LOOK AT A TEACUP
Look at
a Teacup, written by Patricia Hampl, is a
complicated and quite motivating essay which shows the distinction between the
traditional norms, notions and dogmas with the new ideology of modern world.
There is generation gap between the old and new.
The
writer is the speaker of the essay who says that her mother had bought a teacup
in 1939. The highly decorated but plain looking cup is the major concern of the
essay. Numerous ideas are connected and concerned with the tea cup, so it is
the memento of entire events of the past. The speaker gives the specific
emphasis to the teacup and its elation to art and architecture of the
Mid-Twentieth century. The writer further associates the tea cups with the
historic events, esp. in the time of Hitler and during the Second World
War. Then, the speaker praises the tea cup, its charm and pictures
of flowers that are painted in the teacup. The every discussion between the
speaker and her mother are concerned around the teacup, it is the focal point
of their discussion. As the writer’s mother was from Czechoslovakia,
she bought the teacup in 1939, the same year she got married and the Second
World War also began. The teacup reminds the mother as her own native country
and the history of her native land. The outer and inner descriptions of teacup
are highly praised by the writer. The teacup is considered as the golden one
with its pale water-green colour. There is also a band of gold on the inner
circle of the saucer (plate), it is shiny and there are thin bands of gold
around the edges of the saucer and cup on the borders of the cup and its
saucer light sides of gold are outlines. The combination of colour and flower
inside and outside the teacup are very attractive. The flowers inside the teacup
are seemed as if it is live and animated.
The
essay gives the minute details about the tragedy caused by the war. When she
describes the destructive war, she becomes sad and upset. They both have the
contrasting opinion and ideas about the world and war. Apart from that they
have also different opinion about the family and work. The daughter gives
emphasis on work whereas the mother insists that the family is the most
important thing in the world.
The
major subject they discuss in the essay is the issue of marriage. The mother
has the conventional opinion about the marriage but the speaker disagrees from
her opinion. The mother often worries about the marriage of her daughter but
the daughter shows reluctance about the marriage and stand firmly in the
statement. The speaker might have detested the marriage as she had seen the
forceful love attempts between her father and mother. The speaker once found
her father pulled her mother’s back and hugged her and kissed her forcefully in
the kitchen. The event detests her from the marriage. She wants the mutual
understanding in marriage, but such type of unusual, self-centered and
inappropriate steps form strong hate on the tradition form of marriage.
When
the mother got married, the condition of the entire Europe was devastating.
Firing, bombing and mass killing made her fearful that she would die. She
escaped from her home country as it was destroyed by the war; likewise the
factory of teacup was also destroyed. Everything destroyed by the Second World
War but the tiny teacup she bought in the year of her marriage was remained
unbroken. The sky becomes cloudy from smoke of fire of bombs. So the teacup is
the unchared (not burned) finger from the mid-century bonfire.
The
essay also shows the relation between the men and women. The women during the
Second World War were maltreated and highly dominated. The writer said that the
roses were fallen from the sky to destroy the life of women. Roses were thrown
as bomb to women; it means the condition and plight of women were very low and
miserable. The essay here shows the contradiction between the old traditions as
represented by mother and the modern value and thinking as represented by the
speaker (daughter). The opinion and beliefs on women have been drastically
(radically, severely) changed nowadays and they are treated as equal to men in
most part of the world.
This essay even claims that the writing can be the way of
finding various details and perspective of people, discovering implication in
apparently minor events, and of making associations between seemingly disparate
(unequal) elements. The mother has escaped the magnitude of history by
retreating (withdrawing, moving back) into pragmatism (practicality, common
sense, way of thinking result and way of evaluating theories). But Hampl has
the positive ideas to escape history by fighting it. She slightly refuses to
carry on old traditions like marrying and bearing children. There is the
contrast between the old tradition and the new generation.
