"The Stowaway"- Julian Barnes
"The Stowaway" is one of Barnes chapters in his book "A history of the World in 10 and a half Chapters. In this chapter the narrator is a stowaway, a small woodworm. It retells the biblical story of Noah's Ark from Its point of view. The original biblical "metanarritive" is about a righteous person named Noah, who was chosen to be saved from a horrible flood that was to destroy all living creatures and plants on earth. He was, by God's demand to build an ark and save his family and animals. Using vivid images very detailed descriptions and somewhat a humorous and cynical tone of what went on during this famous voyage Barnes tells us a slightly different version of the original Noah's Ark story. Barnes chapter begins with letting readers know that this voyage was not a luxurious cruise nor was it as we pictured it when we learned the biblical version as youngsters. Noah, the man whom was chosen to survive had craftsmen to build the ships, as there was more than one ship to be built. The ships were made all from gopher wood; there were stalls for animals that were secured with double peg locks for security. The species which boarded the ships were picked not randomly, but by attending a beauty contest, only the best pair of breed species was picked to go up on ship and the others were left to drown. Some animals were brought not in pairs of two but in pairs of seven. These animals which were called "clean animals" had mixed feelings, as they felt superior when boarding the ship but realize that sooner rather than later, they will be Noah's and his family dinner. Only the "clean animals" were allowed to be eaten. Don’t try to find logic behind it. However this fact contradicts the biblical version as in that version human beings were only allowed to eat meat after the flood was over, when they landed on ground. One of the motifs in "The Stowaway" is the repetition of negative characteristics in human beings, such as being hopeless about dates, unstable and not being good with the truth. Our species believed that the flood was only about a year while the fact was that it was more about four years. Animals are usually the same in their characteristics; dogs bark, cats meow, we human beings do both of these, this making us unstable. Truth wise the stowaway claims that we keep forgetting things, or pretend to. According to it Noah had a fourth son called Vardi who was the youngest and strongest of Noah's sons. Vardi's ship was found lost in one of those days, from then on there was no mention both of him or his ship, therefore, us believing or claiming that Noah has three sons. Another fact, which the woodworm keeps repeating, is Noah's temper and behavior. In our old text Noah was described as a sage, righteous and God fearing man in a society which all were evil. In our current text Noah was an unreliable, envious, bad tempered hysterical rogue with a drinking problem, a monster with little theories and no flexibility of mind, all in all just not a nice person. The animals never knew what state he would be in and felt terrorized by him. The stowaway doesn’t understand why God picked such a man to be responsible for so much. If god would have picked different specie there might not have been a flood in the first place. Surprisingly after all the negative traits it then says that it wasn’t altogether Noah's fault because he was committed to God, everything he said and did was either gods command or at least depended on what God what think about Noah's ways. God in both texts is superior, the highest in hierarchy. We don’t hear or see him in either place but we know he is there. Even though we usually relate to him as male, we have to realize that he neither male nor female, as he is not even human. He is above human races. If god is above human race than that puts humans below him and the animals two levels below. In "The Stowaway" a little woodworm tells the story; it sees almost everything even though it's very small. While first reading you would probably think that the teller is a big important character. Barnes creates the exact opposite in order to "shock" us. He does this so we can reconsider the hierarchy ladder that characterizes western thinking. In the west, the ones with the better jobs, the bigger houses and the expensive cars stand superior to the ones who don’t. Even though the status of Colored people has changed for the better they still tend to have inferior social status comparing to while colored people. Furthermore, People whom have received an education are more likely to receive jobs and to be taken more seriously than the uneducated. Even though we would think that in animal life things run the same way, the woodworm tells us the opposite. In the ark there was mutual respect between the animals. The fact that one animal can kill another did not make the first animal superior. They had a sense of equality. Small verses big are a fact in the animal kingdom but it didn’t really mean anything, other than to be a little more cautious. You would think that the small animals wouldn't even survive the atmosphere in the ark, With Noah's bad temper and strict discipline. The woodworm being such a small and meaningless animal in "The Stowaway" is the narrator, this making him important, knowledgeable and not at all "small". We should look at the animal kingdom and learn from them about what's right and what's wrong. Barnes shows us by retelling the ark story that maybe our hierarchical ladder is wrong, unfair and needs to be changed.