The Boy without a Shadow - Book Report/Review Example

?A Short Story The Boy without a Shadow It is only during the night that Michael can go out of the house because he has no shadow. His mother discovered that he has no shadow when she tried to bathe him under the sum when he was only an infant. Since then his mother kept quiet and kept everything about the boy a secret. She locks him up at the house until he reached adolescence. His mother told him, “You’re different, my son. You don’t have a shadow. You have to keep it a secret because if not you will get into trouble. Other people, especially those cruel ones, may think that you’re a devil or a monster, and they will kill you!” Michael was immediately frightened and troubled upon hearing this truth about himself. The first thought that comes into his mind is that he would not be allowed or would be unwise to go out of the house. He cannot have friends. How will he go to school? How will he eventually earn something for himself? Michael decides to go out only during the night and he will try to avoid getting in front of or under a light. One night, the faith healer Malik visited him. He told Michael, “As far as I know, people who do not have a shadow are children of the dark. In your case, I hope this is not true. Oh dear Lord, please have mercy on this boy!” Michael often peeks outside their window to look at the people passing by their house. He patiently waits for Emily, the beautiful maiden who just simply takes his breath away every time she passes by. “I have to talk with Emily. I have to tell her how I truly feel about her. Perhaps she will reciprocate my love for her,” uttered Michael to himself. However, along with the deep affection is the overwhelming anxiety. “How will I be able to support the woman I love if I am a locked out, if I am a prisoner of a dark secret? What if my dark secret is revealed to the world? Will she still learn to love me?” But the truth is Michael is a very good boy. There is no hint of evilness in him. Instead of going to school he reads the books his mother brings home. His passionate love for books expanded his horizon and deepened his knowledge. He is the opposite of what Malik says about him being a child of the devil; Michael is a true believer in Christ and an obsessive reader and follower of the teachings of the Bible. He developed a deep, enduring love for the Lord. Every day and every night he browses and reads the Bible and other books, looking for an explanation for his strange condition. He found out in his research that in some Asian cultures a person without a shadow is a person who has no honor, no purpose in life, and no value for his fellow people. He found out in the Bible that the demon hides in the darkness and thus it has no shadow. He reads in Psalm 91:1, “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty”. He reads in the Koran: “Say, ‘I seek refuge in the Lord of daybreak From the evil of that which He created And from the evil of darkness when it settles And from the evil of the blowers in knots And from the evil of an envier when he envies.” One time he stumbled upon the story of Hans Christian Andersen. According to the story, the shadow of an intelligent and rich man abandoned him. After many years the shadow came back with the appearance of a real human being. They became rivals for the heart of a very beautiful princess. The shadow said, “I will let you have the princess, I will stop courting her in one condition. I will be the possessor and you will be the shadow.” Michael’s mother, Rosalinda, is a fortune-teller. Whether she really possesses the power to see the future or just pretending to be a clairvoyant is uncertain. She performs fortune telling in the big plaza of the city, in front of a large church which became known as the main site of fortune telling. Rosalinda goes there every day to inform people about their future through a deck of cards or a crystal ball. Her customers are those who are uncertain and anxious about their future. Her husband left her. They were neighbours. They got married early, but they stayed together for only three years. Her husband thought that she was losing her mind. Rosalinda did not bear a child for a long time because her husband left her. One day, she just decided to have a child. She did not want to be alone anymore. And then Michael was born. Rosalinda gave her full attention, care, and love to Michael. She loved him with all her heart. Michael is the only joy and hope she has in life. She cannot bear the thought of losing Michael one day. One day, the people of the neighbourhood found a body lying on the street. At the corner of the street where the grasses are tall they found the dead body of a girl. Their first suspicion was that the girl was raped and then murdered. The place where the body was found was near Michael’s house. Police authorities began their investigation; they wanted to capture the criminal as soon as possible. The police discovered, after asking questions and examining the body, that the dead girl was Emily—the girl whom Michael loved deeply. Police authorities visited every house in Michael’s neighbourhood and asked about the men who may have some knowledge of Emily’s murder. The people told the police that Michael was one of the boys who knew Emily, and who possibly had a special relationship with the girl. The police were also informed that Michael is a mysterious boy who only goes out at night and locks himself up in the house during the day. In other words, Michael became one of the primary suspects. The police thought that he could be the criminal. The police took Michael into custody to interrogate him. He was placed in a dimly lit room. He was instructed to sit down and then an investigator started to interrogate him. “Where were you on the 10th of April around 10:00 in the evening”, the investigator asked. Michael answered, “I was outside”. The investigator continued, “Why weren’t you in the house during that time?” Numerous questions were asked. And even though Michael was able to answer all the questions clearly and without any hesitation, he still felt nervous because of the threatening atmosphere inside the interrogation room. He was also anxious about the light. How will he explain to the police that he seldom goes out of the house that is why they should not consider him a suspect? How will he explain to them that he only goes out at night to find money in order to buy the things that he needs? How will he explain that he only goes out at night because he is harbouring a dark secret? How will he explain to them that he has no shadow? He knows that once the police knew about his strange condition he will definitely be accused of murdering Emily because a person without a shadow is a devil’s follower. Michael was losing hope and he was about to tell the truth to the investigator when he noticed a shadow reflected by the light. He noticed that the shadow looked like him and so he moved his head and the shadow moved too. He raised his hands and the shadow did it too. Michael was overjoyed, “I have a shadow! Thank you Lord!” After his interrogation the police allowed Michael to go home with a warning that he will be invited again to the precinct once clear and incriminating evidence emerges. Michael went home with an elated spirit and anger. He was happy to finally be freed from the dark secret that kept him isolated from the world for so long. But he was furious that his mother lied to him, made him believe that he has no shadow. He wanted to curse her, shout at her, and blame her for all his sufferings but it is too late. Rosalinda died a year ago. The truth is Rosalinda became an evil person. First of all, fortune telling is against the Bible and the teachings of the Church. She did not have the power to see the future, and all that she said to her customers were all lies. Also, Michael was not her son. She stole the child and hid him. Rosalinda’s heart was filled with evil deeds, a person who only thinks of herself. She wanted someone who will stay with her. Her husband left her thinking that she was insane. She made sure Michael will stay by her side forever. She made Michael believe that he has no shadow. Michael continued his life and decided to forgive Rosalinda. He decided to leave his house permanently and live his new life in another place. He just wanted to leave all the bad memories he has from his old home and old neighbourhood. He decided to leave during the night so that his neighbours will not see him leave. He still lives in the shadow that his mother created for him. Michael was able to get a good college education. Even though his long isolation from the world made him suspicious of other people, he was able to make friends and build personal relationships. He met Elena in campus one summer day and he immediately fell in love with her. But every time he looked at Elena he always remembered the face of Emily. He cannot let go of his memories of her. Her beautiful face is forever etched in his mind. But he tried to live with it. He told Elena that he loves her. Elena positively replies. Michael couldn’t be happier. After finishing college and finding work in an engineering firm, Elena and Michael decided to get married. They promised each other that they will live a simple, but happy life. Michael told Elena that he wanted lots of children who will fill their home with laughter and silly things. He wanted a large family. He does not want to feel alone again. But a devastating discovery broke his heart. Elena cannot bear a child; she is infertile. Elena almost lost her mind and became mad with sadness. She blamed herself and cursed God for her condition. Michael felt miserable and was overwhelmed with grief. He also wanted to blame God for all his misfortunes. “All I did is to love you. But you had still forsaken me”, shouted Michael. Under the moonlight, he saw his shadow. And then he uttered to himself, “I thought that everything will be okay once I find you. But now I know, you’re just a shadow. And worse, you’re part of my mother’s shadow”. He then went inside the house to find his wife lying on the bathroom floor, drenched in a pool of blood. Apparently, Elena committed suicide. She was not able to accept the reality that their dream of having many children will remain an unreachable dream. Michael was devastated beyond belief. He was alone again. His friends offered their consolation, but the pain he felt was so strong that he failed to notice all the people that cared for him over the years. His friends slowly slipped away. They thought that he just needed space, and so they abandoned him. Alone, Michael saw an apparition of his mother laughing at him, telling him, “My son, you will never be happy. That is how your life is going to be.” Michael succumbed in grief. He refused to eat. He locked himself up in the house. He just wanted to be alone. Loneliness became his only friend. He did not take care of himself; he just stayed in bed all day every day. He felt shadow-less once again. But in spite of his suffering, the light of faith did not leave him. Even though he detested God, Michael still felt an undeniable love for Him. One day, while looking at the ceiling, Michael saw the image of the intelligent and rich man from Hans Christian Andersen’s story. He remembered the Bible verses that comforted him all throughout the years. A hope flickered in him. Out of the blue, Michael got up from his bed, took a bath, ate a hearty dinner, and packed all his things. He decided to go back to his old house. He will try to find his true shadow because the one he has was a remnant of his dark past. It is not him; it is someone else’s shadow. Standing in front of his old house, Michael felt relief, longing, and sadness. The house was still standing but it is in a very poor condition. Nobody in their neighbourhood dared go inside the house. Horror stories about his old house abound in the neighbourhood. He tried looking for old faces he knew, but there were none he could find. He suddenly realised that he couldn’t really remember the faces of his neighbours because he seldom saw them before. But the old folks remembered him. They avoided him. And then one familiar face suddenly came out of nowhere—Malik, the faith healer. Michael was happy to see the old man. He approached him immediately, “Malik, I’m so happy to see you. Can you still remember me? I’m Michael”. Malik answered, “Ah yes, of course. You’re the son of Rosalinda; the boy who does not have a shadow”. Michael laughed upon hearing this. “Come on Malik, do you still believe that a person can be shadow-less? There is no such thing! That is ridiculous!” Malik angrily replied, “And who are you to question my knowledge! Everyone here believes in everything I say. I possess the true wisdom. And you, you’re nobody. You’re a child of darkness!” A young boy overhead the ruckus; he went closer to Malik and Michael. The boy became curious. He looked at Michael and he saw his shadow. The boy then shouted, “But he has a shadow. Cannot you see Malik? Over here, look. There, there is his shadow.” Michael turned to the boy and patted his shoulders and said to him, “Thank you my boy”. And then Michael turned his back to Malik and walked away. Short Story Analysis Even though a short story should start with an experience a writer knows by heart, it must never stop there. A short story writer should refashion the experience into an imaginary narrative. A story must be neither entirely imagined nor entirely factual. It must be a combination of the two. However, for a short story, the most important thing is ‘concise wholeness’. All of the elements of a short story—messages, arrangement, characters, and settings—should all be condensed (Lee, 2005). Normally, a short story must have concise settings; if not, readers learn little or nothing from it. The arrangement of a short story must also be concise. Powerful scenes in a short story are often structured chronologically and illustrate important episodes in the life of the protagonist/s during an immediate time. The number of characters should be concise, as well; if not, readers are robbed of the chance to familiarise themselves with the characters and remains inert, poorly fascinated, spectators (Fallon et al., 2001). Since messages are mostly established by arrangement, character, and setting, if these elements are concise, the messages will be, as well; otherwise, it can be a confusing endeavour to identify and appreciate the messages or purpose of a short story. A short story basically refines and condenses a narrative, but is still able to express the wholeness of the writer’s experience and imagination. This essay critically analyses this argument by referring to three short stories, namely, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Miracle, Helen Simpson’s Cockfosters, and Rose Tremain’s The Closing Door. These three short stories share something in common: all of them present a writer’s experience and imagination in its entirety, without being too long and complicated. Short stories are usually more limited than novels; nevertheless, short stories are not an inadequate or poor relative of the novel. The restrictions of short stories, particularly their conciseness, embody their power and effectiveness (Pasco, 1993). Because they are concise, short stories can be vaguer, more figurative, and more compressed. They can be challenging, but especially satisfying, as well. Short stories give the writer a very limited space to work in, to narrate their experiences, and to voice out their imagination without being rigid or ridiculous (Hardy, 1993). Still, within that limited space can be read several of the most succinct and unforgettable illustrations of human experience and vision. What is most remarkable about the contemporary short story is the fact that even though it is compressed it is still able to express a sense of wholeness. The short stories Miracle, Cockfosters, and The Closing Door are obviously less focused on technicalities and rules and more interested in narrating a story in their own terms. The outcome is stories that, even though short, flow effectively, are readable, and do not sound unnatural. The traditional narrative where plot is the whole lot, every word, every phrase, every sentence, and every paragraph has a unique role and result in only one finale is now obsolete. The traditional technique of unresolved conflict where plot is less important and every word, every phrase, every sentence, and every paragraph has diverse symbols and messages and produces no conclusion is now obsolete (Iftekharrudin, 2003; Trussler, 1996). What has replaced these techniques is a rational model of narration where both actual experience and hidden meaning join forces, without competing against each other, to bring about a sense of unity and fullness. A sense of completeness despite conciseness is demonstrated by the short story Miracle. The story narrates the experience of Ifemelu, a character who at a very young age already witnessed the contradictions of life: her religious but hypercritical mother; her righteous but mediocre father; and her compassionate but immoral Aunt Uju. The author was able to thoroughly describe these characters without sounding too detailed or boring. Every description of each character is integrated into the very structure of the story. Take for instance this passage (Allardice, 2011, pp. 42-43): Ifemelu’s father sat in his well-worn sofa, silently reading his well-worn book. He had been jobless for months, fired from the federal agency for refusing to call his new boss mummy. “If you have to call somebody mummy to get your salary then you do so!” Ifemelu’s mother had said when he, wracked with bitterness, came home with his termination letter. This paragraph is already whole; it already provides the reader a complete idea of what kind of father Ifemelu has without having to allot more space for the character’s description. The writer integrated the entire depiction of Ifemelu’s father into this particular episode. This sense of wholeness is also evident in the short story Cockfosters. The story is all about two middle-aged friends, Julie and Philippa, who met in a train station to fulfil a similar objective. Along their journey, they talked about the important events in their lives, their failures and successes. They also talked about other people who are known to both of them. What is remarkable in this short story is how the writer was able to bring the structure, setting, and characters together. The writer integrated the characters and the structure of their experiences into the different setting, or into the different destination points of the journey. Basically, the writer dealt with the limited space by juxtaposing these most important components of a story. Rose Tremain’s The Closing Door is another example of a short story characterised by concise wholeness. The story is somewhat simple and straightforward, unlike the other two short stories which apparently have embedded meanings. The story is about a mother who has to face the agony of letting her child go in pursuit of a better future. However, the story is not simply that. It showed two kinds of motherhood, one is selfless, and the other is self-centred. The selfless mother bravely confronts the pain of being separated from her daughter for the sake of her daughter’s future, whilst the self-centred mothers—‘little bette’ and ‘little wallis’—are very much willing to send their children away so that they can do whatever they want with their lives. Every paragraph in the story powerfully depicts the anguish of the two main characters, Marjorie and Patience. No word, sentence, and paragraph were wasted. Every word, sentence, and paragraph was richly written. Take for instance this passage (Allardice, 2011, p. 64): Marjorie stared at the door until the darkness shrouded it. Lights came on in the house and she looked up at these, but could see no one at any of the windows. So here, she thought, is where this has to end—with the closing of a door. How much more did I imagine I was ever going to know? This simple paragraph reveals the pain felt by Marjorie. She felt abandoned, dispossessed, and purposeless. Without her daughter, she felt meaningless and her world ceased to exist. These three short stories reflect the writers’ deeply cherished memories. However, whether the main purpose of the contemporary short story is to disclose some remarkable reality about human desires and intentions or merely give pleasure, writing should, largely, be readable (Lounsberry et al., 1998; Baldwin, 1993). Miracle and Cockfosters are somewhat ‘unreadable’ in certain parts. This is one of the main weaknesses of short stories. Because of their conciseness they are not able to clarify certain points or aspects that may seem important to the reader, but could be irrelevant for the writer. Take for instance this passage from Miracle (Allardice, 2011, p. 40): Her mother’s God had always been a distant and amiable man; she sang to Him in Latin that her Father said was unforgivably mispronounced, wore mournful images of saints around her neck, and carefully crossed herself before she ate or drank. But, after that afternoon, her God became exacting and humourless. This description is quite vague because of the use of certain words like ‘distant’, ‘exacting’, and ‘humourless’. One will assume, in reading this paragraph that the mother converted into another religion. But what is the difference between the previous and current religion of Ifemelu’s mother? Isn’t it that this paragraph was intended to reveal why the mother decided to convert into another religion? The words used to describe the past and current religions are somewhat synonymous, which should be opposing, hence creating some confusion. Somewhat more difficult to understand than Miracle is Cockfosters. Many of the words, expressions, and idioms used are simply ‘unreadable’. One example is this passage: “The worst thing about needing glasses is the bumbling”, said Julie. “I’ve turned into a bumbler overnight. Me! I run marathons!” (Allardice, 2011, p. 50). This passage is filled with symbolisms which make it confusing and difficult to understand. In The Closing Doors the writer successfully produced the emotion she wanted her readers to feel by being simple and straightforward. However, the weakness of the story is that it was not able to take advantage of the richness of symbolisms. Its narration style is concrete and clear-cut, unlike the other two short stories which are challenging. Short stories are compressed narratives (Russell, 2009). But, as proven by the three short stories discussed herein, short stories are becoming more powerful than the traditional form of storytelling. In the contemporary period, which is characterised by fast paced progress, short stories have found their rightful place. References Allardice, L. (2011) The Guardian Review Book of Short Stories. UK: Guardian. Baldwin, D. (1993) “The Tardy Evolution of the British Short Story”, Studies in Short Fiction 30(1), 23+ Fallon, E. et al. (2001) A Reader’s Companion to the Short Story in English. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Hardy, S. (1993) “A Poetics of Immediacy: Oral Narrative and the Short Story”, Style 27(3), 352+ Iftekharrudin, F. et al. (2003) Postmodern Approaches to the Short Story. Westport, CT: Praeger. Lee. M. (2005) Writers on Writing: The Art of the Short Story. Westport, CT: Praeger. Lounsberry, B. et al. (1998) The Tales We Tell: Perspectives on the Short Story. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Pasco, A. (1993) “The Short Story: The Short of It”, Style 27(3), 442+ Russell, P. (2009) The Short Story: An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Trussler, M. (1996) “Suspended Narratives: The Short Story and Temporality”, Studies in Short Fiction 33(4), 557+ Read More