Blog 5

Book: The Long Valley, Story: The White Quail
Pages read this week: 92
Pages read since semester:434

Weekly Style: Questions

Mary Teller is married to Harry Teller. Long before they got married, Mary had a dream to have he own garden. When they bought their new house, she supervised the construction of whole garden. Her garden was her life as she was over obsessed with it. The appearance of a while quail in her garden makes her see it as her own image. Harry kills the quail unintentionally, but it makes him realize how lonely he is.

Que. 1: Give your reaction to what you read.
Ans.: This is an excellent story, very deeply written which describes the human nature in an authentic manner. John Steinbeck is indeed a master of expression of human feelings and sentiments. At first, when I read this story, I found it kind of confusing, but my second attempt gave me an insight to Mary’s character. Use of wild vegetation as outside world which is trying to invade Mary’s own separate world (garden) is superb. The story shows how one has to compromise with the other’s desires after marriage, and how a holy relationship like marriage can be used by one for his own use.

Que. 2: Why do the characters in the book do what they do?
Ans.: The story has two characters, Harry Teller, who is an insurance agent; and his wife, Mary. Harry deeply loves his wife. He fulfills every single demand put forth by her. He allows her to design the garden according to her wish, and even gives up the idea of buying a dog, as it can damage the garden. Sometimes, he is worried about her wife’s passion towards gardening. Being a loving husband, he helps her as much as he can, since he does not want her to complain. He even kills the white quail because he realizes that her wife thought that it was her, not the quail, who was threatened by cat (outside world). In the end, he reaches this painful conclusion that garden was the only thing in Mary’s life, and he was something unwanted but necessary.

Mary is a portrayal of the selfishness and materialism which has long gripped the western culture, and is now infiltrating into eastern cultures also. Her only aim in life is to have a garden. When Harry proposed her, she asked him if she could have her own garden. She let him kiss her thrice in the story. Both of them slept in separate rooms. Is this really a marriage, or she was just doing performing some formalities. She made marriage a bargain, like a trade agreement. She was so much possessive that the wild vegetation on the hill next to their house seemed a threat to her for her garden. When a cat was about to kill white quail, she screamed because she looked upon the quail as it was herself. The quail reminded her of her own past. In short, she did not want anything from outside world to tamper with her prefect garden (life). She used to address the plants with pronouns used for persons. She did not want to change any plant from the garden, even if it died. She planned to replace it with a plant of same kind. Her character reminds me of another Bollywood (Indian) movie, in which a girl thought that his boyfriend existed, but in reality he did not. That girl was suffering from a mental disease, but I do not know what to say about Mary.