Describe Salvatore
Salvatore by wsomerset mougham
Atleast half page
Answers
Explanation:
The story “Salvatore” by William Somerset Maugham begins abruptly with “I wonder if I can do it.” The writer is doubtful whether he can hold our attention for a few pages when he narrates the story of Salvatore.
Salvatore was fifteen years old, the eldest son of an Italian fisherman. He had a pleasant face and happily took care of his two younger brothers. He spent his morning lying on the sea-beach and used to swim effortlessly in the sea where his father used to catch fish.
As Salvatore grew, he fell in love and was betrothed to a girl who lived on the Grande Marina. The girl was pretty and had beautiful eyes.
and the loveliest that anyone can have” – the quality of goodness.
The story Salvatore by Somerset Maugham (pronounced as ‘mawm’) is a very short, simple and straightforward story written in third person narrative technique. The author just tells the readers the story of a fisherman named Salvatore who lived in an Italian Island.
The story is actually a biographical sketch of the protagonist (main character) Salvatore in chronological order. The story begins when he was a boy of fifteen and ends when he is a middle-aged man with two children and a wife living peacefully a hard life of a common fisherman.
There is nothing extraordinary in Salvatore’s life except that he catches a disease rheumatism from which he never completely recovers and the breakup of the engagement with the girl he had loved. But as a curious reader you may expect a turn of events, a twist in the tale, towards the end of the story. But that never happens. The ending of the story may well dishearten some readers, and at the same time may amuse others. The lack of a complex plot and a twist that the readers are used to see most of the time makes us wonder if it has really been a story or just an accumulation of events.
But the main theme of the story, as the writer Maugham himself clarifies at the very end, has been the portrayal of a quality in Salvatore’s life — “Goodness, just goodness”. Hence, the story, though apparently seems to be mere narration of events in a young man’s life, is actually a masterly character sketch of the man.
If there is anything mentionable about the style, the beginning and the ending of the story are somewhat uncommon, as the author directly communicates to the readers to say that he just tried to see whether he could hold our attention for a while as he went on to draw the portrait of a man named Salvatore.
Moreover, the writer has not used a lot of direct speeches as we see in most short stories. He rather relies on his own narration of the events. In many places (Salvatore’s marriage with Assunta, his relationship with her etc.) author avoids details to keep the story short.