The Wonderful Old Gentleman
The story is a delightful combination of Parker’s writing style of imagery and combining it with dialogue. It is from a collection of stories called Here Lies. The story, with a heavy family emphasis, begins with a description of a room. The room is described as trying to be elegant, but ends up looking like “a home chamber of horror, modified for family use.”
An old gentleman has moved in with a married couple, the Bains and lives as a tenant. It is revealed that he is Mrs. Bains’ father. He has moved in with his daughter, due to his health. He is suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s.
The main plot of the story is the conversation that Mr. and Mrs. Bains have with Mrs. Bains’ wealthy sister. The sister tries to ignore that she has left her father in the care of her poor sister and that she should have helped out more. Mrs. Whittaker, the sister, thinks that her father’s failing state of mind is funny.
It is a sad story of loneliness and basic human need for company.
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