Analysis Of Rose Richards Luvandwar

The Truth Behind Lies, an Analysis of Rose Richards, "Luvandwar"

In Rose Richards Luvandwar the relationships between people and the falsities and emotions that come into play are seen in a clearly negative light, the pessimistic attitude the narrator has towards human emotions is illustrated in the imagery Richards uses in the story. The twelve hours in which the reader comes to these conclusions is the same twelve hours which she comes to terms with her mother's death, seeing the truth through the smoke of a disaster. In the closing paragraphs this imagery culminates in a moment where all the ideas are summed up to conclude the views of the narrator and final freedom derived from this. In the analysis of these last two paragraphs the ideas and imagery will be critically examined to show how they bring light to the false lives we lead and resolution to the story.

One of the main ideas the story adopts, is how age is part of a mental change in attitude and a culmination of experiences that physiologically changes a person and their perspectives. The constant reference to ashes is used to symbolize the end of a life and the despair that end brings with it, the narrator's perspective becomes dull and bleak ever-since the day her mother died. "I was initiated into adulthood with my mother's ashes" Her bleak outlook is furthermore accentuated by the way in which she believes that at the moment of her mothers death, time and therefore her life, ended and the new one that sprung forth was very different from the one that ended that day. "Last year on a Smokey night like this, time ended, and begun". It was also at that moment that she believes the realization of the falsities of love (luv) and the harshness (war) came to reside in her heart. In the last few paragraphs these concerns are reiterated by the reference to "aeons" which singularly is an immensely long period of time, the narrator uses it in the plural to describe how the changes that resulted in her, from her mothers death, seem as though they should have developed over aeons, showing once again just how much she has changed. The effects of this change fall back to age, as she feels that she has become much older because of the changes she has rapidly undergone, a loss of youthful innocence it seems, as her eyes are opened to the harsh realities that are, "luv and war".

Resurrection as it would seem plays a role as one of the main concerns this story revolves around, from the dreams the narrator has, recollecting the night of her mothers death, which bring back to life the emotions, to images of zombies (the living dead) and the way in which her mothers death seemed to have brought her father back to life, or at least back into her life. The narrator sees signs of her mother in the parts of her now empty, everyday life and then hears her mother's reprimanding voice as she relives past memories in the present. Further imagery of her mother is experienced as she senses her mother, hears her mother even smells her mother, feeling that her mother came back to check on her. In the penultimate paragraph the narrator again speaks about the life of her mother that still lives on, this can only be the essence of her mother's life, the will to not conform and to see past the oblique truths. Somewhere deep inside her, she realizes that in order to finally be resurrected and to move on with her life, she will have to let go of her mother and move on with her life " 'Let me go.' She begs in the chimney, but I've tied her down properly this time.", she can not however, come to terms with this and as she says that time began the night her mother died, and her life became resurrected, she would never be the same person again, everything but her innocence was resurrected.

The main theme or concern undoubtedly is the conflict between sincerity and pretence and how the world perceives or doesn't perceive falsities. The multitude of the imagery used can be seen to heavily compare these aspects and using satire is able to highlight to the reader the way in which life is full of false love (Luv) and constant irresolution & conflict (War). The meaninglessness of life