The Lumber Room

The ‘Lumber Room’ is  a fine short story written by Saki a famous writer reveals his great knowledge of man’s inner world. He is known for featuring children in his story and makes the stories came alive. There for Hector Hugh Munro who’s pen name Saki is widely acclaimed for his short stories. 

There are two main characters in the prose. One is the Aunt who represents adult’s world. Another one is the little orphan Nicholas who was trusted to his tyrannical and dull-witted aunt. He duped his Aunt as he was in disgrace. He made her believe that he was somehow trying to get into the gooseberry garden.

“He had no intention of trying to get into the gooseberry garden, but it was extremely convenient for him that his aunt should believe that he had”

But instead, he sneaked into the Lumber Room. There he was attracted by many things. Soon his aunt tried to look for the boy and slipped into the rain-water tank. She asked Nicholas to fetch her ladder but the boy pretended not to understand her, he said that she was the Evil One. The story presents extremely typical subjects.

The author seems to be suggesting the adulthood causes one to lose all sense of fun, imagination. Adults become obsessed with insignificant trivialities, like the Aunt which is obsessed about punishing and nitpicking on the children. Nicholas imagines the whole story behind the tapestry while the Aunt comes out with boring stories and ideas like a circus or going to the beach.

“To Nicholas it was a living, breathing story”

At the same time, Aunt tries to convince Nicholas about the fun of a trip to the beach, of the circus but lacks the imagination to sound convincing. She describes the beach outing as beautiful and glorious but cannot say in detail.How it will be beautiful or glorious because she is not creative. It is the weakness of her.

The Lumber room, it is symbolic of fun and imagination of the child’s world which is definitely lacking in the adult world.

“Nicholas slipped back into the house and rapidly put into execution a plan of action that had long germinated in his brain.”

The Aunt’s world is full of warped priorities. She puts punishment than getting to know and molding the lives of the children. She keeps all the beautiful and creative things of the house locked away in a lumber-room so as not to spoil them but in doing so, the purpose of the objects which is to beauty the house is lost, leaving the house dull and colorless.

“Such parts of the house as Nicholas knew best were rather bare and cheerless, but here there were wonderful things for the eye to feast on”

When Nicholas got into an unknown land every single item brings life and imagination. They allow Nicholas to live in a world of fantasy. Actually, the little boy is forced to stay at home but he enjoyed a lot in the lumber room.

The author uses irony to poke fun and criticize the Aunt. For instance,  the trip Jagborough which is meant to spite Nicholas fails. Instead of being a punishment for the child, it became a treat for him whereas it became a torture to those who went.

“The tide had been at its highest when the children had arrived at Jagborough cove”

The Aunt’s conception of the paradise is gooseberry garden. The real paradise is the Lumber-room, not the garden. This reveals that the ideal world of an adult is dull and boring to that olla child. The ending of the story reveals the author’s social comment about the differences between the world o f the child and adult. Though the Aunt is furious  Nicholas is thinking about the hunter tricking the hounds by using the stag as a bail. It is a representative of his own life; he is like a hunter able to escape the dull reality of the world.The story reveals great knowledge of man’s inner world. The author‘s attitude towards grown-ups cynical. Anyway, the charm of this story lies in its interesting plot and gives a deep thought to everyone who read.

The story reveals great knowledge of man’s inner world. The author‘s attitude towards grown-ups cynical. Anyway, the charm of this story lies in its interesting plot and gives a deep thought to everyone who read.