Symbols And Signs By Vladimir Nabokov And Dance In America

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“Symbols and Signs” by Vladimir Nabokov and “Dance in America” by Lorrie Moore are short stories that revolve around the theme of illness. Often times, when the affected individual with illness is young, the main characters are the parents who struggle with love, hopelessness, sorrow, and fear. The primary characters are the parents, even as their own stories are about their ill children. The families in the two stories are similar in ways that the parents cope with their child’s illness. However Nabokov presents his story in a tone which can only be seen as dreary whereas Moore presents “Dance in America” in a tone which concludes with hopefulness exhibited by Cal’s son, Eugene. The son in Nabokov’s short story suffers from a form of …show more content…

Nabokov’s story presents itself as dreary, hinting to readers with ominous signs and symbols which confront the son and also his parents throughout the story. Examples of signs and symbols in the mother and father’s world include the subway train that loses power between two stations, the half dead bird in the puddle, the tearful girl on the woman’s shoulder, and the cards that fall onto the floor. All these adverse examples suggest foreshadowing leading up to the three phone calls that the parents receive in the end, which Nabokov leaves open interpretation to readers. The first interpretation which can be made is simply the girl looking for “Charlie”, calling again and again despite it being the wrong number, which can seemingly be a metaphor for the characters in the story and their repetitive struggles which never leads to a solution. The other drearier logical interpretation which can be made is a call from the sanitarium, notifying the parents that their son has successfully killed himself this time and the mother is in denial, unable to accept the truth, causing her to ignore the girl on the phone. Throughout the entire story, it is evident that the dreary tone in this story differs from Moore’s, “Dance in America”, and Nabokov sets this up by portraying the characters grief and suffering caused by separation with the aid of ominous signs and …show more content…

He suffers from a condition called cystic fibrosis and presumingly, the boy is dying: “Already, Cal says, Eugene has degenerated, grown worse, too much liquid in his lungs. ‘Stickiness,’ he calls it. ‘If he were three, instead of seven, there’d be more hope” (Moore, 198). However, despite Eugene’s desolate future and diminished physical condition which makes him labor for breath, he turns the story around. Throughout the story, Moore uses verbs such as chases, slides, shouts, races, grabs, and smiles in relation to him. Upon the arrival of Eugene, the cynical tone is gone from the narrator and the story becomes exciting. Even though his circumstances are bleak, he lives as if he did not have an illness that shortens his life and he does everything he wants such as dancing, going to school, and playing with friends. Through his suffering, he teaches the narrator, his parents, and readers to celebrate life, and their family dances together with joy before bed until Eugene is stopped by exhaustion: “We make a phalanx, and march, strut, slide to the music. We crouch, move backward, then burst forward again. We’re aiming to create the mildew, resinous sweat smell of dance” (Moore, 204). In spite of Eugene’s pain and suffering, he presses forward, and his presence shines like a candle, setting the tone of the story as hopeful

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