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Tag: emotional

  • 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!

  • Jakarta by Alice Munro: Plot Summary, Analysis & Review

    Jakarta by Alice Munro: Plot Summary, Analysis & Review

    Jakarta, a short story by Alice Munro, first appeared as part of her collection of short stories in Love of a Good Woman.

    Jakarta: Plot Summary and Analysis

    The story is set in Vancouver and spans over three decades, starting in the 1950s and lasting until 1990s. It is narrated in a back and forth manner and is split in four parts. Part I and III are set in the 1950s whereas Part II and IV are set in the 1990s.

    Part I of the story opens at a beach where Kath and Sonje, two young married women, are hiding behind logs at a beach to avoid the eyes of a group of women they call Monicas – who came there everyday with a bunch of kids in tow.

    Kath and Sonje both dread the stage of lives these Monicas are in, Kath more so, being a new mother herself to a baby girl named Noelle.

    Kath and Sonje knew each other from the Public library that they both used to work at.

    Kath was married to Kent, a conservationist, whom she didn’t feel particularly very attached to, while Sonje was married to Cottar, a free-spirited journalist and a very liberal husband whom she adored.

    It was Cottar’s trip to Red China which triggered the scandalous publicity of him being a left-wing writer and that using her job as a librarian, she might be promoting communism among children to further her husband’s cause.

    Sonje was not fired, but she quit anyway – to accommodate upcoming changes in their lives.

    Kath secretly admired Sonje – both her looks and her intelligence.

    One day as they were discussing a story by D.H Lawrence, they got into a fight – which reveals to Kath that she had never felt about Kent the way Sonje felt about Cottar – that Sonje’s happiness depended on Cottar.

    She never wanted that to be true for her, but then she never wanted Sonje to think that she was the woman that had missed out on love.

    Part II of the story features Kent and Sonje, who happen to meet in the present(1990s), while Kent reminisced events from their past. He went to Sonje’s with his much younger wife, one she mistook to be his daughter.

    Looking at Sonje, hearing her speak, her house, her mannerisms, all brought back memories from the past for him.

    He got to know that Cottar died more than 30 years ago, caught a bug and was buried in Indonesia before the news got to Sonje.

    Sonje took care of his mother till her death (she was best friends with her). They converted her house into a dancing school. The way the house was set up still reminded him of their place from years ago.

    He was surprised by how talkative Sonje was, which was in complete contrast to her personality that he had known, perhaps the loneliness causing that transformation in her.

    Part III of the story had an account of the party that Sonje and Cottar threw before Cottar’s trip to Indonesia and Sonje’s to Oregon to take care of his mother. The party had a big crowd – friends, neighbors and Monicas.

    Once Noelle was asleep, Kath put the baby in the care of the baby-sitter and proceeded to participate in the celebrations. Kath and Sonje met and professed how much they valued their friendship and that they were going to miss each other. 

    Kath let Amy do her makeup and she was absolutely impressed with her made up appearance.

    Feeling rebellious, she danced and was making out with a stranger when the babysitter called her in to nurse the baby. She got back only to see that Kent was already there with the baby’s bottle. She almost concluded that Kent did not see her with the stranger but  the reaction from Kent convinced her otherwise. Guilt-ridden, she proceeded to wash all the make up off her face.

    Part IV of the story is back to the present again where Sonje and Kent are talking to each other. Sonje reveals that she had an idea where she thinks that Cottar might not be dead at all. That she was going to go to Jakarta in person to inquire all about Cottar.

    Convinced that he was alive, she was desperate in making Kent see the logic of it. 

    Kent, convinced that this was a bad move, in complete honesty, let her know what he felt about it, albeit not with his youthful brashness this time. He wondered if Sonje and Kath were still in touch and if Sonje was going to tell Kath about how good his life looked. He couldn’t help but wonder how Kath and Cottar got away.

    While one was, more likely than not, dead, the other couldn’t be more alive – yet both were somehow unreachable. 

    Want to read Jakarta?

    Jakarta is a short story which is published in a collection of short stories called The Love of a Good Woman. This collection won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013. 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

    Reasons why you would love this story

    Like every other Alice Munro story, this one is a wondrous little short story, an astute observation of human nature.

    But what stood out in this one was the added layers of complexity and the back and forth narration device. The story is replete with instances that are so real, you can easily find yourself in one of them.

    Consider, for example, her description of Monicas –

    Where’s your hat? Where’s your ball? You have been riding on that thing long enough, let Sandy have a turn.

    Even when they talk to each other, their voices have to be raised high, over the shouts and squalls of their children.

    How many times have you seen this happening? How many times have you done this? I can bet that you can find yourself in a beach right now living the same conversation, if not witnessing it second hand.

    Munro is pure magic, I tell you.

    When she nurses her baby, she often reads a book, sometimes smokes a cigarette, so as to not sink into a sludge of animal function.

    It’s scary how she observes, like the human soul is laid bare in front of her eyes and she can pen it with a daftness, I can only believe is second nature to her.

    It seemed to her (Kath) that life went on, after you finished school, as a series of further examinations to be passed. The first one was getting married. If you hadn’t done it by the time you were twenty-five, that examination had, to all intents and purposes, been failed.

    I can’t tell you how many times I have had this conversation with friends, sometimes fully sober, sometimes in a stupor induced philosophical state. 

    Look down, look down – see how the reeds wave in water, they are alive but they never break the surface. And that is how female nature must live within his male nature. Then she will be happy and he will be strong and content. Then they will have achieved a true marriage.

    I am not surprised that she would say such a thing, considering how much a society at that time would value patriarchical dominance/influence.

    My happiness depends on Cottar.

    This is scary, very scary.

    And out the window goes every teacher’s wisdom that told you to be happy inside. That reasons of your happiness should not be outside of you. That your happiness is fully dependent on some one else. And that their entry or exit from your life spells an instant doom for you. (this statement and the one before it don’t resonate with earlier statements – they are two different things).

    No wonder Kath didn’t want that for herself. I am on her side. 

    She changed the spelling herself and scorned her mother’s frivolity. They all scorned their parents then, for something.

    Little things like this- children not seeing eye to eye with their parents. Times have changed but this thing never did. It’s as relevant in 2020 as it was way back in 1940s. .

    You would expect an old mother would be grief-stricken talking about how her only child had run off and left her, but no. Maybe old people aren’t like that. Really old people. They don’t get grief-stricken anymore. They must figure it’s not worth it.

    This one was a terribly tiny tale – a story in itself. Made me think.

    Just when you crown her the queen on the sombre human nature, she drops humor on you. She can bring a smile to your face as simply as she can bring tears to your eyes.

    There wasn’t any insurance?

    Don’t be silly.

    If there had been insurance, they would have found out the truth.

    This story with so many layers is laden with gems. Exploding with gems rather.

    But If I had to pick just the one, I would pick this one- a thought on Kent’s head

    You picked up the wrong idea, surely the wrong idea. That somebody dead might be alive and in Jakarta. But when you knew somebody was alive, when you could drive to the very door, you let the opportunity pass.

    It was painful to see the composed Sonje, who was completely and thoroughly in control of herself, lost it all for Cottar. Her life and happiness, in a way, were always dependent on Cottar.

    She was ready to chase the elusive, chase the unicorn to get the love of her life back. She was sure that he was alive and all she had to do was to track him down.

    On the other side was Kent, seemingly composed on the surface, having an interesting life, young wife and all that you would think that would make a person happy, but beyond the surface lied the longing for Kath.

    Kath, who wasn’t far from him at all, very much alive, so much so that he could drive up to her house and show right at the door. But he doesn’t choose to do that; he chooses to live life in the past and wonder what it would have been.

    Humans are complex and no one has done a better job of bringing that to the fore than Alice Munro. And she does that consistently.

    “It’s a wonderful thing for the short story,” Munro said of her Nobel Prize noting that her kind of writing is “often brushed off as something that people do before they write their first novel.”

    Well, to be completely out of the line, I don’t think that is true, for each of her stories is equivalent to multiple novels and more. She can do more in a short story that one can do in a novel. That’s her superpower. 

    If you have watched The Godfather III and are an Al Pacino fan, you might remember a line from the movie where Al Pacino goes – “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in”.

    My relationship with Alice Munro’s stories is the same. Although unlike Pacino, I am loving every minute of it.

  • Was It Heaven? Or Hell? by Mark Twain: Summary and Review

    Was It Heaven? Or Hell? by Mark Twain: Summary and Review

    Was it Heaven? Or Hell? is a short story that was published in early 1900s as part of Mark Twain’s short story collection The 30000 Bequest.

    As a child, have you ever been told not to lie? 

    Or lying is bad?

    Or lying brings you terrible misfortune?

    Lying is possibly the worst thing that you can do?

    And what puzzled you as you grew was the same people that told you all those things resorted to lying themselves, correcting you when you pointed it out to them saying ‘ ‘that was for good reason’ and ‘not all sorts of lying is bad’?

    Leaving you confused where exactly was the line that separated a good lie from a bad one?

    This short story is going to take you a trip down that memory lane.

    Was It Heaven? Or Hell?: Summary and Plot Analysis

    The story revolves around a female family of four, Margaret Lester, a widow in her late thirties, her teenage daughter Helen, and two righteous maiden twin aunts, Hannah and Hester Gray.

    The story opens with the aunts confronting Helen for a lie she confessed to have said.

    Theirs was a world where lies had no place. It was something unthinkable. So having their darling Helen confess to lying evokes consternation from the elderly women and they demanded that she confess to the lie in front of her sick mother.

    The child implores them to excuse her behavior just that once and spare her mother the agony of her confession of a lie, but her requests fall on deaf ears.

    After all, with a duty no compromise is possible.

    All said and done, the decision is made. Helen is to visit her mother in the sick room and confess to her lie.

    Sobbing and desolate, Helen begs for forgiveness from her mother.

    The doting mother, caring not for the lie, immediately forgives her and embraces her to calm her down, as the elderly aunts witness the scene.

    It’s at this time that the family doctor makes his presence felt and softly whispers to the aunts to clear out the space and give the sick woman some time to rest.

    He appears half an hour later with Helen, who seemed to have returned to her natural cheery self. He quickly examines her, declares her fit  and healthy. He asks her to go back to her room, and excuses himself from her company to talk to the aunts.

    Expressing his disappointment at the women for creating a ruckus, he lets them know that Margaret was suffering from typhoid.

    The women, terrified of this news, when attempting to rush back to Margaret are stopped by the doctor, who demands a reason from them behind creating a scene.

    They  tell him that it was Helen’s lie that started it all.

    Infuriated at hearing this, he reprimands the women for their inability to differentiate a helpful lie from a hurtful one and causing incredible danger to both Helen and her mother in the process.

    In an attempt to understand why the women were so hell bent on exposing the lie, he discovers that women feared that lying would cost them their soul if they died without the time to repent.

    Shaking his head in disbelief he asks the women to reform and learn to be able to tell lies. He then appraises them about the state of health of both Margaret and Helen and indicates that a night and day watch would soon be required for them.

    The health of the mother and child continues to deteriorate while the old women continue to dedicate themselves in their service.

    The mother implores to see her child but Hester forbade it, fearing that exposure to typhoid might put Helen’s health at risk.

    Understanding the gravity of the situation at the drop of a hat/ immediately, the mother accepts the separation from her kid to keep her from harm’s way.

    When asked if her daughter was well, Hester ends up lying to say that Helen was well. Hester speaks to Hannah about the lie and Hannah takes it upon herself to expose the truth to her.

    Hester begs her not to, as she thinks that this would have grave consequences on Margaret’s health. Hannah, upon seeing Margaret, ends up lying as well, much to the relief of her sister.

    Helen’s health continues to deteriorate and she succumbs to the disease soon after in Hester’s arms, happy in her final moments mistaking her for Margaret.

    Margaret continues to enquire about letters from her daughter. In an attempt to comfort her , they fake a letter from her and continue to lie about her well being. 

    Margaret’s final day comes soon after and she dies never knowing that her child died before her. Hannah and Hester are happy knowing that she was spared the grief.

    An angel visits Hannah and Hester at midnight. The women confessed to their human weakness in front of the angel and lifted their heads in supplication. The angel whispered the decree.

    Was it Heaven? Or Hell?

    Was It Heaven? Or Hell? Review and My Thoughts

    For a moment, let’s assume that heaven and hell exist, what do you think happened to the women?

    Should they be going to hell because they lied? They bent the rules. They were lost.

    Should they be going to heaven because being dedicated in their service to Margaret and Hester all their lives, they made sure they comforted them all through their dying days and spared both of them unwanted grief in their final moments?

    If nothing else, making you feel the itch of not knowing a definite answer to this question, is going to make me feel good. Misery loves company, doesn’t it?

    And Yes, I am definitely going to hell for saying that.

    But seriously, what do you think of the ending of the story?

    I would be happy to hear your thoughts on what happened in the end because I admit that I am torn. And thanks to Mr Twain’s characteristic writing in this piece haven’t been able to brush the ending off my mind.

  • Goodbye and Good Luck: Summary, Plot Analysis, Review

    Goodbye and Good Luck: Summary, Plot Analysis, Review

    Goodbye and Goodluck is a short story written by Grace Paley that was published in her collection called The Little Disturbances of Man by Doubleday in 1959. One of the more known stories from her collection, this story is a heartwarming tale of a woman in pursuit of love and her struggles with tradition in her journey to attaining it.

    Goodbye and Good Luck: Summary and Plot Analysis

    The story opens with Rosie Lieber telling Lillie, her niece, a story about her youth. Rosie used to be an overweight, clear thinking and kind woman in her youth.

    She used to work in a novelty wear shop and had lost her job once speaking her mind.

    The next job that she applied for, was one where they needed a refined young lady in a cultural organization. She responded and got the job shortly.

    The job gave her, in addition to a weekly salary of nine dollars, a free ticket every week and opportunity to watch rehearsals as many times as she wanted.

    She settles in her job quickly. The theatre manager, Mr Krimberg introduces her to one of the actors, shortly after.

    Volodya Vlashkin, also known as the Valentino of Second avenue, soon got into a blossoming friendship with Rosie.

    Rosie watched and praised Vlashkin for his theater performances and Vlashkin, finding a comfortable companionship with Rosie, continues to show interest in her. The attention that she continued to receive from him baffled her at times.

    She receives a raise as a result of him putting in a good word for her. In addition, she also got to be part of a crowd scene at fifty cents a night.

    Vlaskhin finds an apartment for her close to the theater and that is when Rosie informs her mother of this, and kisses her Mama goodbye.

    She professes her love for him in front of her mother, who is disgusted by Rosie’s blatant disregard for tradition. She calls Rosie a rotten hole in a piece of cheese and cries relentlessly.

    In the years that followed, Rosie got to know many people, most of them admiring her for her youth and terrific listening skills. She gets to know that Vlashkin is a married man with a family-wife and kids, the whole package.

    She confronts him about it and Vlashkin comes clean. She accepts it to be true and convinces Rosie that it is with her that he is really happy. Rosie is convinced, until one day where she gets to see Mrs. Vlashkin.

    Feeling guilty to be a home breaker, she confronts Vlashkin again and removes herself from his life. She continues on with her life – meeting different men, but finding none of them interesting enough.

    Meanwhile, Vlashkin toured abroad for a few years and even wrote a book about his experiences. In a chance meeting with Vlashkin on the street, she congratulates him for his success. They continue to be friendly and supportive of each other.

    Many years pass by, the theater closes and she gets a buzz on the phone. Vlashkin has called  to inform her about his divorce and that now he was a free man. Feeling insulted by the idea of accompanying Vlashkin only as a mistress, she proposes that they marry. Vlashkin agrees.

    The story ends with Rosie telling Lillie that she needs to leave soon as she will be late for her wedding and asks her to tell her mama – Goodbye and Good luck.

    Goodbye and Good Luck: Review and My Thoughts

    The story revolves around Rosie’s love for Vlashkin and her struggle balancing her love with tradition and her desire for independence.

    She follows tradition, no questions asked, until she meets Vlashkin.

    She finds it difficult to follow tradition when doing that comes at the cost of proximity to him. Throughout the story, Paley has demonstrated this. 

    Consider this example from one of Rosie’s dates.

    Why do you hide your young throat. These are not old times, my child, to live in shame.

    Who’s ashamed? I said taking off the kerchief, but my hand right away went to take the kerchief’s place, because the truth is, it really was old times, and I was still of the nature to melt with shame.

    And one where she sadly kisses her mom Goodbye to live a ‘life of love’.

    This is a different way of living Mama. Besides, I am driven by love.

    Her love for Vlashkin is not the only thing that is exceptional about Rosie. I love how she faces her problems head on and has such a positive disposition and a very healthy sense of self respect. 

    Upon receiving a comment from the theater manager about her burly figure, instead of questioning her own self worth, she responds in good humor (Everyone likes kindness.)

    Rosie Leiber , you got a build on you.

    It takes all kinds, Mr Krimberg.

    Her human fears make Rosie all the more likeable. Consider, for example, her fear of not being able to live a life of companionship.

    This is your lonesome bed. A lady who they call fat and fifty. You made it personally. From this lonesome bed , you will fall to a bed not as lonesome,only crowded with a million bones.

    I was personally happy when Rosie tells Lillie that she is going to be wed?

    And that’s the power of Grace Paley.

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

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

    A Dog’s Tale is a short story written by Mark Twain. It was first published in 1903. The story is told from the perspective of a dog and narrates the journey of a dog’s life..

    Mark Twain had once said:

    If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man. The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven, not man’s.

    If you are a dog lover, whether or not you own one right now, you will understand in an instant what Mr Twain is saying here.

    You come home tired from a bad day in office, the minute you open the door, you get the welcome reserved only for kings and queens, the dog is so happy to see you that for a minute there you forgot you had a bad day.

    You sit restfully on a weekend with coffee in one hand and your favorite crossword in other, your dog calmly climbs on to your lap and sits there comfortably staring at the crossword in amazement, like that was the best thing in the world at the moment, you feel your sense of calm multiply manifold.

    There is something ethereal about the connection between a man and his dog. I stand corrected: a dog and his man, which explains why we see so many on-screen adaptations of this beautiful relationship.

    I have a huge list of movies that I would recommend if you are planning to start on what I call the Dog Movie journey, but more on that later..

    This is about a Dog’s tale. Twainspeak.

    A Dog’s Tale: Summary and Plot Analysis

    Aileen Mavoureen is a Presbyterian. As the story opens, she reminisces about her mother, an ‘educated’ Collie, she likes big words and shows off her prowess to the rest of them, leaving them surprised and envious.

    Although Aileen did think of her mother as a rather vain character, she believed her virtues more than made up for that flaw. There was more to  Collie than just her education.

    Aileen grows up fully and is eventually sold to another family. Broken hearted at their impending separation, they cry.

    Aileen’s mother comforts her the best way she could leaving her with the wisdom to perform her duties as a dog with the utmost dedication. To think not of oneself but others in the times of danger.

    Aileen finds her new home charming. Her Grays are a loving family. She feels like a part of the family and enjoys the affections people send her way.

    Mr Gray is a scientist, Mrs Gray a homemaker, Sadie, their elder kid, a 10-year old girl and a one-year old baby.

    a white puppy sits and looks at the screen
    Humans’ best friend.

    Aileen’s days are mostly spent being petted by the family, watching the baby in nursery, playing with Sadie on the grass and in occasional visits to the neighboring dogs.

    Aileen is positively pleased with her life and has nothing more to ask for. Her happiness multiplies manifold when she welcomes her pup into the world.

    Aileen finds her world too perfect until one day where an incident happens during her nursery watch.

    The baby and Aileen were both sleeping when the baby’s crib caught fire. Awakened by the baby’s cries, the dog darts, and is half way on her way out when the parting words from her mother strike her.

    When in danger, don’t think about yourself.

    Aileen ran towards the baby in the nursery and drags the crying baby out and is almost out of the door, feeling proud and happy about her feat, when Mr Gray mistaking it for a dog’s mischief strikes at her with his cane.

    She is able to duck all but one painful blow to her left foreleg, which leaves her whimpering in pain. Mr Gray soon realises his mistake upon noticing the fire in nursery and runs in that direction.

    The dog thinking that Mr Gray would soon return for her escapes to the storage trying to hide away from further torture, all the while licking her wound for comfort.

    After a while the frenzy from the fire dies down and the family begins looking for her, calling out his name, whereas she continues to hide.

    She eventually devises a plan to escape the house but stops dead in her tracks in despair when she realises she does not have her puppy.

    Accepting her fate, she decides to stay back dreading her fate, for she was sure that torture would continue when she is found.

    She is eventually discovered by Sadie and is very happy when she realises that she is actually being celebrated for being a hero that saved the baby. She is happy again being the object of the family’s worship.

    The days pass by and one day Mr Gray invites a few of his colleagues over to his laboratory. They discussed the fire at the house, the dog’s role in saving his child and went on comparing intelligence and reasoning in a human and a beast.

    She feels proud that she is an object of their conversations and thinks about her mother wondering how proud she would have been of her that day.

    One day, Mr Gray and his friends take the pup to the laboratory for an ‘experiment’. Aileen is excited and proud for her pup but is horrified to see that they have blinded the pup to prove a point.

    As the pup staggers, Aileen runs to comfort him but the pup succumbs to his injuries shortly after. Aileen observes the footman burying the pup in the ground and mistaking it to be the same as the process of planting a seed resulting in a fresh healthy plant to come out, sits there in anticipation of her pup coming alive.

    The footman, after the burial, patted Aileen’s head. She notices tears in his eyes when he says “Poor Little Doggie, you saved his child?”

    She waits by the burial ground for two weeks hoping  for the pup to come up but is disheartened when he doesn’t.

    A terrible fear grips her and she could not eat or sleep. She doesn’t return home even when people beg her to ‘not break their heart’ and come back.

    As she lies there waiting and fearful, she breathes her last.

    The humble little friend is gone where go the beasts that perish.

    A Dog’s Tale: Review and My Thoughts

    If you are the sentimental type, I would be very surprised if Aileen’s story didn’t get a tear or two from you. But parking my own emotions for a minute, let’s get back to Mr Twain’s heart rending portrayal of Aileen’s tale.

    There are many highlights in this  short story but these are the ones that tugged at my heartstrings the most.

    When AIleen’s remembers her mother fondly:

    She had a kind heart and gentle ways and never harbored the injuries done onto her, but put them easily out of her mind and taught her children her kindly way. And from her we learned also to be brave and prompt in the time of danger, and not to run away, but face the peril that threatened friend or stranger, and help him the best we could without stopping to think what the cost might be to us.

    I could not help but wonder, is it possible for human to be this compassionate? If it was , these would be the most compassionate people walking the face of earth and we would all be in awe of them.

    How come, a creature so close to us, goes unnoticed, having devoted their life for us? Are we even capable of devoting ourselves to any creature this way?

    When Aileen tries to explain what a laboratory is:

    The laboratory was not a book, or a picture or a place to wash your hands in- No, that’s lavatory; the laboratory is quite different and is filled with jars, and bottles and electrics and wires and strange machines.

    Mark Twain, has nailed (for the lack of a better word) the innocence of a dog with this. For a fleeting minute Aileen transforms to an adorable toddler  just beginning to learn the rules of the vocabulary.

    When Aileen waits for the pup plant to grow:

    There the footman dug the hole and I saw he was going to plant the puppy, and I was glad, because it would grow and come up fine handsome dog, like Robin Adair, and be a beautiful surprise when they came home.

    Oh, this broke my heart and I cried.

    However to me, the story did more than just make me sob.

    It filled me with hate. It filled me with disgust.

    Hate and disgust both for human kind. About the cruelty that humankind afflicts on creatures just because it can.

    It was pleasantly re-assuring to chance upon an article while researching Mark Twain’s animal-lover side.

    I was so happy upon discovering that he stood up for animal laws back in the day. Giving us stuff to reflect, and at the same time walking the talk put him right up on the pedestal.

    He did show us through his work and through his life, that there are things that we can do. We can still correct the wrong.

    I don’t know if heaven or hell exists, but I am with Twain when he says that he would prefer a Dog’s heaven over a Human’s.

    Want to read A Dog’s Tale?

    A Dog’s Tale is available on Amazon if you want to get yourself a copy. You are welcome to use the links given below to order a copy:

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    What do YOU think of A Dog’s Tale?

    What did you like about the story? What stood out the most to you?

    Do you have an interesting dog tale that you’d like to share with us?

    We are open to any and all dogly conversations and we would love to hear your favorite stories involving our cute, pawed friends.

    Also, if you’re up for it, let us know in the Comments and we’d be happy to share some awesome dog movies.

    Till then, a friendly woof to all Friends of Words!