Page 36 - WTP Vol. IX #5

Waiting (continued from preceding page)
through the window now. “How charming it is.” She admired the hotels dotting the hills, not the beauty of the natural scene. “I wonder if there are any movie stars vacationing there?”
“But for the prisoner the beauty of the view must have been painful,” Vivian reflected. “He saw the fish and the eagle which were free,” but he had to return to his hole. He was all alone and unconnected to the world.
The majesty of nature had continued in its glory, indifferent to his plight. Momentarily, the sight brought him joy, intuited Vivian, but when he had to return to his darkness and loneliness, he was over- whelmed by depression. The lengthy confinement imposed by the tyrant destroyed his noble spirit. Understanding this, Vivian was ready to leave.
She joined the family for lunch, but she wasn’t very hungry. To save time, Robert ordered pizza for all of them. This made Sam angry and he peevishly pushed his plate aside, refusing to eat what had been chosen for him. “I want to pick something for myself. I don’t like pizza.”
“We don’t have time,” insisted the father. “You better eat this or you won’t have anything till dinner.” Still Sam refused to eat.
His behavior made Vivian recall that in the poem, the youngest brother stopped eating before he died. Rob- ert’s control over his son made Vivian want to talk more of the castle. She was determined to interest the family in something other than hurrying and even food itself. She also guessed that by now they must be tired of hearing her talk about the poem.
“Excuse me,” she said, “maybe I am being a nuisance, but I just have to tell you I forgot to explain a part of the poem where the brothers were chained together, each behind a separate column in the dark, so they couldn’t see each other.”
“How sad,” pretended Barbara.
Vivian continued. “They were chained, but ‘joined in their hearts,’ and the introduction of the poem says ‘liberty’s habitation is the heart’.”
“I don’t get it,” young Sam insisted bravely.
Vivian explained that at first the men didn’t feel too badly about going to jail because they were proud to stand up for their beliefs and their love for each other kept up their spirits. But after some time, they stopped eating. Being chained that way made them feel really
alone since they couldn’t actually see each other.
“Oh, what a shame,” Barbara interjected. “It’s so tragic, isn’t it, Vivian? But Vivian, you take this too much to heart. It was all such a long, long time ago.” She took another bite of her pizza. She was more interested in cheese and tomato sauce than in poetry or trying to see how the past teaches us things, thought Vivian.
The engineer had at times paused between bites of his pizza to consider the predicament of the impris- oned brothers, as Vivian was describing it. Now he concluded, “It never does any good to express views that are different from those in authority,” he af- firmed. “Those in power have all the power, and you can never produce any changes. You must hide your differences to survive,” he said vehemently. “It does no good to be different or to protest. You will only be arrested and left to rot away in jail or be shot.”
Vivian felt he must be relating the poem to some personal reminiscence. “Do you speak from your own experience?” she challenged, her curiosity aroused by his outburst.
“Not necessarily, but every day in newspapers we read that in countries exploited by tyrants there is much oppression of the poor. I have worked in many of these countries. The students protest poor hous- ing, excessive taxation, censure of the press. The response is prison, torture or resettlement so they don’t make trouble for the authorities. So, you see, it is no use at all to take a stand. You can’t win against those in power,” he concluded.
“And now,” he addressed his son, “dry your tears,
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