Close Reading
Text Box: “Janus”, the story of a woman’s strange obsession with a ceramic bowl, takes on the issue of “choices” and what constitutes a fulfilling marriage. The protagonist (Andrea), a successful real estate agent, seems to live the perfect life, but appearance and reality become two opposing forces. The story focuses heavily on a ceramic bowl and Andrea’s growing obsession with it. However, the ending of the story reveals the source of Andrea’s conflict and the root of the emptiness in her life. Thus the theme suggests that choosing stability over passion leads to emptiness. In Andrea’s case, she has chosen the stability of marriage over the passion of a love affair, resulting in her emotional emptiness. Beattie breaks the conventional elements of fiction relying very little on plot. In terms of characterization, more time is spent describing the bowl than any of the characters. The story relies heavily on symbolism to convey the theme and this element combined with the protagonist’s point of view, gives readers the ability to piece together Beattie’s message concerning choices and their affect on overall fulfillment. The story is told in past tense spanning over a few years in the life of Andrea. The use of flashbacks is essential in constructing Andrea’s connection with the bowl and in understanding the cause of her fixation. The flashback to Andrea forgetting the bowl reveals her irrational obsession (607). She compares her leaving the bowl to a parent leaving a child behind (607). The most significant flashback, which provides the source of her behavior, is the memory of Andrea receiving the bowl from her ex-lover. It holds the memory of a connection and a passion she once had, but will never have again. As a whole, the story is structurally unconventional. Plot takes a back burner, for the bulk of the story involves descriptions of the bowl and the protagonist’s inner thoughts regarding the inanimate object. Excluding exposition, the main elements of plot do not appear until the very end of the story. And when they do appear, they are in the form of a flashback. Thus, the reader drops into the story years after the climax has occurred (the lover leaving). The story is also devoid of resolution and there is no epiphany for the main character. The story ends with uncertainty and the reader can only assume that nothing changes. The protagonist continues on emotionally empty in her marriage; lacking any true passion. In terms of point of view, “Janus” employs a third person, limited omniscient narrator. The reader is only able to bear witness to the protagonist’s thoughts and feelings. The narration is also limited in the sense that the narrator limits what is revealed to the reader. This limiting creates the element of surprise when the bowl’s origin is revealed at the end (608). The reader can then shift from “what” is happening to Andrea, to “why” it is happening. The narration relies very little on dialog but the small injections of dialog play a crucial role in the story’s development. The husband’s one word response “Pretty” to the bowl reflects the lack of emotion between the couple and his complete disconnection to Andrea’s inner thoughts and feelings (606). The words spoken by the ex-lover are perhaps the most poignant of all. He refers to Andrea as “two-faced” and denounces her desire to live two separate lives (608). Beattie spends little time on character development and what little traits she doles out, are implicit and call upon the reader to piece together the personalities of the three characters. The construction of the two male characters helps build the opposing thematic elements of stability and passion. Andrea’s husband is portrayed as a financially secure stockbroker who takes pleasure in material possessions (606-7). He even takes pleasure in Andrea buying things for herself (606). Although Andrea believes her and her spouse are similar in their “quiet” and “reflective” demeanors, she reflects on how her husband finds difficulty in confronting “gray matters” or issues that are “multidimensional” (607). Thus, the husband becomes the pinnacle of financial security and marital stability. Yet, there is a complete lack of raw emotion between the couple. Andrea remains secretive about her own gray matter, the bowl obsession, representing a lack of intimacy in her marriage. Just as the narrator gives glimpses of the husband’s personality, the lover is also revealed in the same manner. Like the husband, there is the importance of buying material things. But in the case of the lover, he takes the initiative to buy Andrea smaller, meaningful gifts. His motive behind the gifts is for her to have material reminders of his love for her (608). Unlike the husband, Andrea’s lover is outspoken and is expressive in terms of emotional intimacy. He is passionate about his passion and wants all of Andrea or nothing (609). Thus, the lover epitomizes passion, intimacy, and true emotion. This leads to Andrea, the story’s protagonist. So much focus is on Andrea’s fixation with the bowl, that her character traits are sparse and scattered throughout the work. One of the major insights into who Andrea is involves her career. There is an ironic element to Andrea’s choice of being a real estate agent. She spends her days making strangers’ houses appear warm, happy, and inviting. Andrea uses the same principle in her personal life. She puts on airs in her marriage, appearing happy and fulfilled while in reality, she is empty and devoid of passion. As mentioned earlier, “Janus” relies little on plot and character details incorporating symbolism as its major literary element. Even the work’s title “Janus” symbolically develops the theme. The name Janus refers to the Roman God of beginnings and endings (pantheon.org). He is depicted as having two faces, one looking backward, and the other looking forward (pantheon.org). The two faces of Janus represent the two faces the ex-lover accuses Andrea of having (608). Andrea echoes Janus’ ability to look backward at her passionate love affair and forward at her comfortable marriage. Janus is one of the few Roman gods that does not have a female counterpart (pantheon.org). The title then suggests that Andrea cannot exist as a two-faced entity because one does not exist. The most obvious use of symbolism in the story is the central object: the bowl. The bowl symbolizes the thematic element of emptiness which occurs on multiple levels. Andrea is adamant about keeping the bowl empty as seen in her decorating with the bowl and her request that her husband keep his keys out of it (606). It’s as if Andrea takes comfort in the bowl’s emptiness, a direct reflection of her own emotional state. The actual shape of the bowl depicts emptiness relative to the sexual and maternal emptiness that Andrea endures. The shape of a bowl takes on a similar shape to female sexual organs, specifically the uterus. Thus, the empty bowl represents Andrea’s emptiness or lack of sexual fulfillment in her marriage. This can be taken one step further to incorporate the emptiness of Andrea’s womb. She has been married for several years but has had no children. The empty bowl remains empty because the sexual and romantic satisfaction Andrea felt with her lover has gone. Ann Beattie’s story “Janus” is a bit of a short story puzzle. The reader must put together the pieces: the minute plot details, minimal character traits, and the subtle use of symbolism, in order to create a literary whole. Once together, the reader is left with uncertainty as to whether it is fruitful to be safe and financially secure in marriage, or be passionate and unsure in love. Beattie gives no answer; just an empty bowl. Outside Source Definition of Janus: http://www.pantheon.org/articles/j/janus.html Text Box: Link to Word Document Close Reading