Tragedy of old age

John Steinbeck has a story of an old man who had gone through great experiences in his younger days and who now lived alone in the old undeveloped American West. He comes for a few days’ visit to his daughter and her husband and their little son in their lonely farm. Like all old men, he likes to tell about his past experiences, and like most old men, he keeps repeating the same stories.

The little boy is fascinated and likes to hear the stories again and again, but the daughter’s husband is fed up. One day, when the old man is late for dinner and they think he is far away, the husband goes into a tirade against the old man. "He keeps repeating the same stories. Who cares about them? I wish he would shut up" (or words to that effect).

At that point the old man (who has heard everything) enters the kitchen and sits down at the table. There is an embarrassed silence. Then the old man says quietly to his son-in-law: "You are right. I really should not tell those stories anymore. They belong to the past." Then he announces that he is leaving them and would never return.

It is a simple story, but it dramatizes a common fact of the human condition: The desire of the old to tell of their experiences, and the desire of the young not to listen to them.

It is not all the fault of the young. The old can be boring. In every club (says Agatha Christiel) there is a club bore who insists on telling his stories to those who don’t care to listen.

Agatha Christie is justly famous as a detective writer. But she had another quality which has been underestimated: She has a great knowledge of human nature and a keen perception of human motivations. She interprets this common desire of old men to tell of their past experiences as a desire to relive the past when they were happy. That is the pathos of old age. To wish to relive the past which cannot return.

But besides the pathetic, there is also an element of tragedy. The old may have accumulated wisdom, and it would be good for the young and for the human race. If that wisdom could be transmitted. But the wisdom of the past is the last thing the young desire. For the young, there is no such thing as the past. There is only the present and the future. They do not realize that their future might be better if they learned.

In Steinbeck’s story, one interesting character is the little boy who loves his grandfather and likes to listen to his stories. But the grandfather must go away and the little boy is the only one who misses him.

That is the tragic situation. The old have much to tell and the young do not wish to listen. So they repeat the same mistakes which they might have avoided had they listened. Meanwhile, the very few who do wish to listen, very often have no chance to.