Zafeiris Dimitra

Neogreaca - Engleza
S1, grup3
sem. Gratie
Optional an 3

Prof. Conf. dr. Mihai Stroe

- Janus, Ann Beattie.

The main theme of the American writer Ann Beatie's short novel Janus is the split self.
The story is about Andreea, a successful but troubled real estate agent. Andrea manages to
get herself into a dilemma, having to choose either to listen to her wishes and heart or her
post-war implemented fears , thus becoming a complete individual.
Not being able to do so, she divides herself into 2 different worlds , the outside , wich
provides the external viewer with a successful and contented image , showing
accomplishment and satisfaction in the material world; and, her inner world, that reveals a
sad, unhappy, unsatisfied and aimless woman, that does not feel loved in her home and
marriage.
The emptiness and loneliness she is experiencing in the spiritual world is contoured by
her fetish with the bowl. The house and the bowl are the two relationships that take us to the
two-faced god Janus, the bowl representing a lost love , and the house wich represents
marriage and stability.
The divided self of Andreea comes from emptiness and confusion , being a general middle
& upper-middle class emotional block at the time. The war created an unsafe enviorment,
causing the masses to seek stability and secureness above all, even in second generations
after the impact.
Janus is , in the ancient Roman religion and mytology, the two faced god of beginnings
and growth, symbolically looking at the same time into the future and the past, a god of
transitions, guardian of peace. The term Janus-faced is used to characterize someone who is
duplicitous , in this case we migth call Andrea, a Janus-faced character.
"Janus" falls into the ordinary cathegory of creativity, realistically presenting one's
ongoing fight between subjectivity and obiectivity. Andrea puts all of her frustrations,
shortcommings into this bowl, often fantasising about it being more than just a bowl, an
inanimate object,"Could it be that she had some deeper connection with the bowl a
relationship of some kind? "; she is in a constant loop of reluctance to comply with her own
wishes ,developing in time a secret relationsip with it: "But she never talked to him about
the bowl " - him, the husband.
The repetition of the word "bowl" is irritating to the reader's eye, making it from the
beggining of the short story a key element, an obsession. This can be interpreted as a type of
aggressive creativity, the repetition becoming an pattern over the whole story. The story
begins with the statement :"the bowl was perfect".
Having this in mind we are aware of the fact that the bowl doesn't have only a symbolic
meaning, it is actually the whole heart of the story; Andreea couldn't be away from it. "She
became more deliberate with the bowl, and more possessive"; "She would get up at night
and look at the bowl."

Zafeiris Dimitra
Neogreaca - Engleza
S1, grup3
sem. Gratie
Optional an 3

Prof. Conf. dr. Mihai Stroe

"gift of creativitythe capacity to seesomething new that others could not" ( The Creating
Brain, N.C Andreasen) .
Concidering that creativity is influenced by a milieu or a social environment , as presented
in Nancy C. Andreasen's book, The Creating Brain:
Andrea describes the world she lives in as beeing "full of tricks". It shows raised awareness
towards consequences of actions, more appreciation in relationships with family and friends,
having to come across with elements such as cancer or infertility, but still in a blur of
uncertinty, having been impacted by the Vietnam War, and its repercussions. Andrea's world
holds a clear stamp of this historical context, revolving around all white, middle-aged ,
educated people with postwar side effects, such as Andrea's duplicity and reservation
towards her sentimental needs.
In conclusion, Andrea's duplicity, wich we can observe from the title itself "Janus",
representing the two faced god, is a short story that shows how creativity can be influenced
by the surroundings in wich it evolves.

Bibliography:
The Creating Brain, The neuroscience of genius , by Nancy C Andreasen MD, Ph. D.
The best short stories of the century , by John Updike, Katrina Kenison.

http://www.zenskestudie.edu.rs/en/publishing/online-material/women-s-studies-journal/299swallowing-pearls-the-narrative-strategies-of-ann-beattie
https://prezi.com/47esinmvozke/janus-by-ann-beattie/
https://blogs.iwu.edu/johnupdikesociety/2010/05/11/ann-beattie-and-lincoln-perryannounced-as-keynoters/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janus