Meaning In Guy Vanderhaeghe's 'Man Descending'

Ever go to a wedding or a dinner party and there is always that guy that decides he wants to drink more than enough whisky, resulting in him making a complete fool of himself in front of his family and friends? In my opinion Guy Vanderhaeghe's “Man Descending” does a good job providing a base for analysing dunk cousin Larry’s inner monologue. To provide some context “Man Descending” is about a man named Ed and his wife Victoria, with Ed as the unemployed alcoholic and Victoria who is a social worker that believes Ed has the capabilities of changing. In the beginning, Ed and Victoria attend a dinner hosted by some of Victoria’s friends, and among the attendees is a man named Howard a man of importance as Ed believes Howard is sleeping

It all starts with “droppings of ash in the basin”(25). This happens at the beginning when Ed is introduced, this also provides a baseline for Ed’s opinion of the marriage. As droppings does not sound like too harsh of a phrase it can easily relate to Ed’s opinion of his impact on his marriage, that he is the one causing relatively small problems that he can easily clean up just by sweeping up the droppings, or in Ed’s case lying about why the droppings are there in the first place. There is then the “black labrador taking a crap on somebody's doorstep”(27) that Ed was instantly able to build a “rapport” with. Ed was able to build a rapport with the labrador because he is the labrador and that doorstep was Victora. This relates to the relationship because that crap was Ed’s behaviour during the bathroom scene, when he was lying to Victoria about his employment status, reminiscing about the reason behind his termination, details which he withheld and lied about to Victoria, and how he antagonises Victoria’s friends. However, he still thinks he is good because like the dog “His smile was the perfect blend of physical relief, mischievousness, and apology for his indiscretion”, which can perfectly surmise Ed’s opinion of his contribution to the marriage at the time, as he still thinks he can say sorry for what should be hard to forgive acts. The last bit of fecal imagery is the “rooster crowing on the dunghill”(33), the rooster referring to Howard and the dunghill in relation to Ed. The dunghill is representative of Ed finally realising that his marriage is one big mess, with the rooster Howard getting a claim to the females, in this case, Victoria. Howard on top of the dunghill symbolises that he is the catalyst for the descent of Ed and Victoria’s marriage, however, Ed’s failure to be responsible for