Short Fiction · Chapter
The Sphinx Apple explained
A stagecoach traveling from Paradise to Sunrise City is forced to stop due to a heavy snowstorm.
What happens
A stagecoach traveling from Paradise to Sunrise City is forced to stop due to a heavy snowstorm. The passengers take shelter in the abandoned house of Redruth, a man who became a hermit after a failed romance. To pass the time, Judge Menefee proposes a storytelling contest: each passenger will tell their version of Redruth's love story, and the young woman passenger, Miss Garland, will judge the best tale, awarding a symbolic apple as the prize.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Romance
The central theme of the chapter is the storytelling contest, where each passenger offers a version of Redruth's failed romance, exploring different perspectives on love and heartbreak.
Humor and Irony
Dunwoody's colloquial and humorous storytelling style, along with the ironic contrast between the lofty contest and the mundane setting, provides comic relief.
Gender Roles and Marriage
The contest places Miss Garland as the judge of love stories, reflecting contemporary views on women's roles in romance and judgment, while the stories themselves examine gender dynamics in relationships.
Characters to notice
- Judge Menefee
Leads the group of passengers, proposes the storytelling contest, and presents the apple as a prize to Miss Garland.
- Bildad Rose
The stage-driver who halts the journey due to the snowstorm and identifies the house as old man Redruth's shanty.
- Dunwoody
The windmill man who provides the first story in the contest, using a colloquial style.
- Miss Garland
The young woman passenger who is given the apple and will judge the stories as the 'Spirit of her Sex.'
- Young Man with an Agency
A passenger who tells the second version of the romance story.
- Nobody in Particular
A passenger who comments on Dunwoody's storytelling style.
Key passages
“The apple shall become an emblem, a token, a symbol, a prize bestowed by the mind and heart of beauty upon the most deserving.”
The apple will serve as a symbolic award given by beauty and intellect to the most worthy participant.
Judge Menefee elevates the apple from a simple fruit to a prize in the storytelling contest.
“I propose that we place this apple in the hands of Miss Garland. It is no longer a fruit, but, as I said, a prize, in award, representing a great human idea.”
I suggest we give the apple to Miss Garland as a prize that symbolizes a profound human concept.
Judge Menefee designates Miss Garland as the judge and the apple as the award.
“She shall represent her sex; she shall be the embodiment, the epitome of womankind—the heart and brain, I may say, of God’s masterpiece of creation.”
She will stand for all women, as the perfect example of womankind, the essence of God's finest creation.
Judge Menefee assigns Miss Garland the role of representing the feminine perspective in judging the stories.
“I used to be correspondent for a paper in Springfield, and when there wasn’t any news I faked it. Guess I can do my turn all right.”
I used to write for a newspaper in Springfield, and I made up stories when there was no real news. I think I can manage my part in this contest.
Dunwoody boasts about his past experience fabricating news, showing his confidence in storytelling.
