Reaching Understanding through Non-Verbal Communication in Timothy Findley’s “War” and “About Effie”

Reaching Understanding through Non-Verbal Communication in Timothy Findley’s “War” and “About Effie”

The two stories “War” and “About Effie” from Timothy Findley’s Dinner Along the Amazon are both told by the same child narrator, Neil. In each of the stories Neil attempts to make sense of a mystery of the adult world. In “War” Neil tries to understand the adult world of war, and explain why it seems that his father has betrayed him, and in “About Effie” Neil tries to understand the mystery of Effie’s strange need to wait for a man in a thunderstorm. Neil reaches an understanding of each of these mysteries in a similar way: through observation of non-verbal clues from adults. However, Neil’s own attempts to communicate non-verbally through his behaviour are unsuccessful. Taken as a whole, these two stories show how very important non-verbal communication is in child-adult relationships.

In “About Effie” Neil’s most significant impression of Effie is created when she looks at him. Neil tells how when he first meets the new maid, she looks at him with such meaning that it scares him: “. . .the way you’ll know her is this: she’ll look at you as if she thought you were someone she was waiting for, and it will probably scare you. It did me” (82). Neil describes the first time he meets Effie in terms of the way they look at each other, saying “The first time I saw her, she saw me first” (82). Neil is shocked by this new maid, not only because she gives him such a profound look, but also because she bursts into tears upon seeing him.

Neil tries to make sense of why Effie would become so emotional upon seeing him, and tries to discover more about this mysterious person for whom she is waiting...

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...her captures both Neil’s naivete at the time and the sadness of his father’s war obligation. Through looking at this photograph Neil realizes and accepts that the incident was truly not his father’s fault. The non-verbal image contained in the photograph provides the key to Neil’s understanding.

In “War” Neil’s attempts to communicate non-verbally through his behaviour are ineffective. However, in both stories Neil reaches understanding through powers of observation, even when the adults are unable to communicate through words. In reaching understanding, Neil takes a step towards adulthood himself. Through the process of looking at Effie’s smiles and looking at his father’s wounded face in the photograph, Neil is able to decode the mystery of their actions.

Works Cited

Findley, Timothy. Dinner Along the Amazon. Toronto: Penguin Books, 1996.