Review of ‘The Journey’

'The Journey' is a short story by Catherine Lim. The story revolves around movement (not only physical one!) of the character named Richard and his family. It presents a conflict between traditional life style in rural Singapore and the modern life in urban cities of the nation that Richard and his wife Mabel represent respectfully. In addition, there also lies a conflict between older traditionalist generation and newer modernist generation. All the elements of the stories – including structure, characters, actions and language – contribute to the exposition of the same geographical and generational conflicts.

The story is not structured in chronological order, but has many flashbacks and forecasts. It frequently moves back and forth between memories of the past and experiences of the present.  In some paragraphs, they both blend so perfectly that the conflict between traditions and modernity becomes more vivid. The very first paragraph of the story is such an example. Richard at present is "waiting to be called into the consulting room" (Lim 211), but his mind is filled with memories of his childhood that his mother, aunt and grandmother nourished very hard. Against his present status of physical "luxury", he remembers "the sleepy little village" full of deprivation, boredom and misery. The same movement between past and present repeats throughout the story.

Since the story violates chronological order, it is quite difficult to divide the story into structure of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and dénouement. The beginning part is, of course, an exposition as it gives the readers background of the characters, the plot events and the setting. The conflict between what his mother, aunt and grandmother think of village and city life and what Richard and his wife Mabel think initially about them is the part of rising action as this intensifies the gaps between two geographies, two generations and two life styles. The climax seems to be the moment when Richard is confirmed of a cancer that perhaps will lead him to death. After this, the story moves quite opposite than what had been so far. The paragraph which begins with "He cancelled the game" (Lim 214) marks the shift in the movement of the story. The incident represents resignation from luxurious city life and aspiration to go back home, inspiration to "the journey". Thus, it can be called the climax. The falling action includes visit of the mother, the aunt and the grandmother for Richard's traditional treatment, his feeling of comfort as effects of that treatment and his determination to go back rural home against his wife's persuasion to consult "a specialist – the best cancer specialist in the world" (Lim 215). Finally, the story ends with a striking and strong dénouement that Richard begins his journey to go back home where his mother, aunt and grandmother live – "I'm making the journey. I'm going home" (Lim 216).

Richard is the protagonist in the story. As his wife Mabel represents the opposition forces against his will by the end of the story, she is antagonist. Though his mother, aunt and grandmother seem without any active contribution in the present time in the beginning; their roles are gradually intensified so as to walk together with Richard. Thus, they too become members of protagonist force. Richard and Mabel have become representatives of rural / traditional life style and urban / modern life style respectively. Thus, the central conflict of the story is exposed through the conflict between the central characters.

Richard is a dynamic and disillusioned character. When the story begins, he is a city-centric, ambitious and arrogant youth. He too shares his wife's feelings about life and people in villages that they are not civilised – "Oh, the horror of living with these people from the ulu places! Fortunately, it is not a permanent thing" (Lim 211). He appreciates her house-proud and fussy way of living. In mid of the story, he is a divided character, torn between his mothers and his wife, between traditions and modernity. But, immediately after his diagnosis of the cancer, he changes his views and turns to a village-loving, complacent and modest man. He now begins to assert his position against his wife's over-smart, pro-urban life and in support of traditional village life that his mother, aunt and grandmothers have been living. He has, by now, questioned against himself and whatever he has been doing so far. By the end, he is a completely changed man from what he had appeared in the beginning as he decides to go back home leaving his wife alone in the city life. He resigns not only from marriage with a woman who cannot understand him really, but also from "luxury" and "comfort" that he had been slave of throughout his youth life in the city.

The change can be seen in role of his wife Mabel as well, though her character remains static throughout the story. She is influential to Richard in the beginning. But by the end, she loses this position as she doesn't have any control over him and his decisions. She rather becomes a helpless woman who only has physical luxuries but no one for emotional and moral support.

The story is filled with thoughts and descriptions than events and actions which are remarkably few. As the story has many flashbacks, most of the actions present in the story belong to the past.  The only actions from the present – and the most important ones, to name a few – are the mother, aunt and grandmother's visit to him after his diagnosis of the cancer, their traditional treatment to him, Mabel's attempts to motivate Richard for modern treatments, Richard's refusal for that and his final journey. 

The story has used simple language in terms of its vocabulary and sentence structure. In addition to simple English words, it uses a typical Singaporean word many times - "ulu" which refers to traditional and so called "uncivilised". As the story has involved a lot of description of characters and narrated plot events, the language too is descriptive. It is able to create much imagery that appeal to various senses of the readers. "… Their beautiful bungalow, from the dark brown timber ceiling, right down to the very table napkins" (212), "plain rice and some thin vegetable soup every day or some cheap fish…" (212), "the furniture was old and rickety and bug-infested" (213), "his mother's hands were still wet from washing" (216), and "a brew, a black, bitter drink" (216) are few examples of descriptive language and the imagery used in the story. Descriptive language is used for description of both past and present, and of traditional and modern life. Thus, it also helps the readers be further clear about the central conflict in the story.

'The Journey' is the story of the journey back to tradition and rural life. It has strongly satirised the so called prosperity and luxury associated with urban life. Involving itself into past and present, country and city, and traditional and modern characters in balance; the story – with its various formal elements - has demonstrated a timeless and universal conflict that exists between two generations – the conflict between tradition and modernity. This very conflict involved in the story has made it worth reading to all the readers regardless of what time and place they belong to.

Work Cited

Lim, Catherine. "The Journey". Now Read On. Ed. John McRae and Malachi Edwin Vethamani. New York: Routledge, 1999.