The document discusses how people cling to memories from their past, similar to how a tree clings to its last leaves. It describes an old man, Mr. Wodefield, who reminisces with his boss, unwittingly causing the boss distress by bringing up memories of his late son. The boss finds brief relief in observing a fly clean itself after falling in ink, but ultimately tests and kills the resilient fly, disturbing himself. The story illustrates how past tragedies can leave one feeling numb, clinging to what pleasures remain from better times as coping mechanisms.
Original Description:
Based on The Fly by Katherine Mansfield.
Original Title
We cling onto our past pleasures like a tree clings on to its last leaves
The document discusses how people cling to memories from their past, similar to how a tree clings to its last leaves. It describes an old man, Mr. Wodefield, who reminisces with his boss, unwittingly causing the boss distress by bringing up memories of his late son. The boss finds brief relief in observing a fly clean itself after falling in ink, but ultimately tests and kills the resilient fly, disturbing himself. The story illustrates how past tragedies can leave one feeling numb, clinging to what pleasures remain from better times as coping mechanisms.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
The document discusses how people cling to memories from their past, similar to how a tree clings to its last leaves. It describes an old man, Mr. Wodefield, who reminisces with his boss, unwittingly causing the boss distress by bringing up memories of his late son. The boss finds brief relief in observing a fly clean itself after falling in ink, but ultimately tests and kills the resilient fly, disturbing himself. The story illustrates how past tragedies can leave one feeling numb, clinging to what pleasures remain from better times as coping mechanisms.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
surrounded by all kinds of troubles, the ground may be slipping beneath our feet, no matter what circumstances we were or are in, we always cling onto the better side of our past like ‘ a tree clings onto its last leaves’. We cling onto those memories and habits of the past that we don’t want to let go of. Here we have Mr. Woodsfield who is now old and decrepit but sits in the boss’ office smoking a cigar in spite of his health. The man is caged in his house for six days of the week on account of his health. He talks casually to the boss unaware of the effect of his words and actions on the boss. The conversation turns towards the boss’ late son. From this point onwards, the boss is disturbed. After Mr.Wodefield leaves, the boss is reminded of the pleasant days with his son. How he had been proud of him and everything had looked perfect. He also remembered how he had felt when he lost him. Life always enters a phase where the colours are duller and everything goes numb. When the future holds nothing for you, you tend the hold the past and your memories closer. You get immune to even the most heart-breaking experiences you have gone through by going through it again and again in your mind. Somehow you learn to push all of it to the back of your mind with the slightest distractions of your mind because whatever happens, life has to return to normality. Here, the boss is prepared to cry his sadness out, after being reminded of his son by old Mr.Wodefield. only to find that he wasn’t feeling like he was ‘supposed to feel’ .Instead he vents the disturbance in his mind by diverting his attention to a fly which had fallen into his inkpot. The boss had seen unfair life and had had to succumb to fate. Just when all his hard work began to be fruitful, when his son was young and ready to take over, the war came and took his son away along with all meaning of life and what he had achieved in all these years suddenly became meaningless. So he finds strange relief in watching the fly struggle to clean itself .When the fly had finished cleaning itself , with the joy and relief of somebody who had survived a great danger, the boss decides to play with it. He imagines the fly thinking that the great danger was over, ready for life again. The spirit of hope , energy and determination of the fly contrasts the boss’ who had grown numb with six sad years after his son’s death. Life had been unfair to him. His son had been taken away from him for no particular reason. It was sheer play of fate or whims of the Lord.He decides to let the fly face the same kind of unfairness. He drops ink on the fly again. But the fly doesn’t give up. It cleans itself again. The boss admires the fly’s courage but tests it by dropping ink on it again. It survives that one too, but the next drop kills it. His own coldness disturbs him but he pushes it out of his mind. He clears the table of the corpse and gets a new blotting paper. By this time he had forgotten what he had been thinking about. The boss is trapped in the past. He ‘clings’ onto the pleasant memories of his son. But the more he thinks about his son the more he misses him and it becomes more painful for him. ‘The Fly’ is perfect example of how some incidents in life leaves you stuck at that point of disaster, and what emerges from it is a numb dullness although you’ve managed to get the ‘disaster’ out of your conscious mind. It shows how you cling to the past with its small pleasures and sorrows. We have two examples – the boss who has lost his son but still ‘clings’ to the memories of him, unable to let go and get over it. and Mr.Wodefield who ‘clings’ on to small pleasures of the past like chatting with an old friend over a glass of whiskey and cigar.