2. His livelihood and 3. His advancing age.
“Even after thirty-odd years of marriage he could never be sure what things it was possible to tell his wife without her flying off the handle, although for a long time he’d been indifferent to his wife’s fits of anger.
“As there was no one else he could talk to about it, on several occasions he found himself saying something about the girl to his wife, whose spirits were getting lower and lower, until there was no longer even bitterness between them.†P 87
“Some time passed and the building the old man was working on was completed. They laid off the men, who soon found another employer but nobody wanted to give work to a creature as frail a the old man.†P 94
He was getting so old, getting wearier by the hour, that walking to the other side of the city was almost impossible for him.†P. 97
“Perhaps the best thing would be to go off to some deserted place, to a hill, perhaps, and wait for night-time to lie down and die. He was sure that just by curling up on the ground and wishing for it, death would come..†p 97
By the end of the story Protagonist #1 is changed in status. Separated from his job because of lay off and old age. Separated form his wife because she leaves him. He becomes attached to Ana Maria. He has learned that Ana Maria is a waif. He has learned that he is no longer physically capable of doing hard day labor because of his advancing age. He has learned that he is needed to nurture and care for a neglected child.
Protagonist #2 Ana Maria
Ana Maria’s difficulties are her parents lack of parenting skills.
“The girl was, in fact very little.â€
“She could hardly have been three years old.†P. 85
“Poor little thing.†P. 85
“How odd for them to leave such a little girl all on her own in such a big garden!â€
That was the last thing that she took out of the bag as if she did not want her friend to see it, as if she herself did not want to see it.
“Ana Maria’s eyes, suddenly filled with tears, which trembled inside but didn’t fall, magnifying her eyes prodigiously.â€
“Bad girl .. .. muttered the girl.â€
“Why?
“Then she shook the broken toy vigorously, crying†“Bad girl, bad girl, bad girl . . .â€
“And threw it into the undergrowth. At that moment her eyes over flowed and she remained still, looking at the old man, her cheeks streaming, her eyelashes soaked.â€
By the end of the story Ana Maria, between ages 2 and 3 years, has found another person to take care of her needs for nurturing, affection, sustenance, belonging, safety and shelter (Abraham Maslow) in her friend, the Old Man who becomes here new parent, guardian, provider and caregiver.
Antagonist #1 The Old Man’s Wife
The old man’s wife’s difficulties, sadly are 1. Her marriage. She is the scapegoat of her husband. 2. Her community . She the scapegoat of her community. She is the scapegoat of society. 3. Causeless hatred.
Fits of anger, hardness, certain of her husband’s contempt,
“Thirty odd years of marriage†p 86
“ her husband weary of silently hating her failure as a wife, would call her a “muleâ€. P. 87
“The women in the district all proudly called her thisâ€. P. 87
“Woman who overwhelmed by the need to feed scores of children, would always avoid any contact whatsoever with her, as she was so bitter and silent.†P. 87
“Over the course of the years she had hidden herself in a cloud of ill-humor and anguish waiting for the moment to retire and cede her place to another woman who would be more deserving of it.â€
“And as they had grown old so much distance had come between them, that the only tangible part of their relationship was one of silent bitterness.â€
“Suddenly she caught sight in the distance of the little girl splashing about in the irrigation ditch, her white body cut up by the reflections of the water. P. 96
Upon this discovery, a tangled knot of amazement and hatred came together with the woman’s heart.†P. 96
“Finally, the whole mask of anguish and failure collapsed upon the face of the woman. She got ready to leave. At that moment the little girl took a few steps forward.:†p 96
“Bad girl! Bad girl! Bad girl! She cried, staring at her. And the woman slunk off in defeat.â€
From a strictly Feminist perspective, by the end of the story the wife has discovered that the marriage is a farce. She emancipates herself from the further suffering in the underdog position in a loveless marriage. She becomes a self-supporting, single woman again. She ditches the shack. She ditches the husband who hates her and disrespects her.
Antagonist #2 The Parents of Ana Maria
The difficulties of the parents seems to be that they are very self-absorbed people, very much in love with each other, and they are bewildered by their child. The parents consider the child an unwelcome intrusion upon their relationship. There is no room in their lives for a child.
“It’s two in the afternoon! I’m hungry!â€
“I don’t think I’ve got anything to eat. . . “
“Seeing the dirty dishes from that morning’s breakfast and the previous night’s meal, she gave a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders and took out some clean plates so that she didn’t have to was the others. “ p. 90
“As she cooked she put the radio on , a program playing dance numbers.
She tapped along to the rhythm of the music with her high heels and swayed her naked body as she beat the eggs.†P 90
“Hey where’s the little’un got to?â€
“She’s around somewhere .. replied the woman. “It’s Sunday, so she knows she mustn’t bother us . ..â€
“She’s too little to know it’s Sunday.â€
“But she knows she mustn’t disturb us when your’ here.â€
“The wife served up a dish full for her husband and one for her daughter. She poured her own into a cup because she couldn’t find another clean plate and she couldn’t bring herself to wash the others.†P. 90
“She put on a dressing gown, her husband some underpants, and after shouting to Ana Maria from the entrance to the house, all three sat down to the little table in the living room where they generally age. P. 90
“But they didn’t listen as they laughed together at the jokes in a magazineâ€
“Later the woman saw that Ana Maria hadn’t eaten and that she was staring at her with her huge blue, oh-so-transparent eyes. She felt uncomfortable and told her dryly†“Eat up . .!
Did she eat this morning?†asked the man.
“Yes, I thik so. I was in a bit of a daze, so I didn’t really notice . .â€
Can’t you wash the plates up . . .â€
“I don’t think so. Do you think I married you so I could be a servant to you and the little’un?â€
Leaving everything in the same mess as before, they went back to the bedroom. After a few moments of suggestive games and dozing , the man came up with an ideaâ€:
“Hey, shall we go to the pictures tonight?
“Okay, but we’ll have to make sure the little’un’s asleep first and locked in.â€
Well . . just like normal then.â€
“until finally I picked her up. Then she started to hug me and laugh and be all affectionate, but in a claying sort of way, that it made me feel I don’t know . . sort of scared or disgusted. But sometimes she’s lovely too, ah. She was saying “My lub’ and “pwettie to me, you know, the first things she learned to say, goodness knows where, because you never say that to me. . .â€
Never? What do you mean?
“No. Never . .â€
“But I say better things to you.â€
“Okay, but not those. So, she was being all lovely and affectionate and I was getting really very worried, when, do you know what she did?â€
“No . .â€
“She bit my ear.†P. 92
“She bit your ear? And how did the little devil know you like that?â€
“Don’t be silly, not like that. Don’t laugh, she didn’t nibble it. She bit it really hard, as if she wanted to tear a slice off with those little sharp teeth of hers. It hurt so much I yelped and let go of her. And she raced off as if she know she’d done something wrong. P 92
“That was in the morning. She didn’t come back at lunch time, or for the rest of the day†p 93
“And as you know I cant stand going out into the garden, the other side of the trees, I didn’t go looking for her. But when she came back at night, looking scared stiff, I punished her . . .â€
“And what did you do to her?â€
“How should I know? How do you expect me to remember?†p. 93
The reader learns that the father is actually more parental and concerned about Ana Maria’s welfare than her mother is. We can tell by his inquiries that he wishes that the mother was more attentive to the needs of the child and the household, he is also contented that she is totally focused on him to the exclusion of the child. The author leave us hanging as to what, in the end the parents will learn from little Ana Maria’s escape.
Antagonist #2 Society The World Outside the Community
Society is antagonistic towards both the protagonists and the antagonists.
There is no evidence that society ever learns to check ill-will, jealousy, envy etc. People are perpetually engaged in gossip, repetition and slander. It’s their way to abuse whatever people they are around.
“A workman from the site happened to overhear the old man’s conversation with Ana Maria. From then on his workmates didn’t give him a moments peace. P 93
“Hey, old lover! Come on! How’s your love life getting on? P. 93
“He would hear out their laughter patiently.†P. 93
“As he trundled the morning barrow, his legs, quivering with age, would barely support him on his route down the plank. His eyes blurry with dirt and sweat, could scarcely make out the young workers who gibed at him from the scaffolding. P 93
“Hey, you little old devil! You’d better be careful, they’ll lock you up!†p 93
“The people who were sheltering in the shade of the trees in the parks did not look at him, just as if he no longer existed.†P 97
“The women in the district all proudly called her thisâ€. P. 87
“Woman who overwhelmed by the need to feed scores of children, would always avoid any contact whatsoever with her, as she was so bitter and silent.†P. 87
3 Plot Summery.
The plot of the story is how the tension is resolves between the protagonists (which is the old man, and the little girl) and their antagonists, (the wife of the old man, and the parents of the little girl respectively). At stake for the old man is a marriage that he doesn’t regrets, to a wife that he doesn’t like, and a livelihood that he no longer has or can employ. At stake for the Wife protagonist is a marriage that is unsatisfying and unfulfilling in any way for her. She’s getting nothing out of that marriage, not even children to comfort her. (It could be that the husband is the one who can’t conceive but the village blames the childlessness on the woman automatically. This causes her great sorrow and suffering for something that may not even be her fault.)
The result of the action is a transition for the Old man from married to single. A transition for the Old women from married to single. A transition for Ana Maria from a neglected semi-waif to a little girl who is cherished and cared for.
4. Description of the conflict (s)
Ana Marias infancy is a conflict. She is endangered by her parents ostracism of her.
The Old mans age, he is endangered because of his advancing frailty and feebleness.
The Old woman’s unfortunate bitterness, hatred and jealousy of the little girl. I would have thought that being childless, that she would embrace the little girl as a ‘God send†(I was thinking of the story of Moses being found on the Nile by Pharaoh’s daughter and adopted as her son), and possibly a solution their childlessness. But no, neither of the women in the story could see beyond their own neurotic, selfish needs. That is what the two women had in common, they were both extremely selfish and possibly neurotic and dysfunctional women.
The Parent’s conflict was their selfishness, their excluding their daughter form their nurturing, actually their fear that the child was an impediment to their relationship.
Ana Marias conflict was that she is a baby who needs real, nurturing, and loving parents all of the time. So the conflict is whether the protagonist will lose each other, by hanging on to their situations, or venture into a new realm of emotional satisfaction, and meaningful psychological fulfillment. Both the protagonists and the antagonists have in common “the human condition†of conflict of interest. The old man is considering dying. In a sense he is asking himself the same question as the Hamlet character in Shakespeare:
“To be or not to be that is the question
Whether it is nobler in the minds to take arms against a sea of troubles and end them.
To die to sleep to sleep perhaps to dream.
5. Identify one scene or chapter that is the climax. I think that the climax is when the old man’s wife goes to the garden for a confrontation and sees the little girl. Page 96
“She sat down to wait
.†What will she do? Will she harm the little girl who has apparently alienated the affections of her husband?
“Suddenly she caught sight in the distance of the little girl . . . .â€
“The woman made out the deep, blue eyes gazing harshly at her from the shade, trapping her in their hostile blueness. With a final effort , the woman from somewhere inside herself unearthed a smile.†“The woman began to flag.†“It all seemed in vain.†“All of it, forever in vain.â€
“Finally the whole mask of anguish and failure collapsed upon the face of the woman.â€
“And the woman slunk away in defeat.â€
6.There are four settings. The Garden, the Shack, The Prefabricated House
The setting kinds of signals the reader about the social standing of the people involved. The shack is obviously a place where poor people live, day laborers, and domestic servants. The Garden, which is more like a park, is part of the environment of the prefabricated house where Ana Maria Lives The Prefabricated House is a bit higher on the social scale.
7. Connotation, Metaphor
The image that I see in my mind when I picture the old man is the Michaelangelo painting of God and Adam on the ceiling of the Cistine Chapal. God with the long white beard, reaching out in, gentleness, loving kindness and benevolence with his finger to communicate with Adam. The other image or image or metaphor is that of the story of the Good Samaritan who stopped to aid a victim by the side of the road.
Little Ana Maria was surely a victim or her parents thoughtlessness.
8. Cultural Information. The author does not volunteer any information about the cultural aspects of the situation. The people could be Jews or Gentiles, they could be religiously Protestant or Catholic, or they could be Buddhist or Islamic. To have known what the prevailing religious beliefs were might have given some clue as to some of the intractable attitudes of the society regarding women’s roles and worth only being a by-product of their function as wife and mother. And also the contrast between the two women in the story, the mother of Ana Maria, and the Old Man’s wives lends some irony to the idea that mother hood defines women. Ana Maria’s mother is determined not to be defined by her role as cooks housekeeper, wife and mother. On the other hand, the Old man’s wife has capitulated to the role imposed upon her by society, and her continued failure to meet the expectations of that role in the eyes of her husband and in the eyes of society prevails such that she is unfulfilled throughout the thirty odd years of their marriage. No religious affiliations are designated. The old man’s wife does everything on the to-do-list that a wife should do according to her culture and still she is a pariah, no matter what she does. No wonder she is so bitter. Anyone would be bitter in a situation like hers.
Anna Maria’s mother is not bitter, and is not a pariah in the community although she is neglectful of her child, and the housekeeping, and laundry, but not neglectful in keeping her husband satisfied with their connubial activities. Feminism seems to have begun to appear. Ana Marias mother, it seems did her duty. She had a baby to prove her womanhood, and having done that task,
Ruth Judith Goldberg Ives
English 255
Fall 2012
Professor G. G. Patthey
Analyzing Fiction #1 Ana Maria
2. Protagonist descriptions.
The first protagonist “The Old Man†has difficulties on three levels: 1. His wife 2. His livelihood and 3. His advancing age.
“Even after thirty-odd years of marriage he could never be sure what things it was possible to tell his wife without her flying off the handle, although for a long time he’d been indifferent to his wife’s fits of anger.
“As there was no one else he could talk to about it, on several occasions he found himself saying something about the girl to his wife, whose spirits were getting lower and lower, until there was no longer even bitterness between them.†P 87
“Some time passed and the building the old man was working on was completed. They laid off the men, who soon found another employer but nobody wanted to give work to a creature as frail a the old man.†P 94
He was getting so old, getting wearier by the hour, that walking to the other side of the city was almost impossible for him.†P. 97
“Perhaps the best thing would be to go off to some deserted place, to a hill, perhaps, and wait for night-time to lie down and die. He was sure that just by curling up on the ground and wishing for it, death would come..†p 97
By the end of the story Protagonist #1 is changed in status. Separated from his job because of lay off and old age. Separated form his wife because she leaves him. He becomes attached to Ana Maria. He has learned that Ana Maria is a waif. He has learned that he is no longer physically capable of doing hard day labor because of his advancing age. He has learned that he is needed to nurture and care for a neglected child.
Protagonist #2 Ana Maria
Ana Maria’s difficulties are her parents lack of parenting skills.
“The girl was, in fact very little.â€
“She could hardly have been three years old.†P. 85
“Poor little thing.†P. 85
“How odd for them to leave such a little girl all on her own in such a big garden!â€
That was the last thing that she took out of the bag as if she did not want her friend to see it, as if she herself did not want to see it.
“Ana Maria’s eyes, suddenly filled with tears, which trembled inside but didn’t fall, magnifying her eyes prodigiously.â€
“Bad girl .. .. muttered the girl.â€
“Why?
“Then she shook the broken toy vigorously, crying†“Bad girl, bad girl, bad girl . . .â€
“And threw it into the undergrowth. At that moment her eyes over flowed and she remained still, looking at the old man, her cheeks streaming, her eyelashes soaked.â€
By the end of the story Ana Maria, between ages 2 and 3 years, has found another person to take care of her needs for nurturing, affection, sustenance, belonging, safety and shelter (Abraham Maslow) in her friend, the Old Man who becomes here new parent, guardian, provider and caregiver.
Antagonist #1 The Old Man’s Wife
The old man’s wife’s difficulties, sadly are 1. Her marriage. She is the scapegoat of her husband. 2. Her community . She the scapegoat of her community. She is the scapegoat of society. 3. Causeless hatred.
Fits of anger, hardness, certain of her husband’s contempt,
“Thirty odd years of marriage†p 86
“ her husband weary of silently hating her failure as a wife, would call her a “muleâ€. P. 87
“The women in the district all proudly called her thisâ€. P. 87
“Woman who overwhelmed by the need to feed scores of children, would always avoid any contact whatsoever with her, as she was so bitter and silent.†P. 87
“Over the course of the years she had hidden herself in a cloud of ill-humor and anguish waiting for the moment to retire and cede her place to another woman who would be more deserving of it.â€
“And as they had grown old so much distance had come between them, that the only tangible part of their relationship was one of silent bitterness.â€
“Suddenly she caught sight in the distance of the little girl splashing about in the irrigation ditch, her white body cut up by the reflections of the water. P. 96
Upon this discovery, a tangled knot of amazement and hatred came together with the woman’s heart.†P. 96
“Finally, the whole mask of anguish and failure collapsed upon the face of the woman. She got ready to leave. At that moment the little girl took a few steps forward.:†p 96
“Bad girl! Bad girl! Bad girl! She cried, staring at her. And the woman slunk off in defeat.â€
From a strictly Feminist perspective, by the end of the story the wife has discovered that the marriage is a farce. She emancipates herself from the further suffering in the underdog position in a loveless marriage. She becomes a self-supporting, single woman again. She ditches the shack. She ditches the husband who hates her and disrespects her.
Antagonist #2 The Parents of Ana Maria
The difficulties of the parents seems to be that they are very self-absorbed people, very much in love with each other, and they are bewildered by their child. The parents consider the child an unwelcome intrusion upon their relationship. There is no room in their lives for the a child.
“It’s two in the afternoon! I’m hungry!â€
“I don’t think I’ve got anything to eat. . . “
“Seeing the dirty dishes from that morning’s breakfast and the previous night’s meal, she gave a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders and took out some clean plates so that she didn’t have to was the others. “ p. 90
“As she cooked she put the radio on , a program playing dance numbers.
She tapped along to the rhythm of the music with her high heels and swayed her naked body as she beat the eggs.†P 90
“Hey where’s the little’un got to?â€
“She’s around somewhere .. replied the woman. “It’s Sunday, so she knows she mustn’t bother us . ..â€
“She’s too little to know it’s Sunday.â€
“But she knows she mustn’t disturb us when your’ here.â€
“The wife served up a dish full for her husband and one for her daughter. She poured her own into a cup because she couldn’t find another clean plate and she couldn’t bring herself to wash the others.†P. 90
“She put on a dressing gown, her husband some underpants, and after shouting to Ana Maria from the entrance to the house, all three sat down to the little table in the living room where they generally age. P. 90
“But they didn’t listen as they laughed together at the jokes in a magazineâ€
“Later the woman saw that Ana Maria hadn’t eaten and that she was staring at her with her huge blue, oh-so-transparent eyes. She felt uncomfortable and told her dryly†“Eat up . .!
Did she eat this morning?†asked the man.
“Yes, I thik so. I was in a bit of a daze, so I didn’t really notice . .â€
Can’t you wash the plates up . . .â€
“I don’t think so. Do you think I married you so I could be a servant to you and the little’un?â€
Leaving everything in the same mess as before, they went back to the bedroom. After a few moments of suggestive games and dozing , the man came up with an ideaâ€:
“Hey, shall we go to the pictures tonight?
“Okay, but we’ll have to make sure the little’un’s asleep first and locked in.â€
Well . . just like normal then.â€
“until finally I picked her up. Then she started to hug me and laugh and be all affectionate, but in a claying sort of way, that it made me feel I don’t know . . sort of scared or disgusted. But sometimes she’s lovely too, ah. She was saying “My lub’ and “pwettie to me, you know, the first things she learned to say, goodness knows where, because you never say that to me. . .â€
Never? What do you mean?
“No. Never . .â€
“But I say better things to you.â€
“Okay, but not those. So, she was being all lovely and affectionate and I was getting really very worried, when, do you know what she did?â€
“No . .â€
“She bit my ear.†P. 92
“She bit your ear? And how did the little devil know you like that?â€
“Don’t be silly, not like that. Don’t laugh, she didn’t nibble it. She bit it really hard, as if she wanted to tear a slice off with those little sharp teeth of hers. It hurt so much I yelped and let go of her. And she raced off as if she know she’d done something wrong. P 92
“That was in the morning. She didn’t come back at lunch time, or for the rest of the day†p 93
“And as you know I cant stand going out into the garden, the other side of the trees, I didn’t go looking for her. But when she came back at night, looking scared stiff, I punished her . . .â€
“And what did you do to her?â€
“How should I know? How do you expect me to remember?†p. 93
The reader learns that the father is actually more parental and concerned about Ana Maria’s welfare than her mother is. We can tell by his inquiries that he wishes that the mother was more attentive to the needs of the child and the household, he is also contented that she is totally focused on him to the exclusion of the child. The author leave us hanging as to what, in the end the parents will learn from little Ana Maria’s escape.
Antagonist #2 Society The World Outside the Community
Society is antagonistic towards both the protagonists and the antagonists.
There is no evidence that society ever learns to check ill-will, jealousy, envy etc. People are perpetually engaged in gossip, repetition and slander. It’s their way to abuse whatever people they are around.
“A workman from the site happened to overhear the old man’s conversation with Ana Maria. From then on his workmates didn’t give him a moments peace. P 93
“Hey, old lover! Come on! How’s your love life getting on? P. 93
“He would hear out their laughter patiently.†P. 93
“As he trundled the morning barrow, his legs, quivering with age, would barely support him on his route down the plank. His eyes blurry with dirt and sweat, could scarcely make out the young workers who gibed at him from the scaffolding. P 93
“Hey, you little old devil! You’d better be careful, they’ll lock you up!†p 93
“The people who were sheltering in the shade of the trees in the parks did not look at him, just as if he no longer existed.†P 97
“The women in the district all proudly called her thisâ€. P. 87
“Woman who overwhelmed by the need to feed scores of children, would always avoid any contact whatsoever with her, as she was so bitter and silent.†P. 87
4 Plot Summery.
The plot of the story is how the tension is resolves between the protagonists (which is the old man, and the little girl) and their antagonists, (the wife of the old man, and the parents of the little girl respectively). At stake for the old man is a marriage that he doesn’t regrets, to a wife that he doesn’t like, and a livelihood that he no longer has or can employ. At stake for the Wife protagonist is a marriage that is unsatisfying and unfulfilling in any way for her. She’s getting nothing out of that marriage, not even children to comfort her. (It could be that the husband is the one who can’t conceive but the village blames the childlessness on the woman automatically. This causes her great sorrow and suffering for something that may not even be her fault.)
The result of the action is a transition for the Old man from married to single. A transition for the Old women from married to single. A transition for Ana Maria from a neglected semi-waif to a little girl who is cherished and cared for.
4. Description of the conflict (s)
Ana Marias infancy is a conflict. She is endangered by her parents ostracism of her.
The Old mans age, he is endangered because of his advancing frailty and feebleness.
The Old woman’s unfortunate bitterness, hatred and jealousy of the little girl. I would have thought that being childless, that she would embrace the little girl as a ‘God send†(I was thinking of the story of Moses being found on the Nile by Pharaoh’s daughter and adopted as her son), and possibly a solution their childlessness. But no, neither of the women in the story could see beyond their own neurotic, selfish needs. That is what the two women had in common, they were both extremely selfish and possibly neurotic and dysfunctional women.
The Parent’s conflict was their selfishness, their excluding their daughter form their nurturing, actually their fear that the child was an impediment to their relationship.
Ana Marias conflict was that she is a baby who needs real, nurturing, and loving parents all of the time. So the conflict is whether the protagonist will lose each other, by hanging on to their situations, or venture into a new realm of emotional satisfaction, and meaningful psychological fulfillment. Both the protagonists and the antagonists have in common “the human condition†of conflict of interest. The old man is considering dying. In a sense he is asking himself the same question as the Hamlet character in Shakespeare:
“To be or not to be that is the question
Whether it is nobler in the minds to take arms against a sea of troubles and end them.
To die to sleep to sleep perhaps to dream.
5. Identify one scene or chapter that is the climax. I think that the climax is when the old man’s wife goes to the garden for a confrontation and sees the little girl. Page 96
“She sat down to wait
.†What will she do? Will she harm the little girl who has apparently alienated the affections of her husband?
“Suddenly she caught sight in the distance of the little girl . . . .â€
“The woman made out the deep, blue eyes gazing harshly at her from the shade, trapping her in their hostile blueness. With a final effort , the woman from somewhere inside herself unearthed a smile.†“The woman began to flag.†“It all seemed in vain.†“All of it, forever in vain.â€
“Finally the whole mask of anguish and failure collapsed upon the face of the woman.â€
“And the woman slunk away in defeat.â€
6.There are four settings. The Garden, the Shack, The Prefabricated House
The setting kinds of signals the reader about the social standing of the people involved. The shack is obviously a place where poor people live, day laborers, and domestic servants. The Garden, which is more like a park, is part of the environment of the prefabricated house where Ana Maria Lives The Prefabricated House is a bit higher on the social scale.
7. Connotation, Metaphor
The image that I see in my mind when I picture the old man is the Michaelangelo painting of God and Adam on the ceiling of the Cistine Chapal. God with the long white beard, reaching out in, gentleness, loving kindness and benevolence with his finger to communicate with Adam. The other image or image or metaphor is that of the story of the Good Samaritan who stopped to aid a victim by the side of the road.
Little Ana Maria was surely a victim or her parents thoughtlessness.
8. Cultural Information. The author does not volunteer any information about the cultural aspects of the situation. The people could be Jews or Gentiles, they could be religiously Protestant or Catholic, or they could be Buddhist or Islamic. To have known what the prevailing religious beliefs were might have given some clue as to some of the intractable attitudes of the society regarding women’s roles and worth only being a by product of their function as wife and mother. And also the contrast between the two women in the story, the mother of Ana Maria, and the Old Man’s wives lends some irony to the idea that mother hood defines women. Ana Maria’s mother is determined not to be defined by her role as cooks housekeeper, wife and mother. On the other hand, the Old man’s wife has capitulated to the role imposed upon her by society, and her continued failure to meet the expectations of that role in the eyes of her husband and in the eyes of society such that she is unfulfilled throughout the thirty odd years of their marriage. No religious affiliations are designated. The old man’s wife does everything on the to-do-list that a wife should do according to her culture and still she is a pariah, no matter what she does. No wonder she is so bitter. Anyone would be bitter in a situation like hers.
Anna Maria’s mother is not bitter, and is not a pariah in the community although she is neglectful of her child, and the housekeeping, and laundry, but not neglectful in keeping her husband satisfied with their connubial activities. Feminism seems to have begun to appear. Anna Maria’s mother had done her duty. She had a baby just to prove her womanhood. Having a baby, in that culture seems to be a badge of having arrived at full womanhood. And having accomplished that task, the woman had no more use for the child, and found that she didn’t like the having a child to take care of.
9. Themes
The themes are universal. Marriage. Aging, Livelihood. Empty nest syndrome. Social norms. Parenting. The quality of life for children, the quality of life for the aged. How life changes from youth to old age. And the needs of children and the aging for fulfilling and meaningful nurture, companionship, friendship, belonging, and how the denial of these needs can affect the people psychologically in a negative way. she had no more use for the child.
10. Themes
The themes are universal. Marriage, Aging, Livelihood, Empty nest syndrome, Social norms, Parenting, the quality of life for children, the quality of life for women, the quality of life for the aged. How life changes from youth to old age, the needs of children and the aging for fulfilling and meaningful nurture, companionship, friendship, belonging, and how the denial of these needs can affect the people psychologically in a negative way.
