On the Golden Porch

I think this story was almost like a poem, it was all made of metaphors and lyricism. “Childhood was a garden. Without end or limit, without borders and fences, in noises and rustling, golden in the sun, pale green in the shade, a thousand layers thick”. I really liked that side of the story because the reader is able to imagine the place and characters. I think the author’s goal was to make the reader dream. The story uses the lexical field of nature and freedom, which gives us a sense of peace: “pines”, “white roses”, “raspberry patch”, “life is eternal”. The beginning of the story made me think about a genesis, how the world started according to some religions, with a beautiful paradise and a naked man.

However, I think the story lacks of details in telling what is happening. I really like the descriptions but it was very difficult for me to understand the plot. I think the story was a bit confusing, there are too many characters and it focuses too much on describing the visual part of it, instead of telling us what is happening. I like the fact that there is some dialogue, but sometimes it was difficult to figure out who was talking.

At the beginning of the story, after some description, the dialogue begins without any introduction: “They say that early in the morning they saw a completely naked man at the lake. Honest. Don’t tell Mother. Do you know who it was? – It can’t be. – Honest, it was.” We don’t know who is talking or who Honest is. Later in the story, we understand that two girls are the narrators, “a red-and-green rooster cocks his head and looks at us: what do you want, girls? We’d like some strawberries”. Then there is the description of Uncle Pasha, but we don’t know what happened to the girls “Aargh! Let’s get out of here, run, it’s horrible – an icy horror – shed, damp, death…”. After that we learn that Uncle Pasha sold and egg to mother, but what does an egg have anything to do here? I think that the author wanted to capture the point of view of two very young girls. It seems that reality is mixed with dream and imagination. Everything is unclear and mysterious.

Personally, I prefer to have lyricism in poems, where there’s no need to have a plot, but in a short story, it makes it kind of confusing. I think that it is until the end that we actually understand it better, although it’s still kind of mysterious. After the girls leave: “Eight, nine, ten. No. Excuse me, Uncle Pasha, I have to go”, suddenly, Uncle Pasha appears death in the scene: “… Uncle Pasha froze to death on the porch.” I think that by making the story lyrical and abstract, we lose the active part of it.

Was the author's goal to show how a little girl fears the death of an uncle? Is there any meaning in the story that we can find beyond the lyricism?