The Weave in the Plot

‘Moral Disorders and Other Stories’ by Margaret Atwood are a collection of beautifully written stories that are filled with poignant observations about life. However,  “The Labrador Disaster” in particular has a stronger hold on me, than the other stories.

This is because of the beautiful way in which Margaret Atwood, in “The Labrador Disaster” effortlessly weaved the story of the two explorers with that of her father. She drew parallel worlds, one in which her father listened to his wife narrate the story of the explorers, and how he would do things differently and the other world, the actual world of Hubbard and Wallace, as they struggled to reach their destination but ultimately failed. And it is beautiful because of the way Margaret Atwood weaved these two stories together, with the same precision as a needle traveling through a piece of cloth, with each stitch, like the parallels in the story, binding it together, reverberating the emotions in it.

“The Labrador Fiasco” is an excellent example of how two different plots in the same story, when narrated cleverly can add depth and help the reader to fully understand the emotion and the idea that originally fueled the author to write the story in the first place. The story of Hubbard and Wallace was a metaphor for the life of author’s father. He had once been adventurous, just like the two explorers, and just like them, he had also once believed that he was invincible. And those feelings are reflected in the progression of the story—when the author talks about her father wearing a bandana, posing for pictures on his own adventure, or when her father talks about how he would do things differently. But ultimately, its about the keen awareness of a life coming to an end—as the two explorers in the story meet their demise, in the present, the authors’ father has a stroke and begins his final descent from life. What struck me the most was the feeling of sadness, when the reader (in this case, I) knew that the expedition had failed, and that the brave explorers had died, and just like them, there was no getting better for the author’s father—that a man who was once so full of life, had become a half empty shell of his former self. However, this feeling of sadness and a little bit of helplessness for the fate that we all have to face someday, was not overwhelming towards the end. It’s because the way Margaret Atwood writes the story, the way her tone is somewhat humorous (especially in her narration of the story of the two explorers), conveys a sense of quiet acceptance that ultimately no one is invincible and that in itself is okay.

-Smriti Bansal