Short Fiction · Chapter
Communion explained
The narrator recalls a formative experience as a sixteen-year-old boy on a coast steamer, where he intrudes upon a group of older men telling smutty stories.
What happens
The narrator recalls a formative experience as a sixteen-year-old boy on a coast steamer, where he intrudes upon a group of older men telling smutty stories. Emboldened by their ribaldry, he urges them to tell a more risqué anecdote, only to be halted by a clergyman who asks if he has been confirmed. The boy's confirmation is acknowledged, and the story proceeds, leaving him humiliated and exposed.
Themes in this chapter
Hypocrisy and Moral Decay
The clergyman and other respectable men engage in bawdy storytelling, yet the clergyman pauses only to confirm the boy's religious standing before allowing the tale to continue, exposing a double standard.
Identity and Self-Deception
The narrator, believing himself worldly, attempts to assert his maturity but is reduced to a stammering child when confronted by the clergyman, revealing his fragile self-image.
Illusion and Reality
The narrator's perception of the men as sophisticated is shattered by their juvenile humor, while his own innocence is an illusion he tries to shed.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The narrator, a sixteen-year-old boy recently confirmed, recalls his awkward attempt to join in adult conversation on a steamer.
- Mr. Fant
Referred to as 'uncle' by the narrator; a company director and friend of the narrator's father, who reluctantly tells the requested story.
- Paul Herbst
Not directly named in this excerpt, but the clergyman present is a neighbor and a key figure who questions the narrator about his confirmation.
Key passages
“I felt tempted to jump overboard. Then at least the mathematics teacher would be sorry for the way he had tormented me—then, when it was too late—”
The narrator briefly considers suicide as a way to make his teacher regret his harsh treatment.
Reveals the narrator's adolescent despair and dramatic reaction to academic pressure.
“I was sixteen and had recently been confirmed. People have told me that at that time I had a guileless and innocent appearance.”
The narrator notes his youth and the innocent look others saw in him, contrasting with his own self-image.
Highlights the theme of innocence versus experience and the narrator's self-awareness.
““How old, may I ask, is this young man? Has he been to Our Lord’s—to Communion?””
The clergyman interrupts the story to ask the narrator's age and whether he has been confirmed.
Pivotal moment that exposes the narrator's vulnerability and the social ritual of confirmation.