Trying to find the "Theme" of a short story

**SuperBowlNachos** · 10-06-2009, 11:58 PM

Re: Trying to find the "Theme" of a short story

Post the story

**MrNFL_FanIQ** · 10-07-2009, 12:23 AM

Re: Trying to find the "Theme" of a short story

Alright. It's called "Straight Pool" by John O'Hara, copyright 1935. It is a Dramatic Monologue.

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oNotOptimizeForBrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><style>  </style> I’ll shoot you fifty points if you spot me ten balls. Isn’t that a laugh? You spotting me. Snowball! Rack ‘em up for straight pool. I’ll play it safe.<o></o>
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It is a laugh, you spotting me, when I used to beat you fifty to thrity-five. For a while there-I’ll play the four-ball, cross sides- for a while there I could beat you fifty to thirty-five without any trouble, but now I’m lucky if I can beat you with you spotting me fifty to forty. Eleven-ball. Your shot, and there they are, all open for you. You know, I’m not making any alibi, Jack, but this is the first time I’ve had a cue in my hand in over a month. Oh, geez, way over a month. I bet it’s two months. I had to practically pack up a suitcase and join the Army or something to get out tonight. Mae and one of her crying spells again. Damn it, Jack- oh, nice shot, atta working in there- you know I’m not a hard guy to get along with. At least I don’t think I am, but Mae gets these crying spells, and honest to God, I can’t stay in the house another minute. And then if I say I’m going out, even if it’s only for a pack of cigarettes, why, she suddenly all of a sudden stops crying and sits there looking at me, not saying a word, and it’s worse than her crying. I don’t know what makes her do that. If I stay, she cries all the time I’m there, and if I make a move to go out of the house- honest, I’m afraid to leave her alone. When she gets in one of these spells, she’s liable to do anything, so I very seldom leave. But I can stand only so much. I’m only human, just like anybody else; and you go around fixing refrigerators all day long, getting up and sitting down and answering dumb questions, and any man would want some peace when he gets home. But not me. I mean, do I get it? No, I come home and it’s an even chance she’s going to have a crying spell. I never can tell how it’s going to be till I’m home a while, and then all of a sudden she’s liable to get up from the table and be gone a half an hour, and I eat by myself and finally I have to do the dishes. And when I go to the bedroom, it’s always the same story. She’s lying there on the bed and when I come in the room she won’t even look at me. She says, “Did you do the dishes?” and I say, “Yes,” and she says I shouldn’t of. Then I tell her if she feels lousy she ought to go to bed, but I know damn well it isn’t that she feels sick or anything. I mean there’s nothing wrong with her. I had her go to the doctor to see if there was anything really wrong with her, but there wasn’t. She had an aunt that died of cancer, and I thought maybe she was afraid of that, but now. She was ok, according to the doctor.<o

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That was a tough one to miss, Jack. Play the ten, in the side. Now the one-ball in the corner. That makes it ten to four this frame, and look at that break shot. Hey, Snowball, rack ‘em up. I’ll play it off the pill….Kee-ripes! What a miss! There you are, all yours.<o

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So after she went to see the doctor and he said there was norhing wrong. I thought maybe it was just something that would wear off. You know how women are. They get these funny ideas in their heads and all they need is a little attention. So I stayed home a lot and took her to the pictures and I didn’t go out of the house except to go to work, and it looked for a while as if she was all right. So one night I said I was going down and shoot a game of pool. “Who with?” she said. And I said I didn’t know, just going down to the Olympic and see if there was anybody there. “No you’re not,” she said. “You’re going down there and talk about me. You’re going to talk about me with Jack McMorrow.” She said. “No, I wasn’t” I told her. I said maybe I’d shoot a game with you, but I said I wasn’t going to talk about her to you, and that was the last time I was down here. I guess that must have been close to two months ago.<o

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Nice run, boy. I don’t see how you missed that one. It was dead for the corner. You’re not giving me any breaks, are you? … Well, there’s my high run. Three balls. You’ll be out in five frames the way I’m playing.<o></o>
Well, when I got home that night, the last time I was down here, the first thing she wanted to know was did I talk to you about her, and I told her I didn’t even see you. She has some kind of a fear about us talking about her, I guess. It must have been that, because every time since then, every time I wanted to come down here she put on that stare act and I’d be afraid to leave her.<o

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Nice shot.<o></o>
I’d be afraid to leave her on account of I didn’t know what would happen while I was gone. She was nuts on the subject of you. Not about you, exactly, but about us talking about her. Jack McMorrow! Jack McMorrow! For some reason I can’t fathom out she had this idea that when you and me get together we’d always talk about her. She’d say, “I know men. They always talk about girls that way.” I said to her, “Listen,” I said, “a man doesn’t go to a poolroom to talk about his wife, At least I don’t,” I said. I said, “I go to a poolroom to shoot pool,” But I couldn’t convince her. <o></o>
Well, you left me safe enough. Play the five.<o></o>
Well, I decided I had to humor her. There was something wrong that she wouldn’t tell me about, and I decided to humor her for a while and maybe it’d come out all right. She was always talking about you, always you, ad you were the one she had this idea about, so I said to her, I told her I wouldn’t see you any more. I said I’d stop going down to the Olympic, and she knew I wouldn’t see you anywhere else, and that made her feel alright, I think, because the crying spells slackened off and stopped altogether. So she seemed to be all right again and when I had to go to Waterbury, Connecticut, two weeks ago, to attend the funeral of my aunt, I asked her if she wanted to go along but she said no, and then I said I wouldn’t go, and she said she was all right, and she sounded all right, so I went to Waterbury to this funeral and stayed overnight. Well, I guess that’s where I made my mistake. I shouldn’t have left her alone overnight. When I came back from Waterbury, I could see she was all upset and nervous, and she had one of her crying spells and so on, and then the day before yesterday I came home and she was cockeyed drunk with a bottle of gin. I never saw her so drunk. We had a big fight and all. A hell of a fight, and yesterday she didn’t get up for breakfast, and last night when I came home from work, she wouldn’t say a word. And then tonight when I came home, the same story over again. Cockeyed again. “What’s the idea?” I said, and we had it out hot and heavy, but she didn’t want me to leave, so I said I’d leave all right, and she was lucky if I came back. I got the hell out of the house as sore as a boil. I guess I oughtn’t to be talking about her like this, especially to you, because you’re the one she thinks is always talking about her, but I have to talk to somebody. I think I’ll go to Brooklyn and get drunk. How about it?…<o

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What’s the matter? You quitting?…Oh! If I’d of known you had a date, we could of made it twenty-five points. You’re ahead anyhow, and I don’t feel like shooting much. Guess I’ll go to Brooklyn. My brother just got a gallon of apple…<o

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**deaduck** · 10-07-2009, 12:47 AM

Re: Trying to find the "Theme" of a short story

The Theme is reflected two fold...

In the game, the speaker concentrates on the shot in front of him so much he loses track of the the table.

Much as he focuses on his wifes behavior and how it only affects him that he misses the clues to the "source" of it.

The theme is along the lines of if you concentrate on how hard it is to breath in a room of smoke, you'll be burned by the fire.

**MrNFL_FanIQ** · 10-07-2009, 06:17 PM

Re: Trying to find the "Theme" of a short story

Hmm. Interesting take. Thanks for the input!

**Whitesox** · 10-07-2009, 08:46 PM

Re: Trying to find the "Theme" of a short story

I agree with Deaduck. Also, Holy wall'o text!

Trying to find the "Theme" of a short story

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Trying to find the "Theme" of a short story

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