Short Story and Old Man

Flight by Doris Lessing

Flight - Text Analysis
In this assignment I'm going to analyze the short story, Flight by Doris Lessing. This short-story was published in 1957, in a collection of short stories entitled The Habit of Loving. This is an old short story but it is a very popular one among many.
Dorris Lessing (93) was born in 1919, in Khermanhah in Persia (now Iran) and she is a British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and a short story writer. Her parents were British. At the age of six, she moved to Zimbabwe, where she attended a girls' school. In 1949 she moved to London, where her first novel, The Grass is singing, was published in 1950.
Now I'm going to tell you about the story.
In this short story there is an old man who has a granddaughter named Alice. The old man has not been given a name, so trough this story we call him the old man. This old man keeps pigeons in his dovecote, which is a tall wire-netted shelf on stilts, full of strutting, preening pigeons. He has seen his other granddaughters leave home, marry and grow up and Alice is the only granddaughter left who he has. The author of this short story has not written where this story takes place but in this story a frangipani tree is mentioned and the frangipani trees are native to Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America as far south as Brazil but can be grown in tropical sub-tropical regions. So this means that the story takes place in some of these regions. Now this man doesn't want her to marry and leave him because then he will be left alone with the pigeons. Loneliness is what he rather stay away from.
On the other side, Alice wants to leave because she has found a boy named Steve, the postmaster's son. He is described as red-handed, red-throated, violent-bodied youth. So that means that he is white and Alice is brown-skinned. They are in love and they want to marry but it is all up to the old man. If he doesn't want her to leave, then she won't leave. The old man argues with Alice about her behavior, and complains to his daughter, Alice's mother (Lucy). They had a discussion where Lucy thinks it is OK if she leaves because she is after all eighteen and she meant that it was old enough to get married and leave. But still the old man hasn't changed his mind. At the end of the story Steven gives the old man a pigeon as a gift. When he received this gift, he took out his favourite pigeon and put in the new pigeons he got from Steven. This is a symbol I'm going to talk about later in this assignment.
Now about the theme, there is three words I want to talk about. Loneliness, love and
Symbol(s)
This story is very obviously one where symbolism is important to our understanding. Alice is clearly likened to the favourite pigeon. The old man can keep the bird in, where he cannot control Alice. But when he receives the new pigeon he got from Alice's boyfriend, he is able to release the favourite: he accepts that shutting it in is not right, like he was shutting Alice in and not letting her marry. I could find any other symbols.
Now we will move on to more detailed about the characters. Doris Lessing tells us only what we need to know and perhaps misses a lot of information we liked to know about. So who are these characters?
The central character in this story, called the old man, has not been given a name. We know that he is Alice's grandfather, and that he feels possessive towards her. We also knows that he keeps pigeons in a dovecote. The story is told most of the time from his point of view and whatever it means, it is certainly in some way about his learning or accepting things about Alice. I believe that this old man is a selfish who only thinks about himself. He doesn't want to that her granddaughter can marry because he only thinks about himself, that he would be left alone while Alice is going to be a happy girl with a happy future with the postmaster's son. Lucy expects that Steve is going to be a good husband for Alice.
Alice is the old man's granddaughter. She is a young woman at the age of eighteen but the old man still sees her as a child - or would like to do so. She is brown-skinned. Alice has some serious and grown up wish to marry her boyfriend, and live together. Alice has been trough many conflicts and discussions with the her grandfather, because the old man can't just let go of Alice.
Lucy is the old man's daughter and Alice's mother. She is described as a woman in her appearance, her actions and they way in which her father thinks of her. Lucy is the one who gives Alice the permission to marry, and we also know that she got married when she was seventeen and that she never regretted it. In this story, Lucy is trying to change the old man's mind to allowing Alice to marry.
Steven is Alice's boyfriend and this is the one Alice want to marry and have a future with. He is described as red-handed, red-throated, violent-bodied youth. In this story we see him trough the old man's eyes. The old man finds things wrong with him like his red complexion and his father's job. Lucy expects him to be a good husband as her other three girls have. His viewpoint is almost invisible.
Now let's talk about time and place.
The author of this short story has not written where this story takes place but in this story a frangipani tree is mentioned and the frangipani trees are native to Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America as far south as Brazil but can be grown in tropical sub-tropical regions. So this means that the story takes place in some of these regions. Another one is the wooden veranda at front of the whitewashed house. And also that Steve's father is a postmaster and Lucy served a cup of tea with a plate.