Write an essay on A Big Dream.
Nancy was all set to return to her home, after a long period of ten years, finally her assignment in Japan was over. Wearing her long, shimmering silver gown, she was looking as gorgeously powerful as she needed to, for making herself appear like a woman of distinguished ability (Lodge). She indeed was one, as after all how many German women, after marriage, could retain their individual identity, and dare to choose career advancement over marital bliss. She still remembers the date, 10th of April, 2004, when she was on maternity leave, after giving birth to two sweet, lovable twins, but she was not feeling much content with this so called passive role, of feeding and upbringing two little fellows. Though a job much appreciated by her mother and other married friends, she did not understand how the job could provide her a senseof fruition, as it involved toiling and toiling harder, without any expectation for financial returns or self-advancement. And then the joyous tiding rang and reverberated itself over the phone, on receiving the call, she was being asked by her boss, if she would like to re-join the organization from the next day onwards (Shaw).
Her musing over the past carried her back down the memory lane, when all of a sudden, she was startled by the loud sound of the doorbell, finally the success party, was about to begin, celebrating her achievements as an expatriate employee of the reputed German MNC, she has worked for (Hallett). Soon she found herself amidst all congratulation messages, greetings and appraisals, as her co-workers did not consider her anything short of an inspiration, for the achievement she has attained, despite several obstacles a woman is confronted with. Her dream of reaching the pinnacle of success, was achieved, and yet some more responsibilities are now put on her shoulder. “ So, you are now finally getting back to Germany, and we are going to miss you so much, but then it is too lucrative an offer to resist, congratulations for becoming the new CEO, dear”, exclaimed her dearest friend, Julia. Her another friend shouted gleefully, “ Finally your big dream is coming true, we are so proud of you darling”. Nancy reflected once again, it was indeed like a dream. She barely believed ten years back, that she could emancipate herself from all the household chores, and dull, grim life of a housewife. She still remembers how much courage it took her, to assert her dream, her desire, her ambitious longings to materialize her childhood dream, of making a place in a male- centered world. Her husband immediately shuddered, “Are you a human being? I never objected to your fulfillment of ambitious dreams, but at this time, you are going to leave two innocent kids for the sake of accomplishing foreign assignments?”. He continued, “ It’s being only a week that your mother has died, and your sister has shifted to our home, and it is all together a different thing for me to handle, you can’t leave me and my family half-broken like this”. But to Nancy, the death of her mother was a natural thing, which had nothing to do with her joining back her job, if she could stop, she would love to, resigning forever, but it was not in her hands. Nancy had always being criticized rather than being understood for her practical bent of mind. She was deeply mourning her mother’s death, life seemed useless and directionless, she needed some distraction, something to engage herself with, to be able to escape the mundane existence and the inscrutable questions of life (May).
Nancy was expecting a call from her husband or her dear sister, Miranda, but apparently they were too busy in looking after each other and celebrating their family bond, that they totally forgot her. Mark exclaimed with joy, “Your family is expecting you, let us get over with the party fast, you should board the plane faster, and arrive your home, aren’t you excited?”. “ Oh yes, I am too excited and overjoyed to just think of my kids, who must have grown older, and must have become more beautiful than before”. And then the time was for opening up the lavish, expensive bottles of wine, indulging in the delicious recipes, sushi, Udon noodles, and many more.
Sitting in the high class luxurious airline cabinet, tears of joy came out of Nancy’s eyes. She was very certain that her husband has forgiven her completely from mind. She thought of the painful moments, when it became so hard for her to survive in an alien country, when even her husband refused to keep any contact with her. On 15th April, she reached Japan with her husband, who after seeing all the accommodation facilities, was assured that his wife will be able to make a good, comfortable living on her own. After that, though the two had communicated a lot over phone, their communication has always remained confined to discussions regarding jam-packed schedules and official assignments (Lohafer). For her husband, the only reason for calling her up was to assure that she was doing well over there, but for Nancy, it was a chance to talk to her husband, to listen to her children utter indistinct words. But somewhere deep inside her mind, she knew that her husband has never appreciated her sudden gesture of leaving the home and family on totally materialistic grounds. But for Nancy, career advancement was the way through which she could realize the meaning of her existence. She was determined not to let her identity be lost in the mass, she wanted to leave her mark. Her husband told her, “ This is adamancy”, she retorted “ this is how you define the determination of a woman !” (Rohrbach).
Nevertheless, Nancy is certain that her husband, and all her children have forgiven her, and are no longer holding any hard feeling against her. Last night, she rang her husband up , and though he did not sound overjoyed, but he did sound happy. “He is very good in pretension. Even before our marriage, he would pretend to be upset, even though he had forgiven me from within”, thought Nancy. In her lonesome, boring plane journey, she was reflecting over the sweet, pleasant memories of the past. She was thinking of the time, when she would have hard time, in finishing her homework assignments before meeting Robert. She was late, though Robert, would finish his tasks, or would leave them incomplete, as he was always ‘more eager’ to meet his beloved. Nancy still remembers how she would try to convince him, that her career was as important for her as her love, that Robert was no less a priority for her. For the moment, Robert would be assured, but again doubts would fill his mind, about the lack of commitment of Nancy towards her. Nancy still remembers the number of times, she was being made subject to comparison with other women, such as Robert’s mother, and his two sisters, and of course his childhood best friend, Kelly. All these ladies, according to Robert, were too committed to their relations, and self-sacrificing, while Nancy had her own priorities, too unbecoming of a lady. Finally, the aircraft landed itself at the airport, and she heaved a sigh of relief. Now, her wait is finally going to be over (Malui).
To her biggest surprise, her entire family, had come to greet her, and take her back. She was overwhelmed, overjoyed, and yet she could not express her happiness in words. It was a moment of inexplicable joy for her. She outstretched her arms, looked with pride at her two children, who have grown up to be two ten year old children, of fine health and beauty (Leavy). Her husband and Miranda were standing hand in hand, and both of them, seemed to smile, though the smile seemed to her, more of a forced one rather than a heartfelt one. “I am so happy, after a long time, I am able to meet up my children, so there you are Kitty and Henry, the most beautiful children of the world”. She added, “ Do you know what Mommy has brought for you from Japan?”. Though the kids had interacted much with their Mommy over the Skype, almost each day, a face to face interaction, made one shy and awkward, while the other finding himself in an uneasy environment, extended her hand to catch the first of his dear Aunt Miranda (Starygina).
On reaching her home, she realized that the whole apartment has undergone a huge change. She remembered how her favorite color was black that was too classy and elegant for her to resist. She had chosen black as the color of the curtains, the bed sheets and the sofa set. But now, all the rooms were blue-tinged and the curtains were pink, or yellow… “ Pink and blue were the two favorite colors of her sister”, she thought. Her two children came gleefully to her, announcing the food their Miranda Aunt has made for them, inviting their mother for the same. Nancy was too happy to be able to enjoy her sister’s cooked food, after a long time. “Ah, I shall always envy you Miranda, for these dainty dishes, and this Gaisburger Marsch is too tasty, dear”, said Nancy with great delight and admiration. Kitty exclaimed “Yes Mommy, Miranda is the best Aunt in the world, and you know she makes us tasty dishes every weekend evening, and all my friends come over here, to taste her dainty dishes”. Henry added, “And you know Mommy, she helps us so much with our assignments and home works, makes our lessons all the more interesting , and even yesterday I got A+ grade in all my subjects”. Nancy gave a faint smile, and she asked Miranda, her kids and her husband to come to their bedroom, for distribution of the rich gifts, she has brought for them. Each of them was more than thrilled, to see the exotic gifts, and were too much grateful to their mother, for having brought the gifts. They thanked Nancy from the core of their hearts, and told her how happy they were to finally have met Nancy after such a long stretch of time, and retired to their bedrooms (Hammond).
Nancy could not sleep the whole night. She thought over the day, she realized how different the reality was, from what she had expected or had imagined it to be. There she was, more of an outsider, rather than an important member of the family. Nobody paid her enough attention, nobody praised her contribution, but on the other hand, her sister’s eyes were full of pride and joy, as she was being praised by all. Indeed, she has deserved it all; she has behaved how a woman ought to have. Nancy has sought after her dreams, her desires, her achievements, it was “her” dream always, but in the process she has overlooked the importance of working for others’ dreams (Toolan).
Are you still angry with me, Robert?”, asked Nancy, just before Robert was about to get up from the bed and leave the room. “No, of course not, I do not have the habit of holding grudge on anyone, for a long period”, replied her husband. “Yes, I do remember dear, but I am just feeling so uneasy over here, nobody is comfortable with me, the children are treating me more as a guest, while Miranda is getting treated as their second mother”, said Nancy. Robert precisely replied “She filled the void; you created in our lives, by leaving us ten years back dear”. Nancy was wearied out, listening the same thing over and again, that she has abandoned everyone, and unable to retain her composure, exclaimed “So what? If you would have got a better opportunity and would have decided to leave the country, I would have to relocate with my entire family, but just because I am a woman… my independent step towards self-advancement is deemed by you all as a selfish act of abandonment, right? (Reid)”.
There were a few moments of silence, and then there was a knock on the door, with Miranda announcing that she has already prepared them the breakfast (Fallon). Robert was all prepared to have his breakfast and head towards his workplace. Before leaving the room, he answered Nancy, with a calm and composed countenance, “ It is not your fault dear… we all have dreams, and for accomplishment of one, maybe we have to compromise a little with the other…your dream of materialistic achievement has come true, but you failed to actualize your dream of having a loving family…this if life dear, let us go out and have the breakfast” (Toolan).
Reference List:
Shaw, Valerie. The short story: a critical introduction. Routledge, 2014.
Hallett, Cynthia J. “Minimalism and the short story.” Studies in Short Fiction33.4 (1996): 487.
May, Charles. The short story: the reality of artifice. Routledge, 2013.
Rohrbach, Anna, Marcus Rohrbach, and Bernt Schiele. “The long-short story of movie description.” German Conference on Pattern Recognition. Springer International Publishing, 2015.
Al Maluli, Hayan, and Arnold B. Meshkov. “A short story of the short QT syndrome.” Cleveland Clinic journal of medicine 80.1 (2013): 41.
Starygina, Natalya N., et al. “Dickens’ Christmas Story as an Intertexteme in Leskov’s Yule Short Story.” Review of European Studies 7.8 (2015): 193.
Toolan, Michael. Making Sense of Narrative Text: Situation, Repetition, and Picturing in the Reading of Short Stories. Routledge, 2016.
Fallon, Erin, et al. A reader’s companion to the short story in english. Routledge, 2013.
Toolan, Michael. Making Sense of Narrative Text: Situation, Repetition, and Picturing in the Reading of Short Stories. Routledge, 2016.
Hammond, John R. An Edgar Allan Poe companion: a guide to the short stories, romances and essays. Springer, 2016.
Lohafer, Susan. “The short story.” The Cambridge Companion to American Fiction After 1945 (2012): 68.
Reid, Ian. Narrative Exchanges (Routledge Revivals). Routledge, 2014.
Leavy, Patricia. Fiction as research practice: Short stories, novellas, and novels. Vol. 11. Left Coast Press, 2013.
Lodge, David. The art of fiction. Random House, 2012.
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