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Dramatic Irony
Epilogue
Explanation and Analysis—Childhood Mornings:
Maneck’s visit to his childhood home in the novel’s Epilogue awakens an emotional flashback to his earlier years. During a conversation with his mother, he gets suddenly transported to the former pleasures of his childhood mornings:
Maneck shifted uneasily in his chair. The cooking sounds, the twilight chill, the fog rising from the valley began escorting a host of memories through his troubled mind. Childhood mornings, waking, standing at the enormous picture window of his room, watching the snow-covered peaks as the sun rose and the mountain mists commenced their dance, while Mummy started breakfast and Daddy got ready to open the shop. Then the smell of toast and fried eggs made him hungry, so he pushed his warm feet into the cold slippers, enjoying the shiver that shot through him, brushed his teeth, and hurried downstairs, gave Mummy a good-morning hug and snuggled into his chair. Soon, Daddy came in rubbing his hands, and took great gulps of tea from his special cup while standing, gazing out upon the valley before sitting to eat his breakfast and drink more tea, and Mummy said…
Maneck summons a cascade of memories mid-conversation, unbidden and uncontrollable. What gives this flashback its poignance is its sensory richness. The recollection sketches an evocative scene through its attentiveness to details. The “snow-covered peaks” of the surroundings, “the smell of toast and fried eggs,” the warm feet and “cold slippers” create a scene about the past that feels as real as the present. However briefly, a moment lost in time returns back to life.
This flashback works to emotional effect. It sets up a contrast between Maneck’s past and present states, exposing the gulf between adulthood’s disappointments and childhood’s small pleasures. Then, Maneck had watched his father gulp tea and admire the valley each morning. Now, he grieves over a dead father and struggles to find words with his mother. In a world that has changed as much as he, the flashback leaves a somber reminder of all that he has lost and can no longer recover. It tantalizes him with a happiness that forever eludes him.
Related Themes:
