Summary Of Walter Van Tilburg Clark's The Portable Phonograph

The Portable Phonograph by Walter Van Tilburg Clark is a short story about a group of men who, after the nuclear war, try to survive in the post-apocalyptic world. Clark starts his short story by describing the mood of this post-apocalyptic atmosphere, and the effect of the nuclear war. After the author introduces the mood of the story, Clark goes into detail on how these four men live and what they do on a weekly basis. Clark illustrates that people who survived this nuclear war, which almost wiped out the human race, moreover destroy the planet, are not able to survive the post-apocalyptic world and how the human race is about to become extinct. The nature along with the atmosphere of this post-apocalyptic world are the two biggest concerns for humans in terms

Clark introduces the four main characters in his short story, these survivors are potentially the only humans alive on this planet. The wisest and the oldest out of all of them is Doctor Jenkins, Jenkins is the only person that is in possession of books along with the main item of this short story, the portable phonograph. The story revolves around how these men listen to music every week, this music helps them bring the memory of their normal lives before the nuclear war. The conflict between these survivors revolves around the portable phonograph, the young, sick musician is another survivor of this nuclear war, and he is potentially the one who is going to start the conflict. When the four men finished listening to music in Doctor’s cell, the young, sick musician and the two middle aged men leave the cell, Jenkins invites all of them to come next week and have the same music session. When Jenkins was standing in the doorway listening and seeing stars, he hears a cough in the distance that scares him, he starts to panic, but he manages to hide his phonograph and his