THE LARDER
This is a short story by Morris Lurie. He is one of Australia´s most creative and prolific authors. He has written comic novels, short stories, essays, plays, children´s books and an autobiography. In this short story we see how he tries to make sense of our modern world through observing man´s foolishness with an almost brutal directness, but also with humor.
The story is about a group of tourists that has returned from a boat trip to the reef. They have picked shells, and they thinks they´re so beautiful so they want to bring the shells home, but the shells still have these small creatures inside them that are alive.
A real-estate agent bragged about having brought back nine shells. He said he picked them because it was a chance of once in a lifetime.
And he used a knife to take the creatures out, which is kind of abusive. The tourists tries to get the creatures out of the shells, but it´s impossible, they just duck back into the shells. But suddenly one person gets an idea. They could use fishing line. And so they made a noose around the claw and then they hang it up so the creatures fell out of the shell, and only minutes later the birds came and ate them. And so they took their shells home.
The setting of this short story is in Australia near by the Great Barrier Reef. Maybe some vacation place in Australia. The group of tourists are staying in a camp near by the reef. It was low tide, and they brought back shells with creatures which they killed, just so they could take "their" shells home.
The point of view is a person on the outside that observes this story, a 3. person narrator.
Characters: School teacher -> tries to be sensible, she takes the one shell she likes the best. She symbolizes goodness and care.
The real-estate agent -> takes every shell he sees, and still he want more, he just takes them because he can, which symbolizes mankind. So it´s the teacher VS. the real-estate agent.
I think the theme here could be; not spend more than we need.
The story is about a group of tourists that has returned from a boat trip to the reef. They have picked shells, and they thinks they´re so beautiful so they want to bring the shells home, but the shells still have these small creatures inside them that are alive.
A real-estate agent bragged about having brought back nine shells. He said he picked them because it was a chance of once in a lifetime.
And he used a knife to take the creatures out, which is kind of abusive. The tourists tries to get the creatures out of the shells, but it´s impossible, they just duck back into the shells. But suddenly one person gets an idea. They could use fishing line. And so they made a noose around the claw and then they hang it up so the creatures fell out of the shell, and only minutes later the birds came and ate them. And so they took their shells home.
The setting of this short story is in Australia near by the Great Barrier Reef. Maybe some vacation place in Australia. The group of tourists are staying in a camp near by the reef. It was low tide, and they brought back shells with creatures which they killed, just so they could take "their" shells home.
The point of view is a person on the outside that observes this story, a 3. person narrator.
Characters: School teacher -> tries to be sensible, she takes the one shell she likes the best. She symbolizes goodness and care.
The real-estate agent -> takes every shell he sees, and still he want more, he just takes them because he can, which symbolizes mankind. So it´s the teacher VS. the real-estate agent.
I think the theme here could be; not spend more than we need.