Signs & Symbols

This is how I feel right now. My brain has been going in circles for the past few days trying to figure out this short, short story. I amazes me how Nabokov can so completely confuse me in so few words. My mind is making a number of connections but they don't all relate.

The son reminds me of John Nash in A Beautiful Mind. He is paranoid and thinks everything relates back to him, much like John thinks all these patterns are clues to a plot by the Soviets to hurt Americans. Though the son's view is a bit more self-centered, it's very similar. 

I'm assuming Aunt Rosa died in the Holocaust. Did they live in Europe during this time? How did this family get away? Did they flee as so many others attempted?

The darkly gesticulating trees make me think of the Ents from The Lord of the Rings, but perhaps a bit creepier and less helpful.



The mention of shadows, of storms and running water, of coats in store windows... This man lives a haunted life.


If the uncle is Isaac, then why do the mom and dad so resemble Abraham and Sarah? It makes sense that the uncle providing for them is Isaac because he gave birth to Jacob who was considered a father to the Israelites. The fact that the parents were married twenty years before they had the son continually reminds me of the biblical couple who conceived so late in life.

There is one interaction I don't quite understand, but I keep coming back to it:

"I can't sleep becuase I am dying," he said, and lay down on the couch.
"Is it your stomach? Do you want me to call Dr. Solov?"
"No doctors, no doctors," he moaned. "To the devil with doctors! We must get him out of there quick. Otherwise, we'll be responsible... Responsible!"

Is the man dying because of guilt for his son's condition? Is he really dying and the mention of doctors reminds him that the doctors at the sanitarium aren't helping his son? For some reason, I can't move past this. He so abruptly states they must bring their son home. Why? What leads him to this idea? Why is it suddenly such an important task? 

WHO IS CHARLIE? This is driving me nuts. It's haunting me. I keep thinking of all the Charlie's I know, of the phone ringing three times. What does it mean? Is it a trick? Is this Nabokov planting false clues? I cannot tell.

The story starts and ends with the jams. They're so small, yet so significant. I'm not sure what significance they hold, perhaps other than tying the story together, but it is the perfect example of Birkerts' notion that "the merest detail" can be the case-solving clue. Or maybe I'm not on to anything here...