Terug Genesis and Catastrophe (1962)
by
Roald Dahl
‘Genesis and Catastrophe’ comes from the bundle ‘Kiss Kiss’. In that bundle fear is an important subject. More information about the writer you can find with the fragment ‘Mrs Bixby and the Colonel’s coat’.
Contents
A woman, Klara, has just given birth to a son. She is constantly asking if the child is all right. The doctor tells her over and over again that her child is doing fine. She tells the doctor she has prayed and prayed that her child will live. The doctor reassures her and asks her what she is talking about. She tells him her others didn't live.
The innkeeper's wife, who has come up to assist in the delivery, has told him that this couple had arrived quite suddenly about three months ago. She had also told him, the husband worked at the local customs-house on the border and that he is an arrogant, overbearing, bullying drunkard, but the wife is a religious, gentle, sad woman.
The doctor tells her not to worry, because her child is perfectly normal. The woman says that this is exactly what they said about her other three children, but she has lost all three of them in the last eighteen months. First Otto died, then Gustav and only a few months ago Ida died as well. At Ida's funeral the husband said he had good news: he had been posted to Braunau. Klara tells the doctor she is frightened, scared to lose another child. The doctor says she has to stop thinking like that. She tells him about the time Otto was born. Her husband came into the room, looked into the cradle where Otto was lying and he said:"Why do all my children have to be so small and weak?" Three days later Otto was dead.
The doctor advises her not to think about this. Klara asks him if this one is very small. The doctor says her child is a little small, but that the small ones are often a lot tougher than the big ones. He asks Frau Hitler if she has already picked out a name. She isn't sure, but she thought her husband would like to call him Adolfus. Suddenly she panics, because this was the same question another doctor asked when Otto was born. She jumps to the conclusion that this one will die. The doctor reassures her again and at that moment the inkeeper's wife comes in with the baby. She puts him down next to Klara, but Klara doesn't even turn her head. Slowly she looks at her child and is delighted when she sees her beautiful son. After a short time the husband comes in. This is Herr Hitler, a small man in a dark-green uniform, smelling of beer. He askes how his son is doing and walks to his wife's bed. He bends down to look at the baby. Then he bends lower and lower and says: "But my God, Klara....This one is even smaller than Otto was!"
The doctor says that there is nothing wrong with the child, but Herr Hitler doesn't believe it. The doctor tells him to forget about the others and to give this one a chance. Klara is weeping now. The doctor commands Herr Hitler to be good to her and pushes him into Klara's direction. Herr Hitler comforts his wife. Klara begs: "He must live, Alois. He must, he must... Oh God, be merciful unto him now..."
The narrative technique and theme
Omniscient author and the theme is the fear of a woman to lose her child.
My own opinion
At first I felt a lot of sympathy for Klara and I hoped her child would live, but when I found out this child was Adolf Hitler I suddenly wished the child to die. I find it very clever that a writer can cause such a change in feelings for a character. You can't help thinking "If he only had died....."
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