Balthazar??s Marvelous Afternoon Essay, Research Paper
Balthazar??s Marvelous Afternoon
( Why didn??t Balthazar receive the money?)
?? Balthazar??s Marvelous
Afternoon ??, written by Gabrial Garcia Marquez, is a
story about a birdcage and a poor carpenter,
Balthazar. In the story, Balthazar made a beautiful
birdcage that was commissioned by Pepe, the son of a
rich man, Jose Montiel. However, when the carpenter
took it to the boy, his father refused to pay and
rather said to sell it other people. Although
Balthazar got really angry, he gave the cage to Pepe
as a present. At the end of the story, he told
townpeople that he got much money from the rich man
and bought everyone cerebratory drinks. Then, why
didn??t Balthazar receive the money.
First, he had no intention of
money when making beautiful cage. In the story, he was
accustomed to making and creating cage since
childhood. So when Pepe ordered a cage, he could make
small cage just quickly rather than create big and
beautiful cage for two weeks; ( p 381, ll 45~50).
Also, if he was interested in earning the money, he
would not even start to work on the cage only by
commission of the little boy because he couldn??t be
sure whether he can get money or not. However,
Balthazar was a artist rather than a common carpenter.
What he really wanted as making the cage was to make
the little boy happier.
Secondly, he felt mean and
dirty about rich man??s money. In this story, the cage
was splendid and beautiful as much as news of its
beauty had spreaded even before he finished the cage.
So even though a doctor insisted on buying that cage,
he didn??t sell it because he made only for Pepe. But
Pepe??s father treated Balthazar like a sly merchant
but praised its beauty;(p 384, ll 45~50). So,
Balthazar thought that if he received money for the
cage, it was to exchange his creative beautiful cage,
in other word his pride, with dirty and mean money.
Finally, in the story,
Balthazar was not a realist. Although money is not all
in the life, it is very difficult to live in our real
society without money. However the main character
didn??t care about money. Probably, it is because he
had no complete family. Even though he had a wife, he
was living with her without marrying and having baby.
That is, he felt less responsible to earn money than
common married man. Usually, our parents want to earn
the money as much as possible just for their children
and family, not for themselves. Throughout their long
lives and their real socity, they have learned that
money is necessary to survive and that is the reality
that they can??t avoid. However, here Balthazar felt
not so much responsible and keeping his pride and
making artwork was more important.
In conclusion, at the end of
the story, why Balthazar didn??t receive money was
because he wanted to give him just gift and he didn??t
want to sell his pride to dirty money. Moreover, in
this story, because he didn??t feel responsible for
making money, he didn??t receive money.