A boss and an old man spend some time together and the boss's son who died in WWI is brought up.
The boss tries to resurface old feelings of anger and guilt but he can't; he tries to cry but he is unable.
He sees a fly drowning in ink and saves it once yet continues to drop ink on it until it dies.
After all of this he cannot remember "for the life of [him]" what he was thinking about.
Theory:
The fly is the son and the boss is inevitable fate at war
The boss is unable to cry because of his anger and past draining emotions. He is lost
Woodfield (old man) is a reminder of the past
Themes:
You shouldn't forget what is lost.
Some one can only take so much struggling until they can't go on
Power vs. Powerlessness
-The boss
-The people
-will & determination; fate & death
I agree with your list of themes here. Especially that one should not forget what is lost. I felt as though this was what Katherine Mansfield wanted to get across in this piece. She wanted to remind her audience of their past and this bold story did just that. The audience is almost prompted to be angry at the boss for forgetting his son. This mirrors Mansfield's anger at her country for forgetting the many deaths that resulted from the war.
ReplyDeleteAlso, your point that "one can only take so much before they can't go on" is also one I see illustrated in the text. The fly can only take so much of the ink before he dies. The bosses son could only take so much of the war before he died as well. And the boss could only handle so much grieving for his son's death before he starts to get over it. All thre situations reflect the theme of only being able to handle so much of a difficult thing before one essentially dies in one way or another.