Children and Adults by Duong Trinh

 Mrs. Ramsay repeats to herself, "Children don't forget, children don't forget" after her thought is presented as follows in chapter XI of To the Lighthouse:

"No, she thought, putting together some of the pictures he had cut out – a refrigerator, a mowing machine, a gentleman in evening dress – children never forget."

He is James, Mrs. Ramsay's son. From her perspective, he cuts out images from books to keep his memories in static pictures. He finds extraordinary joy in doing so because "to such people even in earliest childhood any turn in the wheel of sensation has the power to crystalize and transfix the moment upon which its gloom or radiance rests." But children will forget, I believe so. To wit, James' desire to collect images results from a wheel of sensations, which evokes incessant motion. In other words, he cuts out images to remember what sparked joy in him, not to keep in mind anything with a specific meaning. Sensations fleet and pictures serve to transfix them. Children like him do not intend to recall what happened at the exact moments when they removed photographs and why they were motivated to collect them, but how they felt about them. Therefore, as time goes by and sensations continually move, their gloom and radiance will not be traced back with certainty. Children will forget, eventually. What remains to them is only a collection of pictures that very rarely succeeds in reminding them of their childhood.


I think Virginia Woolf shares with me this view that children have fleeting memory. She adds on to Mrs. Ramsay's thought, as mentioned earlier, that "For this reason, it was so important what one said, what one did, and it was a relief that they went to bed." Children take rests so they will forget what might sadden them before sleeping. They probably engage themselves in numerous other adventures and emotional roller-coasters in their dreams, and then they will wake up afresh. However, all adults emerging in the story do not let themselves stop for a moment to rest or take a nap. If they have free time, they will play with their internal thoughts. What's fun in that, except for Lily's self-consciousness of being watched painting and Mr. Ramsay's preoccupation with his momentary reputation, for instance?


Moreover, there is a huge difference in looking at cut-out images between James and Mrs. Ramsay. It is manifest that James holds a hatred towards his father. Unfortunately, there is no mention that his animosity appears when he pulls out and observes any of his images. Nonetheless, his murderous intention arises when his father is around, showing him his frowned, angry, and dissatisfied expressions. Simply put, James collects catalog images not to engrave his fatherly hatred forever.


In contrast to him, Mrs. Ramsay, at the end of chapter III, "looking down at the book on her knee found the picture of a pocket knife with six blades" after she gets infuriated with Charles Tansley for being mean to her son. She is even willing to offer Mr. Tansley as a sacrifice, and the knife found afterward expresses a remnant of her deadly intention in serving as a weapon to help her kill him. Hence, thinking that children never forget, Mrs. Ramsay is the one to forget nothing. Among tons of various pictures in the book, the knife catches her attention as she doesn't bury her prejudice towards Tansley. Remarkably, her concealment of emotions proves that William Bankes is wrong, thinking of her, at the end of chapter V, as without "some freak of idiosyncrasy." She cleverly hides her hostile intentions, not only in her mind but also in the images that she catches a glimpse of while reading. 




Comments

  1. Krishnan VenkateshFebruary 28, 2021 at 9:12 PM

    Very perceptive, Ms. Trinh. I hope you keep following what "catches" Mrs. Ramsay emotionally; see if you can find a pattern that expresses her core. Could it be that even while she experiences emotions very intensely, she moves on from them quickly and doesn't stay fixated, unlike Tansley, for instance? Moreover, do you think that Mr. Bankes is generally wrong about Mrs. Ramsay, idealizing her from the outside, or is there something he gets right about her? The child's point of view seems really important in these early chapters and will be picked up in the third part of the book.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Some ramblings on the poetic -- Miz Eustice Poetry seems to be borne of and to live more in the realm of imagination than reason if the mind can be so generally categorized. Or perhaps it should be said that it is some mixture of heart and brain. I’m not sure. Sometimes I think it's divine.   I’m not sure where else its strange greatness could come from. I’m not even sure how to describe what poetry is. It is not just its form, its sounds, it is more than the sum of its parts. I read somewhere once that poetry is an echo asking a shadow to dance.   Poetry is not like reason, it is not a power exercised by the will. Perhaps one can will oneself to write poetry, but not great poetry. It is more within the general grasp to reason correctly than to make something beautiful. I can only imagine what it is like to do such a thing. Creation seems mysterious, and there is something almost seraphic in it—something invisible and intangible and temperamental that rises from within in an o...
Read more

Some Post-Discussion Reflections on Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death –” by Ms. Bucher

Image
   Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me – The Carriage held but just Ourselves – And Immortality. We slowly drove – He knew no haste And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility – We passed the School, where Children strove At Recess – in the Ring – We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain – We passed the Setting Sun – Or rather – He passed Us – The Dews drew quivering and Chill – For only Gossamer, my Gown – My Tippet – only Tulle – We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the Ground – The Roof was scarcely visible – The Cornice – in the Ground – Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity – Photo: “Because I could not stop for Death –” fanart found on Etsy   Some music that may set the mood: Igor Stravinsky's Elegy for Solo Viola .
Read more

Genealogy Reflections in “The Bear" (Bucher)

  Gen ealogy Reflections in “The Bear” by Ms. Bucher   We have spent much time in class stumbling over the genealogy in Go Down, Moses . When trying hard to follow the twisted, obscure genealogy, it is clear that the McClaslin family tree is a complicated double helix of both white and black branches. But the power of the family dynamic becomes even more powerful the moment that Issac McClaslin, grandson of patriarch Lucius Quintus Carothers McClaslin, pushes away his inheritance of the plantation. The question brought up in class many times still plagues me: Why does he reject his rightful ownership of the family land? Possible reasons come to mind easily: He may not want the responsibility for the care and support of all the people, both black and white, that live and work the land. He has been raised in large part by Sam Fathers who taught him to love nature, the wild, and the liberty of a life unfettered by any interest in social or economic expectations. And he needs to b...
Read more