Selfishness In Granite Point And The Lamp At Noon

The short stories “The Lamp at Noon” by Sinclair Ross and “Granite Point” by W. D. Valgardson are similar because of their theme, conflict and mood. Both of the short stories showcase the theme of selfishness along with the negative effects it causes. “That may not matter to the others but I won’t have that kind of talk about my wife” is meant to demonstrate the selfishness of Mathew. Blinded by jealousy, Mathew asked Kloski to stop coming to his house to meet with Ellen. Concerned by his own desires, Mathew forgot to consider Ellen’s feelings. Furthermore, without accounting the pain it might bring to Ellen, Mathew told Kloski to stop meeting with Ellen because he refused to acknowledge another man having a relationship with his wife that

Through the loss of contact along with her sudden realization of what Mathew had done, Ellen went crazy, deciding to leave him to die. Likewise, in “The Lamp at Noon,” Paul’s selfishness triggered Ellen to spiral into insanity. “You’re a farmer’s wife now. It doesn’t matter what you used to be, or how you were brought up. You get enough to eat and wear. Just now that’s all I can do. I’m not to blame that we’ve been dried out five years” is meant to display how long Paul had only thought about himself as well as how selfish he is. In this case Paul was not blinded by jealousy, rather, he was blinded by his pride as a farmer. A pride so strong he had considered everything else unimportant. Infatuated by his need to prove himself, Paul had stayed at the farm for five years in spite of his knowledge that his farm may never come back. Basically telling Ellen that it doesn’t matter what she thinks because she became a farmer’s wife, Paul conveys the idea that only his opinion matters. Caused by the, now normal, miscommunication, isolation became a cause for concern. Paired with both the isolation in addition to her conflicts with Paul, Ellen later

In “Granite Point” we feel lonely and sympathise with Ellen. “She was so hurt, she cried. At supper, hoping that Mathew might fix whatever was wrong, she told him what had happened” and “But he’s the only person I see besides you” allow us to sympathise and feel what Ellen is going through. We are able to sympathise with her because if we imagined ourselves in her position, we would do the same. The same could be said for “The Lamp at Noon,” however, it adds setting to further develop the idea. “Beyond, obscuring fields and landmarks, the lower of dust clouds made the farmyard seem an isolated acre, poised aloft above a sombre void,” “Thistles and tumbleweeds - it’s a desert,” and “It was the face of a woman that had aged without maturing, that had loved the little vanities of life, and lose them wistfully” show both the situation that they are in and the effects of being in such a situation. The surrounding land around is a desert, a place filled with nothing but the terrain of the land. With that in mind, Ellen only has her child and Paul to converse with. The only person who she is able to have a conversation with her is neglecting