The Mother is the only character within the story that changes. She has chosen to move on with her life with another man (Ralph) whereas her son and father have chosen to remain loyal to each other and keep their alliance that they have formed. Although moving on is generally a good thing for people who have suffered much loss, from the narrators point of view his mother moving on was a betrayal of the perfect utopia he has built up in his mind. The mother does not seem to know what to do in many situations and in a way doesn’t seem to be in control of her decisions. She resorts to questioning her young son asking “What am I going to do?” Although her and Ralph’s relationship seems healthy and loving, there is a moment which her son observes that suggests otherwise “Mother saw me, over Ralph’s shoulder, watching from the hatchway. She looked trapped and helpless”.
Ralph is not a member of the narrator’s family and therefore provides little interest to the narrator other than his effects on the atmosphere in the home. He is never formally introduced; he is simply slipped into the story “it must have been soon after Mother met Ralph”. This could be a metaphor for the stealthy way he changes the dynamics within the house. He exerts a considerable amount of control over the boy’s mother and eventually the grandfather. Whether this control is intentional is open to interpretation. When he yells out “why don’t you leave her alone?!” it can be seen as him protecting his girlfriend or it could be seen as him claiming her as his possession. His presence is portrayed as negative by the narrator but he is not necessarily the bad man. The only aspect of his personality which is slightly questionable is his excessive consumption of alcohol. “The drink made Mother go soft and heavy and blurred and it made Ralph gain in authority.”
Swift uses incredible imagery to convey ideas to the reader. In the opening of the story Swift uses descriptive wording to give us a vivid image of the pond where he, his Mother and his Grandfather launched the boat, “The pond in our park was circular, exposed, perhaps fifty yards across. When the wind blew, the little waves travelled across it and slapped the paved edges like a miniature sea." This description is the first sentence of the story and helps to intrigue the reader from the beginning. The beginning images run parallel to the final image left in the readers’ head, “Dead willow leaves floated on (the pond). Beneath the surface was a bottle of acid and the wreck of my launch… The air was very cold and little waves were running across the water.” This is a metaphor for how over the course of the story everything had changed from that first day in the park.
The storyline in ‘Chemistry is intriguing. Swift uses gaps and silences in the storyline to enhance curiosity and provide the reader with the opportunity to formulate opinions and questions about the story. One of the most fascinating gaps that Swift creates is when the narrator states “But if I really believed Father was gone for ever – I was wrong”. There is many questions that could be asked about this one statement; What does this mean, is his Father not actually dead, is he delusional because he continues to see his father after death? It provides an opportune moment for readers to create their own ideas on what Swift is trying to say. The boy plans on throwing acid at Ralph in order to “spoil his face so Mother would no longer want him”. Why is it that his father visits him in his dreams and says “It was her. She made a hole in the bottom of the boat, not big enough to notice, so it would sink.” Is this a way of the boys self conscious telling him that it’s not Ralphs fault that things have been disturbed? Why does his mother “(wear), beneath everything, this look of relief, as if she had recovered from an illness” after Grandfathers death? “Things that should have been explained – or confessed – she never did explain”, do these words suggest that she had something to do with his death or was she simply a catalyst for his suicide?
Swift writes ‘Chemistry in a non-sequential manner. He goes from describing the park and the boat launch, to dinner and the beginning of a significant fight, to the death of family members in the past and back to the dinner. The paragraphs and sentences all vary in length, going from short to long, this keeps the reader interested as it changes the pace of the read. Although the story seems to span over a large period of time, it is quite a fast read. The language which Swift uses is at times quite complex, but at other times quite simple, “She still needed – she couldn’t break free of it – this delicate equilibrium”. Swift uses alliteration to emphasise the thoughts and feelings of the narrator, "For about a year we lived quietly, calmly, even contentedly within the scope of this sad symmetry."
‘Chemistry’ addresses the themes of relationships, family, loyalty, betrayal, change and death. Swift wrote this story in a way that is relatable to every reader. The theme of relationships is what the whole story is about, the dynamics of the relationships between, the Grandfather, Ralph, the Mother, the narrator and the dead relatives. Every character except Ralph is a part of a biological family. This family suffers much loss in a short period of time and the remaining members form a family of their own “He kept Mother and me as he might have kept his own wife and son.” This family is disrupted by the appearance of Ralph. He introduces the themes of loyalty and betrayal. Although it may or may not be intentional he causes the mother to make a choice between him and her father. She ‘betrays’ her father “You’re ruining our meal – do you want to take yours out to your shed?!” and the son makes a conscious choice to remain ‘loyal’ to the family that they had once formed. This causes a change in the relationships between all the characters. The narrator feels as though his “Mother drove him out”, this causes him to feel hostile towards his mother and Ralph, going as far as wanting to “throw the acid in Ralph’s face.” As the Grandfather says to his grandson “Chemistry is a science of change. You don’t make things in chemistry – you change them. Anything can change.” This sums up how the young narrator ends up feeling during the story; he is said to be “keeping an equation in (his) head.” Everything to him is like chemistry, nothing is ever destroyed nor created; everything simply changes. To him death doesn’t take a person away is just changes them. This belief may have stemmed from the significant influence that his Grandfather had over him in his formative years. It may have also stemmed from his mother never explaining what exactly death was.
I believe that compared with other short stories, ‘Chemistry’ by Graham Swift is better. For example ‘The End of Something’ by Ernest Hemingway, is a story which I believe does not measure up to the standards of ‘Chemistry’. ‘The End of Something’, for me, presented no issue or dilemma to be scrutinised. It did indeed present questions such as; what is the significance of Bill, what was it that probed Nick into feeling bored, what did Nick mean by “I’ve taught you everything,” but I did not enjoy the story enough to want to study it further and find the deeper meanings or motives of the character. Hemingway writes as though he is informing the reader of something, not telling a story. There is no interesting imagery or scenery. This may have been intentionally done by Hemingway to tie in with the title of the story but the story was not effectively written to captivate its audience. It has 3 mentioned characters but gives little back story for the reader to connect with.
Ultimately ‘Chemistry’ is a more interesting and ultimately intriguing read than ‘The End of Something’. It effectively creates likeable characters and themes which the audience can connect with. It is well written, with brilliant imagery and causes the reader to question their perception of the story.
