W.S.Maugham "In a Strange Land"

Interpretation

Author

W. Somerset Maugham (born Jan. 25, 1874, Paris, Francedied Dec. 16, 1965, Nice) was an English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer. He abandoned a short career in medicine when his first novel, “Liza of Lambeth” (1897), had some success. His plays, mainly Edwardian social comedies, brought him financial security. His reputation rests primarily on the novels “Of Human Bondage” (1915), “The Moon and Sixpence” (1919), “Cakes and Ale” (1930), and “The Razor's Edge” (1944), all of which were adapted for film and some for television. His short stories often portray the confusion of Europeans in alien surroundings. His works, regarded less highly today than formerly, are characterized by a clear, unadorned style, cosmopolitan settings, and a shrewd understanding of human nature.

Title

Direct meaning: In a Strange Land means to be in a foreign land/country which is unfamiliar and odd to you.

Indirect Meaning: Strange Land as a place where even your compatriots behave in a different and peculiar way as though they are of a different nationality and have an unusual thinking, but at the same time a new place of living do not affect them (an Englishwoman married an Italian, moved to Turkey where they bought a hotel, and after her husband’s death adopted his illegitimate sons without thinking of it as of something bad and wrong; but at the same time she managed to live in a new country without its having touched her).

Themes

True love has no borders (an English woman married an Italian, moved to Turkey where she later adopted his two illegitimate sons), misunderstanding between compatriots (Signora Niccolini’s decision to marry an Italian was not greeted by her English relatives and compatriots, because they looked at foreigners as on those who were almost imbecile), and is it possible to change your thinking and the manner of living after spending many years in a foreign country ( though Signora Niccolini spent  30 years in Turkey she remained a pattern of decorum. The foreign country didn’t affect her.  She remained the precise, prim English woman, knowing her place, through all the vicissitudes because she had no faculty of surprise).

Summary

While travelling in Minor Asia (Turkey) a vacationer stays at a hotel where he meets Signore Niccolini - an extraordinary English woman. She tells him the story of her life. She was a house-keeper in service in a noble English family, and her husband Signor Niccolini was a chef. When they saved a certain amount of money they were married, retired from service, and bought a hotel in Turkey (at which the main character stays). Her husband died fifteen years ago and she never returned to England. It was strange for the main character that Signora Niccolini could have lived in Turkey for 30 years without its having touched her. But what surprised him most, is the fact that she had two adopted illegitimate sons of her husband and didn’t consider that as something wrong, telling the vacationer that her husband was a full-blooded man.

Main idea

I think that this story implies rather interesting example of how a person can be the very image of his/her country (Signora Niccolini was a strict, modest and prim Englishwoman) and at the same time behave rather unusually and contradict his/her views and opinions (though Signora Niccolini considered foreigners to be imbecile she married an Italian and moved to Turkey with him. Moreover, she adopted her husband’s two illegitimate sons and didn’t consider that as something wrong, proudly telling the vacationer that her husband was a full-blooded man).

Character sketch

The main characters of this short story are the vacationer and Signora Niccolini. As for Signora Niccolini (she is described directly by the author), she was an Englishwoman and served in a house of a noble English family where she met her future husband who served there as a chef. When they saved a certain amount of money they were married, retired from service, and bought a hotel in Turkey (they left England because her family didn’t like the idea of marrying a foreigner (Signor Niccolini was an Italian). Her husband died after living fifteen years in Turkey and she had to manage the hotel on her own. Moreover, it was extraordinary that she could have lived for 30 years in a foreign country without its having touched her (she remained a pattern of decorum: the precise, prim English woman, knowing her place, through all the vicissitudes because she had no faculty of surprise. She took everything that came as a matter of course. She looked upon everyone who wasn’t English as a foreigner and therefore as someone, almost imbecile, for whom allowances must be made. She ruled her staff despotically, and everything about the hotel was clean and neat. Moreover, just because she didn’t have her own children she had adopted two illegitimate sons of her husband and didn’t consider that as something wrong (she told the vacationer with a mixture of pride, primness, and satisfaction that her husband was a full-blooded man).

My impression

I like this story; I think it stimulates your thinking. Moreover, at the same time, I find it rather amusing and entertaining. A strict, modest and prim Englishwoman married a foreigner (an Italian) though she considered foreigners to be imbecile. Moreover, she adopted her husband’s two illegitimate sons (for she didn’t have her own children) and didn’t consider that as something wrong, proudly telling the vacationer that her husband was a full-blooded man. All in all, as W. S. Maugham said “The novel may stimulate you to think. It may satisfy your aesthetic sense. It may arouse your moral emotions. But if it does not entertain you it is a bad novel. It is merely laziness that induces people to go to novels for instruction on subjects that are the province of experts. There is no short road to knowledge and you will only waste your time if you seek it in a work of fiction”.

Rendering №12

The article published on the website of the newspaper “The Los Angeles Times” on November 30, 2012 is headlined “U.S. seeks to protect 66 kinds of coral”. The article reports at length that the federal government on Friday proposed protecting 66 kinds of corals under the Endangered Species Act, an acknowledgment that these reef-building animals are suffering so many insults they are threatened with extinction. Speaking of this situation it is necessary to note that the proposal, which covers corals in the Pacific and the Caribbean, lists 19 ways that corals are under assault. The government was prodded into action by the Center for Biological Diversity.

It’s an open secret that the world's oceans contain more than 700 species of stony corals, small animals that live in colonies and form elaborate and colorful structures with exoskeletons that resemble everything from the folds of a human brain to the horns of elk or deer. So, it is necessary to point out that a third of these reef-building corals are listed as threatened with extinction by the World Conservation Union, an international consortium of scientists. The Center for Biological Diversity used this international list to push for U.S. protection of those in American waters.

Analyzing this situation it is necessary to emphasize that the fisheries service also proposed to reclassify staghorn and elkhorn corals from "threatened" to the more severe category of "endangered. About 98% of staghorn and 90% to 95% of elkhorn coral have disappeared since 1980. In resolute terms the author of the article makes it clear that these corals have become overgrown by seaweed when too many algae-eating fish are removed from the reefs. They have suffered from disease and suffocation when bathed in nutrient-rich sewage and farm runoff, particularly in South Florida.

Giving appraisal of the situation it’s necessary to point out that corals have been hit by periodic "bleaching" events, which is a sort of heatstroke, when waters get too hot. It's a result of rising global temperatures because of the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — mostly from burning fossil fuels. Besides, there is every reason to believe that the oceans have absorbed about a quarter of the C02 accumulated since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, setting off a chemical reaction that makes seawater increasingly acidic. So, there are signs that this situation poses another long-term threat to corals, which rely on alkaline seawater to provide them building materials to form their exoskeletons.

The article draws a conclusion that Federal scientists cited ocean acidification as one of the most serious threats to corals surviving to the end of the century. It was revealed that the worst threats, according to federal rankings, were hot water causing bleaching and the spread of disease. Farther down the list were more localized problems from overfishing, nutrient pollution, the discharge of sediments and toxic chemicals from the land, and destructive fishing practices.

As for me, I think that nowadays we should care not only about money and ourselves but also about our nature and the environment. We need to protect our world and it’s up to us to defend nature, and ensure its continuing existence and future recovery. Humans can’t survive alone on this planet. We depend on every living thing for the lives we so selfishly lead, and it is our duty to protect it since we've decided it's our right to do whatever we want. The only thing I can say is SAVE THE CORALS. SAVE THE ANIMALS. SAVE THE OCEANS. SAVE YOUR EARTH, YOUR HOME. We are nothing on our own.