Serrantos- Analytical responce c: Short Story review

Misuse of Light

Misuse of Light is a story about the power of images and the different ways that we can see the world. The main character is Mel, who works at a camera store. He buys and sells cameras of all kinds. One day a girl walks into the store and he buys a camera that was in very good condition with a roll of film inside. Mel is excited because he often develops the old film left in cameras for recreation. He likes to study amateur photography and usually finds pictures that have a special meaning to him. When he develops the film that was in the girl’s camera, he sees a picture of a beautiful woman. As he investigates who she is, he finds that her husband, the girl’s grandfather, did not save her as she died on a sinking boat. But he does not stop there. He keeps looking and in the end finds out that the girl’s grandfather, Leland Springer, did indeed love his wife Amanda and that Leland was not the photographer of the family; Amanda Springer was. And so he sets the record straight and rebuilds the girl’s view of her grandfather.

The story had its good parts and its bad parts. One of my favorite parts was when the girl’s mother goes to Mel’s store and gives him a piece of her mind. This could also be considered the moment of grace for Mel. After their confrontation, Mel decides to look further into the story of Amanda Springer’s death and it is only then that he finds out the truth. A part I did not like was when the deaf-mute told Mel what Amanda was saying in the picture. It had symbolism but I thought it was pretty weak.

I think the story’s message is that he can not take everything at face value. If we really want to understand something, we must look deeper than the tip of the iceberg and find out what it hiding underneath. This theme applies somewhat to Raymond Carver’s Cathedral. Even though Bub does not know the blind man, he already thinks that he knows what Robert is like. It is only until he looks deeper and sees who Robert really is that he can make a decision on what kind of person he is drawing with.