Peter Carey The Window Analysis

Reality and Dreams
The window separates outside from inside, and only permits light to go through; therefore, it gives a chance to observers to see through the other side. For this particular quality, it is often used as a symbol, and that is what Peter Carey does in part two. The window symbolizes the distinction between the imagined, idealized world and the cruel reality. This symbolism can be seen when Harry watches the outside of Milanos from the window, when Bettina sees her father through the window screen and when Harry sees his family’s true identity through the windows of his house. After his operation, Harry Joy stops ignoring other people’s faults, and he starts to sneak around, observing people and taking notes about them. He

She remembers her first meeting with Harry. When she works for Ogilvy & Mather office as a secretary, she goes to a party and sees Harry. She only watches him, but suddenly he comes and starts to talk to her. Furthermore, they leave the party to have a dinner together. Bettina, at that moment, lives in a dream world; she is going to a dinner with a ‘‘splendid’’ man, who is a successful advertising agent. However, all of a sudden Harry realizes that he needs to buy petrol, and by chance they park at the forecourt of Bettina’s father. ‘‘Bettina (sees) her father through the window’’ (Carey, 46), and she remembers her real life. She is not a celebrity, but she is only a poor girl, the daughter of Billy McPhee. The window screen is between her real miserable life and the fancy life, which she has always dreamt

He climbs to the tree near to his house, and watches as his partner drives his car to the garage. When his partner, Joel, and his wife, Bettina, start to kiss, he understands that he has been cheated. At that moment, he ‘‘want(s) normality and peace’’ (Carey, 53); therefore, he rushes to his son’s window. In his ideal, termed ‘life’, his son and his daughter would bring him happiness, but he gets more horrified when he sees his children having an incest relationship. ‘‘Harry Joy at the windows of Hell’’ (Carey, 53), he sees the reality through the window of his son. On top of it when he falls down from the tree, he sees Joel and Bettina making love through his bedroom’s window. At the outside of his house, he was hoping to see his normal family through the window; however, the reality was that his faithful wife, his partner, and his loving children were all lying to