"At the Pitt Rivers" -- Penelope Lively

Penelope Lively

         Penelope Lively, the author of “At the Pitt Rivers” and many other short stories and novelizations once said, “I have never come to terms with life, and I wouldn't wish anyone else to do so; if fiction is to help at all in the process of living, it is by illuminating its conflicts and ambiguities.” In other words, fiction can highlight what takes some a lifetime to figure out. The story “At the Pitt Rivers” starts out with a young boy with a deluded view of love. He thinks only two attractive people, who are the same, young, age can be happy and in love together. He sees a woman, not particularly pretty, with an older man. The boy is, at first, disgusted by the couple and doesn't think they should be together. He sees them, almost every day, at his museum (the Pitt Rivers) and slowly, begins to be more comfortable with the relationship. One day, something happens. They aren't happy together and that makes the young boy not as happy. The author highlights these lessons, which love isn't all about looks that it can be about love. This lesson, which might take a lifetime to learn, can be learned in 20 minutes or less reading this story. This is what Lively is talking about when she says, “by illuminating it’s conflicts and ambiguities.”

The Pitt Rivers Museum

         In “At the Pitt Rivers,” the young boy who watches the couple decides to write a poem about an old man and a young boy who is actually the old man. He had been writing it for the past few months, but then he teared it up towards the end of the short story. Lively never makes it clear why the character tears it up, but simply leaves it in the air. After the couple stops going to the museum, he decides to rip up his poem. The boy does this because he no longer has that younger person inside of him telling him what to and not to think. He tears up the poem, because he knows what love is.