At The Pitt-Rivers
"At The Pitt-Rivers", by Penelope Lively, is about a boy around the age of 16 who loves poetry. He always visits the museum called Pitt-Rivers because "it was a nice place to mooch around and be on my own, Saturdays, or after school."(pg. 23) One day,when entering the museum like he usually does, he noticed a precarious thing: a girl, whom was sitting on a bench. The boy thinks in his head that "good-looking girls have a better deal than bad-looking ones, you've only got to observe a bit to see that"(pg. 24) This girl he notices was definitely not attractive, didn't have nice hair, and didn't have a nice figure. She also seems to be in her thirties. He didn't pay attention to her at first.
"Until I came alongside, where I could see her face clearly, and then I looked again. And again.She still wasn't pretty, but she had the most beautiful expression I've ever seen in my life. She glowed; that's the only way to put it."(pg. 25)
The boy was curious to see who the "bloke" that she'd be meeting was. After a while no one showed up for the girl and he left. Later in the story the man she was with was a guy who seemed to be in his fifties. This made the boy mad.
"I thought it was disgusting. He was an ordinary-looking person- he might have been a schoolmaster or something, he wore those kinds of clothes, old trousers and a sweater, and he had greyish hair, a bit long. And there she was, and as I've said she wasn't pretty, not at all, but she had this marvelous look about her, and she was years and years younger."(pg. 27)
Farther in "At The Pitt-Rivers", he saw them together again and realized that the girl didn't look very happy. When they go outside to the entrance of the museum, the man leaves her and the girl was seemingly devastated.
"I suppose you could say I'd learned something else in the Pitt-Rivers, by accident. I never did goon with that poem. I tore it up, as far as it got; I wasn't so sure anymore about that conversation, that there could even be one, or not like I'd been imagining, anyway."(pg.31)
The poem was about an old man sitting on a bench and having a conversation with a boy. They were switching ideas and found out, in the end, that they were the same person.
He made so much progress and he ended up tearing it up. He was very upset with that couple he saw and it troubled him to see them separate. Even though it was sad to see the girl and the old man separate, ripping up the poem was a rash thing to do.I think he ripped it up because he realized not every "true love" has a happy ending. Maybe he truly discovered what love really is and is wasn't what hethought, because the book say's, "I suppose you could say I'd learned something else in the Pitt-Rivers,"(pg. 31)
Maybe he was making the poem absently about the couple and seeing them part ruined the whole idea. Maybe you will never know, because Penelope Lively is such a great author and had a success making "At The Pitt-Rivers"
At the Pitt-Rivers was about a boy who loves writing poetry, but thinks love is weird. He absolutely loves going to the museum to write his poetry, but one day he saw this non attractive girl sitting on a bench watching the entrence.(page 24) The reason he thought she wasn't pretty was because she was "in fact quite old, not far off thirty, I should think, and in the second she hadn't got a nice figure; her legs were kind of dumpy and she didn't have pretty hair or anything like that." "Until I cames alongside, where I could see her face clearly, and then I looked again. And again. She still wasn't pretty, but she had the most beautiful expression I've ever seen in my life." ( page 24-25) The boy was very curious on what kind of bloke would walk through the entrence to see her. He said " I thought he couldn't be much because of her not being pretty". " I mean, in films you can always tell who's going to fall for who because they'll always be the two good-lookers and while I'm not saying real life's like that there is a way people match each other, isn't there. you've only got to look around at married people." " I'm not all that good looking myself only about a B+". ( page 25) When the bloke came through the entrence he was shocked. "He couldn't believe it, he was just an ordinary person- he might have been a schoolmaster or something, he wore those kind of clothes, old trousers and a sweater, and he had grayish hair, a bit long. And there was she, and as I've said she wasn't pretty, not at all, but she had this marvelous look about her, and she was years and years younger." ( page 27) At the end he didn't think love was that disgusting after all.
ReplyDeleteI think he tore up the poem because he realised that there was no age limit to be in love. He aslo started to think that you don't have to be pretty or handsome to fall in love, you can be non attractive and still fall in love. As he watched them from the beginning he realised that love comes with GREAT joy, but love also comes with sorrow. I think the bot tore up the poem because he didn't really know if the old man was thinking back or is the young boy was projecting forward. Another reason I thought that he tore up the poem would be because he may have either lost interest in that poem or he was really focused on the couple at The Pitt-Rivers that he couldn't finish it. To me i thought that he tore the poem up because he was so fasinated in what they did. Maybe he tore the poem up because he wanted to write a poem about the couple that he would always watch.
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