canary for one

A Canary for One
Ernest Hemingway
The excerpt under analysis belongs to the pen of a brilliant, one of the greatest writers of the XX century, Ernest Hemingway. He created a new story, plotless, episodic, and stripped of emotion. Hemingway believed that the strongest effect comes with an economy of means, that’s why his style is straightforward, simple and. powerful, delicate and strong, the style of complicated simplicity. He avoids emotionally charged words, thus his vocabulary consists of simple, plain words. His major principle is symbol-building, special rhythmicality and a special pattern of dialogue. There is always an immense tension between the refined simplicity of his style and the irrational subject matter. “A Canary for One” as well as many other stories and novels of his end tragically which is the more striking for the almost casual dispassionate way of the presentation of the tragic event.
As all his stories, “A Canary for One” is built up on the tragedy of people’s relations, though it’s not revealed openly. It is written in a typical Hemingway’s style: precise, laconic, Implicit but concealing much beneath the surface.
In the story “A canary for one” the theme of war and the theme of tragic love are combined. Here we come across three main characters: the American lady who is returning home with a canary as a gift for her daughter whose love with a Swiss the American lady tragically broke, and the American couple who also is going to Paris in order to divorce there.
The title of the story under analysis is quite suggestive. “A canary for one”. The indefinite article together with the word “one” stands for the idea that everybody is lonely and unhappy. “For one” which implies “for anyone” alongside with the fact that we don’t know the characters’ names are the markers of generalization as this story is about humanity, about lost postwar generation which is quite peculiar to Hemingway’s style. “Canary”, i.e. a bird in a cage is rather symbolic for the lack of independence and as a result imposed ostentatious happiness.
The story begins with the definite article, thus this middle from the beginning technique immediately plunges the reader into the thick of events. We see a thorough description of landscapes. “Passing train” is the key words of the story as train is a symbol of life which passes away very quickly. It leaves “a long, red stone house”, the symbol of family life and “the sea”, the symbol of happiness, so the picture is soothing and happy. Therefore, at the beginning we observe more or less pleasant picture out of the window. Then through the whole story the changes in this picture attract our attention to the gradual disappearance of happiness from the characters’ life which leads to the uneasiness and disharmony. The simple repetition “it was very hot” and the semantic repetition “no breeze” accentuate the abnormality of the situation. It contradicts to the reality as the train goes very fast and instead of the wind and freshness there is only stiff atmosphere and discomfort.
“The American lady pulled the window-blind down”, this action accentuates the idea that she prevents the narrator to see the sea, thus she kills the last reminiscence of happiness. And the compartment appears like a cage, it seems as if she creates the effect of imprisonment as she did it with her daughter. And the detail that there is no sea even occasionally prepares the reader to the following tragedy. So the narrator can’t see the sea and he turns to the opposite side where there is an “open window”, a means to escape but it is quite an unpleasant, disgusting picture outside which is created by the employment of such vivid epithets as “dusty, oiled, flat, gray-stone”. So the train is moving and nobody is able to change this route of one’s life. “the train slowed down and followed one track through many others” means that every second all of us have a choice after which you can’t take a step back as the past is the past and we can’t change it.
The narrator describes the surrounding picture and the American lady quite unemotionally, in such a circumstantial way as to distract his thoughts from the coming divorce. Then we see that the train stops for 25 minutes at Marseilles. The American lady buys “The Daily Mail”, the most popular tabloid which has some information about celebrities, and Evian water, expensive French water, which symbolize her status in the society and states that she is an ordinary typical representative of her class. Then we get to know that the American lady is a little deaf and further this idea is presented in a little gradation to create the effect of authenticity. The abnormality of the situation is that being deaf she admires and loves how the canary sings. The author reveals it not for nothing but to create the postwar world when everything, the whole normal order of things is distorted. Moreover her deafness is the symbol of her impenetrability to anything and inability, absence of desire to change anything in her life.
Then train moves and we again see an unpleasant view of the civilized society. “And the last of the sun on the water” stands for the last hope which is gone and will never come again. The verb in the ing-form “it was getting dark” accentuates the movement of the train which is like our life passes very quickly. Then we see “a farmhouse burning” which is a symbol of disaster which is going to happen in the life of the main character. And the fact that “Many people were watching the house burn”, that they remained passive creates the effect of indifference in the world when nobody cares of nobody and it is quite a normal order of things. The detail that “things from inside the farmhouse were spread in the field” so that everybody can see the private life of those who have their house burning is like a preparation to the American lady’s revelations.
Then the author depicts soldiers on the station that is a proof of the postwar times. With the help of the parallel constructions organized with the polysyndeton and full of hyperbolized epithets, i.e. “They wore brown uniforms and were tall and their faces shone, close under the electric light. Their faces were very black and they were too tall to stare.” The author accentuates these Negroes’ tallness. And alongside with them there is “A short white ser­geant”. And all this speaks volumes of the loneliness, imbalance and disharmony in the world.
Then for the first time we get to know that there three people in the compartment as “the porter prepared three beds for the sleeping”. The framing repetition within the sentence with the parallel construction and polysyndeton “In the night the American lady lay without sleeping because the train was a rapide* and went very fast and she was afraid of the speed in the night” underlines the idea that the American lady is afraid of fast train as well as of life itself because she keeps to some things and fears all the changes in her life and she’s imposing the same on her daughter. “A cloth spread over the canary’s cage” is a proof that she cares about bird as well as about her daughter; she prevents her from any danger, not even giving an opportunity to choose herself. And due to the description we understand that the narrator doesn’t sleep either, as he has no feeling and he looks at the blue light and the American lady.
“In the morning the train was near Paris”, so Paris is their destination. And again we see the abnormality of the postwar world when everything is in disorder as for a long time Paris was believed to be a place of love, goodness and happiness, but now it’s a place of divorce and broken families because all of them are going to Paris and a marriage couple is going to divorce there. The train is going in the way and it’s like people who choose from many ways only one and follow it for the whole life. Everything is limited.
First in the morning the atmosphere is of some gladness, more attractive but then gradually it again becomes unpleasant and repellent. The frame repetition with certain gradation, i.e. “near… much nearer” creates the effect of suspense as the narrator feels that in Paris smth bad will happen.
The detail that the American lady “had taken the cloth off the birdcage and hung the cage in the sun” underlines that she measures sun and darkness for the canary as well she measures everything for her daughter. The words “I'm taking him home to my little girl” prove the idea that she prevents her daughter from being free still considering her as a little girl. But it’s not an appropriate present for a woman with a broken heart. “There—he's singing now” shows the gradation in the idea of her deaf ness. She’s deaf but she tries to conceal, she doesn’t have courage to admit it and has to pretend smb else. Further the gradation is intensified as “the American lady did not hear. She was really quite deaf; she read lips”.
“The train crossed a river and passed through a very carefully tended forest. The train passed through many out­side of Paris towns” again accentuates the moving days, the passing life. Quite a picturesque epithet “a very carefully tended forest” emphasizes the idea that people are always interfering with the natural world making everything they want just as it is in the case of the American lady who interferes her daughter’s life without thinking about possible terrible circumstances.
Then for the first time we see the appearance of the narrator “For several min­utes I had not listened to the American lady, who was talking to my wife.” We felt his presence from the very beginning but now we know him; here in one sentence the author makes us understand who the other two passengers are. And the American lady’s words “I thought you were English” are employed here not for nothing but to prove that he is different from that stereotyped opinion and different from her and the narrator likes this fact. Then she went on talking to his wife and he looked out of the window, thus he is presented either as a detached observer or as if he feels being somewhere else.
“I'm so glad you're Americans”. And only after the American lady knew that they were Americans she starts talking about personal things because first of all, it’s quite a normal situation that you share your feeling with some strangers as you are really sure that you’ll never meet them again. Or maybe she thought they would understand and support her. And she begins her revelation with the key sentence “American men make the best husbands”, her stereotype which made her deprive her daughter of a real happiness and happy family life. And while speaking about her daughter she is really worried, she’s suffering as she makes pauses and gives short sentences. The worst truth here is that she made her beloved daughter unhappy as she loves her; her love is deaf and blind. She overprotects and keeps her daughter “in a cage” not letting herself to choose the way in this life. The common epithet but a strong intensifier “simply madly in love” accentuates the fact that it was a real pure tender love. But for her mother it’s like a disease that’s why they should be separated and the sentence “Did she get over it?” proves that. The parallel construction “She wouldn't eat anything and she wouldn't sleep at all” emphasizes deep sufferings of the girl. “I've tried so very hard, but she doesn't seem to take an interest in anything. She doesn't care about things.” By the usage of the Present Simple and Present Perfect the author accentuates that the poor girl is still in this condition and her mother can’t help her. The incompatible words “Someone, a very good friend” show a bitter irony of the author who stated that she believed someone who told her just once and she organized her daughter’s life according to this stupid, foolish idea. Here we can draw a parallel between the daughter and the canary: both refuse to obey the orders, both are overprotected and suffer a lot.
Then we see a kind of a brief summary of the women’s dialogue which is very significant to understand the American lady’s life. For about 20 years she used to buy clothes from the samemaison de cou­ture. Thus, she economical but at the same time she’s greedy as she buys quite simple but expensive French clothes so that to pay fewer duty but to wear the clothes corresponding to her social status. Moreover these people even know her tastes and chose the clothes for her. So there is no freshness, no movement, and no newness in her hackneyed style of life. She doesn’t change her tastes during all her life, she’s afraid of any changes at all. And what is really terrible that she imposes the same on her daughter’s life.
As they get closer and closer, the American lady still sticks to the idea that “American men are the only men in the world to marry” and she reveals the love story of her daughter. All in all we understand that the lover of her daughter was a very good guy as “He was from a very good family in Vevey. He was going to be an engineer”, but his only drawback was his nationality, he was a Swiss. This longest dialogue on both parts reveals two facts that unite all of them; the first one is that they all were in Vevey and the second one is that both stories happened in the fall, the time when nature is fading. This asymmetry of the linguistic sign lays a special stress on the idea that to fall in love in the fall means that this love is certainly predestined to some crush, breach, inevitable end. Besides the usage of tenses in this dialogue is very peculiar. The lady’s speech is given in the Present as the story she tells them for her is a simple fact from her daughter’s life. And the narrator’s wife’s speech is presented in the Past time as for this woman her happy family life is somewhere behind, in the past and it can’t be returned as she’s going to get divorce.
In this part of the text we also understand that the number 3 which we account so frequently, e.g. “3 passengers, the hotel “Trois Couronnes” is an odd number; it can’t be divided into couples thus, carrying the idea of infinite loneliness. And this idea is also underlined when we come across “three cars that had been in a wreck” which is the climax of the story. They stand for the couple and the daughter the love and happiness of whom is broken, is in the complete wreck. Besides the indefinite article before the word “wreck” depicts smth that can happen in anybody’s life as nobody of us is safeguard against this terrible irreversible life crush.
“I was afraid of just that all night," she said. "I have terrific pre­sentiments about things sometimes. I'll never travel on a rapide again at night. There must be other comfortable trains that don't go so fast.” The lady was waiting for the wreck, she was afraid of it but it was she who organized it in the end. She’s afraid of fast train as well as she fears the real full life.
And we can’t but feel Hemingway’s bitter irony while comparing the lady’s attitude to people’s love. The Swiss and her daughter’s love, who where “simply madly in love, went on walks and were always together” she considered to be a disease which needs to be got rid of. And the relations of this young couple, who even didn’t speak to each other and look at each other during the whole trip, she admitted as a normal love, the one it should be in this world.
At least they arrive in Paris and the gloomy and dark description of the outside world draws the picture of this couple’s future. The parallel construction with polysyndeton “and my wife said good-by and I said good-by to the American lady” creates the rhythmicality and stands for the idea that these not so long ago close people were now quite alien to each other, nothing connected them anymore. And this is also proved by the phrase “We followed the porter” as it is the last chance to use the pronoun “we” as their love, their family happiness has come to a tragic end. “At the end was a gate” – this inversion makes the subject rheumatic showing that this is a gate to a new separate lonely life. “And a man took the tickets” – this is the last reminiscence of their happy past and now there is nothing common left.
The last sentence “We were returning to Paris to set up separate residences” reveals the whole truth. This compositional device is called retardation and by the employment of the ing-verb the author depicts the idea of a continuing life.
All in all I must say that this story is written in typical Hemmingway’s style, laconic, precise, devoid of sentiments and emotions. It tells about the tragedy of the post war times and the foolish stereotyped views of the American society. And to understand the real truth in the Hemingway’s work one should pay attention to every detail and every word as he hides it quite deeply being a master of creating the “Iceberg” which is left unnoticed.