This short story was very difficult for me to understand. I had to read it twice to understand exactly what was going on in the story. The first thing that confused me was the korl statue. What does the statue represent to you? To me, I pictured the women in the statue as small women trying to work through hardships like the new women had to. Hugh says in the story that the statue represents a woman who is hungry but hungry for what: food, freedom, life. The next thing that confused me was the narrator. Was the narrator a man or women? I read the narrator as upper-middle class women. The narrator holds the korl statue and lives in the house where Hugh and his cousin Deborah lived. The last thing in this story I wanted to draw attention to was the rhetorical questions that occur throughout the story. These rhetorical questions appear to be important to the narrator, which makes me think that the narrator is simply just trying to show the hardships that were present in the working class during this time.
I agree with you that this story was extremely difficult to understand. I also asked myself a lot of the same questions that you did, as mentioned in your post. I found that the korl statue was a representation of Deborah. It seems that the statue could be desperate, like Deb, with its outstretched arms. The arms could be a symbol for all the workers in the mill, who are trying to stretch out and reach for a better life, or something that is in the far distance, and unattainable. Maybe for a better successful life? I talked about the confusion of the narrator in my post as well. I feel that that is a questions up for interpretation, however I think that the narrator is that of a woman because the voice in its characterizations uses the thoughts and emotions something a woman would be more inclined to display. I agree with your statement, in that the rhetorical questions are important to the narrator because it shows that they were concerned with what happened in the past, and is trying to figure out the hardships and way of life the people back them had to endure.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Melissa and the oddity of the rhetorical questions, as though the author was leaving a lot to the readers mind, so as not to give too much of their position as a woman or male writer. The Korl statue, as I understood was a general representation of the working class, yet I also agree with Chelsea that it could represent Deborah more so, with parts being in representation of the people in the factory. Also, the way in which Deborah was constantly working, but not for herself, could almost exemplify materialistic tendencies and behavior. The way in which some women would care for their children would be to give them everything they have in body and material goods, as we saw with Adele in The Awakening. As with Deborah though, Hugh was somewhat of her 'son' that she cared for more than she could.
ReplyDeletei never thought of the statue representing Deborah. i felt so fully that it was the working women, but Deborah somehow didn't fit with the physique and emotion of the statue. seeing it that way however, gives me a new light.
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