Gardam also shows Bull’s loneliness by his constant nostalgic tone of voice and his recollections of the past; “Walking the dog last thing round the block….you remember running, moving fast on your toes and dancing”. This shows that Bull would rather relive the past where he feels he had a better time, than live in the present with a wife who doesn’t really need him. Moira is seen (by Bull) to be completely in charge; “holding the reins”. This has connotations of a parent holding a small child to prevent them from running off. This would leave Bull feeling as though Moira was in control, thus emphasising his feeling of ‘uselessness’.
The title of The First Adam is symbolic, because it could refer to Adam from Genesis in the Bible, who was the first human on earth and was therefore lonely until God gave him a partner. The title also refers to when Bull sees an orang-outang and realises that it is as lonely as him “Not a bugger to talk to”. This is symbolic because Bull feels as is he is as lonely as the orang-outang without a “bugger to talk to”.
In the story, Stone Trees, we learn how the narrator feels by Gardam’s use of first person narrative in a stream of consciousness style. The narrator has been recently widowed and the story takes place over a short period of time whilst on a picnic with friends on the Isle of Wight. The story uses analepis and proleptis, as well as present tense to tell the narrator’s story throughout time. This contrasts the past and the present. The journey to the Isle of Wight reminds the narrator of the “gold peace” of her holiday with her husband and this is juxtaposed with the journey to have a picnic with her old friends because “it was September like now”.
Gardam also uses juxtaposition in this story to compare the narrator’s life before her husband’s death and after his death. The story is very much based on the theme of life and death, with a symbolic use of the title, “Stone Trees”. The title is symbolic of death (because the trees are no longer alive) and the wish that things will stay the same. This is juxtaposed with her husband’s dislike of the stone. There is parallelism when Peter says “I like trees” and the narrator notices that he has “long hard hands”. This shows the similarity between the narrator’s husband and his child. It is as if her husband has come to life again and that is why she says; “Now that you are.” instead of “So now that you are dead”. This shows that the narrator is coming to terms with her husband’s death because she will always have a constant reminder of him, in his illegitimate son.
Gardam also uses repetition and parallelism when the narrator addresses her husband “Now that you are dead”. When the narrator speaks directly to her husband it comes from her stream of consciousness, which shows a woman who is desperately lonely and who is trying to come to terms with the loss of her husband. The sentence structure of “Now that you are dead” changes and has an effect on the reader. “Now that you are dead” implies that the narrator’s husband is dead and she realises that he is gone. At the end of the story, the sentence is changed to “Now that you are”. This happens after the narrator learns her husband had an illegitimate son and realises a part of him will always live on. The change of the sentence implies that the narrator is now able to move on with her life now that she can always be reminded of her husband.
In The Orphaned Swimming Pool, the swimming pool is symbolic of the marriage of Ted and Linda. Due to the state of their marriage (and their subsequent divorce) the pool is slowly abandoned; “The summer that the Turners got their divorce, their swimming pool had neither a master nor a mistress”. In this story it is the pool that suffers from loneliness due to the Turner’s divorce, yet as the pool is symbolic of their marriage, then both Ted and Linda end up losing each other.
The author also uses juxtaposition to compare how ‘loved’ the pool was before the breakdown of the Turner’s marriage “heavenly blue……Linda would hold court all day….and Ted would return from work to find a poolside cocktail party in progress”, to how neglected to became during and after the break-up of their marriage, “Dead dragon flies accumulated on the surface..Small deluded toads hopped in”. The use of the two pre-modifiers “heavenly” and “dead” is a juxtaposition of the pool’s condition. The pre-modifier “heavenly” has connotations of a perfect existence and is symbolic of the Turner’s marriage; “the Turners had scored again”. Yet the pre-modifier “dead” can be both literal and symbolic. Dead could refer (symbolically) to the state of the Turner’s marriage or it could be literally applied to the “dead dragon flies”.
The title of The Orphaned Swimming Pool is literal and metaphorical, because the pool has been neglected during Ted and Linda’s marriage break down and then their divorce, neither of them wants it anymore. Their marriage seems to have been based on material items and they were more concerned about being a “little advance of their friends” than working on their marriage. Linda eventually sells the house to get away from the pool “Thank God no one had drowned in it. Except her.” due to the bad memories it stirred in her.
All three stories use juxtaposition to a great effect to show how characters in the stories have experienced loss or loneliness. They also use an implied style of writing to convey the themes of loss and/or loneliness. The implicit styles encourage the reader to work out the story without things being explicitly stated. The two stories by Jane Gardam use first person narrative and the story by John Updike uses third person narrative. The different narrative positions allow the reader to see the stories differently. The first person narratives allow the reader to see the story from the narrator’s point of view and the third person narrative allows the reader to see the story more objectively.
