English | Summary | Unit Two: Men, Women and
Children
Look
at a Teacup | Patricia Hampl
Hampl’s mother bought the teacup in
1939; it was made in Czechoslovakia; she was married in the same year. It was
the year when the Second World War started. Czechoslovakia was taken over and
destroyed by the armies of Adolph Hitler. After a lapse of time, her mom gave
the teacup to Hampl as a souvenir. Hampl takes it in a metonymical way as a
page of history book, and makes many associations, and exploration. It shows
that a seemingly insignificant object like a teacup can be a great source of
information for artistic creativity.
The major themes of the essay are
the relationship between a mother and her daughter; their opinion on marriage,
family life and career development and connection between the past and the
present. These themes are represented by this essay.
The essay was written in the
background of the Second World War. The whole world was burning in the fire of
the War. Many things were destroyed; women lost their virginity; countries were
destroyed, ruined and defeated and bombs fell on women, children and soldiers. Thus
the year 1939 was the year of falling.
Hampl visits her mother to get
information about various aspects of the past. She asks her mother to reveal
many facts of past life in Czechoslovakia. The mother and the author disagree
about many things. It is because of generation gap. For the author work is the
important thing in life. But her mother thinks family is more important and
marriage the most important of all women tasks. So she wants the writer to get
married and continue the flow life. But the writer thinks that marriage is a
tragedy, a falling that utterly ruins her life as she loses her virginity. She
only wants to learn history and past from her mother, but the latter thinks it
is the future that matters. Here we see the daughter to have lost faith in
family, old conventions and traditions.
The
teacup connects the mother, daughter, the past and present because it was made
in 1939 in Czechoslovakia, and because the mother has given it to her daughter.
The author would like her mother to give her daughter other information about
the past, but her mother will not talk about the past. This means the only way
the writer can find out about her mother is by looking at the teacup. She ends
her essay with a suggestion that here are many other articles like the
teacup which should be read carefully.
# Explain that “The teacup is a
detail, a small uncharted finger from the mid-century bonfire.”
The
mid-century bonfire is referred to the Second World War that started in Europe
in 1939 and continued till 1945. The teacup was made in Czechoslovakia. Many
things were destroyed fire of war that year. Human bodies fell dead in the
streets. Houses of art and literature, science and technology too were
dismantled systematically. Whole Europe was smeared with the blood of millions
of innocent people. The cup, however, survived. It was not burnt and thus
remained uncharted. It was a witness of the soul-searing devastation of lives
and property. We get detail information of the fall of Europe in general and
the fall of Czechoslovakia in particular if we make the semiotic interpretation
of the statement.
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