Mr. Know-All

*Background --This story deals with prejudice, hasty judgments and stereotypes. The story examines the relationships that develop when people are confined to a certain place, such as a ship, for an extended period of time. IT tries to show why people are disliked and prejudiced against and at the same time makes the reader look closely at the character of the narrator, who is the one doing the judging and through whose eyes we see the whole story.

QUESTIONS

  1. Why is the story written in the first person?
  2. Why did the narrator decide he disliked Mr. Kelada even before he had me him?
  3. Why is the narrator surprised to find that Mr. Kelada is English?
  4. How did Mr. Kelada behave on the ship?
  5. Describe the incident with the pearls.
  6. Why did Mr. Kelada decide to protect Mrs. Ramsay? What does this tell us about him?
  7. What does Mrs. Ramsay do at the end of the story? What do you think about her reaction?
  8. What does the narrator feel about Mr. Kelda at the end of the story? What does this tell us about the narrator?

ANSWERS

  1. The story is in the first person so that we only see the viewpoint of the narrator. The credibility of the story is questionable because the viewpoint is completely subjective. We do not know the narrator's name in order to make his represent anyone and everyone.
  2. He was prepared to dislike Mr. Kelada because of his name, Which sounded foreign.. He also didn't like the look of Mr. Kelada's suitcases (the labels and size) and his toiletries (the brand and the fact that they looked dirty). This tells us that thenarrator is a snob who only wants to mix with other English people and has prejudices against anyone who is not English.
  3. The story takes place in a ship in order to confine people and force them to meet and to be together. It forces people who normally would not mix at all to be together. It does not give people a choice about whom they would like to relate to, which they would have in a city; nor can they easily get away from people when confined to a ship/
  4. He is surprised because the name doesn't sound English. (the description of Mr. Kelada lines 41-460
  5. Mr. Kelada was a good mixer; he knew everyone and organized everything on the ship. He talked all the time, was very opinionated and acted as if he knew everything. According to the narrator he was the "best hated man in the ship". (lines 110-111). Heis supposed knowledge of everything and his incessant talking made his presence intolerable.
  6. Mr. Ramsay was a big, heavy man who wore cheap clothes that were too small for him. He was as dogmatic and opinionated as Mr. Kelada. Mrs Ramsay was a small, pretty woman who dressed simple but elegantly. She had pleasant manners and a sense of humour , but her most outstanding feature was he modesty. The narrator does not like Mr. Ramsay because he says that he is as dogmatic as Mr. Kelada and the discussions between them seemed to go on forever. He is also described in an unattractive way, whereas Mrs. Ramsay is described in a positive way, showing that the narrator was impressed by her. He feels that not only is she very pretty but she has a special modesty that is lacking in most women.
  7. The author chose pearls and not some other precious stones because he said that there had been a lot of talk about cultured pearls in the papers and that this was a subject that Mr. Kelada really knew about. He informs the other characters that he is in the pearl trade and this is the point of his being on the ship/
  8. Mr. Kelada decided to protect Mrs. Ramsay because he saw the terrified look on her face and realized that she had lied to her husband . Mr. Kelada understood that if he proved that her husband didn't know anything about pearls he would expose Mrs. Ramsay and possible endanger their marriage. This shows us that he was an extremely sensitive, caring and humane person who was prepared to sacrifice his own reputation, which was very important to him, in order to protect a stranger.
  9. Mrs. Ramsay pushed anenvelope containing a hundred dollars under Mr. Kelada's cabin door. The name was written in block letters to that the handwriting couldn't be recognized.
  10. The narrator hasn't really changed during the story. He doesn't admit that he completely misjudged Mr. Kelada and that he was unfairly prejudiced before. He just says at that moment at the end of the story he doesn't totally dislike him..
  11. Cultured pearls are pearls that are created or made by people—they are not natural or genuine as real pearls are. Cultured pearls look beautiful but are mass produced and not unique. The different sorts of pearls symbolize the different people in the story. Mrs. Ramsay is a cultured pear, whereas Mr. Kelada is a real pearl.