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Time and Suffering: Motifs in One Flesh
The story begins by painting to us grim imagery of loneliness, desolateness, and suffering. We are told that a brightly digital clock illuminated a street with its numerals, thus informing the surrounding public of the time, but there was nobody to notice the depiction of that time save for one old man. The digital clock represents modernity and the old man’s inability to cope up with the realities of the modern-day. He even struggles to move around, owing to his obesity. He is presented as a lonely and isolated man whose life, past experiences, and old age have taken a great toll on him. The authors say, “His dark-circled eyes sank deep into the folds of his face, and bristles of white hair jutted from his head and ears.” (1) That’s why the street is empty to showcase how deeply lost he is in his sorrows since losing his wife. The imagery of solitude is further reinforced by the fact that the van has a sole occupant. The single-van single-occupant imagery is employed to show how bereft his life has become since his lifelong companion departed this world. The vehicle itself is representative of the suffering and unhappiness in Frank’s long life as it is in a sorry condition. The story tells us that the van was rusty and baring withstanding the pounding rain which landed on its roof. Consequently, the motif of a beaten van implies showcasing a broken but enduring old man who has been capable of withstanding all that life has thrown at him, albeit with great difficulty.
Moreover, the words engraved on it were faded, reflecting the time lag the old-timer has experienced in his solitude and desolateness. His physical appearance of sunken eyes and greyed hair tell of a man who has endured it all. He is an obese, maladroit man, and his knees can barely carry the weight of his overweight body. That’s why he agonizingly disembarks out of the vehicle but ended clumsily losing the coffee. He has to frustratingly push it beneath the car to hide his disappointment, especially after it fell and rolled over to the street’s pavement. The timing of the falling teacup indicates how efforts to turn around and better himself have all ended up in disappointment. The man is also arguably lost. He lives in a grossly inaccurate timeframe. The author says, “The numerals on its face were gold, and the hands-on the face claimed the time was 4:48” (1). At first, one is tempted to think the wrong time indicated on the man’s wrist means that he is completely disconnected from the reality of the day. He lives in a world of his own, although physically, although he can perform a few tasks. Furthermore, the time lag between Frank disembarks from the van to the time he reaches the mall’s entrance has meaning due to the imagery of the rain and his jeans. We’re told that the back of his faded denim shirt was moderately wet as a result of the pounding rain. This portrays his messy, sad, and soaked life, which is seemingly behind him but which he carries with his back. In other words, he carries the weight of his sorrowful past with his back.
Additionally, we’re told that the ground he has to step on is wet and slippery and that the hallway is long and without mats to step on. He has to be careful in the first steps he makes until his feet get a firm grip lest he falls. This is metaphorical as it portrays the long distressing journey in front of him now that he is alone and grieving. We’re told that he is dismayed to learn that there is nothing on the floor like a mat on the floor to support his feet, given how old, frail and obese he is. The author says, “He paused and looked with dismay at the floor. There was no mat there, and the tiles were wet and tracked with sand” (1). Life does not seem to be forgiving for him. He must navigate cautiously in this trying environment that is too keen to bring him down, just like how the coffee cup fell and rolled over the ground. Furthermore, once inside the mall, the old man has to wait since mall-goers don’t have time for him. They won’t let him pass. The author says, “A horde of mall-walkers eddied counterclockwise around the food court’s perimeter and showed no intention of allowing the old man passage” (2). This time lag shows that he has to wait for his day-to-day problems and troubles to subside as a way of solving them by himself otherwise, he would drown in them. Moreover, the story uses the concept of time to give the reader a glimpse of how he viewed the lives of those around him. We’re told that once he agonizingly crossed over and sat on a molded-plastic chair, he got a narrow view of the interior of the mall, and such carefully watched out the behavior of the walkers inside against time. Many of them seemed in a rush determined to beat time by walking and shopping around quickly, meaning their pulses and respiration rates were high. We’re also told some of them did this while chatting out with their partners, unlike the old man who is now all alone. Nobody even takes notice of them. They are all too busy moving around to notice him. When this contrasts with the old man’s slow and clumsy movement, it shows how disconnected he is from the rest, especially the younger generation. The motif of quick time lag is meant to show that the old man is stuck in the weight of his old life. He no longer fits in the fastness and convenience of the modern world. He can barely move ahead at a fast pace, unlike other people’s life.
Interestingly, Frank finds a mirror of himself in a newspaper article he bumps on. This is one of the old man’s many distractions, but the namesake boomer he encounters in the article seems to steal his attention. The time between the point where the old man shifts his thoughts from the fountain to the newspaper article is another example of time lag. This time-lags significance is to demonstrate the correlation between the phrase “life is a bitch” and the application of that phrase in the messy life of the fictional Frank. We are told that the birth of the fictional Frank coincided with the immediate aftermath of the war, more or less the birth-year of the real Frank. The author tells us that, “He was born in the Forties, a year after his father’s return from the Pacific Theater and our shores boomed with babies” (4). He is a boomer whose name echoes the memories of other great Franklins like Benjamin Franklin and Franklin Roosevelt. His war-veteran father named him Franklin in honor of these Franklins. It is said that Franklin has the habit of strolling along the coastline, digging whatever treasure his hands and shoes may come along. His presence is a constant feature along the shore, whether it is winter, summer, spring, and fall. His old age, life story, and dressing style seem to be a striking reflection of the old man.
The boomer also shares a tragic story with the old man. His late wife had diabetes who had all his limbs amputated, and in the end, diabetes took her life, leaving a trail of devastation, emptiness, and great sadness in the widowed man. This mirrors the old man’s struggle to overcome the grief of losing his wife. The desolateness in the lives of the two men is a consequence of being widowed. Time and death are therefore utilized by the story to depict not only the psychological trauma of bereavement in old age but also spousal absence in retirement. These two men are struggling to cope up with the big gap and deficiency in their lives. Therefore, they bury themselves in momentary activities to hide and escape from the grief and regret they feel. Frank is also easily distracted by happenings that a normal man would not necessarily take notice of. That explains why he is distracted by the rippling water in a nearby fountain. He is now lost in his private thoughts, and were it not for the steel gates, he would have remained in that state. The author says, “He rubbed his eyes and, gazing at the fountain’s rippling water, lost himself in private reverie until the rows of steel gates sealing the stores’ entrances roused and, in their sudden rising, roused Frank” (5). Now, he was to stand up and move to the next store, and he now discards the newspapers that had kept him busy. He no longer has a use for it. This is another example of a time-lag between the fountain and the clock-shop. One can speculate the significance of this time particular time lag. It is like he is trashing all his sorrows and private thoughts and moving on to explore the world around him. Along the way, he spots a young woman in the company of an equally young man. The lass is holding the bloke’s hand as the couples window-shop and giggles at the same time. It’s a reminder of Franklin’s good old days with his wife.
Furthermore, the motif of time reappears when a watch-repair shop catches his eye. It seems an odd choice of a store for any young man since the shop deals with the sale and repair of both new and vintage clocks, among other things. Nobody expects a younger man to have a taste for old clocks or any clocks for that matter. The cellphone revolution made wrist-watches an obsolete accessory for the younger generation. The description of the watches store is a perfect representative of the time motif in the story. We are told the floor was old and worn-out, a testament that its better days were behind it. The author says, “The store’s interior was lined on both sides with glass cases displaying all manner of timepieces—wristwatches, pocket watches, stopwatches—and its wooden floor was unfinished and worn smooth with age” (5). The dressing manner of the old shop-operator is a reflection of Franklin himself. We are told that the counterman dressed maturely and uniquely. The author says, “The old man wore a vintage, moss-colored herringbone sport coat that had perhaps once hugged but now swaddled his withered body” (6). Clearly, just like Franklin, the counterman is beaten and worn-out and perhaps has sunken eyes like Franklin were it for the thick-lensed glasses he wears hiding that defect. Franklin’s attention is strongly drawn to the black-and-white clock hanging behind him on the wall, and when the old operator notices he attempts to explain what the clock said, it is kit kat. After the self-praising chit-chat, the operator turns his attention to Frank and enquires with his new customer how he might be of help to him. It is then that, as a reader, one becomes aware that Franklin was not that bad after all. He knew his clock was broken, and that’s why he is here.
However, he is very disappointed when the operator informs him that the clock can’t be fixed. It is beyond repair. It is like he is telling Frank his life cannot be fixed. His life as old as the clock he wants fixing, so there is undoubtedly a metaphorical parallel. However, upon Frank’s insistence, the old man realizes the pocket-clock is sentimental to Frank’s life and commits himself to repair it. At the same time, Frank notes the glittering wedding-band on the operator’s hand, and while he comments on it, he seems uncomfortable speaking about his own married life when the alarmed counterman notices the inflammation on Franklin’s ring-finger. He dismisses as a normal swelling, saying that he had burnt the midnight oil trying to remove the damn ring in vain. His discomfort with both the ring and suggested removal becomes manifest when the operator recommends an expert remover who can even resize the ring. But Franklin is reluctant and does not want it removed. The authors say, “His ring finger was badly swollen, the ring tight around his finger, the bulging skin around the faded, scratched ring bluish with blood” (1).
In conclusion, this is the story of an old man struggling to overcome his grief. It is a story of a widow trying to collect the broken pieces in his life and put his life back into order. The story tells about Frank, who suffered from the death of his wife. The author employs a manner of contextual tools and settings to examine and depict the lonely life of this obese lonely. As such, the story utilizes several motifs to describe the life of a man who has never recovered from the loss of his wife. Time and water are arguably the biggest motifs of the story, and they together express a central idea of solitude, bereavement, struggle, broken life and cruelty, and sadness in a widow’s life. These motifs include clocks, soaked shirts, rain droplets, and worn-out appearances of a host of things, including the vintage clock shop, the counterman’s clothes, and Frank’s old car. They are all employed to portray how the old-timer has endured it all through time and ended up as a worn-out and broken shadow of his former self.
Work Cited
(Unknown Author). “One Flesh”. Unpublished Manuscript.