End Semester

HS3090 - Short Story Classics

Name: G Rohith Kumar

Roll no: EE18B008
 Section-1
1. Judith Butler writes in Gender Trouble that “The effect of gender is produced through the stylization
of the body and, hence, must be understood as the mundane way in which bodily gestures, movements,
and styles of various kinds constitute the illusion of an abiding gendered self.”
Explore and extend the above ideas of Butler in relation to the idea of masculinity. Your arguments
have to be substantiated in relation to the stories The Blue Umbrella and The Man Who Could Not
Sleep. [15 Marks] Write no more than 600 words.

Ans) In her book, Gender Trouble Butler argues that within Western culture, sex, gender, and
sexual orientation are viewed as closely linked, essential qualities. The two sexes only appear
natural, obvious, and important to us because of the gendered world in which we live. Thus, for
Butler, gender is neither essential nor biologically determined, but rather it is created by its own
performance and hence it is performative. The term performativity refers to speech acts or
behaviors which create the very thing they describe. Butler’s concept of performative sexual
orientation is displayed to move the focus away from social structures, to illustrate that sexual
orientation is additionally constructed through social interactions instead of being
an inherent characteristic of people. What is a certain period that was seen as typical for one
gender, can in a different period in time be seen as a-typical for the same gender. For example, a
few hundred years ago the color pink was considered a typical color for boys, while in recent years
that same color is seen as typical for girls. Also when looking at other cultures, we see differences
between gender norms.

The term "Masculinity" refers to the roles, behaviors, and qualities that are considered suitable for
boys and men in a given society. Masculinity is developed and characterized socially, truly, and
politically, instead of being biologically driven. The roles, behaviors, and qualities that
are related to maleness and considered manly ordinarily bring more prominent social
status, financial reward, and political control than those associated with the female. Women, as
well as men, are included in fortifying these social expectations of masculinity (e.g. when a mother
tells her son to act like a man and not to cry).

Man who couldn’t sleep:

The whole story runs on an ailment faced by a man. Some of the Lines from the story:
1)“Even those men who toiled all day ”
2)“In the mill, Gounder boys were given preference in recruitment”
3)“ what does she know, anyway, apart from the dung on the cattle shed floor and smoke from the
wood stove?”
4)“Murugesan has told his family. As if his wife would conceive only in a house with tiled roof.”

From the above lines, we can see a man is the one who works hard on the fields and cattle to earn
money. At Mill, only men were recruited for work. Men have the authority to make all the
decisions in a family and are the one who takes care of the family financially. Coming to the
women, we can see they are restricted to the house and feed the family. They don’t have authority
over decisions. It shows that Men possess greater power than women in the story. So we can
clearly see the roles, practices, and behaviors of men and women imposed by the ideal gender
norms of society.

The Blue Umbrella:

The whole story circles around the beautiful Blue Umbrella and Binya. The story indirectly
expresses the activities and roles of Man and woman. “Why does Bijju go to school but Binya
doesn’t?” Emphasizes the point of gender discrimination. So it seems like boys should be preferred
over girls in education. Binya was restricted to the house and looks after the cows and was not
allowed to go to school because of her gender. The Blue umbrella is considered a beautiful playful
thing only for women. Ram Bharosa forces Binya to sell him the umbrella. We can also notice the
imposed gendered norms by society from the behaviors and roles of the women and men in the
picnic group.
2. Discuss the symbolism in, and significance of the title, The Fly, and their relation to the notion of
tragedy in this short story.[15 Marks] Write no more than 600 words.

Ans) The Fly is a significant and deep short story written in her simple but effective style with an
unordered chain of events. The short story represents the struggle of human beings against fate or
death which is a failure in nature and the struggle of man with man and human beings are
presented as the matters of game-play by god. The cruel nature and destructive spirit of human
wars have also been condemned and ridiculed in a very positive and reformative manner. The
Author has given a new life to a common housefly making it the central character of the short story.
The fly struggles to survive but finally, he dies as he is unable to escape his ultimate fate “death”.
The fly is a symbol of the human struggle against fate and his vain before destiny. The Boss’s acts
with the fly symbolize the cruelty of a group of humans who encourage wars and play with
innocent lives. The healing power of time has played a great role in the story which is the transition
between the mood of sadness, grief, and the mood of normality in the behavior escaping emotion
of grief. The central character fly has played a great role in the process of human life and their
struggle with fate.

The main fly, battling for survival before capitulating to death at the boss’s hand, could be a
symbol that provides numerous elucidations. The fly’s victimization—the boss renders it powerless
by repeatedly submerging the fly in ink on his smudging paper—suggests the perversion and
brutality of warfare. Mansfield’s embodiment of the fly with its “little front legs” “waving” in a “cry
for help” represents the catastrophe of Britain’s give up to the repulsions of World War I. The fly’s
battle for survival can be examined as a symbol of the boss’s son and Woodifield’s son Reggie, who
were both slaughtered in World War I and presently lie buried in Belgium. The fly’s typical
uncertainty too opens up elucidations of the boss and Woodifield “drowning” in pain and
incompetence following their sons’ deaths. The boss’s “grinding feeling of wretchedness” after he
kills the fly may imply an older generation’s blame at sending their children to war; senior
specialists committed Britain’s youth to fight utilizing ink penned on records, whereas so also the
boss uses ink to suffocate the fly. Mansfield besides portraying Woodifield as a helpless stroke
survivor who is overwhelmed by his well-intentioned family—controls his everyday movements in
a comparative way to the boss’s control over the fly. At a broader societal level, the fly’s enduring
and passing can also symbolize the human condition, as all creatures must grapple with mortality.
In specific, the boss, Woodifield, and the boss’s clerk, Macey, are all aging men who are
approaching the ends of their lives. At the time of composing “The Fly,” Mansfield was nearing
death herself, suffering awfully from tuberculosis and battling for life just like the fly soaked in ink.

Section-2

3. Analyse the principles of Chekov in relation to specific incidents, characters, imagery, etc., from two
short story texts to illuminate the form and ideologies of this genre.Write no more than 750 words.

Ans) Six principles of good short story by Chekov:

 Absence of lengthy verbiage of a political-social-economic nature.
 Total objectivity.
 Truthful descriptions of persons and objects.
 Extreme brevity.
 Audacity and originality: flee the stereotype.
 Compassion.

Let’s consider two short stories texts from the course and analyze them.
1) The Resignation:
The story revolves around the life of a clerk named Lala Fatechand. The story can be
analyzed according to Chekov’s principles by breaking into 5 episodes. The first episode describes
the true character and personality of Lala Fatehchand. The reader gets a basic idea of Fatehchand’s
life and personality from the lines “He is a failure in the office, among friends. He had a very little
money but a heart of gold”, “He constantly worried about losing his job”. The second episode starts
with expressing brief details of his family and his wife’s personality. This episode leaves the reader
to develop their own opinion based on the events of the story. The conversation between
Fatehchand and Saheb tells everything about the historical context and time of the story. This
episode doesn’t put much effort into explaining the political, social, economic world around
Fatehchand. Coming to episode 3 clearly describes the helplessness of Fatehchand. He felt so weak.
He was unhappy and got into a terrible situation. This episode makes the reader feel pity for
Fatehchand. This is how the story makes the reader continue to live with the story. Going onto
episode 4, we see FatehChand comes back home and lies to his wife about what happened with
Saheb. After listening to the words from his wife, Fatehchand realizes that it is stupid to raise the
family at the cost of self-respect and walks towards Saheb’s house to go against him. This part is
very much enjoyed by the reader since there might be a turn of events that makes the reader eager
to know the next part of the story. The last episode is where Fatehchand teaches a lesson to Saheb
and he resigns his job by saying "I will never work under a wicked man like you". The reader can
conclude that In this story, the author describes how a dumb clerk will react when his employer
will abuse him. Though the employee is bound to the employer to safeguard his job, he rebels when
something goes beyond his tolerance. “Never test the patience of any human”. The author uses
around 3000 words to create this wonderful short story. You can notice the principles made by
Chekov are covered in this short story.

2) The Gift of Magi:

The beginning of the story focuses on their poverty, the shabby couch, the lack of a mirror,
the eight-dollar flat, the broken doorbell. She Only had one dollar and eighty-seven cents to get a
present for her husband Jim. Despite this, the narrator adds that Jim always arrives home to be
“greatly hugged. Which is all very good.” Their poverty doesn’t seem to affect their cozy home life
on a daily basis, and the emotional value of having each other outweighs their lack of material
wealth. The above actions and narration help the reader in understanding the personalities of both
Della and Jim and also helps in understanding their financial status by making an extra effort by
the verbiage on their social and economic life. there were two possessions of the James Dillingham
Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his
father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. The narrator stresses Della’s hair and
Jim’s gold watch by comparing them with the treasures of King Solomon and the queen of Sheba
which are the two main assets of the story. In order to overcome their poverty and to give a good
Christmas present to Jim, Della demonstrates her love for Jim by sacrificing her own most prized
possession and external beauty without a second thought. The narrator wraps up the story by
breaking the silent climax with Jim also buying a present for Della by selling his watch. The
narrator creates the entire drama of sacrificing things for each other to get presents which turned
useless in the end but added value to their relationship through generosity and sacrifice. The
narrator makes the reader feel compassionate for both the characters. In this story, the narrator
conveys that the value of a gift lies in the intent, the level of generosity, and the sacrifice behind it,
rather than its material value. The entire story is narrated in just 2000 words which is quite brief
according to the principles of Chekov.

References:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01320/full
https://www.enotes.com/topics/fly-katherine-mansfield