STORIES OF OURSELVES

        Penelope Fitzgerald’s short story, ‘At Hiruharama’ well-written story which sustains the reader’s attention through its sympathetic treatment of life. Even though there is no winding plot, the story catches our attention and maintains tension and suspense because of the realistic portrayal of the characters.

 

        The story is about Mr. Tanner and his wife Kitty who end up in New Zealand and make the best out of the worst. Through farming, they manage to live in an almost barren land with not many neighbours. They live away from the city and so when Kitty gets pregnant, her husband is very worried about the medical help that she may need. He visits a doctor in the city and buys two pigeons, which he hopes to use to communicate with the doctor through the man who sells them. He sees to it that nothing is overlooked. However, he mistakes one of the babies for the afterbirth and dumps it in the dustbin and it is this girl who becomes a lawyer and raises the family’s hopes for a better living.

 

        ‘At Hiruharama’ seems to be part of a longer novel because of its sudden opening. This is very effective because it sounds like the writer is taking the readers into his confidence with such ease. He uses various techniques and an informal style when telling his story.

 

        Fitzgerald used literary techniques such as similes. For example, when ‘Tanner came out of the bedroom covered in blood,’ the author describes his appearance as ‘something like a butcher’. His use of a simile helps the readers visualize how Tanner would look like at this point in the story. It also makes the story more poignant, showing the couple’s problems. Not only this, the author also applied foreshowing into his writing. On page 409, when the doctor says ‘Well, don’t ask me if it’s going to be twins’, he is foretelling the events in the story. Since the readers have clues and hints, it will make them want to read on and find out what happens.

 

        Situational irony is also a commonly found literary technique in this story. In the doctor’s conversations with Tanner, he mentions that ‘Often by the time I arrive, I am not needed’; that most of the time, he is too late to be of any use. However, later in the story, it is the doctor who is first to find out that Tanner accidentally threw away the second baby. Another example of this is when the doctor says ‘…I’m going to look after the afterbirth. The father put it out with the waste.’. This example of situational irony supports the theme and Tanner’s motto ‘Throw nothing away’ because Tanner threw away the baby thinking that it was nothing but in the end, it was this baby that ended up successful.