Pomegranates and Quinces - Analysis

Pomegranates and Quinces analysis

The short story Pomegranates and Quinces by André Brinck, is about a young servant boy, Cupido, who faces the consequences of his illiteracy, on one of his deliveries. There are many themes that can be discussed throughout the text, one of them being how his lack of education affects his life and ways of handling situations.

There is a clear sign of misinterpretation due to the absence of knowledge in the conflict of this short story, which leads to severe consequences for the main character. When Cupido is sent out on one of his fruit delivery’s followed by a letter, he thinks that the receiver of the goods will not notice if he eats some of the fruit, since there is so much of it. His exhaustion on the journey, tempts him to eat two of the pomegranates, feeling confident in the fact that it will not be noticed. “No one will know. This is what he thought”. (p.72 l.18-19). Though as soon as he arrives and hands over his delivery, he is met by surprise, as it turns out that the letter mentions the amount of fruits that he has been given originally.  “This letter says your Madam sent twelve pomegranates in the basket. Now there are only 10. So want to know what happened to the other two?”. (p.72. l.29-32) When those words meet his consciousness, he realises that  brutal consequences are going to face him, though he is still left in question of how that “piece of paper” could have known or seen him eat the fruit.  “Cupido is struck dumb by the power of the letter.” (p.72 l.33) Through this sentence the author wants to make sure that the reader is aware of Cupido’s state of mind, in relation to written communication.   On his next delivery he has given the principle of the letter some thought, and has thought out a plan to prevent him from future punishments.  Convinced that the letter “saw” him eat the pomegranates on his previous delivery, he now plans to hide the letter under a flat stone, making sure that it would not be able to “see” him. This time he eats one quince, and first uncovers the letter again, when all evidence of him eating it is gone.  Though to his surprise, he is once again busted by the words within the letter, and is left startled. Only this time, he is not punished immediately. Instead he explains his confusion to the receiver, and in return gets an explanation. As his understanding about the letter increases, he is amazed by the power of the use of written words on a piece of paper.  “This is strong magic. There is life in this thing they call writing…”.