Aisha Siddiqu1
Aisha Siddiqui
English III - Period 3
Ms. Darroh
November 17, 2014
A Study of Love and Obsession in Ann Beattie's "Janus" "Janus" first appeared in the May 27, 1985, issue of the New Yorker magazine. It later appeared in the 1986 collection Where You'll find Me, and has often been singled out as one of Beattie's best stories (Milne 154). "Janus" is the story of a successful, happy real estate agent named Andrea, who is the protagonist of this story. She grows attached to a cream-coloured bowl, often placing th bowl in the homes of her clients when she shows the home to potiential buyers. Although she believes that the success in her life is because of the bowl. By the end of the story, readers discover that the bowl was a gift from Andrea's lover (Milne 154). In the short story "Janus" by Ann Beattie, the theme of symbolism and characterization show the relationship between protagonist and her bowl. Beattie explores the emptiness of contemporary life. "Janus" is a story about love, obsession, and loss with which readers can empathize. In the story, Beattie shows the reader how the main object of the story, the bowl, is so important in the protagonist's life. Author is symbolizing the bowl as smooth and perfect. However, if one examine the stories in just the right light, one finds a marked similarity of the bowl. In the story "Near the rim, even in dim light, the eye moved the one small flash of blue, a vanishing point on the horizon," (Beattie 74). That is, when one looks at Beattie's stories obliquely, one is likely to find a flash, or small epiphany, located just on the edge of the story. Her stories should be appreciated the same way that the protagonist appreciate the bowl. In Short Story Criticism, Melissa E. Bark believes that Beattie can fill the bowl, to use a metaphor, with whatever she chooses. Barh's description of the impulse towards minimalism, the desire "to strip away the superfluous in order to reveal the
English III - Period 3
Ms. Darroh
November 17, 2014
A Study of Love and Obsession in Ann Beattie's "Janus" "Janus" first appeared in the May 27, 1985, issue of the New Yorker magazine. It later appeared in the 1986 collection Where You'll find Me, and has often been singled out as one of Beattie's best stories (Milne 154). "Janus" is the story of a successful, happy real estate agent named Andrea, who is the protagonist of this story. She grows attached to a cream-coloured bowl, often placing th bowl in the homes of her clients when she shows the home to potiential buyers. Although she believes that the success in her life is because of the bowl. By the end of the story, readers discover that the bowl was a gift from Andrea's lover (Milne 154). In the short story "Janus" by Ann Beattie, the theme of symbolism and characterization show the relationship between protagonist and her bowl. Beattie explores the emptiness of contemporary life. "Janus" is a story about love, obsession, and loss with which readers can empathize. In the story, Beattie shows the reader how the main object of the story, the bowl, is so important in the protagonist's life. Author is symbolizing the bowl as smooth and perfect. However, if one examine the stories in just the right light, one finds a marked similarity of the bowl. In the story "Near the rim, even in dim light, the eye moved the one small flash of blue, a vanishing point on the horizon," (Beattie 74). That is, when one looks at Beattie's stories obliquely, one is likely to find a flash, or small epiphany, located just on the edge of the story. Her stories should be appreciated the same way that the protagonist appreciate the bowl. In Short Story Criticism, Melissa E. Bark believes that Beattie can fill the bowl, to use a metaphor, with whatever she chooses. Barh's description of the impulse towards minimalism, the desire "to strip away the superfluous in order to reveal the