The Unity of Smooth Shoe-Lacing

Over the past few days, I've been working to finish at least a few of the seven books I was reading in order to better concentrate on this project. After finishing two and making good progress on two others, I read my first short story tonight.

I began with "In The Garden of the North American Martyrs" by Tobias Wolff, which is in his collection of stories titled "Our Story Begins." 

Before I get into analyzing the actual story, I wanted to quote part of the "Note From the Author" because his thoughts on editing and re-editing make so much sense to me. 

"The truth is that I have never regarded my stories as sacred texts. To the extent that they are still alive to me, I take a continuing interest in giving that life its best expression. This satisfies a certain aesthetic restlessness, but I also consider it a form of courtesy. If I see a clumsy or superfluous passage, so will you, and why should I throw you out of the story with an irritation I could have prevented? Where I have felt the need for something better I have answered the need the best I can, for now." - Tobias Wolff

I appreciated this passage because, believe it or not, I have actually written a few short stories. Now, they may not be the best work I will ever do, but I had to start somewhere. And as I matured as a writer, I found myself shutting those beginning stories away because I knew if I read them, I would want to edit them. 

But Wolff has given me the permission I need to read them again in order to "give that life its best expression." So after I discuss "In the Garden," I plan to edit a short story I wrote in 2011 called "The Guardian Fairy." It's relatively long so I may only post a section here, but I'll get some more editing practice. So look forward to seeing a post about that soon. 

Okay, now for my observations about "In the Garden." If you don't want spoilers, skip this part because I'm going to spoil it. 

It's a story about Mary, a history teacher, who didn't speak her mind at work over a controversial issue and as a result becomes a bland professor. She made herself learn to love bowling to add an ounce of eccentricity to her personality. The first college she taught at closed, and so she moved to Oregon. 

In Oregon, "it rained nearly every day. When it wasn't raining, it was getting ready to rain, or clearing." And the rain made Mary's hearing aid go all wacky. She didn't enjoy living in Oregon one bit. 

Then, she received a letter from an old colleague, Louise, who taught at a prestigious university in New York. Louise explained that there was an opening and that Mary would fit in nicely at the school. 

As Mary flew into New York, she developed a feeling of deja vu, as if she were flying home. When Louise met her at the airport, we got the very first physical character description in the story - "In the airport, she had seemed gaunt and pale and intense." These words not only describe her appearance but also her personality. Louise is having an affair and the stress from the situation has sunken her cheeks. She woke Mary up in the middle of the night before her interview to ask her intensely if she seemed "womanly," without an explanation of what that even means. And her intensity displayed her selfish personality for anyone who glances for more than a second.

Mary arrived at the university and was given a tour by a student, during which he explained to her that it is a school statute that one woman must be interviewed for every job opening in order to not appear "old-fashioned." This was immediately followed by a brief conversation about the weather with the department chairman instead of a true interview. Though Mary knew her appearance served only as a formality, she boldly stated "I think you should give me the job." 

In our final scene with Mary, she presented an off-the-cuff lecture to conclude her interview. She told a gruesome story about the Iroqoui Indians and how they "were without pity." After Mary detailed torture, cannibalism, and scalping, the horrified department chairman bellowed "That's enough!" 

But Mary had only one reason in recounting this story full of objectionable material. She knew she would not earn the teaching position, but she had learned to stand up for herself instead of pretending she likes to bowl. 

And so our last words from Mary are these:
"Mend your lives. You have deceived yourselves in the pride of your hearts and the strength of your arms. Though you soar aloft like an eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, thence I will bring you down, says the Lord. Turn from power to love. Be kind. Do justice. Walk humbly." 

I enjoyed the unity of this story the most. I love when I can fit the beginning and ending together like lacing up a shoe in one smooth movement. But what struck me was that even though the story was complete, it had no conclusion - all the loose ends were left loose. I think that may be the definition of a short story. They are short because that character is still learning, growing, and making mistakes. The story isn't over. We're just seeing one chapter and are left to imagine the rest.

As a result, short stories make us all writers as we fill in Mary's story with how we believe it should be. Maybe you think she won the department chairman over with her lecture and that she got the job. Or maybe you think she retired from teaching all together after realizing she could, in fact, stand up for herself. You get to decide. 

In other news, I'll list a few more aspects of "The Short Story" that I picked up on. 

• The plot elements made up the bulk of the story - with dialogue, thoughts, and description following, respectively. 
• The story was easy to read and actions made logical sense to me. 
• Major elements were just inferred and surprisingly didn't need to be explicit.
• It was mostly in chronological order except for one flashback.
• The character of Louise is irritating from the start, and I thoroughly disliked her. 
• There was a certain level of research involved - Oregon's climate, the Iroqoui Indians, etc.
• We learned only relevant facts about the characters. 

I loved learning enough through this one story to be able to pick out key elements that I think will appear in future stories. I can already see this project paying off, and I hope you can too!