Last Stand by Major Pettigrew - Essay Example

? A PERSONAL RESPONSE TO MAJOR PETTIGREW’S LAST STAND Major Pettigrew’s last stand, A novel by the Helen Simonson, tells us the story about the quietness of life and love. Helen invites her reader to experience love at first sight but not at the first moment and crafts such an enchanting love story, which is brilliant and in accordance with human nature. The story is funny and messy as well as complicated. On the first page of the novel, Major Pettigrew , who has recently heard about his brother’s death opens the door of his house for Mrs. Ali, a shopkeeper at the local village store and cast a tearful eye on a dignified and elegant looking Mrs. Ali, a women who will soon win his heart. Since these two were not strangers because Major vaguely knew Mrs. Ali as she always blends tea for him at the local store. He does not feel the spark of love at first sight. Even if discreetly they like each other it is not described in the first page but the reader may work out the nervousness or positive tension between them as likeness for each other. It is the beauty of Ms. Simonson’s writing which make the beginning of the story funny, delightful and somewhat pointed. Simonson did a marvelous job of infusing so much fun and intense topic into one story meanwhile capturing the essence of a small village in England, making the story descriptive enough to make the reader imagine all those scenes and facing the characters in person rather than just reading about them. She merged different aspects of human nature into one and make them seem normal and even humanly. She touched every facet of human behavior as a consequence of varied human responses. Racism, prejudices, religious aspects, disappointment, grief, parent child relationships and most importantly unexpected but unavoidable love were described with in different characters or different situations. So many themes amalgamated into one. The 68- year old widower, Major Pettigrew was deprived of human companionship, not by luck but by choice. He spends most of his time reading and rereading his will and he prided himself on inconsequential things such as growing a mere plant. He preferred so much correctness in his character that he withdrew from the normality of life. His character and his perspective give the book a comic vision. His point of view was so rigid that nothing could take him back to life. He favors all those proper things that are preferred by English men for so many years, honor, decorum, duty and a perfectly brewed cup of tea. He is somewhat distrustful, prejudiced and polite in his nature, in short, a character that will steal a reader’s heart and stay in his mind for a long. The cast of Major Pettigrew’s character is considered very charming and funny despite his prim and proper manners and his under the breath comments about his son. He had classical tastes and proffered black tie and champagnes. He retired from teaching at school the same year when the school allowed movies to be listed in the bibliographies of literary essays; this is how rigid he was about his rules and regulations. As heart breaks, sorrows or grief has an intense effect on human nature, it can change one’s life and emotional turmoil leads to some unexpected reactions, likewise Major Pettigrew started an unforeseen friendship with Mrs. Ali. It was grief that took Major notice Mrs. Ali or anything around him. Mrs Ali, who was ten years junior from him and belonged from a Pakistani background,. However, Major Pettigrew’s Last stand is British to the bones novel. Simonson makes the jokes about Americans unrestrained behavior registered by Major Pettigrew in the novel.  The book has a couple of broadly crude American characters, and they turn up in the Major’s village in what he regards as disturbingly rapid succession.  Some of the characters in the novel are more or less caricatures, although this might be on purpose but still for deep and literary read the novel might be disappointing for some. As the story proceeds, it continuously changes its pace and nature, from worst to change for the better. In the first part, there is Major’s dignified yet warm friendship with Mrs. Ali, who is conveniently widower like him and shares the same tastes as reading books like Major. He is impressed by her shared love of books and very happy when he found that they liked the same books. In the novel, Major Pettigrew has just spent some time with Mrs. Ali, outside the boundaries of her shop and he started comparing her with her beloved wife, Nancy and the other women of the village. “Mrs. Ali was, he half suspected, an educated woman, a person of culture.  Nancy had been such a rare person, too, fond of her books and of little chamber concerts in village churches.  But she had left him alone to endure the blunt tweedy concerns of the other women of their acquaintance.  Women who talked horses and raffles at the hunt ball and who delighted in clucking over which unreliable young mother from the council cottages has messed up the arrangements for this week’s play group at the Village Hall.  Mrs. Ali was more like Nancy.  She was a butterfly to their scuttle of pigeons.  He acknowledged a notion that he might wish to see Mrs. Ali again outside of the shop, and wondered whether this might be proof that he was not as ossified as his sixty-eight years, and the limited opportunities of village life, might suggest”.(Simonson, page7) Although this might be the turning point or climax in the relationship between the two of them but still no one can pinpoint the exact moment when Major and Mrs. Ali started to feel the crumbles of warm love for each other. There are many peaks of such strong emotions but very few scenes with extreme action. Perhaps due to the age of the characters in the novel, the author tried to neutralize the emotions and actions with humor and disguised them in the clothes of dignity and integrity. And although Major himself was born in Lahore, a city of Pakistan and Mrs. Ali in Cambridge, the villagers embrace him as the exemplary local and her as a permanent foreigner. He calls the village home and pride himself in being one of them but still the locals of the society affect his harmless friendship with her in not a very harmless manner. In the second part, Major’s obnoxious son Roger, who lives in London, suggest that the Major should get rid of all of his books so that he can make a room for his television so that he has something to fill his evenings. Roger was a very different sort of person from Major and made Major feel more alone as he was unable to understand his own son nor could he complain about his peculiar behaviors’ to anyone else. For example Roger gifted his father a chic sweater once on Christmas, freshly out of designer wear, despite knowing his father’s manly attire. Moreover, he had to thank his son for his gracious gift. The story offers a good example of father son culture clash, as his son lives in the cottage with his American girlfriend, who is an impatient and brash teenager with a freakish taste of decor. Major is a man of classical taste, Simonson made him look honorable despite his flaws and it brings pleasure to read about the characters who demonstrate integrity despite their insatiability for something that is considered un-honorable by the others. The book raises the issues of class and race as the relationship between Major and Mrs. Ali blossoms, within the community and himself. There are no wars being fought over their relationship, no explosion of love or lust occurring between the two, huge moments and earthshaking events are contained in small actions and intense conversation, rather than momentous deeds. Major Pettigrew’s last stand is about quietness of life. Simonson does a great job in developing her characters, both Major and Mrs. Ali are easy to sympathize and like. It is however very interesting the growth of Major’s character realizing the prejudices in his own nature and of those around him. It is also interesting to see Mrs. Ali living up to the expectations of her family and her moral values and also her reaction towards society’s misconception of her. There are many eccentric ingredients to keep the pace of the novel bright and cheery. One of the example is worn aristocrats love of shooting and need for income collision creates a dilemma for him as he has allowed his part of property to local boy’s school and he could not comprehend that boys will not like pet ducks falling from sky on their heads. There is the issue with Mrs. Ali’s family who is as narrow-minded as the Major’s, dispute over a divided gun among the brothers which was supposed to be united at the death of one of the brother, scheming for the ownership becomes the major interest of his. Alarming and the most important of tight spot is the golf club’s theme of party. Unfortunately, idea of party produced in” Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand” leads to a disaster by the party’s potential to create misunderstandings. Considering Mrs. Ali has Pakistani relatives and the guns gifted to Major by a Maharaja, locals confuse and mix all the non- English countries and create misunderstandings and ignites the party scene. It is the aptitude and skill of the writer as Helen Simonson, who is trained a lot by American writing programs that she proudly presents this state of manipulation. There is neither a dull or boring moment nor a harsh note in the book. Although the outline of the story is rather predictable it still feels fresh to the reader. However, there was one single problem with the novels. The entire pace of the story was really slow until the end when everything started to move in a rush. This may be rather intentional but somehow it didn’t fit with the rest of the story. Although very few of the readers might feel the change of the pace it is not untrue as it seemed at some point stuffing of the pages before moving on to the next section. So Major Pettigrew's Last Stand is a sweet but not a syrupy love story. The main characters make honor and dignity admirable with enough issues to be discussed at a book club. Its main characters are especially well drawn and they are as admirable as they are entertaining. The author has emphasized on the quiet nature of the novel and in the beginning it seems difficult to keep the attention of the reader as it is so subtle but due to great writing skill of Simonton, The reader might feel himself enchanted by the world she creates and seize him/her till the end. It is about the small pleasures of life and how important for some, are these little gifts of companionship important. The story is not about someone out of the world but about people just ike us and will resonate with many of the readers. REFRENCE Top of Form Simonson, Helen. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand: A Novel. New York: Random House, 2010. Print. Bottom of Form Read More