As
is usually the case with fables, the focus here is on the illustration of an
idea rather than on the exploration of character. The idea may have developed from Cortázar's
perception of an inchoate longing to escape a crowded plane to the small island
in the sea below; making the source of that desire an airline steward allows
him to emphasize the need to escape repetitive activity and makes possible for
him to underscore the increasing obsessiveness of the longing.
The
central statement in the story that comes closest to expressing directly the
idea that Cortázar wishes to explore here is:
"None of it made any sense--flying three times a week at noon over
Xiros was as unreal as dreaming three times a week that he was flying over
Xiros." The story exploits the
notion of the meaninglessness of repetitive reality and the increasing
significance of desire. Whereas the
protagonist cannot keep account of actuality, for everything is "blurred
and easy and stupid," when he looks out the window at the island, it is
sharply delineated, the nets clearly sketched on the sand.
As
the story progresses, the fantasy out the window becomes more real than the
reality inside the plane. However, as in
Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," the transition
from reality to fantasy is rendered ambiguous.
It takes place when, "with his lips against the window, he smiled,
thinking that he would climb to the green spot, that he would enter the sea of
the northern coves naked, that he would fish for octopuses with the men,
communicating through signs and laughter."
Because his thoughts of actualizing his desires are rendered in such
detail, the reader is lead to believe that he has physically gone to the
island.
When
Marini reaches the green spot in his imagination, he hears the hum of the
engine of the plane. The question the
reader may ask here is: where is Marini
at this particular point--in the plane or at the green spot on the island? The final scene becomes even more
ambiguous. On the one hand, the reader
may assume that the real Marini falls to his death in the sea with the plane
crash. However, since the only way the
reader knows about the plane crash is by means of the fantasy that Marini is
having while looking out the window, then the plane crash itself is not real,
for Marini is imagining it also. The
reader's ultimate realization may be that there is no reality in a story except
the reality of fantasy.
Tomorrow: Donald Barthelme's
"The Balloon"
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