The Nice People

Introduction

Henry Cuyler Bunner is an American book and stories writer who was born in 1855, in New York. He died in 1896 having completed a significant number of literary works which are still available for reading up to date. One of the short stories that Bunner wrote in his era was titled ‘The Nice People’, which is a short story about family relationships. This story was also categorized as a comedy, although it is not very coherent for 21st generation comprehension. Nevertheless, Bunner wanted to discuss several themes using this short story such as the relationships in the families, the relationships among different families, the two sides of the families; what people see and what happens inside a marriage, entrepreneurship, among other things. The setting of this short story is in New York City. In the following essay, there will be a critical analysis of Bunner’s “The Nice People” (Bunner, 2012) short story.

This short story is about families in a boarding house. There are different families, such as the narrator’s family and their friend’s Mr. Brewster Brede’s family. There are major ideas that the story insinuates to convey and some of them include the assumptions that people make about others which turn out to be untrue, as well as the family relationship which is a major issue that has been discussed in the story. However, the story is not very clear about what the author wanted the readers to understand. According to me, this story, which is supposed to be a comic narration, turns out to be an absurd encounter and the humor is not well captured in the story. The story is also not clear how it ends as Brede’s family which is supposed to be moving out from the boarding house end up mixed up and in final episodes of the story, Mr. Brewster Brede joins other men for drinks and his wife joins narrator’s wife for a walk. According to me, the story is not as clear as it should be, but that might be the age when this author wrote the short story considering that he died before 1900.

‘The Nice People’ story is told in a flashback method. The story begins when the narrator’s saying “They certainly are nice people,” I assented to my wife’s observation’ (Burber, p.1). This implies that whatever happened was in the past and the narrator is telling the story through memories. The story has mixed narration with direct dialogues which makes the story a bit lively. There have been dialogues among the family members such as the narrator’s family and Brede’s family especially when they took a walk together (Bunner, pp. 1–2). This aspect of telling the story also helps in making the story realistic as the actual characters and behavior of each individual are brought out vividly. For example, Mr. Jacobus, the owner of the summer boarding house that the two families were residing had a different style of English and this is brought out clearly when he speaks in a conversation. “Well — that was all I wuz askin’ ye. Ye see” (Bunner, p.3) is an example of Mr. Jacobus language

Different characters have been used to communicate different themes in this story. The narrator and his wife are portrayed as optimistic people as they just assumed Bredes family is nice people just by the look of them. Brede’s family comprises of Mr. Brewster Brede and Mrs. Brede. They have children but it is not clear how many as Mr. Brede told the narrator they had 2 children whereas Mrs. Brede told narrator’s wife that they had 3 children, living with their relative (Bunner, p.1). The interaction of these two families ensures the reader understand their background. For example, Brede’s family had issues, and that is the reason they were giving mixed up information about their children.

When the two families visited the “view Point” and Mr. Brede recalled how he had climbed over the mountain to the village on the other side, his wife was astonished as she did not know anything about his husband’s climbing over the mountain (Bunner, p.3). This is a clear indication of the secrets that families hold which may not be visible to the outside world. Since these two families are in a boarding house, which is away from the congested city, they can move to their “viewpoint” where they can watch over the plains and the mountain (Bunner pp.1–4). The imagination of an evening walk in the plains to the beautiful scenes of trees and mountain helps to harmonize the tension and problems that the families are facing.

The story also tried to use humor to entertain the readers, although in a very vague way. For example, in the last scenes, Mrs. Brede’s, opened her parasol and rice grains fell spreading overdress and on her hat. That scene is supposed to be funny, maybe, but, the humor is absorbed by the sad mood and tone of the two women crying holding each other (Bunner, p.5). However, some times the authors are not so open with what they want to communicate and it calls for the reader to critically analyze the situation to understand what specifically the writer’s intentions were. Nevertheless, it is important to discuss the importance of the boarding house as used in this context. Apart from bringing the families together, it also helps characters to reflect on life and plan for their future. For example, the narrator’s family have been involved in conversations which help them bond even more. Notably, there is no urgency in the opening scenes of this short story as everyone seems attached to a specific unchanging routine. The families ate breakfast, men went on a secluded place to smoke, then, they would take a walk, more so the narrator’s family. In this regard, it shows that the boarding house is a good place to fight boredom and stress as there are no much activities that are happening. On rare occasions, the narrator, Mr. Jacobus, and Mr. Bred talk about serious issues such as keeping the marriage licenses and investments (Bunner, p.5).

Conclusion

In conclusion, this has been a discussion of Bunner’s short story “The Nice People”. This story uses different characters such as the narrator and his wife as well as Mr. and Mrs. Brede. The title, ‘The Nice People’ is developed from the assumption that the narrator and his wife had about the Brede’s. However, they were wrong, since the Brede’s had their secrets and family problems which include giving the mixed-up version of their family composition to the narrator and his wife. However, the story is a good representation of how families are dynamic and understanding them cannot be only done through assumptions.

Source: Bunner H. C (2012) The Nice People, Online Link: link http://fullreads.com/humor/the-nice-people/