Theft by Katherine Anne Porter(文本分析)

Theft by Katherine Anne Porter

The main character in Katherine Anne Porters' short story

a poor woman at the age about late 20s with a beautiful purse. The purse

is a thread which associates with several episodes and in each event it

reveals

the

main

character's

inner

personality.

The

first

episode

is

her

encounters with three men who stand for lover, friend and neighbor. The

second

event

is

the

theft

of

her

purse.

Lastly,

the

protagonist

confronts

the thief. In each episode the main character displays her intimate

personality.

The

background

of

the

story

is

the

“Red

30’s”

that

the

western

world

was dominated by the ideology of Communism which values equality, sense

of common that everything is own by society. Influenced and affected by

such ideology, the heroine take no care of her procession, both the

tangible (money and property) ones and intangible ones (kinship,

friendship, love and happiness of life, etc.) “Let it go” is the only

conclusion she made for the unpleasant experiences she came across. The

only strike-back she made was when she found the purse was stolen. The

purse is from an very important friend and meaningful to her. She broke

her silence and demanded the theft to give it back. But the theft argued

that

her

beauty

was

fading

and

she

did

not

need

it

any

more

that

she

should

give

it

to

another

younger

girl.

Reviewing

her

life,

the

heroine

realized

that it had been her carelessness and indifference that made her lose

everything and her attitude towards life is more terrible than a theft.

“I was right not to be afraid of any theft but myself, who will end by

leaving me nothing.”

Katherine Anne Porter’s Theft

Realism was developed after the civil war, which is defined as “the faithful

representation of reality”. The age of Reali

sm is reaction against romanticism

and an interest in scientific method. The sweeping changes of economy, society,

and politics, which took place in post-war life, allowed American realism to

prevail. Realism started with the realistic and frontier literature that merged

into the mainstream through authors such as Mark Twain up to now.

Realism is characterized by natural diction, truthful description of life, typical

character under typical circumstance, revelation the frustrations of characters

in an environment of sordidness and depravity, and open ending.

Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980) was a creative writer who was born in

Indian Creek, Texas.

Her best writings were written in the form of short stories. She described herself

as “precocious, nervous

, rebellious, intractable, to which also one could add

individualistic.” She is known as a modern writer, but in her short stories, there

are also realistic factors.

Take “theft” as example. The background of this story was set in the city of New

York during the great depression. It describes one corner of the society during

the 1930s

：

the stagnant setting, the men in dry dock, the hypocrisy of the

society, the depraved mental status of people and the conflict between classes…

“She had intended to take the elevated, and naturally she looked in her purse to

make certain she had the fare, and was pleased to find forty cents in the coin

envelope.”p186And when she lost her purse, it was empty. “She was thinking

about her empty purse…”p190

It shows that she is pretty poor caused by the economic depression. In addition,

the figures of the three men are typical characters in that time. We can see all

people’s disillusioned mental status through those three men and the

protagonist.

“The more it skids the calmer I feel, so I really must be drunk.”p187

The purse the protagonist had lost is a symbol of money or wealth in some

degree. The purse is a beautiful “golden cloth” one which implies her class. And

the janitress would rather steal the purse than accepting it as a alms. And the

narrator shared money with every an in the story, except the janitress .From

this, we can see the bitter conflict between classes.

From this short story, we can see the gap between people. The coldness of the

society and people. “She laid the purse on the table and sat down with the cup

of chilled coffee.”P193 People do

not understand each other (husband and wife)

and the loss of love. All of them was caused by the society.