The Juggler

The Juggler

(An American short story.)

B Ð'- Essay:

In this short story we have the relationship between parents and their grown up children as the main theme. The main character is a woman who has a grown up daughter, Zoe, who loves the nearly blind man, Michael. The problem for the mother is that she does not think Michael is the best man for her daughter because he is going to need too much from her. Even though Michael seems to be a nice guy and enjoys life even when he is going blind, the mother does not like him.

The first time we start to know that the mother does not like Michael is when they go to see a movie. Michael sits between the two women and his elbow touches the mother's on the armrest. The mother starts to feel a stiffness in her body and this could symbolize that she does not feel anything for Michael not even compassion. At the same time she knows she has to give her daughter away and she has also accepted that but she did not expect to give her daughter to someone who would need her that much. Here it becomes clear that the mother is afraid that she will lose her daughter to Michael because he is going to need her care almost all the time when he is totally blind.

It is worth to notice that though the mother and daughter are sitting close in the cinema, Michael sits between them. This can reinforce the mother's belief in Michael taking the daughter away from her. Michael gets between them in another episode, which is important for the story. It is on the canoe trip where Zoe sits in the front, the mother in the back and Michael in the middle. It used to be just mother and daughter who went on canoe trips but now Michael is there and again between them.

The mother and daughter have been there before and they know all the things they see but Michael has to be told about all of it. The mother sees him as helpless and he is to some extend but she fails to see how much Zoe loves to help him and that she does not care about him going blind. At one point the mother thinks that she likes Michael or at least could like him if he was not going blind. It is difficult to respect the mother at this point because she lets a handicap color her judgment of Michael. You can almost call the mother a bigot because she has a strong unreasonable belief about Michael not being good enough for her daughter.

Later on there is an important episode, which will affect the future relationship between the mother and daughter. Zoe asks her mother about what she thinks of Michael and though the mother knows it would be best not to tell the truth she does it anyway. Zoe tries to explain her mother that Michael is not that different from them but the mother does not listen. The mother's reply is that Michael will need her far too much and Zoe answers that she should know that feeling. Here it becomes clear for us that the mother needs Zoe just as much or maybe even more than Michael. The mother does not want Michael to take her place in Zoe's life.

The mother stands in her driveway and looks after the car long after Zoe and Michael have left and she probably realizes that she has lost Zoe now. The tightness in her arms could show that she cannot feel anything now that Zoe has left. She worries about her daughter in all the free moments she has during the day and it is almost as if she wants to buy her daughter's love back when she buys a scarf for her. Maybe it was her plan to buy back her daughter's love but the bearded man with a jester's hat changes her mind.

This last episode with the bearded man is probably the most important in the whole story because it is when the mother understands what Zoe sees in Michael. The bearded man juggles with objects and it is always two of one kind and one of another, which is the same as Zoe, Michael and the mother. Before this episode the mother thought Zoe and she were the two objects of the same kind and Michael was the different but now she realizes that she is the different object. The mother wants to be with Zoe and Michael without fear of being ridiculed and wounded. She wants to believe in faith and risk so she can be like her daughter and get the most out of life.

One last thing that should be mentioned is the title because it is not obvious for the story. The title is a mystery until you read the last half page of the story and until this point it would have made more sense if the title