Analysis of the Astronomers Wife Essays - 791 Words

Analysis of The Astronomers Wife In the Astronomers Wife by Kay Boyle, something as simple as a conversation with a plumber about a stopped elbow is enough to trigger an awakening in Mrs. Katherine Ames. When Mrs. Ames realized that the plumber was talking about something she understood (the stopped elbow), she realized that her marital problems were not the result of a division betwwen the sexes; instead, she realized that some men, like the plumber, are as practical as she is, and that some other men, like her husband, scorn people like her because they are intellectually inclined. Previous to this discovery, Katherine did not realize that there were different kinds of men, and therefore she did not realize that she and her†¦show more content†¦The division between people in her mind was no longer just between men and women; it was now the working and the thinking, those who had always gone up, [and] others who went down, like the corporeal being of the dead. She now recognized that there were both phys ical and spiritual human beings, herself and the plumber being the former, and her husband being the latter. The theme is revealed in the way that these two classes of people, the toilers and the thinkers, react to the world. The people who work with their hands, when they see weeds springing up, [do] not move to tear them up from life. In other words, people like Mrs, Ames, upon recognizing something that occupies the same position in society that they do, such as the often ill- regarded weed, do not feel compelled to destroy it. Weeds, like the workers, although considered ugly, are as necessary for nature to be in balance as the more beautiful flower is. However, people like the astronomer could balance and divide, weed out, destroy. This indicates that people with lofty ambitions, like the astronomer, do not regard the common people as necessary for the world to run smoothly, and would rather obliterate them. The astronomer does not realize that by unclogging