AJAX, by Cristina Fernández
SUMMARY
A schoolboy called James lives in the neighbourhood
with his mother and father.
A weird man lives in the next house.
Although Mr Wilkinson is educated, respectable,
interesting and well-dressed, he is not the “normal family”, he lives alone in
his fifties, and he likes to practice sports in his garden in underpants and
chanting, in all weathers, therefore he is fit, muscular and well-built.
While the boy feels adoration and beguiling for that
man, his mother and the neighbourhood dislike him because he hasn’t a “normal” job:
he receives patients at home and practices alternative medicine. Besides, his visitors
are young girls too.
One day, while James is playing with flowers in the
garden, is asked by Mr. Wilkinson if he’s a vegetarian, and so the boy thinks
the adult is.
Another day, the man asks the boy for something to
clear drains, and he gives the man Ajax, and it’s explained to be the name of a
Greek myth. The boy sees blood in that water and explains everything to their
parents. The boy thinks he’s not a vegetarian.
Mr. Wilkinson had to leave, a police man asked
questions to the boy and a normal family moved in, what the whole street
wanted.
When the boy grew up, he studied to be a Greek teacher
in Oxford college, was homosexual and weird and discovered that “Ajax” was a
Greek warrior who went mad mistaking sheep for people.
PERSONAL OPINION
The obvious conclusion to be drawn is that maybe Mr Wilkinson
used to practice abortions to the young girls that visited him.
That the parents of the boy perhaps thought that the
man had tried to abuse sexually the boy.
I think that this neighbour was the first platonic
love of the boy who influenced him in his future career, not minding being
weird.
I am convinced that respectability rejects everything
that is new, different and free.
QUESTIONS
-“Weirdo” is a bit offensive. Nowadays, we tend to use
euphemisms. Do you think that a change of words can change the reality?
-“I was too young to have opinions of my own.” In
older times, you could start giving opinions only when you reached a specific
age. Does it seem right for you?
-“I was driven into taking an opposite view.” In which
cases new generations do the opposite to old generations?
-Do you remember the film “In and Out”? There is a scene where a student says all the
qualities of a gay man. Is it only a cliché?
According to the English novels, you are a gentleman
or a gentlewoman if you are rich, you have a title, or you have an education.
Is there any other way to be a gentleman or a gentlewoman?
-“Anyone can do what they like in the privacy of their
own home.” Is that an absolute right?
-What do you think about name’s shortening or
nicknaming (James to Jim or Jimmy)?
-Do you think being a vegetarian is a way to be
different? Is there something you can call a “normal diet”?
-Do you remember the famous admonition “Don’t talk to
strangers”? Were our parents right?
-What do you know about “alternative medicines”?
-What were your experiences with doctors when you were
a child?
-In your opinion, why did Mr Wilkinson show the
narrator boy how he cleaned the drains?
-What do you think Mr Wilkinson did to earn his
living? How do you know?
-How did you decide to study what you wanted to be?
-The new residents, the Fletchers, in Mr Wilkinson’s
house were a couple with their first baby: can you see the irony?
-What do you know about Ajax, from the Greek
mythology? Do you remember more literary names used as a brand name?
-“If you’re a professor of Greek, you’re allowed to be
that”: Do you think there is a relation between sexual tendency and studies or job?
VOCABULARY
weirdo, undoing, doff, cut above, educated, look up, medley,
chanting, semis, beret, kit bag, tinkered, trellis, stoopingness, pebble-dashing,
abiding, clinch, held much water, scotched, pinned him down, gruff, drains, bother,
sporting, sly, rush, hazardous, scouring, enthralled, beguiling, tantalizingol,
slop, gutter, squeamish, capped, slander, unwitting, bereft, Fellow's gown, smoothed
over, tenet