The setting for this story is around a Christmas fire together with his family. In the Victorian times Christmas was an important religious and family festival and taken more seriously than it would have been in the Fireflies period. The narrator is Charles Dickens but he allows Michael to tell his own story. This way he can give us an insight into his true feelings.
In Fireflies there are four separate but related stories. There is the story of the mans daughters suicide in Japan; the story of the narrator’s strange dream that recalls Robinson Crusoe and the Fireflies; the story of the parents past and their feelings surrounding the realisation of their daughters disability; and finally the story of the family’s daily life- the parents happiness and joy in their daughters personality and success.
The narrator is the man with a wife and disabled daughter because he can share and express their feelings.
The word Fireflies appears in the story quite a lot. Fireflies make a fleeting appearance as bright trails, and then disappear, leaving a momentary fleeting trace on our consciousness. Sightings are brief and unpredictable. Fireflies represent a glimpse of hope, so the moral is never to give up hope.
Each story, “Fireflies” and the “Poor Relation” are similar in that both of the narrators hide the truth from other people. Michael in the Poor Relation hides from everyone that he lives in his own fantasy world, calling his house a Castle “I took John home to my castle”. And the man in Fireflies hides his feelings that he wanted his daughter Sophie to die, when he found out she was disabled. But both characters tell the truth to someone to make themselves feel better.
When comparing pre-1914 with post-1914 attitudes, we learn that in the Fireflies period the world is much more accepting of misfortune in marriage, business and disabilities than it is in the Poor Relation time period. People travel around much more “His only daughter had taken the lift up to the top of a tall building in Japan”. Where as in the Poor Relation status and money meant everything. Most people’s worlds were very small. Also families are much closer in Fireflies than in the Poor Relation. In the Poor Relation somebody like Sophie would be treated unnaturally and sent to a mental institute to hide her from society’s eyes. On the other hand the parents in Fireflies realise they are lucky to have Sophie and love her. These two stories give us a sense how the world has changed between times. The language in Fireflies is much more casual than in the Poor Relation. The Poor Relations language is written in an old fashioned way “he was very reluctant to take precedence of so many respected members of the family” Unlike Fireflies “yesterday I met a man on a train”.
My own response to Fireflies is that, I thought it was clever linking the man on the train story, to the disabled girls story. In the Poor Relation i also liked the way that Michael creates his fantasy world by dreaming and trying to have a glimpse of farther-hood by being with Little Frank.
Both stories have a warning or moral to them. By reading these stories we can learn from peoples mistakes and learn about new things to help us later in life with our experiences e.g. in the poor relation the moral is don’t be your own worst enemy, for which Michael paid greatly. Also in Fireflies the word “Fireflies” teaches us that there are glimpses of hope as the parents found out with their disabled daughter. This is How the Poor Relation and Fireflies help us to make sense of the world!
