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Insignificant Gestures

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Do you know how a little insignificant gesture can do a big change? “Insignificant Gestures” is a short story written by an author named Jo Cannon in 2007. It is a story about a young doctor who is stationed in Africa where he tells us about all the horror he experienced. At his time in Africa, he relates to his servant, Celia, a young African girl, who as the doctor shares a common love for drawing.
After returning from Africa, the narrator retrained as a psychiatrist. “I never wanted to smell blood again. Or the sweet nail-varnish odour of starvation. Or any other reek of human suffering. I couldn’t bear to witness another death.”(p. 1, l. 1-3) In these lines the narrator clearly describes how all the death, sickness and hunger has torn him apart and destroyed him mentally. You can almost compare him to a war veteran who returns from war with scars in their soul. To begin with the narrator was a doctor or as described in the text, a “district health officer”(p. 1, l. 27). He is an intelligent person, which also is expressed in the phrase “district health officer, at the absurdly young age of twenty-eight”(p. 1, l. 27). The narrator has a big heart in the way he decided to keep Celia as a servant. At first he believed that having a servant was a symbol of inequality and exploitation, but after getting reminded by the hospital matron about him having lots of money, and how Celia’s family depends on her, he decides to keep her. He has always had a passion for drawing, from back when he was a teen and used to cover sheet after sheet of paper with interwoven figures (p. 1, l. 21).
The relationship between the narrator and Celia is a bit hard to define and figure out. It is very hard to figure out if they are romantically involved or if they only share the same passion for drawing. They never really spoke to each other, and most of the time they spent apart. “I asked little of her; my life was simple and working long hours, I didn’t make much mess. Celia swept the red dust from the concrete floors and washed and ironed my clothes. She grew vegetables in the garden, but, ashamed to let a servant prepare my meals, I cooked them myself”(p. 2, l. 35-38).
At first, the narrator had no desire for a servant but decided to keep Celia after speaking to the hospital matron. “Celia was my companion; our elbows at the table never touched. I marveled that with only three years of schooling she could draw so well. She was a natural”(p. 2, l. 55-56). In this line, the narrator describes how well Celia draws. This impresses the narrator, who also makes it clear that there is no physical contact between them. “I knew what the hospital staff said, but they were wrong”(p. 2, l. 52). Again he indicates that they aren’t involved with each other in any way. “They had heard the story from the village women. Her mother had found her like this, behind their hut. Her boyfriend beat her”(p. 3, l. 91). The night the narrator is set to operate on Celia, the nurses had given him this story from the women in the village. This could indicate that the boyfriend also may have had the idea of something romantic going on between the narrator and Celia. Some gossip about Celia being involved with the narrator could have made Celia’s boyfriend aggressive, which may be the reason to why he beat her.
“For the first time in my life, desire for revenge set like lava around my heart. I couldn’t think straight, couldn’t sleep or eat”(p. 3, l. 113-114). This describes how the narrator feels after he got the message about Celia’s boyfriend being locked into prison. It seems like the boyfriend is his biggest enemy in the world at that time because he was the person who took Celia away from him. Nevertheless, the narrator forgives the boyfriend after he gets the e-mail from the hospital, informing him about Celia’s true cause of death. “…I wanted to change my statement and that the boy should be released.”(p. 4, l. 127). Even though the narrator has made it clear throughout the entire story, that Celia and he only where companions, his error of judgment may indicate that he had feelings for her. When the narrator was brought to the ward Celia was lying in, he has a hard time following his procedures precisely. “My hands trembled but the lumbar puncture went in at the third attempt,”(p. 3, l. 93-94). This is a clear indication of the narrator being nervous and involving feelings into his job. Despite of his intelligence he has a lack when it comes to dealing with something personal. He reacts on second hand stories from frightened village women who had jumped to conclusions. Because of his error of judgment in this situation, Celia had to pay with her life. If he could have separated the person in front of him, and focused on the job he had to do, he would have known what to do. However, I believe that very few people may be able to act completely professional if one of their loved ones lay in front of them about to pass away.
The significance of time and place fills a lot in this story. There are not a lot of people in the world who can accustom oneself to a new place right away. This may also be the reason why the narrator ends up with such a strong relationship to Celia. Despite of all the blood and dead bodies at the hospital, he is able to look past these things by drawing with Celia. She is his way out of his misery at work. However, this also makes him put a lot of memories into the specific moment. After Celia’s death, he never draws again because it’s too hard emotionally for him. “That’s why I don’t draw anymore – I don’t like the places my thoughts go when set free”(p. 4, l. 133-134). This is probably also why he changes career and almost identity.

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