Life Carries On In the short story “The Fly” by Katherine Mansfield, a wealthy empowered man is faced with the grief of his son six years after his passing. The boss is conveyed to be a demanding, strong business man but, when faced with the remembrance of his son, he instantly changes his tone, pursuing two sides to the boss. Mansfield’s “The Fly” illustrates the hardship of death by the innocent killing of a fly, which than demonstrates a sense of relief to carry on in life. The passing of the boss’s son creates a burden on his life. Six years since his son’s death, the boss cannot feel any sense of emotion. It is certain the boss is still having a hard time as the remark by Woodifield about the remembrance of his son’s death came as
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The fly tried its hardest to survive, although the matter of its death was only in the hands of the boss. Time and time again, the fly would free itself of the nasty ink that covered its whole body, but the boss would just begin the treacherous process of putting ink on the fly all over again. Finally, the boss put the final end to the fly’s struggle: “and the boss decided that this time should be the last,” and it was. The fly in the story ironically represents the boss’s son in many ways. When faced with the remembrance of his son, the boss still has a sense of struggle: “At that moment the boss noticed that a fly had fallen into his broad inkpot … but the sides of the inkpot were wet and slippery; it fell back again and began to swim.” This exemplifies the struggle the boss is facing about the death of his son, but when he thinks about him he slips back into the burden of his son’s death. After throwing the dead fly into the garbage, the boss’s true emotion of a relief came through as the narrator states, “But such a grinding feeling of wretchedness seized him that he felt positively frightened.” The boss wasn’t feeling sad or any regret after he killed the fly. In addition, the boss also “wasn’t feeling as he wanted to feel,” which shows he has no real emotion but more of a sense of guilt for not feeling anything towards his son’s death anymore. The throwing away of his struggle that he had faced for so long has finally been relieved and a sense of moving on was coming about for the
The fly tried its hardest to survive, although the matter of its death was only in the hands of the boss. Time and time again, the fly would free itself of the nasty ink that covered its whole body, but the boss would just begin the treacherous process of putting ink on the fly all over again. Finally, the boss put the final end to the fly’s struggle: “and the boss decided that this time should be the last,” and it was. The fly in the story ironically represents the boss’s son in many ways. When faced with the remembrance of his son, the boss still has a sense of struggle: “At that moment the boss noticed that a fly had fallen into his broad inkpot … but the sides of the inkpot were wet and slippery; it fell back again and began to swim.” This exemplifies the struggle the boss is facing about the death of his son, but when he thinks about him he slips back into the burden of his son’s death. After throwing the dead fly into the garbage, the boss’s true emotion of a relief came through as the narrator states, “But such a grinding feeling of wretchedness seized him that he felt positively frightened.” The boss wasn’t feeling sad or any regret after he killed the fly. In addition, the boss also “wasn’t feeling as he wanted to feel,” which shows he has no real emotion but more of a sense of guilt for not feeling anything towards his son’s death anymore. The throwing away of his struggle that he had faced for so long has finally been relieved and a sense of moving on was coming about for the