Summary of A Story

UNIT THREE : HUMOUR AND SATIRE

A STORY

ENGLISH | THE HERITAGE OF WORDS

Dylan Thomas

This humorous story is narrated by a very young who is living with his uncle and aunt. In this story, the boy presents the adults' world from a child’s point of view. This story is about a day’s outing to Porthcawl by motor coach. In the first part of the story, the boy describes his uncle and aunt using metaphors and similes. The uncle was big and noisy whereas his wife was small and quiet who used to move on padded paws. The boy compares his uncle with a buffalo and a dismantle ship. He compared his aunt with her cat because of her quick and quiet movement and with a mouse because of her nibbling habit and tiny tone.

Every Saturday night after heated arguments, the aunt used to hit the uncle on the head after the uncle lifted her on to a chair. The boy also describes uncle’s few friends in the story. Mr. Benjamin Franklyn collected the money for the outing and bought 20 cases of light wine. Will Sentry kept a strict vigil on Benjamin by following him everywhere in order to guard the money. One Sunday evening Benjamin and Will Sentry came to uncle with a list of persons who had paid for the outing for his approval. After their departure, the aunt asked the uncle to choose either her or the outing. The uncle however chose the outing at which she became furious at breakfast. The next Sunday the boy found that the aunt had already left the house.

Finally the boy describes that the uncle and his friends made a trip to Porthcawl for the outing. When they were out of the village for their destination, they found that old O’Jones had been left behind and they had to go back to the village to pick up him. After O’Jones got on, Mr. Weazely wanted to go home to take his teeth. However his friends convinced him that the teeth wouldn’t be necessary for him in the outing. On the way to the Porthcawl they stopped at every public house (Bar) and drank alcohol heaving the boy outside as children were not allowed into the bars on seem a river on the way they went swimming there. They didn’t actually arrive at Porthcawl on the way home, it was already hate everything. Old O’Jones started cooking his dinner with kerosene stove and other members started drinking alcohol sitting in a circle in front of closed bar. The boy began to sleep leaning on his uncle’s waist coat.

The writer in the story is also able to create humor by describing the uncle, aunt, uncle’s friends and their behavior. However, the writer points out towards the bitter aspect connected with human behavior and habit of drinking alcohol. Alcoholic drink may change people’s behavior making them selfish, cruel and indifferent towards others suffering. Alcohol brings the nice atmosphere of uncle’s family on the verge of breakfast. Uncle and his friends also exhibited cruelty towards the small boy after drinking alcohol as they were totally careless about him during the entire trip.