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Ngoc Thanh Giang Nguyen - NGUND2203 – 7974498

Marilyn Simon

ENGL 1400: Thematic Approaches to the Study of Literature

February 10th, 2023

The true value of being a woman

“Another Fine Mess” is a short story, written by Ray Bradbury, an American novelist.

This story is the journey of finding a new kind of freedom inside the old, unattractive, middle-

aged women, Bella and Zelda. Through the voices of two movie actors who were forgotten,

Bella and Zelda aware their own values and self-awareness. In the same topic, John Berger also

wrote about women's presence in “The Male Gaze" in 1972 that a woman need to be seen by

herself as well as being seen by others. Women need to see their values by treating themselves

well despite the ages, appearances, or any external condition. Bella and Zelda, in a same way,

need to see theirs truly values by watching themselves and being seen.

In “The Male Gaze,” John Berger differentiates the presence between a man and a

woman as a usage and conventions of society. For a man, his presence is reliant on “the promise

power” which might be “moral, physical, temperamental, economic, social, sexual” (45). The

more power that a man has in his hand, the more his presence in society is. In short, male’s social

presence is the power that he embodies and it is the exterior values of a man. However, as a

woman, her social presence expresses the way she watches herself and being seen by men.
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According to John Berger, women are born and grown up under the “tutelage” (46) living

condition in a limited space. Therefore, a women’s self-beings are contributed by two ways.

First, she must watch herself: “She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of

herself” (46) or she is the “surveyor” who surveys everything she is to find her identity.

Secondly, a woman or a female is being watched by others, in this case, by male. It is a crucial

thing that everything a woman does will tell the world how she is treated. And why men are the

ones who treat women in the way she behaves? It is because, John Berger stated, “men survey

women before treating them.” (46) It becomes the functions of society that men and women

supplement to each other: A woman “turns herself into an objective,” an objective of vision. Men

observe women. “Women watch themselves being looked at.” (47). In reverse, what happen if a

woman sees herself not being seen and invisible? The crisis of identity is what Bella and Zelda

are facing in “Another Fine Mess.”

The context of the short story reveals ingenious the crisis of identity of Bella and Zelda

has. At the beginning of the story, Bradbury evokes the first contrast of main character, Bella.

Her name, Bella Winter, means “beautiful winter” but she lives in Los Angeles, where is “in the

middle of summer” (393). The second contrast is Bella new place, “so it was new to her, this old

house on an old street with an old staircase” (393). It could be seen as being old is new to Bella.

Another clue that reveals women’s not being seen is the way Bella sees herself: a “woman fifty-

five, fat, and ugly” (394). She is losing herself, loose the joyfulness, gorgeousness as she

supposed to be. It means that she is losing her self-love as a woman besides self-care, self-

validation. The sound of moving stuffs and the voices of two old actors lead Bella and Zelda

moves closer to the issue they are facing. First, the sound of moving a piano creates Bella

attention. Then, the voice of two movies actors reminds both Bella and Zelda as Laurel and
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Hardy, who also are forgotten. “Did they? Sure, we told each other, but maybe not enough of us

ever wrote or waved when they passed and just yelled “Love” you think?” (399). Bella and Zelda

refuse to what they need, refuse their self-loving, self-awareness and turn their intention to other

people. They see the forgotten of two actors but they did not realize that in themselves, “Or

maybe they were told a lot but still didn’t believe because maybe in their old years things got

bad” (398). They forgot that self-identification is built up from their self-love, self-awareness,

self-care, and self-validation but they could feel that in Laurel and Hardy. The voices of two

actors might be a key to the issue that Bella and Zelda are facing with.

At the end of this story, Bradbury solves the issue in an incredible way through the

interaction of main characters and the change in their feelings. Zelda hesitates when she speaks

of herself and Bella reveals the shift between their confidence. When introducing her and Bella,

Zelda speaks with a self-deprecated voice: “It just us. I’m Zelda, you wouldn’t remember, and

this here is Bella, and we’ve known you forever, or since we were kids, and we love you. It’s

late, but we thought you should know” (400-401). She kept interrupting herself with unconfident

tone and seem under evaluate her and Bella. However, Zelda shows her enthusiasm and affection

to the actors in a continuous way and emotional - “We’ve loved you ever since you were in the

desert or on that boat with ghosts or trying to sell Christmas trees door-to-door or in that traffic

where you tore the headlights off cars, and we still love you” (401). At that time, they focus on

themselves rather than other factors and joyfulness and freedom. They are totally released since

they hear moving a piano. Bradbury states that this moment is “the most incredible thing

happened” by using poetic language to describe the sound: skittering, playing, swerving, rushing,

running, yelling, tripping, shouting, warning, crying; hearing, felling, shouting, crying, laughing,

holding, clutching, grasping, trying. The word “abandoned” and syntax of two paragraph show
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us the freedom of two ladies, the moment they get rid of the insecurity, self-unconsciousness

which were haunted them for so long. The sound in the story is crucial for two women. It not

only provokes them of being unseen by themselves, the crisis of identity as being women, but

also is an opportunity to realize, release, come to freedom. The joyfulness, gorgeousness, and the

youth of their life come back, faded their black and white memory in the theatre. They were

“laughing, and then transfixed and laughing again” (395) when they were small and now, they

find themselves again. And once a year, the voice of Laurel and Hardy should come to let main

characters that they should love themselves, by that way, Bella and Zelda seem treat themselves

more visible.

Bella and Zelda have a journey of find their own identities by Laurel and Hardy, two

forgotten actors. Therefore, woman, in general, should not let other condition to decide who they

are. If women treat themselves by self-love and self- awareness, other people will treat them in

the same way.