Re: With Love and Squalor
Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@geocities.com)
Mon, 22 Feb 1999 11:25:31 +1100
Pierrot65 wrote:
> Jim wrote (re Esme) "She saved him by sending him that watch." I would
like to
> add what is I'm sure an Eng Lit 101 obvious notion: that the watch is
broken:
> time is (literally and figuratively) standing still. Esme is forever
going to
> be that young girl in the cafe. ie., thanks to her example, X knows that
not
> absolutely everything has to change (change/ growth/ decay being the
enemy of
> adolescence in a very real sense)
Great observation re: the watch! I guess there is also some significance in
the fact that Esme and Charles are both presented as cuspal figures - Esme
just teetering on the verge of the greatest and most affective change of
all, adolescence - Charles moving from babyhood to childhood - all is
poised in such a way that it is emphasised that it will never be quite the
same way again. That is why, also, Sergeant X couldn't have gone to Esme's
wedding.
Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
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