A Story - Dylan Thomas

Summary:

“A Story” is a short story written by Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas. This story is all about a day’s outing
by charabanc made by a group of adults to Porthcawl and it presents the adults’ world humorously
from a boy’s perspective. However, they never reached there as they stopped in every pub on the
way.

The narrator of the story is a small boy (the writer himself) who was living with his uncle and aunt at
that time. The narrator says that there is no beginning and ending in the story, but there is
something in the middle. The boy compares his uncle Mr. Thomas and his and his aunt Mrs. Sarah.
Mr. Thomas is a noisy, filthy, irresponsible, drunkard and enormously big.

The boy uses a lot of metaphors and smiles and compares him to a buffalo. When Mr. Thomas enters
the house, the house looks smaller. Whenever he eats, he litters the waistcoat like a park after a
picnic. On the other hand, the narrator compares Sarah to a rat. She is very small quite clean
hardworking and responsible. She is almost busy in dusting the china dog, cleaning the house and
feeding the buffalo. Despite the dissimilarities, they love each other very much.

On every Saturday he allows Sarah to beat him on the head. For that, he picks her up and puts on to
a chair. Then, she beats him with whatever is handy but almost all the time she uses the china dog.

They have a tiny shop in front of their house where Mr. Thomas and his friends have gathered
together to discuss the outing. Since Mr. Thomas is the leader of the group, they submit the list of
the people to him. His friends are also dirty, filthy and careless like him. Benjamin Franklin is
appointed the treasurer of the outing. Benjamin reports that he has collected enough money for the
bus fare and 20 cases of pale ale (light beer). He also complains about being followed by Will Sentry
all the time. Will Sentry says that he follows him every time because Benjamin may misuse the
outing fund like Bob the Fiddle did the previous year.

Sarah doesn’t like her husband to go outing and she can’t go because only men can go. She threatens
to go to her mother’s home if he goes for outing. But Mr. Thomas says that he and outing can’t be
separated from each other.

Despite his irresponsible manner, she loves him so much. When she goes to her mother’s house, she
prepares some eggs and leaves a note to him. She also tells him to take off the boots before going to
bed.

Mr. Thomas decides to take the boy with them. The outing members don’t want to take any women,
children and old people to the outing.

On the day of outing (August / Saturday) everyone gathers and gets on charbanac. As they go out of
the village Mr. Thomas notices that old O. Jones is left behind. Then they return to get him, but the
old man proudly says he doesn’t want to go at all but he always goes. Mr. Weazly creates another
problem on the way saying that he has forgotten his teeth on the mantelpiece. But they don’t care
about him.

As they reach the Mountain Sheep (a pub), at the beginning the landowner welcomes them as a wolf
welcomes the sheep. Mr. Thomas tells the boy to stay outside and look after the bus. He is alone and
looks at the cows. He chases them by throwing stones at them.

After a long time the narrator enters the pub and watches their activities. He finds them completely
wild and drunk. His uncle has been dancing in the middle. When they have finished everything in the
pub, they move to other pubs one by one. They spend their time drinking, eating and dancing at
every pub until evening.

As they head for Porthcawl, they come to a river. They decide to stop the bus and play in the water.
It is very late in the evening so they decide to cancel the trip to Porthcawl. They return from the river
when they feel cold. They stop at the Hermit’s Nest for a rum. After they get drunk, they get on the
bus for returning to their houses. Old O. Jones begins to prepare supper in the bus by cooking on a
primus stove. Then Weazley tells that he is suffocated by the smoke. So they stop the charbanac and
carry everything to the field and start cooking. They take out the remaining cases of beer and start
drinking it. Old O. Jones cooks sausage and crushed potatoes. Feeling sleepy and tired, the narrator
sleeps by leaning against the mountainous stomach of his uncle. Thus, the story ends abruptly.

1. How does the boy, the narrator, look at his uncle and his friends?

Answer. The narrator finds his uncle and his friends whimsical and pleasurable. He expresses his
attitude towards them using several figures of speech related to animals.

At the beginning of the story, the speaker compares his uncle with an old buffalo squeezed into an
airing cupboard. At one point in the story, the narrator says that the members of outing rushed out
bleating into the bar. Towards the end of the story, the narrator says that Mr. Weazly would cough
like a Billy goat.

All these smiles and metaphors justify that the narrator views his uncle and his friends with human
beings degenerated into animality.

2. Write a paragraph to describe the relation between Thomas (the boy’s uncle and his wife).

Answer. The boy’s uncle Mr. Thomas and his wife Mrs. Sarah live their life with the sense of affection
and caring.

Sarah didn’t want her husband to go to outing only because he would come home heavily drunk.
Thomas chooses to go to an outing not because he didn’t love Sarah, his wife, but because he wanted
a break from his monotonous life. Even at the state of anger, Sarah took care of her husband very
much. Leaving him a note, telling him where the cooked eggs were shows that she was worried
about her husband in her absence.

When Thomas knew that his wife was furious with him, he would lift her up in his arms so that she
could beat him to pacify her anger. Occasional disputes are a casual part of married life which makes
their relationship even more colorful and life-like. Although she seems to treat him violently, she
loves and cares for him very much.

3. The narrator uses a lot of simile and metaphor in describing the persons in the story. How
does he describe his uncle and his aunt?

Answer. The narrator uses the following figures of speech to describe his uncle and aunt.

 His uncle was like an old buffalo squeezed into an airing cupboard. (simile)

 He breathes like a brass band. (simile)

 His waistcoat looked like a picnic spot. (simile)

 His aunt whisked about on padded paws. (metaphor)

 She was as quick as a flash (simile)

Answer. The owner of the public house named Mountain Sheep was a long, lean and black fanged
man. He was from Siam. He had a greased love-curl and pouncing eyes. He welcomed the members
of the outing simpering like a wolf.

5. Why didn’t the members of the outing trust Benjamin Franklyn?

Answer. Mr. Frankyln was made the treasurer of the outing committee for the current year.

The members of the outing didn’t trust Benjamin Franklyn because of the Bob the Fiddle, who had
worked in the same position the previous year, had bought drinks for himself with the money that
was collected for the outing. In other words, the fund was misappropriated.

Will Sentry feared that a similar episode could happen again. So he was always on the heels of Mr.
Franklyn. Franklin even went to the extent of resigning from the responsibility if Will Sentry
continued to be nosy about his duties. So due to fear of repeating history, the member of outing did
not trust Benjamin Franklin.

6. Do you think that “A Story” is not a story proper, but a jumble of various people? Give
reasons for your answer.

Answer. Story is one of the genres of literature which narrates past events artistically. The events
narrated might be real or fictitious. A story, in the traditional sense of the term, needs to have a
tightly-knit plot with a proper beginning (exposition), rising action, climax, falling action, and
resolution.

But “A Story” has the narrator himself and he admits that the story has neither proper beginning nor
conclusive ending. And there are very few details in the middle. Viewed from this traditional point of
view “A Story” can’t be called a proper story as it lacks prerequisites of a story.

However, the definition of a story has greatly changed in the modern and post-modern times. The
critics have begun to feel that the traditional form of the story cannot represent the changed realities
of modern and post-modern types. As a result, there has been great change in the form of writing a
story. If analyzed from this modern and post-modern standpoint “A Story” can be called the proper
story. Though loose, it has a plot. There are various characters who are both individuals as well as
the type of their class.

The events and circumstances presented in the story bear a very close resemblance to life. It also
conveys a moral lesson while entertaining the readers. The relationship between Mr. Thomas and his
wife are realistically presented.

So, “A Story” is a good story from the modern and post-modern point of view though it might appear
to be just jumble of people from a traditional point of view.

7. Describe the appearance and characters of Mr. Thomas, the boy’s uncle and Sarah, the boy’s
aunt.