We should not confuse the author of the novel Three Men in a Boat with its main character. Jerome K. Jerome is the author. He based this book on a series of actual river trips he made with two friends, but without a dog. Even though “J.,” the narrator of the story, shares some common characteristics with the author, the two are not the same individual. Jerome was a humor essayist, journalist and author. His character “J.” doesn’t seem to have much of an occupation, other than expressing his opinions and telling stories. And in Chapter XV, he lets us know what he thinks of work.
It always does seem to me that I am doing more work than I should do. It is not that I object to the work, mind you; I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me: the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart.
You cannot give me too much work; to accumulate work has almost become a passion with me: my study is so full of it now, that there is hardly an inch of room for any more. I shall have to throw out a wing soon.
The narrator paints a picture here—and elsewhere in his storytelling—that he famously tries to avoid work whenever he can. He just lets it pile up without attending to it, he says. But his actions don’t always support this claim. Yes, he would prefer that George and Harris do the heavy work on the boat. But he does his fair share when they don’t. He helped to plan and to execute this boat trip along the river, which indicates that he has organizational skills. And he makes a good third for this team of three men. Each one has a personality and a skill set that makes up for deficiencies of the others. The fact that “J.” is writing down all of these stories, or at least retelling them for the readers’ benefit, shows that he is meticulous about remembering and recording details. A truly lazy person may say, “Why bother?” I believe that neither Jerome or “J.” are lazy individuals.
No comments:
Post a Comment