Indledning
’The Stowaway’ by Julian Barnes is a short story published in 1989. ‘The Stowaway’ is a part of Barnes’ short story collection “A history of the world in 10½ Chapters”, which includes both historical and fictional stories.
‘The Stowaway’ is the first chapter of his collection, which in a chronological order would make sense, as that according to the bible, was the beginning of mankind.
Upon reading ‘The Stowaway’ it very soon appears that the plot, or the motif, of the short story is an account of the well-known Noah from the bible.
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Uddrag
Noah was even too proud to let the birds navigate the ARK. - “Of course, the birds offered to put their expertise at Noah’s disposal; but he was too proud.” - (Page 20 line 4).
Noah was accordingly jealous of a particular animal. The unicorn was described as strong, honest, and fearless. - (Page 16 Line 21). And that was just to name a fraction of the deadly sins being enlightened in the short story.
So, upon a first quick read, it would seem that the theme(s) of this short story might be about how Noah and mankind for that matter, was and still is not all that friendly and respectful.
The worst part about the short story was that it was not just Noah, who supposedly was an awful person. According to the stowaway, it was multiple members of his family. Terrible incidents had been reported while they were on the ark.
One such example was when Shem happened to catch a couple of lemmings who attempted to jump overboard, as they could not “bare the suspense.” (Page 22 Line 17).
Shem then locked them up in a packing-case, as he would slide open the top of their box, whilst waving a big knife around inside.
Ham’s wife was neither all that innocent. A bit lustful perhaps. She was rumored to have been putting the Unicorn’s horn to ignoble use.
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