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NIKOLA TUTEK
the old name for it”? and “old pressed-tin ceiling, which the Croatians had
painted white.”” By saying Croatians did this or that, Neil emphasizes that
his description of Maria and her family is free of any personal or emotional
engagement and this attitude, perhaps, implies a tone which could be
understood as degrading.
The description of Maria’s parents is also very interesting. Her father is
described as a “little bald guy, polite and nervous, a chain-smoker, and she
was a big, heavy woman...””, a description that follows all the usual clichés
about southern European or Mediterranean married couples in general.
Furthermore, the husband is described as a man in charge, the one who did
the hard job and spoke decent English, while the wife, who did not speak
English at all, seems to be his subordinate. Neil does not fail to observe
that their children, Maria and Linda, “spoke English just like Canadians””*
signalling their full assimilation into Canadian society.
In that respect, only the fully assimilated members of the family,
Maria and Lisa, have names that Neil remembers. Both Lisa (Cro. Liza or
Elizabeta) and Maria (Cro. Marija) are typical female Croatian first names
that strongly imply a Catholic background. Furthermore, Neil discovers
that both girls went to a convent school, which confirms that the family, at
least to the outside observer, lived according to Catholic traditions. While
in no way communicated in the story, it is common knowledge that some
countries in Eastern Europe, especially Croatia, have deep cultural roots in
Catholicism.”
The important question for us is why did the Croatian family (except for
Lisa) leave the town after the candy shop closed? By saying that “[a]t least
they believed they couldn't [run the candy shop]. Maybe they simply had not
the heart to go on”” Neil implies that the family business might have been
saved, and that the family left because they wanted to, and not because they
had to leave. Maria’s deviant behaviour surely had a devastating impact on
a traditional family such as hers. Neil implies that the reason the family left
could be shame, and that again provides cultural commentary confirming
ingrained generalized stereotypes of Balkan mentalities.”
2 Tbid., 29.
2 Tbid., 30.
23 Ibid., 26.
2° Ibid., 26.
There is, in my opinion, an interesting ironic comment on religion hidden in the story “Five
Points”. The candy store is a place of Maria’s sexual misconduct, and, as the name candy
store might insinuate, a place of sin. When the family business was closed, according to
Neil, it was reopened as a laundromat. Laundromat, a place where people come to wash their
laundry, can be perceived a place of atonement of sin.
26 Alice Munro, Friend of My Youth, 37.
The mentalities of the Balkans are usually perceived as traditional and collectivist, hence,
highly dependent on ‘the opinion of others’.
* 80°