Skip to main content

The Wretched Stone

Image

Chris Van Allsburg, USA (1949-)
Characters:
  • Randall Ethan Hope (Captain of the Ship)
  • Mr. Howard (the first mate)
  • Other characters are Musicians, Storytellers, Dancers, Sailors, Avid (greedy) Readers etc.  
This story is actually a logbook. The journey started on May 8 and ended July 12 (2 Months 4 Days).
  1.  The voyage started on 8th May.
  2. On 6th June, they reached an island which was not mentioned in the map. Everything was strange and the plants were without fruits and there was unpleasant odor.
  3. They found a two feet long, gray stone with glowing surface. The crew took the stone to the ship.
  4.  They forgot reading, singing, dancing, storytelling and music playing. They gathered around the stone (TV).
  5. On 15th June, a great storm approached the ship and nearly sank her. (The crew didn't help the captain because they were spellbound by televising. Unfortunately one night all the crew turned to ape.)
  6. When the captain played violin and reads books for them. It had a positive meaning upon them. Then the crew returned to previous normal condition. (They requested the captain to set fire in the ship and sink her. When the captain promised to do it, they become happy. Finally they were rescued by another ship.)
Summary of the Story {Metaphorical Story}:

The Wretched Stone begins with a notice reading: "Excerpts from the log of the Rita Ann. Randall Ethan Hope, Captain." We read, then, the captain's record of an extraordinary journey. The captain writes about loading supplies onto the ship at the start of the voyage, and the fine crew that has been assembled by first mate Mr. Howard. He notes that many of the men are avid readers, musicians, and storytellers, and as the voyage is under way, they are able to entertain themselves wonderfully.
The story begins as the ship Rita Anne is setting sail. Where she is going is never made clear. The work is narrated entirely through ship’s log entries by Captain Randall Ethan Hope, and an ominous tone is set right from the get go. The crew soon discovers an uncharted (not mapped) island and decide to explore. They find a lush (alcoholic) landscape, but encounter no signs of life. The crew does find an extraordinary glowing rock and decide to bring it on board. The situation started to get weird. As the crew stares at the stone, they begin to take on some, shall we say, simian characteristics. The odd appeal of the stone proves to be very strong, putting their voyage in danger.

The captain records the sighting of an uncharted island and decides to disembark (set down) with his crew to look for fruit and fresh water. Then he records their sojourn (temporary stay/visit) into the island's interior. He describes lush vegetation that bears no fruit, bitter water, and an overpowering sickly sweet smell. He also describes an object the crew found and brought aboard: a gray rock with one smooth and glowing surface. As the crew sets sail again, the captain describes their fascination with the stone. All they seem to do is sit and stare into it. Soon the captain notes that something is wrong with the crew — they do not speak or play their instruments anymore. He believes they may have contracted some sort of fever from the stone, and he plans to throw it overboard. The next day he wakes to find that the crew members have locked themselves into the hold with the stone. A storm approaches, and the captain is fearful — how will he sail the ship alone? He pounds on the door of the hold until finally it swings open. He is horrified to find that each member of his crew has turned into an ape.

The next entry records that the storm has passed, though both masts and the ship's rudder are lost. The mysterious stone has gone dark. The men are still apes. As the boat drifts and waits for rescue, the captain discovers that playing the violin and reading to the crew has a positive effect. Discovering that the stone has begun to glow again, he covers it up. He soon reports that the men have returned to normal; those among them who knew how to read return most quickly to their natural forms.

The final entries record that the captain and crew have been rescued. The captain decides to burn the boat and sink it and the stone to the bottom of the sea and not to talk about the strange events with anyone. The crew, he reports is back to normal — except for one thing: an unnatural appetite for bananas.

Special features of the story:

The plot of The Wretched Stone has unusual structure. Instead of being written like a traditional narrative, the story is laid out in the form of entries into the captain's logbook. Readers experience the drama of the crew's transformation through the confused and terrified eyes of the captain himself. It is fun to look at how Chris Van Allsburg dates the captain's entries and how the tone of the entries changes to reflect the captain's changing circumstances and mood as the stone begins to affect the crew.

This metaphorical story might be telling many things. Here the stone, ape stands for modern non-creative people. According to the writer being crazy to TV, People are careless to their responsibilities and duties. Watching TV is non-productive and not creative work. There can be other ways to get entertainment like reading, singing story telling etc. We must be dutiful and punctual to get success in our life.

The content of the story is unusual, as well. We are never told what the stone is, how it came to be, or why it has such an extraordinary power over those who spend time with it. "Why monkeys?" we ask ourselves. Why it is those crew members that know how to read are more quickly transformed back into humans? The stone could be a metaphor for television in many ways — a glowing object that draws humans to stare at it for hours at a time and shuts down (or just doesn't make use of) creative parts of the brain:
It is a rock, approximately two feet across. It is roughly textured, gray in color, but a portion of it is flat and smooth as glass. From this surface comes a glowing light that is quite beautiful and pleasing to look at.
The crew members first stop reading, playing music, dancing, and working, and then finally become monkeys that simply gather around the stone and stare. The eerie (Inspiring a feeling of fear; strange and frightening) light reflects off the blank faces of the monkeys like the flickering light from a television. When the stone is destroyed, the crew members slowly come back to their senses — those who can read are perhaps more able to quickly begin flexing the creative muscles of their mind again and thus return to their original form. Whether the stone is an exact metaphor for television or simply invented to describe how people can be lured away from the creative activities that bring joy and energy to life, The Wretched Stone provides an excellent forum for discussing these ideas with young people.

Critical Thinking:

The title “The Wretched Stone” indicates the stone that gives lot of tensions and problems. This means people get more problems than benefits in watching TV. As we are away from the TV, we can be more creative, mannered and real human beings.

The story explores the unfortunate condition brought by television set in our life metaphorically. Stone found in the island is nothing but TV set people become just like animals (apes) due to TV. Out creativity culture etc will be destroyed due to TV. So we have to eschew (Avoid and stay away from deliberately; stay clear of) TV as far as we can.

The story is about the disadvantages of watching television. The story rightly shows that sticking to TV all the time is really harmful. However, the story is not fully satisfying. The writer has ignored the advantages of watching TV. Watching TV is not always harmful. Modern science and technological inventions have made our life facilitated and comfortable. Among them TV is one most useful tool. As it is given in this story, TV is the not really so useless. We can know about the world, new inventions, knowledge skills and so much ideas using TV.  TV is the source of information, education, and entertainment. If we utilize television, we don’t lose our creativity. We rather learn many things.  

Assimilation:

This story has affected me very much. I have a very bad habit of watching television all the time. I spent my precious time watching many useless programs on TV. When we see the misuses of TV in our daily life, we can see similar situation. School children become crazy to non-creative programs. They should be interested about study. Most of housewives normally watch TV and kill their important time without any creative work. No doubt, if we can’t use TV properly, we can be meaningless and non-creative like the apes. But now I have determined to watch only those programs which are informative, educative, creative, fruitful and entertaining.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CONTENTS OF THE DEAD MAN’S POCKET

Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket is a short story by  Jack Finney , originally published by both   Good Housekeeping   and   Collier’s   in 1956 . The story is a suspenseful tale of a man who travels onto a hazardous window ledge (ridge) to retrieve the papers he believes will make his career. Finney was a prolific (creative) writer, recognized for his science fiction novels   The Body Snatchers   and   Time and Again , as well as thrillers, such as   5 Against the House . The story begins with protagonist  Tom Benecke at a desk in the living room of his eleventh-floor apartment in New York City. He is preparing to type up a handwritten memo to be distributed to his office. He finds small ways to distract himself from starting. First, he tries to open a window, but it isn’t easily opened. He has to use quite a bit of force on the frame. Once the window is open, he continues to ignore the typewriter, crossing the room to talk t...
Post a Comment
Read more

BBS First Year English Question Paper with Possible Answers (TU 2021)

Post a Comment
Read more

FORMULAS OF ALL THE 12 TENSES

S + V + O || Subject + Verb + Object Simple Past Tense S + Past Form of the Verb + O  E.g. He wrote a letter. Past Continuous Tense S + was/were + V + ING + O  E.g. I was writing a letter.   Past Perfect Tense S + had + Past Participle (PP.) of the Verb + O  E.g. She had written a letter.   Past Perfect Continuous Tense S + had been + V + ING + O + since/for  E.g. We had been writing a letter since morning. Simple Present Tense S + V + O  E.g. You write a letter. Present Continuous Tense S + is/am/are + V + ING + O  E.g. She is writing a letter. Present Perfect Tense S + has/have + Past Participle (PP.) of the Verb + O  E.g. They have written a letter. Present Perfect Continuous Tense S + has been/have been + V + ING + O + since/for  E.g. You have been writing a letter for three hours. Simple Future Tense S + will/shall + V + O  E.g. We shall write a letter. Future Continuous Tense S +...
21 comments
Read more

Summary and Analysis of Only Daughter by Sandra Cisneros

ONLY DAUGHTER -Sandra Cisneros Born into a working-class family in 1954, Sandra Cisneros was the daughter of a Mexican-American mother and a Mexican father.  Only Daughter originally appeared in Glamour magazine in 1990. Cisneros through this essay describes the difficulties of growing up as the only daughter in a Mexican-American family of six sons.   Historically, sons have been valued over daughters in most cultures, as reflected in the following proverbs: “A house full of daughters is like a cellar full of sour beer” (Dutch); “Daughters pay nae [no] debts” (Scottish); “A stupid son is better than a crafty daughter” (Chinese); and “A virtuous son is the sun of his family” (Sanskrit).  Contemporary research suggests that while the preference for male children has diminished considerably in industrialised nations, a distinct preference for sons continues among many cultures in Asia and the Middle East, raising concerns among medical ethicists worldwide. And, even within ...
1 comment
Read more

Summary and Analysis of My Mother Never Worked

MY MOTHER NEVER WORKED Bonnie Smith - Yackel SYNOPSIS   In the essay “ My Mother Never Worked ,” Bonnie Smith-Yackel recollects the time when she called Social Security to claim her mother’s death benefits. Social Security places Smith-Yackel on hold so they can check their records on her mother, Martha Jerabek Smith . While waiting, she remembers the many things her mother did, and the compassion her mother felt towards her husband and children. When Social Security returns to the phone, they tell Smith-Yackel that she could not receive her mother’s death benefits because her mother never had a wage-earning job. A tremendous amount of irony is used in this essay. The title, in itself, is full of irony; it makes readers curious about the essay’s point and how the author feels about the situation. Smith-Yackel uses the essay to convey her opinion of work. Her thesis is not directly stated; however, she uses detail upon detail to prove her mother did work, just not in the eyes of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

PROFESSIONS FOR WOMEN - Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

Summary : Virginia Adeline Woolf (1882-1941) was an English novelist and essayist, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. She was one of the leaders in the literary movement of modernism.  The speech of  Professions for Women  was given in 1931 to the Women’s Service League by Virginia Woolf. It was also included in  Death of a Moth  and  Other Essays  in 1942. Throughout the speech, Virginia Woolf brings forward a problem that is still relevant today:  gender inequality .   Woolf’s main point in this essay was to bring awareness to the phantoms (illusions) and obstacles women face in their jobs. Woolf argues that women must overcome special obstacles to become successful in their careers. She describes two hazards she thinks all women who aspire to professional life must overcome: their tendency to sacrifice their own interests to those of others and their reluctance (hesitancy) to challenge c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Summary and Analysis of THE HIDDEN LIFE OF GARBAGE by Heather Rogers

  THE HIDDEN LIFE OF GARBAGE Heather Rogers Journalist Heather Rogers has written articles on the environmental effects of mass production and consumption for the  New York Times Magazine,  the  Utne Reader, Architecture,  and a variety of other publications.    Her 2002 documentary film  Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage  has been screened at festivals around the world and served as the basis for a book of the same title. Named an Editor’s Choice by the  New York Times  and the  Guardian,  the book, published in 2005, traces the history and politics of household garbage in the United States, drawing connections between modern industrial production, consumer culture, and our contemporary throwaway lifestyle. Americans produce the most waste of any people on Earth, says Rogers, but few of us ever think about where all that trash goes. Rogers endeavours to show the inner workings of the waste stream, from the garbage...
1 comment
Read more

THIRD THOUGHTS - E.V. Lucas, England (1868-1938)

E.V. Lucas, England (1868-1938) The story ‘ Third Thoughts ’ by E.V. Lucas (1868-1938) is a great satire of the common human mentality. This story was told to Lucas by his friend who had a business especially buying at dearer (higher) prices and selling at cheap. However, he always used to bear the loss. He used to think that one day luck would favour him. As he thought, once he earned abnormal profit by selling Turner’s panting at 50 pounds which he had bought at only 10 shillings from a curio (Something unusual -- perhaps worthy of collecting) shop at Cathedral city . He was really happy and excited for the first time in his business so he wanted to share half of his profit with the dealer. But since he had no stamps to send the parcel, he went to the bed.   When he woke up at 3.30 am, again he began to think that sharing half of the profit is not a good idea because no one had done this to him yet. Then he thought of giving ten pounds. Due to unexpectedly earning an abnormal ...
27 comments
Read more

THE LADY WITH THE DOG (1899)

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) Ø Tells the story of an affair o    Wealthy Banker ( Dmitry Gurov ) o    Young Wife ( Anna ) Ø Builds off of what is expected o    Affair was thought to be a quick experience o    These characters were surprised to find that not the case o    Specially the Banker  Ø After short affair they meet again o    Rekindle their relationship o    Develop a new chapter in their lives o    Discover themselves Ø The writer presents the Theme and Ideas o    Progression of Character: §    Moving from stereotype to developed §    Dmitri: Rich playboy with no depth becomes entwined with Anna. §    Anna: Moves from  The Lady with the Dog to someone with a name. ·        Relates to getting to know people as well as individual development. o    Open Ending and the Ability t...
Post a Comment
Read more

A PAINFUL CASE

James Joyce Dubliners  is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. The stories depict a naturalistic Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20 th  century.   CHARACTERS: James Duffy Mrs Emily Sinico Captain Sinico (Ship Captain) Mary In  A Painful Case  by  James Joyce we have the theme of loneliness, isolation, guilt, order and paralysis. Taken from his Dubliners collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and very early on in the story the reader realises that Joyce, through the use of colour, is highlighting to the reader how lonely the main character,  James Duffy ’s life is a middle-aged bachelor without family or friends, is a cashier in a private bank and lives a Spartan (simple) existence in a Dublin suburb. He dislikes physical and mental disorder, ignores beggars’ pleas for alms (charities), and does not attend church. Hi...
Post a Comment
Read more