XII - A Story

A Story

Analysis

-Dylan Thomas

The story “A Story” written by Dylan Thomas is all about a day’s outing to Porthcawl. The main character of the story is a boy who humorously presents the adult’s world from his prospective. So, the story is all about what a child thinks about the grown up drunk people. The story is about the plan, management and the failure implementation of the plans. In the story, the boy who is narrator describes his uncle and aunt, his uncle’s friends and an annual outing to Porthcawl. In the story, the narrator says that it is not like a story because there is no real beginning and ending but there is little in the middle. The writer in this story seems to be more interested in describing the characters and the events in a funny way through the narrator.

The boy, the narrator is living with his uncle and aunt. The boy says that his uncle is big, fat and noisy. He is loud while speaking. He has red hair like burning fire. He is so big that when he sits, he seems like a buffalo. When he eats, he drops food on his clothes. Most often, he drinks and appears to be a good singer. He has a small shop in his house. The boy says that the space in the shop becomes too small for him after meal though it is sufficient for other people.

Just contrary to it, his aunt is so small that she can’t touch his uncle’s head without standing on a chair. She is quick and keeps walking with a pause like a cat. She spends a lot of time cleaning the small house. She always sets the mouse trap that never catches any mouse. Sometimes she gets angry at her husband when he wants to go for an outing without her, and comes home heavily drunk. When they quarrel, her husband lifts her up on his arms and places her on a chair in the kitchen so that she can hit him with chinaware. Whenever his uncle wants to go for an outing, she challenges him saying that she will go to her mother’s house.

In the next part of the story, the writer describes about an outing and some of the men going on outing. The boy first heard about the outing while he was sitting outside his uncle’s shop. Mr. Franklyn, Will Sentry and Mr. Weasely, the friends of his uncle come to his house and talk about the outing that year. They talk about others who are supposed to be involved in the outing committee. They drink, play cards and make many humorous comments about others. Hearing their comments, the boy describes them in his own way. He describes Mr. Franklyn as the treasurer of the outing committee. He has collected money for the bus fare and beer. He says Will Sentry as a person who always follows Mr. Franklyn like a dog to keep an eye on money. Bob is the ex-treasurer of the past outings who had once stolen the money. Mr. Old O’ Jones is a frequent goer of outing. Mr. Johny is a person who whistles on women. And Mr. Weasely is a person who suffers a lot in the bus.

They become ready to go on outing. They also became ready not to take their wives so that they can have some privacy. As a result, the boy’s aunt becomes angry and plans to visit her parents. Her decision becomes a problem for the boy as there will be no one to take care of him. His uncle assures him that he will take him for an outing. Before leaving the house, his aunt drops a message that says ‘there is some eggs in a pantry, take your boots off before you go to bed’. Finally they depart from the village in the coach. After getting out of the village, they come to know that Mr. Old O’ Jones in missing in the bus. They drive back to village to pck him up. When Mr. Weasely leaves his teeth in the house, he is ignored. They move ahead and make their coach stop at every public house to drink. They get into the pubs leaving the boy outside the bus looking for the things they have carried in it. They remain a lot inside the pub, get themselves heavily drunk, have hot discussions and make the pub empty. When there is not life any drink, they throw the bottle to each other and speak very rough languages. The boy on the other hand looks hither and thither. He spends the time lazily stoning and grazing cows. After sometimes, his uncle along with other members gets out of the pub and get on the coach. But after few minutes, they again stop their bus by the river and enjoy swimming and bathing in the cold water.  They soon feel that it is getting late as it has been evening. Then they drive back towards their village. While they are moving back, Mr. Old O’ Jones cooks food inside the coach. They see the moon shining in the sky. As they are feeling very hungry, they start to have their dinner near the field. While they are having dinner, the poor boy feels sleepy and sleeps on is uncle’s waistcoat.