Embroidery

“This is a rather mundane story about three women idly sitting around on the verandah filling in time. It all seems so pointless. No one ever talks about what they are waiting for or why five o’clock is significant. And, what of the men? Where are they? The only mention is of a disfigured image, later removed entirely from the embroidery. You would think that a writer of the quality and prestige of Ray Bradbury would be a bit more explicit – that he would tell rather more than leave it up in the air.”

Evidently 5 o’clock is the time the world is going to end. Throughout the short story is an undercurrent of tension a dead cricket couldn’t miss, and at the end a careful reader (who registers any of the final words describing destruction by fire) would notice that the world (the entire setting, the entire world this story resides in) is engulfed in a wall of flame. “where are the men?” Who cares? Evidently the men are away. No time setting is apparent and, having only read the story once, I probably missed it if there was. But, I agree with the logic that others have suggested saying that this is probably set during WW2 and therefore the men are probably away fighting for their lives against the Nazi war machine.

            I will concede that I also have no idea what the image of the embroided man is about, and I will admit that I did not enjoy reading this story. However, once again anyone with a skerrick of intellectual intelligence would realize that with the figures of speech and style of writing used Ray Bradbury has made a commendable piece of work in this story.

Ryan Hodson AAL

"The author has made very indistinct and unclear descriptions" - adja0002

 I agree, the author is not clearly stating what is occuring in the story. However this does let us use our imagination more freely; Bradbury is simply providing a guide for us to create our own story. There are lots of different interpretations, as seen in the comments above; which shows how 'open' the author has left the story.

 Her removal of the man from the embroidery may indicate her dislike of the human race, and how it has brought a terrible end to itself. i.e. human kind has developed a weapon capable of annihilating a significant area, and now human kind has fallen victim to its own quest for advancement.

I think that this is just an ordinary story about some women trying to fill in time by talking about simple meaningless matters. It’s basically about the end of the world after the WORLD WAR II. The author has made very indistinct and unclear descriptions and therefore we don’t get enough information to imagine the scenes or the thoughts that the women are feeling. But a good point is that it is quite pragmatic...

In response to the origional statement, made by an unknown person (coward!) The entire point of the story was to be subtle, in an obvious way - to very obviously have a meaning, but leave the exact message veiled. Although this may be frustrating for some people, I think that it was an excellent way to write a story, while leaving certain things to be determined, like for instance when the woman completely destroys the image of the man. I think that this is because it was the men in the area, or the military, who decided to test (correct me if I am wrong) the nuclear warhead which in the very end ties up the loose ends (so to speak) of the peice.

 Very nice.

This story was slightly confusing as many people have stated above.  The story may be about the end of the world.  when one of the women takes out the man from the picture it shows that it relates to her in some way, that if one part goes wrong then get rid of the whole thing, because of this I am assuming that the embroidery represented her life and when it says, 'and it burned the fresh, embroidered petals away, one by one.' it shows that as the embroidery fell apart in the fire her life also fell apart with the embroidered picture.  The story was not written in a confusing way, in fact it was written very well and created pictures in the readers mind allowing them to imagine the story as they read.  The end part which didn’t say what was happening at 5 o'clock gave suspense to the story and left the reader thinking and allowed them to create the rest of the story in their heads. 

This story was one that came across powerful, touching and moving. I really admire the way Ray Bradbury wrote it and the symbolic pieces he used in the text. Although it was a little hard to understand I think it was extremely creative and by far my favourite piece of text so far. The way Ray lead up to then end really left us quite sad about the tragic end. I was really impressed though with the style of writing in this piece of text.

-Cathy Karuga BKM

Like many other people I did find this text slightly confusing, I am not sure that it is about the end of the world like Veli stated but rather about 3 old woman who are located what seems to me in the outback. At 5 o’clock I believe that there is going to be something that passes them, this is why I believe that they are sitting on the porch, with there being no men I gather that they are most probably at work or something like that. 

Farid Shahin 

To MWinter

I dont appreciate having my opinions called silly
its my opinion and i didnt post it so it could be judged!
i dont think its that silly, maybe they were on the outskirts of the town
And they thought this was an ordinary bombing or thought it wouldnt reach
after all they werent sure about this bombing - this kind had never been seen before

From Cameron Keast

Now this... THIS story confused me. From what cryptic little hints I could assess, it was about three old women with senility and bipolar disorder (they seemed to find talking about hands extremely depressing, to the point of crying), and an incurable obsession for embroidery. Sometime after the story begins (ten minutes and thirty seconds, in fact), a nuke seems to sweep through and annhiliate them; despite nuclear force burning them to nothing, they still seemed capable of embroidery for those remaining five or so seconds of their life. I dunno, maybe devotion to their embroidery god granted them a few extra moments of protection... (Incidentally, I don't care if you find what I said offensive, personally I found it funny.)

~ Crimpy ~ the Mountain Goat, BLJ

“About half way through the story I was starting to think of the significance of this story to World War II. The woman seems to know that the end is coming; that they are going to die. This is why they don’t go to shell peas. Perish the thought.” – pily0005

I was thinking the same thing in this story. Reading back through it I can see the significance of many of the details mentioned that remain unexplained.

I like the idea in the story that although the world ‘ends’ (or at least their world) they still continue to embroider and make art through their hands. One of the women mentions – “Sometimes I think we don’t use our hands half enough; it’s certain we don’t use our heads.” I think this may be referring to the people who start this war, who fuel this war. That People who do this don’t use their heads. I think it refers to the stupidity of the people who ‘choose’ war.

This would also relate to why the lady completely unstitches the man, when she only has to re-do the face. It’s like her anger towards ‘mankind’ is coming through, and erasing him from this seemingly perfect picture would make everything better again.

I really enjoyed the last paragraphs of the story where the women try and keep embroidering the unstitched fields of flowers and roads. It’s almost like they are trying to get their world back to how it was – trying for the sake of trying, even though it’s in vain, even though they are loosing the battle.

The part of the story that ‘hit the hardest’ though was when the author started using the metaphor of describing the one of women burning as if she were made up of embroidery herself – “It was plucking at the white embroidery of her flesh, the pink thread of her cheeks, and at last it found her heart, a soft red rose, sewn with fire, and it burned the fresh, embroidered petals away, one by delicate one.”

I found this story moving, as it seems to portray the end of time brought about by mankind.  I completely understand why so many people found this story confusing or boring.  Most stories or novels we read are straight, tell-it-like-it-is; whereas this story uses rhetorical or figurative language.  It seems as if man has been gradually destroying the Earth bit by bit, and are now about to make their biggest mistake yet.  Everyone knows about it, but no-one does anything about it.  A bit similar to our current situation.  The women go on with life as if it something major happening, but they don't really care.

But what represents mankind.  Is it the women, the man in the embroidery or whoever was doing what the women are talking about?

G

I agreed with the comment at the top of the screen where it said ''What are they waiting for; the author doesn't tell you what the ladies are waiting for. What is going to happen a five o’clock’’? But at the end of the story you can pretty much figure it out. I think the embroidery stands for the end of man kind and life as we know it, that is why the embroidery keeps falling apart symbolizing the end of the world. I assumed the world ended by an atomic bomb or something. I agree with Falem comment about this text, I didn't really like this story as it was really confusing for me and I didn't understand what the hell was going on. I didn't really get a message out of this one but if I was to make one up I would say it would be ATOMIC POWER will kill us all

After a little confusion at the start of the story the story ended up interesting and catching my attention.

Overall the story had a lot of meaning behind it with an ending which left the reader to their imagination.

In reply to the passage from the story,

I agree with everyone that said that this was a confusing piece of text. The very first thing I thought was that there were 3 old women in a retirement home and they couldn’t touch the peas because they belonged to the retirement home warden, who I imagined to be a strict angry nurse. But then I thought wouldn’t she want to eat the peas, why would she want to de-husk them? As the story went on it talked about bombings and that this one was not going to be like the others. I immediately thought of the Atomic Bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Maybe these 3 women were living in or near one of these cities just before the Atomic Bombs were dropped. Did they eat peas in Japan back then? I have no idea. Anyhow after I read the whole passage I was so confused. When I was listening to what everyone thought about the passage I then started to understand what was going on. I feel as though the relating of everything to the 3 old ladies embroideries to be a bit weird and that’s the thing I was most confused about. There have been many pieces of text written about mankind’s self destruction through the quest for ultimate power and this would have to be the weirdest one I have read.

From Cameron K

“This is a rather mundane story…”

Wow, I am surprised and really quite shocked! Embroidery by Ray Bradbury was, in my opinion, the BEST short story in that ChallengingImagination booklet of ours. Bradbury seems to have purposefully made his descriptions vague and by doing so has allowed us to interpret the story our own way… but then of course, vague descriptions cause confusion and uncertainty.

“ I found this text quite confusing,” (king0258)

“I thought this text was pretty gosh-darn confusing ll the way through.”(Felim)

“the story just doesn’t make any sense.” (peter)

I guess I was in the same boat too, but because I had to finish the booklet, I tried reading the story again and again… then, finally, it sunk in…

Why is five o’clock significant?

“this story is about the end of the world.”(VeLI)

Do we all remember that poem by Robert Frost?

FIRE AND ICE
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

-Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Take notice of the first line, “the world will end in fire.” There was a fire in the story... possible connection?

“My, how we’ll laugh to think we were frightened by an old experiment!”(Embroidery, Bradbury)

“Maybe the story is about the experimentation with atom bombs,” (pily0005)

Why was the man removed from the embroidery?

“maybe the old woman hates men?” (Felim)

Or, maybe the old women hate man. Because of his presence, the man, symbolizing humanity, ruined the whole picture that captured the very essence of nature. However, there is something which rebuts my interpretation. The woman removed the man, but not the road or the house.

I hope I do not come across as heartless or selfish, but personally, I did not find the story depressing at all. The story foretold the end of the world, and although it could be considered a sad situation, I believe we actually deserve it. "...For we do everything to the world with our hands. Sometimes I think we don't use our hands half enough; it's certain we don't use our heads." (Embroidery, Bradbury)

… Simply my thoughts on this short story.I hope it helped if you were confused.

This is a rather mundane story about three women idly sitting around on the verandah filling in time. It all seems so pointless. No one ever talks about what they are waiting for or why five o’clock is significant. And, what of the men? Where are they? The only mention is of a disfigured image, later removed entirely from the embroidery. You would think that a writer of the quality and prestige of Ray Bradbury would be a bit more explicit – that he would tell rather more than leave it up in the air.

At the moment I'm wondering if teachers make up those first comments to stir us up. Because I find myself completely disagreeing.

About half way throughthe story i was starting to think of the significance of this story to World War II. The woman seem to know that the end is coming; that they are going to die. This is why they dont go to shell peas. Perish the thought.

No one talks about where the men are? I thought it was obvious. The men are most likely away in the war, leaving the woman behind to wait. But they know that the men wont come back, or have already passed. Enter the significance of tearing the man from the embroidery.

Bradbury seems to leave it up to the readers to decide what the scenario is, But Alan mention it being set before 1978 when the story was written. Thats what first made me think of the War.

Maybe the story is about the experimentation with atom bombs, who knows. Im sure Alan knows, but hes all the way accross the room so I cant be bothered asking. I will sometime.

 All in all, i find it a sad story. The woman seem to just be sitting there, waiting for the end to come. They are calmly accepting of the whole situation, like theyve known for a long time they werent going to survive this.

Hannah Pilypas 

 ATTENTION!~#@$

I was busy reading this when my fellow peers alerted me to the fact that this story is about the end of the world. I thought abouot this and after a while which seemed like hours I realised it may not be so far from today's world. And then I thought again and realised that I couldn't possibly picture the end of the world as a likely event in the near future.

I realised that the world revolves around money and power which involves money and therefore the world will continue to spin in our perception as long as everyone wants to spend or make money.

It was a very difficult story to interpret. It wasn't until right at the end that i understood what was going on. I had a feeling that it was about Judgement Day or a nuclear war but there was no indication of that until the end.

 Normally when I see if a book is worth a read I randomly select a piece and read about two pages. If this was in a novel all I would have read is some **** about women embroiding and talking about things that were just everyday things. Had I looked at this section in a novel I don't think that I would have even tried to read it.

I thought this text was pretty gosh-darn confusing ll the way through. What i understand is: some old women are sitting around a house, waiting for some apocalypse. perhaps at 5:00 every day some experimetns are conducted, and lately theyve been getting progressively worse. There are no men in the house, except for the one in the embroidery, who is soon stitched over. maybe the old woman hates men?

i dont know, im still a bit confused, perhaps it was a dream or something. 

I found this text quite confusing, well i did until the end where i kind of understood the part with a fire but i didn't know what it was from. I had to get Allan to explain it to me before i knew what the whole short story was about. Though i do like it.

The comment made on the embroidery i think is just one view of what a person could get out of reading that piece of text. Personally the piece of text reminded me of many books, documentaries and articles I’d seen or read about the war. It truly is a sad and depressing piece of text but it does help to bring attention to the sadness of the war as many other famous pieces of work have done in the past and present.