“Insignificant Gestures”
“Insignificant Gestures” is a short story written by Jo Cannon in 2007. The story deals with the narrator’s experiences as a young expatriate doctor in Africa and how they have influenced him and his life. The conditions in Africa when the narrator worked there where very rough and characterised by poverty. The only consolation in his otherwise gloomy everyday life was Celia, the native servant working for him. Celia shared his passion for drawing and lit up his existence. When she by an unfortunately accident dies, the narrator is crushed and filled with guilt. To forget about the events in Africa he retrains as psychiatrist since he cannot bear to witness ...view middle of the document...
Celia reminds him of the little freedom he is granted every evening when she is drawing next to him, this is the time where he is able free his mind from the horrible things he witnesses at work. Their relationship never becomes physical, it is strictly based on mutual respect for each other, and no words are needed to reflect this, the presence of the of each other is enough and sufficient. Celia is his companion. The relationship between them gets even stronger when Celia one day starts to protect the narrator from cockroaches. “The carnage appalled me, but I was secretly touched.” (page 3 lines 69-70).
When The narrator fails to safe Celia, the passion and freedom he felt when drawing, dies away with her. On the one hand, he feels sorry for the loss of his beloved Celia and their relationship, because she was his source of happiness. On the other hand, he blames himself for her death, because he knows that his relationship with Celia was what in the end killed her. In other words, if the narrator instead of reacting emotionally, on the fact that, she had been beaten up by her boyfriend, he would have been able to examine her like a professional. Then he would have discovered the meningitis symptoms in time and then given her the proper treatment to safe her life. On top of that, he also caused the imprisonment of a young and innocent boy. His error of judgement destroyed two lives and now he has to live with it.
The specific information received about the narrator is very limited, although, there is an overflow of adjectives and verbs, which make some descriptions very detailed. The reader has to put the information and meaning together by themselves based on the narrator’s respective thoughts and actions. Whilst, in Africa the narrator believes that he can make a difference despite of the horrible conditions. You get the impression that he is an upright man, who follows the principles of right and wrong, he wants what is best for others, but after the unfortunately accident with Celia he becomes emotionally enclosed and filled with guilt. “I would do things...
