War Symbols in Hampl's Essay

761 Words4 Pages
“Look at a teacup” is a complicated essay with a great deals of hidden meaning to be read in between the lines. The essay abounds with rich as well as vivid description of china dishes especially tea cups and scattered information about the writer’s parents, her relation with mother and her views. As for the tea cups, they were made in Czechoslovakia and bought in 1939 by her mother. These cups which have been given to the author have a tiny “Czechoslovakia” stamped on the bottom. Each piece is thin and transparent having the palest water-green shade. One can see thin bands of gold around the edges of the saucer and cup. There is also a band of gold on the inner circle of the saucer. Inside the cup, flowers are depicted in different falling altitudes. It seems that as if someone has scattered a bouquet and the flowers appear to be caught in falling motion. One tends to notice a special significance attached to the cups because frequent references are made throughout the essay. In one place, the writer admits that there is slur of recollection about the flowers, something imprecise, seductive and foggy, but held together with a bright bolt of accuracy-perhaps a piercing glance from a long dead uncle, whose face, all the features, has otherwise faded. In another occasion, she wonders in someone with an important black umbrella had considered the future of teacups. Prior to that, she refers to an English politician and his shaking a nation away while furling his black umbrella. Further she alludes to the falling of bodies, bombs and countries. Although each information seems to be unconnected with one another, one can see a thread of associations. They indicate the degeneration that took place in Europe in general and disintegration in Czechoslovakia in particular during the Second World War. The teacups with the painting of falling flowers are relies of the
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