A sketch from 'En La Noche' from Ray Bradbury's collection of short stories from 'The Golden Apples of the Sun'. Mr. Villanazul, in an effort to restore peace and quite to the appartment building, approaches the residence of Mrs. Navarrez who has not ceased to sob and moan since the departure of her husband for service in World War II.
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I'm drawing some blanks on trying to figure out this story. Once again Bradbury writes about the Hispanic community, presumably in and around L.A. during WWII. Is Mrs. NavarrezI'm drawing some blanks on trying to figure out this story. Once again Bradbury writes about the Hispanic community, presumably in and around L.A. during WWII. Is Mrs. Navarrez over-reacting to the absence of her husband or does this story say something about the social stigmatism of being a woman without a man?
How does Mr. Villanazul get Mrs. Navarrez to quite down? Is he filling a physical void, an emotional void, or both?
There are no clear answers to me here.
I read this story for thefirst time when I was very young, some time in my younbger teen years. Frankly, it has bothered me ever since, and is one story I would never want a youngster introduced to reading. The messages of infidelity and promiscuity bother me deeply. Why does Mrs. V accept her husband's "sacrifice" so easily? Does the fidelity of marriage mean so little?
I don't have the book in front of me, but a phrase I have carried away from it (exact or not) all these years is "There's one way to console a widow... but remember the risk." I equate the memory to the Navy training films we were shown in high school "heath" clasees in North Chicago: sailors puking over the side of a bed, of looking down at their crotch with a look of dismay while a past-middle age hooker smokes a cig on the bed behind them. Ugh.
I wasn't so sure the support that Mr. Villanazul was going to provide was going to be physical in nature. I guess Bradbury left that open to the reader's interpretation.
I know this is a stretch, but does this story remind you in some way of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38?
Leave it to a Protestant to find a Bibical parallel! And like a good Catholic, I had to go grab my Bible. : >
So, in answer to your question, yes, I see the similarity, and I don't think RB was beyond making such a streatch himself.
I have never thought that that Mr. Villanazul gave anything BUT physical comfort. Perhaps this has always been my slant. : >
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