The young women is angry at her husband for humiliating the old man and making him run after the train, on top of that giving him less than half price for the lion. She feels that the price paid does not reflect the creativity and time spent on carving the lion. An alternative interpretation of this situation could be that the young woman was actually angry at her self.
“The heat of shame mounted through her legs and body and sounded in her ears like the sound of sand pouring”.
This quote could mean that the woman was actually angry at her self for not buying the lion at full price in the first place, after all her husband was only trying to please her and didn’t think how he was exploiting the poor black man.
In this story symbolism is also a main aspect;
“…, and the lion, fallen on its side in the corner.”
The lion symbolises the exploitation of black men, emphasises how inferior black man are thought of and that at the end of the day skilful work created by black men is just thrown aside.
The writer presents the details of the surroundings and the black people living in poverty through the young woman’s eyes;
“Out of the window, on the other side, there was nothing; sand and bush; a thorn tree.”
This strong imagery which we discover through the woman’s eyes means that we feel even more sympathetic towards the black and poor people outside on the platform.
We can empathise with both the young man and the young women. We all can see how it must have felt for the man; he was just trying to please his new wife and she just rejected his “success”. And we can also empathise with the young women because nobody likes their hard work and creativity going to waste; and the young woman realises that this is what was happening everyday to the poor black people on the platform.
The situation in the young woman’s mind is made worse because the seller was a poor and black man. The clash of these two culture show how white people invade other people’s land and carelessly exploit the hard work and creativity of poorer people.
Unlike the story “The train from Rhodesia”, “The Gold Legged Frog” is about a clash of cultures within the same county. The story is about a father and his sons out in the field looking for frogs. One of the sons gets bitten by a cobra.
When the father takes him home to be treated he is faced by another dilemma. The other villagers tell the exasperated father that the authorities are handing out 200 baht, only for one day, to any family with five or more children. Now the man has to decide if he should stay with his dying son or go and get the money.
“If you don’t go, you simply go to jail. Whoever disobeyed the authorities? If they decide to give, you have to take. If not, jail.”
This quote shows how the clash of cultures between the powerful and rich authorities and the poor farm workers affect the lives of poorer people. Because of the threat of going to jail the father had to leave his dying son and go for the money.
Symbolism is also used in this story. The writer cleverly uses the gold legged frog to symbolise a moral theme that if you run after money then you can expect a negative ending. At the end we can also empathise with the father because of how he tragically lost his son.
The writer also cleverly uses strong imagery and antithesis between the heat and cold;
“In the morning the cold had pierced his bones, but now it was so hot he felt his head would break into pieces.
The clash of cultures meant that the father sadly lost a son; hence the negative ending and the clash of cultures acting as a catalyst.
In both of the stories above we see how a clash of cultures can result in negative endings and even if both cultures are in one part of the world the more powerful and rich culture always dominates the poorer culture.
