What plan did salvatore wonder to do
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Answer:
Salvatore is a short story by Somerset Maugham that has the ability to charm the reader through its simplicity. No clever plots, no suspense or reliance on wit. The beauty of Salvatore lies in its simplicity and the simplicity derives its integrity through the masterful characterization of the protagonist. The narrator traces the life of a certain ‘Salvatore’ and shows us the goodness of this man playing out in the different aspects of his less than perfect life.
The story opens with the narrator expressing a sense of doubt in what he is attempting:
“I wonder if I can do it“.
Towards the end of the story, his simple ambition is revealed : of holding the reader’s attention for a few pages while he draws the portrait of an ordinary man foreseeing the rare virtue of goodness. And clearly, he has.
Salvatore | Summary
We first come across Salvatore through the eyes of the narrator as a carefree boy of fifteen. Being a son of an Italian fisherman, Salvatore spends most of his time around the beach. This jolly kid with a “pleasant face and a laughing mouth” loves to swim, climb the rocks and frolic around in a carefree fashion. This boy with a body “as thin as as rail” acts as a nursemaid to his brothers, ever watchful of their safety and always makes sure that they do not miss their frugal midday meal.
Salvatore grows up with great rapidity, falls madly in love with a girl from Grand Marina and he desires to tie the knot with her. However, the duty towards his country calls him to join the Navy of King Victor Emmanuel and he has to leave his hometown before they get married.
He “weeps like a child” on finding himself in foreign lands and is terribly homesick, especially when Ischia and Mount Vesuvius are no longer within his sight. Moreover, parting from his lover is the hardest part for him to bear and he resorts to writing long, ill-spelt letters to her. Salvatore is then tossed around from Venice, to Bali, to China and ends up falling terribly ill. He bears his hardship with “the patience of a dog” and is told he’ll never be able to do manual work and is no longer fit for service. Our man is delighted. He can finally return to his lover.
Salvatore is in for a rude shock though. The girl doesn’t show up to receive him when he returns home. Sure, his family members do fawn over him on his arrival. But the girl just isn’t there. Soon, we see him going to the house of his lover only to be rudely jilted by her. His Lady love says that she cannot marry a man “who would never be strong enough to work like a man“. Salvatore is heartbroken. However, despite the tragedy, this spurned lover never breathes a word of malice against his ex: “His smile was very sad and his eyes had the look of a dog that has been beaten, but he did not complain, and he never said a hard word of the girl he had loved so well“.
A few months later, he attracts the attention of a young woman called Assunta whom he immediately declares to be “as ugly as the