Monday, October 20, 2008

She Unnames Them Worldview

"She Unnames Them" has the worldview of a Post-modern. This is evident because of the irrelevance of the meanings of words and names.

1. God and the Universe
"You and your father lent me this-gave it to me, actually...but it doesn't exactly seem to fit very well lately."
-Eve has the power to unname the animals God and Adam had named. Eve has got control of this universe for a little while. God is not needed to control it in this story.

2. Humanity and Identity
"The insects parted with their names in vast clouds and swarms of ephemeral syllables..."
-the insects and humans and animals have power over their own names. They do not need the power or insight of another to control them. They have their own identity to control.

3. Conflict and Suffering
"I could not chatter away as I used to do, taking it all for granted."
"One of my reasons for doing what I did was that talk was getting us nowhere..."
-Eve is tired of talking to God and Adam and getting no response, she wants to talk as if she wasn't talking to a deaf/mute person. Therefore the conflict is between her and Adam and

4.Hope and Redemption
"I put some things away and fiddled around a little, but he continued to do what he was doing and to take no notice of anything else. At last I said, 'Well, goodbye, dear. I hope the garden key turns up."
-The Garden key Eve is talking about isn't any ordinary garden. This is the Garden of Eden, Eve wants to go back to the "G of E" and is looking for her hope in God but because God's words are useless and He is not useful any longer her hope is dwindled.

5. Values and Relationships
"He was not paying much attention, as it happened, and said only, 'Put it down over there, OK?' and went on with what he was doing."
-Eve still values her relationship with God and Adam, but turn around and Adam isn't talking to her as he used to. The only relationships in this story appear to be dwindling along with the hope that someday the "garden key" will turn up.

6. Truth and Knowledge
"'I'm going now. With the-' I hesitated, and finally said, 'With them, you know,' and went on."
"The cats of course steadfastly denied ever having had any name other than those self-given, unspoken, effanineffably personal names"
-Words have no meaning. The names God gave to all the animals and insects are useless. God is no longer fundamental for this universe. The characters give up their names because they no longer think they work well enough or fit with their characteristics. Eve also does not know what to call them because of the power they have over themselves.

Therefore, the worldview of "She Unnames Them" is Post-Modernism.