Breakfast, John Steinbeck (Notes)

                                                                  Question # 1
                                             Describe the setting of the story?

       John Ernest stein beck is an articulate and socially conscious artist. He perfectly understands human feelings and aestheticises them as a consummate artist. “
                Breakfast” is a short story in which purity of living is described. It has been written in the background of rural ways of life. The venue of the event is a beautiful valley. The time is early in the morning before the sunrise. The wind is very raw and cold. The mountains at the eastern side look black- blue but there is a faint tinge of orange light behind them. The sky is dark but slightly turning in to gray and then white. The earth is gray like lavender. The writer is walking on a country road when he sees a dark gray tent ahead of him… Near the tent a rusty old stove is burning with orange flame flickering out and making a dancing reflection on the tent. Beside the stove a young girl is working with a baby in her lap. This is a beautiful pure and refreshing scene away from the polluted and corrupted environment of the cities. The air and landscape present a sense of unblemished nature with its true structure and worth. The purity of this scene makes an everlasting impression on the writer’s mind and it does not fail to make an impression on the reader either.

                                                                   Question # 2
                                                 What were the ways of the people?
           Once, early in the morning, the writer happened to come across a gypsy family. He was walking on a country road when he saw a tent erected on a distance. A stove was burning beside the tent. The air was too cold and the writer went closer to the stove to warm his hands. It was an old rusty stove with many cracks in it. The young women working on the stove was dressed in a faded cotton skirt and waist. She was carrying a baby who was nursing without interfering with her graceful movements. She had long hair plaited at the back that swung here and there when she moved about.
           A little later two men came out of the tent. They looked much alike except for their age. The older had a gray stubble beard while the younger had a dark one. Their hands and faces were wet and they stood facing the east… looking towards the lightening eastern horizon. They greeted the writer and invited him to have breakfast with them. Meanwhile the girl had set a packing box as a table and had placed tin cups, plates, and spoons on it. She served them with hot coffee, fried bacon, bacon gravy and high big biscuits. The writer said that it was the warmest, pleasantest odor he had ever known.
           Before starting the breakfast, both men thanked Christ and God for the blessing of good food. They ate with delight and were thanking God and Christ again and again. They told the writer that they had been working for twelve days in cotton fields and that’s why they had been eating well. They proudly told him that they had bought new dungarees even. They offered the writer to get him employed at the same fields but the writer politely thanked them. It was unexpected for the writer because in urban life, people are acquainted with a tough, cutthroat competition and they never offer anything to any one. But these were simple people who not only entertained him with a splendid food but also offered him an employment. This was the time of 1930’s trade depression when people had been unemployed, poor and hungry on a massive scale. Many people were reported to be murdered on question of only a little piece of bread. In all these conditions, the attitude of these nomads was shocking to the writer because they had behaved in an unusually simple, straightforward and sincere way. They were aliens to the calculated and cunning attitude of the urban folk. They lived in nature and they shared its purity and sincerity. They did not have any grudge or complaints against anyone. They were contented on what ever they had though they knew that cotton picking was a seasonal work. They were in sheer poverty before. Eating well for twelve days mattered a lot to them. This explicated John Steinbeck’s notion of “self sufficiency of every human being”. He is of the view that man does not need money or material advancement to be happy and contented. It is something that springs out of the soul and urges a man to realize and enjoy even the single grain of comfort in life. The characters of the story were simple God-fearing people who possessed the treasure of contentment and satisfaction in spite of their acute poverty.

                                                          Question # 3
                             Bring out the elements of universality from the story?

                      The experience of the writer with a family of daily labourers was very exhilarating and elevating. He had come face to face with a new dimension of life that is exotic to the urban folk living in dark congested industrial cities.

            The writer happened to come across a gypsy family who lived in tents and moved around in search of work. He did not name the area where they were present neither he mentioned the names of any of the characters. Thus making them universal in implications. The purity of living has been asserted through this short story and the writer narrates this event to appeal the whole world. People living in any area of the world are confronted with the problem of mad rush after the material gains. The urge to get more and more has hardened the hearts of people, making them apathetic and heartless. The human sympathy and compassion are the most alien words today. Every individual has focused on mounting up the ladder of social and economic development as soon as possible. The truth and simplicity have been trampled in this “marathon” of becoming wealthy. But… still there are some quarters of society that are away from these corrupted and sick practices.  Still there are some people who have a cocoon of contentment and satisfaction around them. The poor family of the story was so badly off that they were so proud at having good food and new clothes for just twelve days. This attitude contrasts strikingly with the attitude of the modern societies…. and here lies the thesis of the writer who wants to assert that satisfaction does not lie in material advancement rather it is an attitude that springs out of a contented soul. So he urges the whole world to recognize the truth of living and stop running behind the mere shadows of development and prosperity.

The Killers, Ernest Hemingway (Notes)

                                                                         Question # 1
                                                  What was the attitude of the killers?
                
                         Hemingway is the most popular and widely read of all modern American writers because of his simple literary style with its crisp “masculine” dialogue, and his insistence on the active, sensuous life.
                           “The Killers” is the story that makes a passive flow of frosty horror trickle down the spine. It masterfully presents the heartlessness and indifference of the modern man towards not only his fellow beings but even to his own future. He outlines a society where the killer is unacquainted with “the killed” and “the killed” doesn’t know his killer. Hemingway has presented such an event in this short story. The venue of this event was a small wayside lunchroom where two suspicious looking men came in. They were dressed in black overcoats and derby hats. Both of them were of the same size. Their faces were different but they were dressed like twins. One was called Max and the other one was Al. They came in and ordered some food. The staff of the lunchroom couldn’t comply with their demands as everything they wanted was to be served as dinner and at that time only light sandwiches or snacks could be had. This made the men angry and they behaved in a very rude way but then they agreed to have a light food that was served to them by the waiter, George. They started eating with their gloves on, George looked fixedly at them that irritated them. Max started to bluff and threaten them in a harsh voice.
                         After eating, Al and Max directed them to go back in the kitchen and then they tied Nick and the cook back to back and George was asked to remain on the counter. The staff of the lunchroom was really confused and none of them knew what was happening to them. Both the men were very casual and hasty. In the same careless tone they told George that they were going to kill a Swede called Ole Anderson. Ironically enough they had never seen or heard about Ole Anderson. It was only to oblige a friend that they were going to kill him when he came here to eat. Generally he came to the lunchroom about six o’ clock so they had to wait for an hour. In this one-hour occupancy they created an atmosphere of gloom and dread around them. Their motive, their style and their talk all indicated that they held the human life as something very trivial and worthless. They waited and when Ole Anderson didn’t come they went out and released the captive staff.

                                                                 Question # 2
                                     What was the reaction of George and company?

                                      Max and Al were the two hired assassins who were going to kill a man who used to visit Henry’s lunchroom. They came in the lunchroom at five o’ clock and ordered for dinner that of course wasn’t ready at that time. The lunchroom had only three people as staff; George was the waiter, Sam, the cook and Nick Adams was the counter boy. Nick Adams had been the main character of too many of Hemingway’s stories. All of them were initially very uneasy at the attitude of the killers who were behaving in a rude bossy style. They ordered and commented in very impolite manner. Max was a bit more talkative and he talked on many subjects to George calling him “bright boy” again and again. Then they started to eat with their gloves on, George watched them eat. This infuriated them and Max spoke in a bitterly aggressive way to him. When they started to direct them to come here and go there the staff was really baffled and they tried to question the motive of all this drama. The killers called Sam, the cook, and then Al took Nick and Sam to the kitchen and tied them together back to back. He gagged them with a towel. George was left in the room and was asked to dismiss any customer who came in. All of this was very intimidating and alarming for them and they were frightened at this situation. The killers had guns with them that further heightened the shadow of dread. In doing all that the killers were not at all bothered or confused. That showed it wasn’t their first attempt to kill some one. They were mercenaries who wanted to kill a man for none of their own enmity rather they only planned to do it because they wanted to oblige a friend. Their carefree manner depicted that they didn’t care for the sanctity of human life and they could kill anyone for no reason at all. After a long stay they went away without killing Ole Anderson who didn’t come that day. After their departure, the cook Sam was very nervous and he didn’t want to talk about all this but Nick and George decided to meet Ole Anderson and tell him about all this. Nick went to see Ole Anderson and told him in detail about the killers but Ole Anderson didn’t show any reaction. He lay on his bed unmoved and not caring a bit for this life threat.
                 Nick was very nervous and disappointed. He wanted to run away from such a place where a man could be killed by anyone at any moment. He didn’t want to stay in that town. But George told him to neglect all of it and better not think about it. On the whole they were frightened and nervous after this event.

                                                                          Question # 3
                                                            How did Anderson react?

                   Nick Adams went to meet Ole Anderson so that he could tell him about the people who had come to kill him. Ole Anderson had been a heavyweight prizefighter. He lived at Hirsch’s rooming house, a street away from the Henry’s. Nick walked in the autumn night and knocked at Ole Anderson’s door, a lady came down and took him upstairs to Ole’s room. He lay on his bed with all his clothes on. Nick told him that two people had come to the lunchroom to kill him. But for Nick’s wonder he didn’t show any reaction and remained looking towards the wall as disinterestedly as before. Then Nick asked if he should tell him about their appearance but Ole wasn’t concerned. Nick asked if he should report to the police but he refused. He didn’t show any interest in all that and was very indifferent. He had been involved in some shady affair like cheating some mafia people, and because of it he was running constantly to save himself.  He was tired of all this and wanted to accept his fate.
                           This was quite a shock for Nick who had expected a natural reaction from Ole Anderson but very incredibly he had not given any importance to all that. It really was pitiable to realize that a man was lying in his bed waiting for his assassins to come and kill him anytime. This indicates towards the modern man’s psychological problem related to “ death-wish” where he behaves in a sadistic way and urges badly to die. The problems and demands of the modern uneasy times make a man numb and he doesn’t value even his own life. The hard conditions of life and unexpected social calamities ruin his interest in life and he lets himself flow with the current of events that are beyond his control. So the reaction of Ole Anderson indicated that the quagmire of vicious activities had plunged him to such a depth that he wasn’t able to feel for his own death. The under-world mafias are like a sharp-clawed witch that never lets her victims to run away and this was what Ole Anderson knew and he subjugated before her powers.

                                                                  Question # 4
                      This story is about the modern insecure and lawless times. Give your views.

                           This story is representative of Hemingway’s typical realistic style. He presents the horror and alarm that is always present in the modern societies and especially in American society. Hemingway always remained interested in the bloodshed and violence. He often saw the horribly pitiless face of life and his career as a journalist supplemented his observations and gave him a deeper knowledge of unlawful activities that remain under the cover of civilized societies but generate a harrowing sense of insecurity in the general public.
            The present story too illustrates an event without any floral language or other accessories to embellish the fiction. He straightforwardly narrates an episode in which there is no practical violence or bloodshed but the ghost of an expected murder haunts over the whole story. The killers in the story are unidentified people and we aren’t told anything about their identity. Similarly the town is not identified except for its name, the workers of the lunchroom are also presented without any background. The killers don’t know the man they are going to kill and he as well is unaware of the killers. So the tinge of universality touches the story and it can be taken as the tale of anonymous people who come in an anonymous town with the intention to kill an anonymous man for anonymous reasons.  They go back after the time for Ole Anderson’s arrival is up but they leave an ominous gloom of chaos and horror behind them that automatically transfers to the restless mind of the reader.
          Hemingway masterfully portrays the insecure modern times where law and law-enforcing agencies have become totally ineffective and helpless. This entire situation prevailed in the first half of the twentieth century but today the conditions of law and order have gone from bad to the worse. The criminals are free to carry on any sort of atrocious activities. Today the criminals are coupled by another section of modern criminals called terrorists…and they have scared the people to such an extent that modern world is psychologically and physically very insecure. What so ever is their motive but their acts are always criminal and vicious. Today people don’t enjoy a single second’s peace of mind. The crime or attack from any side can be expected at any moment. Murders and robberies are the order of the day. In the third world countries the conditions are even worse as no law or court is effective there and justice is bought and sold at very cheap rates. The life and property of common public is quite unguarded and insecure.   The states are ruled over by Mafia gangs so they protect their criminal brethrens. The news of bomb blast, violence and bloodshed across the world are heard in every news bulletin.

                  Thus, the story outlines a universal situation in a simple style and the reader can directly relate this event to his own chaotic times. The character of Nick Adams has been used by Hemingway to present a lot of disturbed situations prevailing in the post-world war times. He made Nick travel across America and presented the situation of a “lost generation” that was sans any redeeming value or action. So here too an appalling situation met him and further aggravated his sense of desolation and dismay over the brutal face of the world.