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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°
