What we see in this passage is the strong juxtaposition of the natural and that which is man-made. This juxtaposition helps the reader to contemplate on the idea of beauty. For Oscar, beauty has always been the effects nature has had on entities in every day life or that which has come from nature, such as “the species along the lanes of Devon,” (Line 12) “Stratton’s harvest stocks,” (Line 15) or the sea. These things were found in the natural world. These were the things he’d grown up with, grown accustomed to, and these were things that he considered beautiful.
In the story, he’s brought to this mangy, filthy, warm place with corrugated roofs, roads littered with bottles and trash. This area surrounds Lucinda’s glass blowing shop. He doesn’t expect to see such beauty in a place in which one wouldn’t expect to see any sort of beauty. But, he’s surprised, at the end of the passage, by the ability of the amazing glass pieces to have come from this gross place and made by a grotesque man. Then he’s amazed and surprised to see how much beauty there is both in the process of glass blowing and the actual finished product. This manufacturing of something so wonderful, so fragile is a departure from the beauty he’s always seen in the unadulterated world. What’s interesting to note is that even though his world is pure and clean, hers is dirty and still it produces a “miracle” (Line 39) in this stunning glass product. He was deceived to think Lucinda’s world was simply that of refinery and elegance.
The tone of this piece is one of wonder and amazement. Along with using words like “miracle”, the author likens glass to many things. In the lines “the white of pure heat, the white of the crucible, and the white of the molten glass” (Lines 25-26), shows that this is a scene in which everything seems to melt into each other, an immutable scene. It is the beginning of Oscar’s acquaintance with the process and truly a sight he’d never laid eyes upon. In the beginning of the passage there is an air of arrogance in that the author doesn’t expect to be able to find beauty in this place. The repetition of the word “wonder” seeks to reinforce the amazement present in the author during his introduction to the process of blowing glass. This is especially important to note because it is the most used word in the passage. The second word that is oftentimes used is “protean.” This further reinforces the idea that just as glass can take on many shapes, so can beauty. The language in this passage is incredibly visual and vivid in that one is easily brought to this scene of a glass blowing workshop and can sense the beauty arising from such a process. The author uses phrases like “wooden thrown”(Line 34), ”drum major, bagpipe master, trumpeter, transmuter” (Lines 32-33), and “hissed and steamed”(Line35) to describe the scene in the workshop. Even to describe the glass he uses imagery in saying that one glass piece resembled a snake or “as angry as a snake in an eagle’s claws.” (Line 37) These extremely visual lines help the reader in creating a mental image of the scene and to understand Oscar’s reaction. There is a combination of long and short sentences so the reader’s attention is easily captivated. There are a lot of loose sentences and the main clause or idea in the sentence is usually that of great importance and held to the end. The passage isn’t mottled with unnecessary details or verbose language either.
The second to last paragraph reads “But it was not this that had thrilled Oscar about glass, that a man had made his body to comply with the needs of manufacturing, but that a man had obviously gross and imperfect could produce something so fine.”(Lines 43-45) These lines show the way in which Peter Carey writes in much of the passage, with long sentences that convey a whole point. In this case, the point conveyed in these lines is the central point of the passage. For, surroundings can be deceiving and one can find beauty in the most unlikely of places. The man in the passage seems to be the foil for Oscar. He completely challenges Oscar’s idea of beauty and makes Oscar reexamine all his preconceived notions.
Through mixed types of sentences, glowing vocabulary, and the strong contrast of filth to purity, the image of beauty is created and reinforced numerous times. The author does not fail to “paint a picture with words” but also manages to strongly convey his message. This beauty that Oscar has found is located in both the flowing streams of Devon and in the heated workshops in even the grungiest of back alleys. The reader is immediately drawn into this scene of the workshop, and, along with Oscar, is able to find the beauty in both the process and finished product. Oscar’s perception of beauty, and perhaps that, too, of the reader is forever changed.
