A sketch from 'The Great Wide World Over There' from Ray Bradbury's
collection of short stories from 'The Golden Apples of the Sun'. With the arrival of her worldly and literate nephew, Cora Gibbs now has the means to communicate with the great wide world beyond the view of her horizon. She eagerly waits for the arrival of mail to her new mail box every day.
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Here's an interesting story of how one's world is defined by how far and wide one can see and communicate. Cora's world is seemingly limited by a day's walk. She has never been beyond the range of hills and mountains that surround her. Here are a few of my observations about this short story:
- I don't think modern humans have a good appreciation of time, space and distance. Every time I go backpacking on the Appalachian Trail I'm in awe of the apparent distance between one set of mountains and the next. It seems like an epic journey to get there ... like something out of Lord of the Rings. But my sense of accomplishment is always dashed to pieces when we're finished, loaded in a car with all our gear that seemed so heavy, driving through the park, covering what previously took two or three days to hike in a mere 30 minutes.
- The art of letter writing is nearly lost. No one can suffer the time, effort and skill to craft a letter by hand and wait for several days for it to be delivered and several more days to be replied. We are spoiled by near instant communication and I believe our relations suffer for it. The patience of Love is no longer tested or strengthen by the separation of time space and distance.
- I enjoyed the reaction of Cora seeing the spelling of her name in the ashes of the hearth. She thought it was a kind of magic beyond her understanding but knew it was a powerful thing that maybe we, who know how to write, have taken for granted. It reminded me of that scene in the movie "13th Warrior" where the Viking thane respects the literate Arab emissary for his ability to read and write and considers the written story of his heroic life more valuable than any pile of treasure.
- Bradbury continues to infuse his stories with the fallacy of human pride. In this case, Cora and her neighbor, Mrs. Brabbam, are boastful or enviousof the perceived amount of mail received. Mrs. Brabbam, in particular, is socaught up in pride, that the contents of the letters don't matter any more... Just as long as she is getting more letters than her neighbor. Can you say Facebook?!?!?! This is the interesting nature of pride that C.S. Lewis points out so well in Mere Christianity. It's not a matter of how much you have ... Just as long as it is more than your neighbor. Of course we the readers are sympathetic to the innocent nature of Cora and are glad that she
recognizes that her pride has been hurtful to her neighbor.
- I think there may be an important lesson here for us all as Cora neglects to take the time to learn to read and write while her nephew is there. We all have someone closer to being perfect than us. Some of us even acknowledge that there is one person who was and is, in fact, "perfect" and has commanded us to be likewise. Now we can take advantage of that person while they are with us to help carry our load, or cross if you will, but if we don't start taking the bulk of that weight ourselves, we will never grown strong enough to be what we were meant to be.
What can i say, except BRILLIANT! Insightful commentary, right on the money.
I have always found this story to be quite sad, ever since I read it when I was much younger. There is a sense of loss, or perhaps a sense of failure to achieve. Perhaps this sense as a child was a foreshadowing of my middle life. *sigh*
nice sketches
Thanks for stopping by and checking out the work "Anonymous" :)
Charles, middle life should be ripe for opportunity for you! Once you get the job, family and home thing on steady ground there should start to be more free time for you ... particularly when our teenage kids want less to do with us. If you lived anywhere close to me I'd make you join our mid-life crisis basement band!
You forget that I started my family a decade after you, so I have a ways to go to catch up!
Well, enjoy your kids while they still allow themselves to be enjoyed by a parent! Someday we'll be "empty nesters" and we'll then have all the time in the world to discuss books and philosophy.
By the way what instrument would you play if you ever had the opportunity, interest and / or freedom of choice?
Interesting question. My mother ran out of patience with music lessons on my brothers, so I never had the opportunity to learn even rudimentary skills. In contrast, my wife plays accordian, guitar, and piano, and both girls are taking both piano and violin lessons.
I will have to think about this one!
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