I've noticed a common theme among many of Porter's stories, that being the somewhat adolescent male figure caught between the desire for excitement and for marriage.
In "Theft," all of the men have mistresses that are more exciting than their wives. In "Maria Concepcion," Juan ping-pongs between Maria Concepcion and Maria Rosa (one providing the sustenance of chicken, the other the indulgence of sweet honey). And in "That Tree," our protagonist bounces between married life with the prim schoolteacher who functions more as a mother figure and an exciting life of poetry, art and unattached Mexican women.
What's interesting about "That Tree" is that Porter, for the first time, is giving the male's side of the story. While it's no more flattering than the others, it does offer a different perspective on this thread that runs through many of Porter's stories.
In all of these stories, marriage is an undesirable end for the male figures, perpetuating a timeless stereotype. In "That Tree," the protagonist is so noncommittal that he talks himself out of paternity of a child. The single life for these male characters is something exotic, fulfilling. Marriage is a necessary evil, and time and again wives are seen not as romantic interests or life partners but as replacements for mothers.
Braggioni keeps a wife at home to wash his feet, but prefers to play music to Laura. Married men buy purses for their mistresses, not their wives. Juan relies on Maria Concepcion for food, but runs off with Maria Rosa.
As for our protagonist in "That Tree," if his stated motives are to be believed, he ultimately chooses life with this mother figure, though that doesn't seem to be his true desire. She is the character that comes in and improves his living conditions, encourages him to break ties with his slacker friends and pushes him into journalism, garnering "the kind of success you can clip out of newspapers and paste in a book, you can count it and put it in the bank..."
I wonder what Porter's ultimate conclusion is on this topic. Is this theme prominent in her work because these are her observations? Or is Porter, whose romantic life appears to be more aligned with these male figures in her stories, working out her own issues?
1 comment:
That's what I was wondering also, because I sympathized with both the journalist and with Mariam at various points in the story. I think Porter's sympathies are hard to pin down as well: it might be that she struggles with ambivalence--at the end of a relationship, it can be impossible to gain perspective because you are always limited to your own version of what happened. I think Porter, who had many relationships, probably encountered this. In a narrative that involves unsuccessful love, there seems to be a need for every reader to choose a side and decide who they favor for blame, but That Tree makes that instinct difficult to follow through (to Porter's credit).
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