Friendship in Two Novels - Article Example

Nianzhen Wu Prof. Walsh Text and Content June9, Friendship Friendship in Martin McDonagh, “The Cripple of Inishmaan” HELEN: (pause) Sure, what would I want to go out walking with a cripple-boy for? It isn’t out walking you’d be anyways; it would be out shuffling, because you can’t walk. I’d have to be waiting for you every five yards. What would you and I want to be out shuffling for? BILLY: for the company. HELEN: For the company? BILLY: And… HELEN: And what? BILLY: And for the way sweethearts are. Helen looked at him a second, then slowly and quietly starts laughing/ sniggering through her nose, as she gets up and goes to the door. Once there, she turns, looks at Billy again, laughs again and exits. Billy is left staring down at the floor as Kate quietly enters from the back room. KATE: She is not a very nice girl anyway, Billy. BILLY: Was you listening, Aunty Kate? KATE: I wasn’t listening or alright, I was a bit listening.(Pause) You wait for a nice girl to come along, Billy. A girl who doesn’t mind at all what you look like. Just sees your heart (Martin McDoagh, The Cripple of Inishmaan 80). Relationship among individuals is built on good friendship. How Billy is treated by Helen is a clear indication of their type of friendship. How someone relates to you during the time of need is crucial, and this helps you identify true friendship. Individuals can make friendship with the people around them or new people whom they meet in life. The essay examines the friendship theme as developed in Martin McDoagh, The Cripple of Inishmaan and another story relating to John M. Synge, “The Aran Islands” giving account of his relationship with the people he met. The essay will compare and contrast friendship between Helen and Billy and how the writer in “ The Aran Islands” is treated by the locals. The essay aims at showing the different types of friendship. Billy is handicapped and he relates well with Helen. From the phrase, they are leaving each other after being together. It seems there is a close relationship between the two characters. At one point, we see how considerate Billy. Billy is handicapped and Helen is willing to help him in many ways. Does she help him out of love?? Or is because he is handicapped? It seems that Helen is after something, and that is why she is befriending Billy. The friendship of Billy and Helen is not genuine, because at one point, Helen pays for a boat trip with kisses. She disguises it with love and insists on paying for what Billy is offering to her. However, no friendship ties are evident. Helen mistreats Billy much and doesn’t care about his health conditions, at one point; she comes looking at the condition of Billy. However, she is doing it because she is after something and wants to benefit from Billy. She is disguising herself through fake concerns. Helen is mishandling Billy and laughs at him, making him upset. On the other hand, Kate acknowledges that Helen is not considerate. Kate advises Billy to find a girl that would love him for what he is. There is no sign that Helen is willing to practice this and consider Billy as a true friend despite his conditions Friendship in J.M Synge,”Aran Islands” In the pages that follow, I have given a direct account of my life on the islands, and of what I met with among them, inventing nothing and changing nothing that s essential.as far as possible, however, I have disguised the identity of the people I speak of, by making changes in their names, and in the letters I quote, and by altering some local and family relationships. I have nothing to say about them that was not wholly in their favor, but I have made this disguise to keep them forever feeling that a too direct use had been made of their kindness and friendship, for which I am more grateful than it is easy to say (J.M Synge, Aran islands 3). J.M Synge shows us a unique relationship he experienced in the islands. His act to write about his experience of the islands shows that he was fond of the way people of that region treated him. Nevertheless, one can simply ask why conceal place where you developed a good relationship? The text gives an account of the writer’s in the island. We can have an assumption of the benefits the writer gets that make him praise the region. For example, in the island, a woman is willing to get him a teacher of their language to help him understand native language. Additionally, there is a scenario where the writer is asked to marry a girl out of the island. From the scenarios given, the writer aims to show a form of friendship experienced since no stranger can obtain such treatment. It is a good relationship with people that can lead to this. However, he may have developed that notion simply because he obtained some favors from the people of the island. What if he did not get them? Would he have talked of a good experience in the island? I do not think so. It is, as a result, of these favors and warm welcome that we can demonstrate there was a good relationship between the writer and the people he found. The people of the land, whom the writer met, demonstrate a good friendship tie with him. Although the writer may have praised them because he gained, it is of no doubt there is a friendship experience seen in the text. However, the text has indicated disguise in concealing the identity of the islands. One may ask a question why the writer did not wish to mention them. Although the writer has demonstrated good relationship with the island, there is a possibility there were instances of a strenuous relationship, like when the British came to do evictions (Roberts 12). To compare and contrast friendship theme in the two texts Friendship can be seen from two perspectives: there are those who forma relationship to gain and those who do it willingly. For example, Helen wishes to benefit and does this while disguising herself.in contrast, the people of the island are willing to help Synge. For example, from (J.M Synge, Aran Islands), “there was a young woman, he said, and she had a child. In a little time, the woman died and they buried her the day after. That night, another woman- a woman of the family-was siting y the fire with a child on her lap, giving milk to it out of a cup.” This shows how the woman was compassionate to the baby. I think a woman could have helped and liked The Cripple of Inishmaaan better. This, as a result, of her compassionate she had to a child left by her mother after she died. Billy had some wounds and was crippled, and I also think the woman could have tried to limit the pains Billy had other than mistreat him like Helen did. The text from (J.M Synge, Aran Islands 43) about the future of the language of the island and family, the writer reports the language can never die out. There is no family in a place that can live without potatoes and the Irish words in the field. If the family can live and safeguard the language, I also think they would care for The Cripple of Inishmaan as well. On the other hand, according to my view, Helen would not welcome the man in J.M Synge, Aran Islands. She failed to handle Billy in an appropriate way, and she knew him. Conversely, she could not handle a stranger appropriately. However, she could befriend him only as was the case of Billy. Friendship theme fro the two texts has been evident in the two texts: J.M Synge, Aran Islands and Martin McDoagh, The Cripple Of Inishman. Synge, for example, has benefitted from suitable treatment he experienced in the new territories of the Aran Islands since he had a good relationship that helped him build friendship. On the other hand, Billy is affected with the friendship he has with Helen, who is only caring for herself. She only has the friendship to exploit Billy only for her to benefit in the long run. It is, therefore, evident that the two texts clearly demonstrate the friendship theme in a comparable and contrasting perspective. Works cited Synge, J M. The Aran Islands, Boston: J.W Luce & Co, 1911. Print. Retrieved from http://www.asaboutireland.ie/reading-room/digital-book- collection/digital-books-by-subject/geography-of-ireland/synge-the-aran-islands/index.xml on 05 june 2014 McDonagh, Martin. The Cripple of Inishmaan. New York: Vintage Books, 1998. Print Retrieved from http://books.google.co.ke/books/about/The_Cripple_of_Inishmaan.html?id=td2nngEACAAJ&redir_esc=y on 05 june 2014 Roberts, Edgar V. Writing Themes About Literature. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall, 2009 Print Read More