Contemplating happiness elsewhere

Little Chandler begins to blames his family for all the things, that he finds important in life, that he has not yet experienced and then further blames his family stating that they are the limitations in his life. “He was a prisoner for life.” Little Chandler talks about writing poetry, but it is as if he is almost scared to try, for fear of failing, never wanting to take the risk of creating something for then he is opening himself up to be judged. “He could not sway the crowd but he might appeal to a little circle of kinder minds.” Little Chandler is too scared to do what he wants to do in life. His poetry writing is evident of his whole life, not jus his writing. He looks for excuses as to why he cannot do things, or as to why he is not somewhere else; instead of looking for solutions to the limitations, he creates himself. “He tried to way his soul to see if it was a poet’s soul.”  Little Chandler points fingers in all directions as to why he has not made more of your life, and he does this because he notices and compares his life with the life Gallaher is living. A man with no one to support or look after other than himself, no partner to reproduce with and carry out his biological function- reproducing, and no real structure in the sense that he has no ties holding him down. He moves when he wants and travels wherever he wants to travel, with no purpose to his life, other than the purpose of pleasure. He does not intend to commit to anything yet, and this is evident when we analyze Gallaher, we can say that his fear is fear of limiting himself. “No blooming fear of that, my boy. I’m going to have my fling first and see a bit of life and the world before I put my head in the sack-if I ever do.”

Symbolization is used to outline the characteristics of each character and the relevance those have to their lifestyles and their personalities. “The half-moons of his nails were perfect and when he smiled you caught a glimpse of a row of childish white teeth.” These are physical characteristics of Little Chandler and they symbolize that Little Chandler is not a man that carries out many physically activities due to the fact that his nails are so neatly and perfectly kept as well as the fact that his “hands were white and small” and that, “he gave one the idea of being a little man.” His name symbolizes these characteristics by the simple fact that little is evidence of how his status, physically and socially are seen by those surrounding him. His first name, Tommy, symbolizes the boy-like aspect he still has about him. The fact that his teeth are still similar to that of a child adds to his boy-like image and is evidence that he has not taken on many manly habits, those being things like smoking, drinking or eating roughly refined meats that wear-down ones teeth. We link the experiences life gives us, to the maturity a person has, that is why it is sound that older people are wiser because they have more life experiences. Little Chandler, however is depicted as a boy-like adult that hasn’t been through too many life changing experiences, either because his family are a limitation of his or because of the fact that he is too scared to branch outside of his comfort zone. Gallaher is quite the opposite, displaying no fear to live life and experience all it has to offer. Gallaher has made sure not to limit himself by carrying out his biological function of procreation yet because he knows that this will end many of the pleasurable freedoms he now has. Little Chandler looks upon Gallaher as having the life he dreams of having. Little chandler would love the freedom and confidence Gallaher has. “He chose the darkest and narrowest streets and, as he walked boldly forward, the silence that was spread about his footsteps troubled him…” Little Chandler is trying to be more of a man, trying to let his little fears go, but he is unable to, “…the wandering silent figures troubled him; and at times a sound of low fugitive  laughter made him tremble like a leaf.” Little Chandler still had that child like fear inside him.

Little Chandler’s son, symbolizes himself at the end of the writing. Rather, the son symbolizes the inner conflict Little Chandler has with himself. The fact that he is so dependent on others for life, yet being “imprisoned” by others and the limitations they offer. This is relevant to the theme because, the child represents the inner conflict Little Chandler has with himself, and Little Chandler represents other human beings that face limitations they create for themselves, namingly the limitation of family. With any family comes responsibilities and with every responsibility comes limitations. We cannot have one without the other.