Friends of Words

Author: Swati

  • A Helpless Situation by Mark Twain: Summary and Plot Analysis

    A Helpless Situation by Mark Twain: Summary and Plot Analysis

    Have you ever been in a situation when you were approached by a distant relative of a friend of a friend’s friend, whom you don’t know and have never heard of before, and they asked you for a favor?

    If so, A Helpless Situation by Mark Twain is sure to take you for a stroll down the memory lane with the added bonus of his wit and humor.

    A Helpless Situation: A Brief Summary

    In this short story, published as part of his collection The 30000 Bequest, he recounts his past experience of dealing with people asking him for favors just because he knew their relatives at some point in his life – whom he doesn’t clearly even remember now.

    He responds to the request via a letter, a letter wherein he mentions a hypothetical conversation with his publisher about a recommendation for the ‘seeker’ (for the sake of simplicity, let’s call this person a seeker)

    He refers to the letters that he receives asking for favors, talking to them in complete disbelief, clearly mocking the senders of those artifacts.

    “I have seen you a thousand times, you always look the same way, yet you are always a wonder, and you are always impossible; to contrive you is clearly beyond human genius – you can’t exist, you don’t exist, yet here you are!”

    Mark Twain is amazed by the extent these distant relatives of friends go to seek favors, knowing fully well that there is no way for the ‘influential’ person to actually know anything about them to provide a recommendation. The criterion for them to reach out is simply that the person should be influential.

    “In a word, to every person who is supposed to have influence. It always follows the one pattern : “You do not know me, BUT YOU ONCE KNEW A RELATIVE OF MINE.”

    He expresses helplessness in this situation also indicating that someone keen and talented would not be resorting to such means.

    Well, there is not a thing we can do that would be a help, for not in any instance does the latter ever come from anyone who CAN be helped.

    His logical stance to describe his helplessness is no less humorous than it is eye-opening (for all of us seekers out there!)

    The tribute to Mr Twain’s funny take cannot be over without reproducing at least a portion from the letter he sends to the seeker eventually hypothesizing the conversation that might have happened if he decided to send the recommendation.

    So, here goes:

    Publisher: She must have thought that you knew her literature and could speak for it. Is that it?

    Twain: No, she knew I didn’t.

    Publisher: Well, what then? She had a reason of some sort for believing you competent to recommend her literature, and also under obligations to do it?

    Twain: Yes, I knew her uncle

    Publisher: Knew her uncle?

    Twain: That isn’t all, there are other ties. I know the cabin her uncle lived in, in the mines, I knew his partners, too; also I came near knowing her husband before she married him.

    The comedy doesn’t end here though. 

    Publisher: How can you know it when you don’t remember it?

    Twain : I don’t know. That is, I don’t know the process, but I do know a lot of things that I don’t remember and remember a lot of things that I don’t know. It’s so with every educated person.

    Publisher: Is your time valuable?

    Twain: No. Well, not very.

    Publisher: Mine is.

    Not all of us have the wit to reply to a distant relative of a barely known friend asking us favors the same way as Mark Twain, but now thanks to A Helpless Situation, we do know how to tell them where to go, without actually saying the words.

  • The Loudest Voice by Grace Paley: Summary, Analysis and Review

    The Loudest Voice by Grace Paley: Summary, Analysis and Review

    The Loudest Voice is a short story by Grace Paley, published as part of her short story collection – Little Disturbances of Man, back in 1959. The story captures the world of a young Jewish girl living and learning about a life of balance between her roots and the world that she currently lives in.

    The Loudest Voice: Summary and Plot Analysis

    The story opens at a grocery store where Shirley’s mom and the grocer are having a conversation where the grocer is advising her to not be scared of her child. Her mother laments about her loud husband and daughter.

    Shirley goes to school nearby, where she holds a reputation for being a loud and clear speaker.

    Shirley, upon being asked by the monitor of her class, speaks with Mr Hilton, who wants to have her narrate the school Christmas play.

    Having received high recommendation from her teacher Mrs.Jordan, Mr Hilton gives her the part after making her swear that she will work harder than ever before.

    In a backdrop of festivities, a recently concluded Thanksgiving and soon to be up Christmas, Shirley and her family live in a culture very different from their own.

    Bright as Shirley is, she performs splendidly in all rehearsals and has the teachers fully impressed with her abilities.

    Her mother, on the other hand, finds the Christmas festivities and her Jew neighbors involvement in them unsettling. She has a conversation with Misha (Shirley’s dad) about it. He simply discards this as one of her tantrums pointing to the fact that other places in the world had bigger problems than Christmas for her.

    Shirley with her brilliant performances and her booming voice becomes a favorite of teachers.

    Despite lack of approval from her mother about her booming voice and her Christmas performance, Misha defends his daughter. He says he knows his daughter is not a fool. He wishes her good luck for her performance.

    The day of the performance arrives and Shirley delivers splendidly. A Mrs Kornbluh visits them for tea and they have a conversation about it. Misha finds the play beautiful considering that it introduces them to the belief of a different culture.

    Mrs Kornbluh however points that Jews got very limited parts in the play.

    Shirley retires to bed, but before falling asleep she prays for everyone hoping to be heard as her voice was the loudest.

    Want to read The Loudest Voice?

    The Loudest Voice is a short story which is published in a collection of short stories called Little Disturbances of Man. You can use the links given below to check the price of this book:

    Check Price on Amazon US
    Check Price on Amazon India

    The Loudest Voice: Review and My Thoughts

    The story is feel good on so many accounts – the amazing father and daughter relationship, a loving family, tolerance on cultural differences, the practice of yelling that the family used to silence each other and the warmth with which Shirley recalls her past. How her father’s tolerant and open minded views impressed upon the mind of a young Shirley.

    Some notable quotes from The Loudest Voice

    There are a few quotes from the book that brought a smile to my face as I envisioned a simple Jew household that Paley has effortlessly created.

    Consider Shirley’s mother’s view when Mrs Kornbluh points to her the meagre parts that Christian children got in the Christmas play.

    They got very small voices;after all, why should they holler? The English language they know from the beginning by heart. They are blond like angels. You think it’s so important they should get in the play? Christmas..the whole piece of goods-they own it.

    And then her fathers when faced with his wife’s incessant banter about Christians 

    You wanted to come here. You would be eaten alive in Palestine. Here you got Christmas, Some joke,ha?

    His level headedness and support for his daughter is heartwarming 

    What belongs to history belongs to all men. 

    Does it hurt Shirley to learn to speak up? It does not. So one day, maybe she will not live between the kitchen and the shop. 

    (to which Shirley quickly reminisces) Thank you Papa, it’s true about me to this day, I am foolish but I am not a fool.

    A little friendly banter is again a pleasant addition to the mix, when Mrs Kornblun speaks with Shirley’s father after the play.

    How’s the virgin? Asked my father with a look of concern.

    For a man with a daughter, you got a fresh mouth Abramovitch

    Here, have some lemon, my father said kindly. It will sweeten your disposition.

    Despite the struggles of an immigrant family, I found the family and community a very closely knit and functional one. A child being brought up by loving parents, a level headed father supporting her and tolerant, rather appreciative, of other cultures.

    I could not help but imagine a world with a lot more of such fathers and a lot more Shirleys – one spreading the message of tolerance while the other the message of love.

    Grace Paley had a lot of foresight highlighting the importance of differences leading to a wonderful mosaic of life, where differences are at least tolerated if not celebrated.

    In the world that we live in right now, the message is as relevant as ever.

  • A Californian’s Tale by Mark Twain: Summary, Analysis and Review

    A Californian’s Tale by Mark Twain: Summary, Analysis and Review

    A Californian’s Tale is a short story published as part of his short story collection.  Written towards the tail end of his career, this short story sometimes seems a reflection of sorrows from his own life at that time.

    A Californian’s Tale by Mark Twain: Summary and Plot Analysis

    The story narrated by an unnamed traveler is set in California, decades after the mad gold rush.

    The narrator admits to have tried his fate with gold prospecting along Stanislaus river failing to find any luck. He remembers it to be a lovely region, woodsy, balmy and alive. What remained now was a shadow of the town he knew from before the gold rush. It was a lonesome land now with only a few cottages inhabited.

    He caught sight of a human and immediately felt a strange uplift.

    The house, unlike the others around, seemed to have been thoroughly cared for, having a garden of flowers in the front yard, a pleasure to the narrator’s sore eyes.

    Upon being invited by the homeowner, Henry, a middle-aged gentleman, the narrator obliges and finds a tour of the house pleasantly refreshing. 

    Being used to the harsh life of a miner, everything about the house uplifted his spirits. Every nook and cranny was tastefully done and Henry took pride in mentioning that all of it was his wife’s work.

    His mentions of his wife reek of worship and adoration.

    While washing himself up, the narrator happens to look at the picture of a beautiful young woman and soon realizes that she was the owner’s wife.

    Spellbound by her beauty, he inquires about her and gets to know that she is away visiting her parents 50 miles away and will be back in a few days.

    Feeling a pang of disappointment, the narrator mentions that he would not be staying that long, but is eventually convinced by Henry to stay back and leave only after meeting her.

    Not very long after, he has a visitor named Tom who asks for the whereabouts of Henry’s wife. Henry informs him that she would be back on Saturday, and reads her letter for Tom.

    Tom breaks down but mentions it’s only because he was expecting the missus to be back sooner.

    Another friend Joe visits them and expresses the same dissatisfaction of not being able to see her.

    The day arrives but the wife doesn’t arrive.

    Henry starts to get a bit restless and asks the narrator multiple times if he thought everything was fine with her.

    Another friend Charley visits them, pacifies Henry in his worrisome state, and urges him to stop worrying and to start working on wrapping up the decorations for her welcome.

    As they are done wrapping up the celebrations, Joe and Tom arrive as well and the party begins. The men begin drinking. Henry’s three friends ensure that he did too but he continues to gaze at the road waiting for his wife’s return.

    The men continue to make him drink while he feels sick with worry and asks for their help in order to lie down. Almost falling asleep and starting to mumble, he imagines hearing horse’s feet, when his friends tell him that the wife is going to be 30 minutes later.

    Henry is asleep when his friends begin to leave.

    The narrator asks them to stay back as Henry’s wife would not recognize him because he was a stranger. The friends then tell him that his wife had been dead for nineteen years and that Henry has not been sane ever since.

    Each year during the time of the year when she was supposed to return, his friends visit him, ask about her, help with decorations and welcome and sedate him so that he could get some peace. They had been doing it for him for the last nineteen years, to spare him the grief and pain his memory caused.

    A Californian’s Tale: Review and My Thoughts

    I loved the story for the intense passion with which Henry seems to adore his wife.

    She seems to be an adorable and beautiful woman. Henry and his friends speak so highly of her that even our narrator got hooked. There is a vivid image that Twain painted about the woman we don’t actually get to see in the story, but we develop a soft spot for her.

    With all the television and movies that I have watched all my life, I must admit that I did sense something to be off with the whole Henry and his wife setting, but I didn’t anticipate her death. And at the hands of Indians!

    Two themes in the story stood out the most – Love and Friendship

    1 – The love between the husband and the wife

    The woman, teenager at the time, is cheerful and full of life. Her loving letters to her husband and his adoration for every little thing she did, makes me weak in the knees, the classic aww moment. Consider this, for example:

    She did it all by herself – every bit.

    I’ve seen her fix all these things so much that I can do them all just her way, though I don’t know the law of any of them. But she knows the law. She knows the why and the how both; but I don’t know the why; I only know the how.

    It’s not just a husband that loves his wife but has a very healthy respect and admiration for what she was.

    2 – Having friends helping through tough times

    Having friends that stand by you, no matter how difficult life gets, is a real privilege. Henry’s friends, completely aware of the fact that he had lost his sanity, instead of running away, did the very thing that true friends would do – they stood by him.

    They helped him cope the only way they know how. It’s sweet. It’s the silver lining in Henry’s dark tragic fate.

    Never has he been sane an hour since, but he only gets bad when that time of the year comes round. Then we begin to drop in here, three days before she is due, to encourage him up, and ask if he’s heard anything from her, and Saturday we all come and fix up the house with flowers, and get everything ready for a dance. We have done it every year for the last nineteen years.

    You cry tears of sorrow for the tragedy.

    You cry tears of happiness for Henry’s friendship.

    Sad and Sweet. Not a very common combo.

    Ladies and gentlemen, that’s what Mark Twain can do to you, even with the shortest of his stories.

    In the story, what spoke to you the most?

    Please share your thoughts in Comments!

  • Mister Yummy by Stephen King: Summary, Analysis and Review

    Mister Yummy by Stephen King: Summary, Analysis and Review

    Mister Yummy is a short story written by Stephen King. It was first published in 2015, as part of his short story collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams.

    Mister Yummy: Summary and Plot Analysis

    The story is set at Lakeview Assisted Living Center and details the last days in the life of an elderly homosexual – Ollie Franklin and his friend – Dave Calhoun.

    It opens with Olga, another elderly resident at the facility, trying to complete the pieces of a puzzle with Dave by her side, whom she mistook to be her husband, who died two years ago.

    Ollie joined in as Olga stepped out for her smoke break and soon they realized that the puzzle had a few missing pieces.

    Ollie asked Dave out for a walk in the garden, a request which surprised him a bit but he complied regardless. Shortly after, he offered Dave a family heirloom as a token of gratitude for their friendship, as he was sure that he would be dying very soon.

    Dave, although initially hesitant to accept such a precious family heirloom, eventually agreed to accept the gift.

    Ollie attributed the certainty of his death in the near future to very frequent visits by a Mister Yummy.

    He went on to describe the events that led to him meeting him one fine day in New York, and how the beauty of that man was forever etched in his memory.

    Listening to this conversation brought back memories of such an experience for Dave – where he happened to see a redhead in his teens. Ollie died later that day, and Dave noticed when visiting his room for one last time, that he had a sketch of a beautiful man lying on the bed- an unmistakable Mister Yummy.

    Olga’s memory began to deteriorate even further and she mistook Dave for her husband even more frequently now. Dave started to have visions of the redhead as well, each vision of her being closer to him than the earlier.

    He saw her for the last time while having dinner with his son – Peter – at a restaurant, where he offered Ollie’s pocket watch as a gift to him.

    Want to read Mister Yummy?

    Mister Yummy is a short story which is published in a collection of short stories called The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. You can use the links given below to check the price of this book:

    Check Price on Amazon US
    Check Price on Amazon Canada
    Check Price on Amazon India

    Mister Yummy: Review and My Thoughts

    The story is likeable for so many reasons. The observations on human nature are on point.

    Consider these for example –

    Dave recognizing Ollie just by the sound of his cane

    As a young man, Dave wouldn’t have believed that you could ID someone simply by the sound of his cane, but as a young man he had never dreamed he would finish his time on earth at a place where so many people used them.

    Dave playing along as Olga’s husband sportingly, taking into account that loss of memory is justified with advancing age.

    Since when are you Bob?

    “He was her husband. You remember. Came here with her, died two years ago.

    Actually, a funny little jab at the Eiffel tower came as a welcome relief from the saddening portrayal of old age.

    La Tour Eiffel. Did you know that there was a protest when it was under construction?

    No, but I am not surprised. The French.

    The artist Léon Bloy called it a truly tragic street lamp.

    Some other artist or writer- I can’t remember who- claimed that the best view of Paris was from Eiffel Tower, because it was the only view of Paris without the Eiffel Tower in it.

    The reason why portrayal of the old age and its by-products was particularly haunting – is that its so very real and relatable to a lot of us – if not now, sometime in the future.

    They walked toward the patio, where they would climb the steps as carefully as they had descended them. Once they had lived in Raegan era; now they lived in the era of glass hips.

    Life’s a great thing, but if you live long enough, it wears you out before it runs out.

    I would not have called it a horror story but for the latter statement. Makes me think (read depresses me) more than I would care to admit.

    Stephen King mentioned in the notes to this story that he discussed the rough sketch with a friend who didn’t approve of it citing the reason of  him being a straight man and not having enough perspective or much to add to what is already known about AIDS, to which he responded saying that all he wanted to write about was the brute power of human sex drive.

    How in a right or a wrong night, all reason, all sense of risk, all logic and all caution is swept away- things that need to be done, needed done.

    Ollie’s obsession with Mister Yummy and Dave visions of the redhead are cases in point. They are elderly and in Dave’s words have one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel. But their memories so far back in time are still as fresh as ever when it comes to people who made them feel the way they did-even for one brief second.

    I can’t help but recall one of Dave’s quotes as he sits in the garden with Ollie thinking of all the ordinary luxuries.

    When Dave Calhoun thought of death-not so far off now- the prospect that he regretted most was the loss of the sensory world and all its ordinary luxuries-taste of lemon pie with a cloud of meringue on top, and smell of flowers, sound of Cozy Cole going on drums.

    It’s the simple pleasures that count, In a mad race to get where we want, we lose sight of the inevitable end. The years can pass us by and it wouldn’t be long before we are one of those glass hip people. Let’s stop for a second and smell the flowers, shall we?

  • A Telephonic Conversation by Mark Twain: Summary and Review

    A Telephonic Conversation by Mark Twain: Summary and Review

    A Telephonic Conversation is a short story written by Mark Twain. It talks about a telephonic conversation that ensues between a woman and her friend, a Mrs.Bagley, while the woman’s husband passively listens to a one-sided conversation writing an article on a philosophical subject in the meantime.

    Telephone

    What comes to mind when you read this word somewhere or some old relative says that to you?

    For me, the sound of the word immediately brings back memories from childhood, and if not that scenes from old Hollywood movies with the device demanding familial attention with its loud and incessant trrrring, trring and the receiver immediately rushing to it, holding one piece to the mouth and another to the ear. 

    People talking on the phone, as if expecting their voice to reach the other person without the telephone, and in the process, shushing every other sound made in the entire household. I get carried away in a whole different world

    So, why am I suddenly talking about telephones?

    I recently read a short story by Mark Twain, part of his collection, The 30000 Bequest.

    I read the story and couldn’t help but smile. And well, Good things are supposed to be shared.

    So here’s a sneak peek into the humor-filled world of Mark Twain’s telephonic conversation.

    A Telephonic Conversation: Summary and Plot Analysis

    The story revolves around a telephonic conversation that ensues between a woman and her friend, a Mrs.Bagley, while the woman’s husband passively listens to a one sided conversation writing an article on a philosophical subject in the meantime.

    There is something very relatable about the story, something that almost all of us can relate to, at some level.

    Here is a small excerpt..

    Yes, Why? How did that happen?

    Pause

    What did you say?

    Pause

    Oh No, I don’t think it was

    Pause.

    Humans have an innate tendency to attempt to fill in the blanks whichever way they can. I am sure you could remember some homework back from your school, where you were supposed to fill in the blanks..

    The dog jumped _______ the bridge.

    Name of the President of X country is ______.

    If x = 2, then 2X =_______

    Now take the earlier conversation and fill in the pauses. The result could be funny, your homemade version of Netflix for a lazy evening, if I may.

    The comments of the husband delivered in a typical deadbeat manner, were funny.

    Subtle complaint about the the woman’s volume when talking on the phone –

    I heard the following remarkable series of observations, all from the one tongue, and all shouted – for you can’t ever persuade the sex to speak gently into a telephone.

    It might not be your wife that does it today, with smart phones and all, but I can bet you know an elderly female relative or two that will fit that description.

    In closing the story Mark Twain presents this little monologue.

    Must you go? Well, Good-by.

    Pause.

    Yes, I think so. Good-by.

    Pause.

    Four o’clock then – I’ll be ready. Good-by.

    Pause.

    Thank you ever so much. Good by.

    Pause

    ..

    ..

    When the woman finally hangs up, she does not do that without a sigh ‘Oh, it does tire a person’s arm so!’

    Witnessing all this here is what the husband says

    A man delivers a single brutal “Good-By”, and that is the end of it. Not so with the gentle sex – I say in their praise; they can not abide abruptness.

    My thoughts on the story

    The USP of this little story is its relatability. It is something that we see happening around us ever so often.

    Taking such a mundane thing and turning into stuff that makes you smile.

    That’s the genius of Mark Twain and his telephonic conversation.