Talk:Clay (short story)

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Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 28 August 2018 and 11 December 2018. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Geoffoliva.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 17:48, 16 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Summary Changes

I just finished reading the short story, and I don't entirely agree with the article's summary:

"a spinster with a minor job in a rescue mission for wayward women"

Where does it say she works in a rescue mission? The text says "the boys had got her that position in the Dublin by Lamplight laundry, and she liked it." Perhaps this was an actual place and was related to a rescue mission somehow? A citation would be nice if that's the case.

"On a train, Maria has a bashful encounter with an elderly and drunken man who chats with her; she later discovers he has in fact stolen her plumcake, which she rationalises as being an honest mistake by the "confused" old man."

I think the part after the semicolon is just plain wrong. The relevant sentence from the story is, "Maria, remembering how confused the gentleman with the greyish moustache had made her, colored with shame and vexation and disappointment." Joe then comforts her and the story moves on. Perhaps the man stole the cake, but she's the one who was confused, not the old man. Maybe she honestly left it there, too, and there was no foul play; the text isn't clear (I imagine intentionally so).

"The story ends with a description of how Joe has been "very much moved" by her song, although in keeping with the rest of her visit it is likely that he was crying with laughter at Maria's "quavering" rendition of the song."

I don't agree that he was crying with laughter. It doesn't fit with the rest of his relationship with her, where he called her his "proper mother". He could have imagined she was singing about him in a motherly fashion, which would be moving.

In general the summary is rather cynical. Some people joke at her expense, but she is comfortable with herself and truly enjoys her life:

"And Maria laughed again till the tip of her nose nearly met the tip of her chin and till her minute body nearly shook itself asunder"

"[Looking at herself in a mirror] In spite of its years she found it a nice tidy little body."

The summary doesn't get this idea across. 24.220.188.43 (talk) 01:30, 22 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with all of the above, plus I don't see sufficient evidence in the text (or any evidence, really) to state that the elderly man stole her cake. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.216.238.207 (talk) 01:46, 17 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Found a reference for the rescue mission (actually it says: "Dublin by Lamplight laundry, which provided work and a place to live for former and aging prostitutes") and put it in the article. Daranios (talk) 18:10, 17 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]