Theft by Katherine Anne Porter

The main character in Katherine Anne Porters' short story "Theft" is a poor woman at the age about late 20s with a beautiful purse. The purse is a thread which associates with several episodes and in each event it reveals the main character's inner personality. The first episode is her encounters with three men who stand for lover, friend and neighbor. The second event is the theft of her purse. Lastly, the protagonist confronts the thief. In each episode the main character displays her intimate personality.

The background of the story is the “Red 30’s” that the western world was dominated by the ideology of Communism which values equality, sense of common that everything is own by society. Influenced and affected by such ideology, the heroine take no care of her procession, both the tangible (money and property) ones and intangible ones (kinship, friendship, love and happiness of life, etc.) “Let it go” is the only conclusion she made for the unpleasant experiences she came across. The only strike-back she made was when she found the purse was stolen. The purse is from an very important friend and meaningful to her. She broke her silence and demanded the theft to give it back. But the theft argued that her beauty was fading and she did not need it any more that she should give it to another younger girl. Reviewing her life, the heroine realized that it had been her carelessness and indifference that made her lose everything and her attitude towards life is more terrible than a theft. “I was right not to be afraid of any theft but myself, who will end by leaving me nothing.”

Katherine Anne Porter’s Theft

Realism was developed after the civil war, which is defined as “the faithful representation of reality”. The age of Realism is reaction against romanticism and an interest in scientific method. The sweeping changes of economy, society, and politics, which took place in post-war life, allowed American realism to prevail. Realism started with the realistic and frontier literature that merged into the mainstream through authors such as Mark Twain up to now.

Realism is characterized by natural diction, truthful description of life, typical character under typical circumstance, revelation the frustrations of characters in an environment of sordidness and depravity, and open ending.

Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980) was a creative writer who was born in Indian Creek, Texas.

Her best writings were written in the form of short stories. She described herself as “precocious, nervous, rebellious, intractable, to which also one could add individualistic.” She is known as a modern writer, but in her short stories, there are also realistic factors.

Take “theft” as example. The background of this story was set in the city of New York during the great depression. It describes one corner of the society during the 1930s：the stagnant setting, the men in dry dock, the hypocrisy of the society, the depraved mental status of people and the conflict between classes…

“She had intended to take the elevated, and naturally she looked in her purse to make certain she had the fare, and was pleased to find forty cents in the coin envelope.”p186And when she lost her purse, it was empty. “She was thinking about her empty purse…”p190

 It shows that she is pretty poor caused by the economic depression. In addition, the figures of the three men are typical characters in that time. We can see all people’s disillusioned mental status through those three men and the protagonist.

“The more it skids the calmer I feel, so I really must be drunk.”p187

The purse the protagonist had lost is a symbol of money or wealth in some degree. The purse is a beautiful “golden cloth” one which implies her class. And the janitress would rather steal the purse than accepting it as a alms. And the narrator shared money with every an in the story, except the janitress .From this, we can see the bitter conflict between classes.

From this short story, we can see the gap between people. The coldness of the society and people. “She laid the purse on the table and sat down with the cup of chilled coffee.”P193 People do not understand each other (husband and wife) and the loss of love. All of them was caused by the society.

The early of 20th century was a roaring decades of great turbulence and crises. There prevailed disillusion anywhere. Katherine Anne Porter is a communist in the early 20th century because of the Mexican revolution and her inborn passion of rebel. And the Sacco-Vanzetti affair is another cause fired her political indignation in the 1920s. But the failed Mexican revolution and injustice of the Sacco-Vanzetti affair coalesced in Porter's mind as the annihilation of her idealistic faith. The short story “theft” is a microcosmic society, which reflected porter’s point of view and the state of mind.

Purse is traditionally even a metonym for money. Just like the description in the great Gatsby, the American society then prevailed materialism. Finally, everyone’s dream will be destroyed.  All the other characters in the story are associated with the protagonist by money. It is ironic. However, when the purse was stolen, the narrator began to review her past behaviors. She found that materialism is evil and suppress the spiritual. But when she decided to give up the purse, she felt perplexed and aimless. She lost her faith in the society.

 And porter apply herself to feminism. The protagonist is a writer just as porter. She is a kind of vivid and typical characters created though the experience of life. Feminine life condition and her difficulties in the society is porter’s concern. Through the description of the narrator’s straits, porter criticize the patriarchy. Porter lived in the time of the second wave of feminist movement. Her concern about female is full of actuality.

Porter is a stylist. Her diction is accurate and natural. The ending of “theft” is open ending, which leaves much room for readers to think by themselves. And she used the stream of consciousness in her works. 

小说以20世纪30年代美国经济大萧条时期的纽约市为背景，关注的人群是纽约戏剧界的艺术家或者文人。女主人公是像波特一样的作家兼评论家。小说并没有传统意义上的故事情节，围绕着“钱包”丢失这个线索，女主人公展开了一些与此有关的回忆活动。一桩小小的偷窃事件，一个平淡无奇的故事。但是波特的独到之处就在于能够从浅显的故事中挖掘出人们心灵深处的困惑和深刻的哲理。本文拟就《偷窃》的艺术特色做三方面的分析：人物的刻画、场景的设计以及结构的组织。一、精致刻画的人物。就像很多女性作家一样，波特小说中的主人公多为女性。不同的是，她刻画的女主人公心理和性格更为复杂丰满，作者在作品主题意义上的挖掘也更为深刻。她们都具有强烈的独立意识，依靠自我的力量追求属于自己的生活，其中难免挫折失败甚至失望幻灭，而那些无法控制的社会、政治与自然力量常常是导致这一切的因素。波特小说的女主人公在这样的经历之后的感悟往往会启迪读者的思维，唤起读者对人性更深刻的认识。独到的人物刻画方式是波特写作风格的一个显著特征。她善于洞察人物的所思所想，使读者能够跟随她体验角色的内心世界。女主人公“她”在小说中是一个没有被冠以姓名的概念人物，可以被看作是美国经济大萧条时期众多女性的化身，“她”的所见、所闻、所思、所感代表了美国那个特殊历史时期大多数妇女的经历和感受。在创作中，波特采用了意识流手法的变体，称之为“全景式或全方位”（selective omniscient point of view）的描写手法[1]。作者聚焦于一个人物“她”身上，运用侧面叙述的自由形式，通过一个客观的观察者来从外部描绘这个人物，同时又借助于人物自己的思想和回忆从内部进行刻画。例如，当“她”走出浴室，发现钱包不见了时，波特描写道：她穿好衣服，煮了咖啡，坐在窗旁喝咖啡。肯定是那个女工友把钱包拿走了，要拿回那只钱包，就得可笑地大吵大闹一顿，还是随它去吧。可是，她心里一作出这个决定，血液里同时冒出一股非常的、简直是势不可挡的怒火来。[2]304精炼的词句细腻地展示了女主人公微妙复杂的感情和心理活动，刻画了“她”听之任之的处事原则和想坚持又不坚决的软弱性格。另外，与女主人公交往的其他几位人物形象也刻画得十分鲜明。卡米洛（Camilo）每次绅士地为她付车费，可却像所有男人一样死爱面子，与“她”分别之后马上把帽子藏在上衣内挡雨。罗杰（Roger）同样绅士地请“她”共乘出租车回家，却向“她”索要车费。比尔（Bill）是几个男人中最富有的，却拖欠“她”的稿费。“她”全身淋湿回到家中，既没有听到半句关切的话，也没有拿到应得的稿费，反过来还要忍受比尔的牢骚和抱怨。埃迪（Eddie）虽然只是出现在“她”的记忆中，却是最残忍的。从他不合逻辑的话语中可以看出他对“她”极不负责，这让“她”伤心至极。在小说高潮部分“她”与女工友（the janitress）的冲突中，我们可以看到工友虚伪的一面。她甚至敢亵渎对上帝的虔诚，矢口否认偷钱包的事实。在发觉“她”退让的时候，更借机对“她”恶言相向，并推脱自己的罪责，给对方增加负疚感。由此，卡米洛的虚荣浅薄，罗杰的虚假仁义，比尔的虚伪自私，埃迪的残忍无情以及女工友的泼辣蛮横等被描绘得淋漓尽致

Theft by Katherine Anne Porter（文本分析）