Not only did I read Robert Hass's work, "A Story about a Body" three times, I read it over and over so I lost count. As I read through this piece at different times, new ideas came to me about the meaning of the story as a whole, and even certain sentences.
The first character that I encountered was a "young composer, working that summer at an artists' colony" where he sees and meets this woman who is a Japanese painter that is almost sixty. That seemed kind of creepy to me. Hass doesn't specify the age of the man, but since he's "young," that could be from twenty years old to forty, yet the woman was almost sixty. Since the male character is young, I'm assuming that he hasn't experienced life and maybe isn't so educated because he doesn't know what a mastectomy is and the woman has to tell him in plain terms. Yet, this Japanese woman seems so honest, understanding and knows more about life than the man. She may have gone through other relationships and issues along with the double mastectomy. Those experiences may have caused her to see people in another light and may be more aware of people's reactions to situations.
One of the lines that was foreshadowing of this story was when "he thought he was in love with her." He didn't know for sure, he only thought he was in love. That was basically a dead giveaway that this wasn't going to be a happy ending. The love wouldn't last, and I was right.
I love how the Japanese artist's character is so straightforward with him, and says, I think you like me, and I like you too, but I have to tell you something about myself. She is so honest because she probably knows that this is a big factor for most people. She has probably faced some rejection in other relationships like this before, and is almost a "pro" at it now. I'm sure that it was heartbreaking the first time, and still is. But she seems to handle herself well. She faced the situation head on and told him this fact about herself because she would probably rather know sooner than later if this relationship was going to work out or not.
When "the radiance that he had carried around in his belly and chest cavity--like music--withered very quickly," you can see that this man did not have a real love for this woman. He had butterflies and superficial feelings, but when it came down to loving this woman that he thought he knew, he couldn't accept her because the double mastectomy that she had. I think that this character hadn't experienced true love. He probably hasn't been married or had super serious relationships, and that's why his feelings withered away. While on the other hand, I think the woman could have been married before, had children and other relationships with people, so she knew how they thought, and the most likely reaction to her situation.
An interesting thing that I noticed was that at both of the doors to their cabins, something is revealed about the characters. At the woman's door, we find out that she had a double mastectomy and the guy can't be with her if she is like that. Then, at the man's door the next day he finds a blue bowl sitting out there with rose petals in it. But underneath the rose petals were a bunch of dead bees. I had two different thoughts with this: One, this bowl with rose petals and dead bees represents this man. She thought he was this nice, sweet guy, but on the inside, his heart was cold and he didn't know how to love. It was like he was dead to her. He was dead on the inside. Two, it also could represent his perception of her. He looked at her and thought she was one way, but then he finds out this new information, and their relationship can no longer last. It's dead and gone.
I thought the "small blue bowl...full of rose petals" and "dead bees" was such a clever and artistic way to show the woman's thoughts of this man. There was a lot of meaning behind this small act.
Robert Hass tackled a subject that many of us deal with: accepting or rejecting others based on appearance.
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