The Wretched Stone

Chris Van Allsburg, USA (1949-)

Characters:

• Randall Ethan Hope (Captain of the Ship)
• Mr. Howard (the first mate)
• Other characters are Musicians, Storytellers, Dancers, Sailors, Avid (greedy) Readers etc.  

This story is actually a logbook. The journey started on May 8 and ended July 12 (2 Months 4 Days).

1.  The voyage started on 8^th May.
2. On 6^th June, they reached an island which was not mentioned in the map. Everything was strange and the plants were without fruits and there was unpleasant odor.
3. They found a two feet long, gray stone with glowing surface. The crew took the stone to the ship.
4.  They forgot reading, singing, dancing, storytelling and music playing. They gathered around the stone (TV).
5. On 15^th June, a great storm approached the ship and nearly sank her. (The crew didn't help the captain because they were spellbound by televising. Unfortunately one night all the crew turned to ape.)
6. When the captain played violin and reads books for them. It had a positive meaning upon them. Then the crew returned to previous normal condition. (They requested the captain to set fire in the ship and sink her. When the captain promised to do it, they become happy. Finally they were rescued by another ship.)

Summary of the Story {Metaphorical Story}:

The Wretched Stone begins with a notice reading: "Excerpts from the log of the Rita Ann. Randall Ethan Hope, Captain." We read, then, the captain's record of an extraordinary journey. The captain writes about loading supplies onto the ship at the start of the voyage, and the fine crew that has been assembled by first mate Mr. Howard. He notes that many of the men are avid readers, musicians, and storytellers, and as the voyage is under way, they are able to entertain themselves wonderfully.

The story begins as the ship Rita Anne is setting sail. Where she is going is never made clear. The work is narrated entirely through ship’s log entries by Captain Randall Ethan Hope, and an ominous tone is set right from the get go. The crew soon discovers an uncharted (not mapped) island and decide to explore. They find a lush (alcoholic) landscape, but encounter no signs of life. The crew does find an extraordinary glowing rock and decide to bring it on board. The situation started to get weird. As the crew stares at the stone, they begin to take on some, shall we say, simian characteristics. The odd appeal of the stone proves to be very strong, putting their voyage in danger.

The captain records the sighting of an uncharted island and decides to disembark (set down) with his crew to look for fruit and fresh water. Then he records their sojourn (temporary stay/visit) into the island's interior. He describes lush vegetation that bears no fruit, bitter water, and an overpowering sickly sweet smell. He also describes an object the crew found and brought aboard: a gray rock with one smooth and glowing surface. As the crew sets sail again, the captain describes their fascination with the stone. All they seem to do is sit and stare into it. Soon the captain notes that something is wrong with the crew — they do not speak or play their instruments anymore. He believes they may have contracted some sort of fever from the stone, and he plans to throw it overboard. The next day he wakes to find that the crew members have locked themselves into the hold with the stone. A storm approaches, and the captain is fearful — how will he sail the ship alone? He pounds on the door of the hold until finally it swings open. He is horrified to find that each member of his crew has turned into an ape.

The next entry records that the storm has passed, though both masts and the ship's rudder are lost. The mysterious stone has gone dark. The men are still apes. As the boat drifts and waits for rescue, the captain discovers that playing the violin and reading to the crew has a positive effect. Discovering that the stone has begun to glow again, he covers it up. He soon reports that the men have returned to normal; those among them who knew how to read return most quickly to their natural forms.

The final entries record that the captain and crew have been rescued. The captain decides to burn the boat and sink it and the stone to the bottom of the sea and not to talk about the strange events with anyone. The crew, he reports is back to normal — except for one thing: an unnatural appetite for bananas.

Special features of the story:

The plot of The Wretched Stone has unusual structure. Instead of being written like a traditional narrative, the story is laid out in the form of entries into the captain's logbook. Readers experience the drama of the crew's transformation through the confused and terrified eyes of the captain himself. It is fun to look at how Chris Van Allsburg dates the captain's entries and how the tone of the entries changes to reflect the captain's changing circumstances and mood as the stone begins to affect the crew.

This metaphorical story might be telling many things. Here the stone, ape stands for modern non-creative people. According to the writer being crazy to TV, People are careless to their responsibilities and duties. Watching TV is non-productive and not creative work. There can be other ways to get entertainment like reading, singing story telling etc. We must be dutiful and punctual to get success in our life.

The content of the story is unusual, as well. We are never told what the stone is, how it came to be, or why it has such an extraordinary power over those who spend time with it. "Why monkeys?" we ask ourselves. Why it is those crew members that know how to read are more quickly transformed back into humans? The stone could be a metaphor for television in many ways — a glowing object that draws humans to stare at it for hours at a time and shuts down (or just doesn't make use of) creative parts of the brain:

It is a rock, approximately two feet across. It is roughly textured, gray in color, but a portion of it is flat and smooth as glass. From this surface comes a glowing light that is quite beautiful and pleasing to look at.

The crew members first stop reading, playing music, dancing, and working, and then finally become monkeys that simply gather around the stone and stare. The eerie (Inspiring a feeling of fear; strange and frightening) light reflects off the blank faces of the monkeys like the flickering light from a television. When the stone is destroyed, the crew members slowly come back to their senses — those who can read are perhaps more able to quickly begin flexing the creative muscles of their mind again and thus return to their original form. Whether the stone is an exact metaphor for television or simply invented to describe how people can be lured away from the creative activities that bring joy and energy to life, The Wretched Stone provides an excellent forum for discussing these ideas with young people.

Critical Thinking:

The title “The Wretched Stone” indicates the stone that gives lot of tensions and problems. This means people get more problems than benefits in watching TV. As we are away from the TV, we can be more creative, mannered and real human beings.

The story explores the unfortunate condition brought by television set in our life metaphorically. Stone found in the island is nothing but TV set people become just like animals (apes) due to TV. Out creativity culture etc will be destroyed due to TV. So we have to eschew (Avoid and stay away from deliberately; stay clear of) TV as far as we can.

The story is about the disadvantages of watching television. The story rightly shows that sticking to TV all the time is really harmful. However, the story is not fully satisfying. The writer has ignored the advantages of watching TV. Watching TV is not always harmful. Modern science and technological inventions have made our life facilitated and comfortable. Among them TV is one most useful tool. As it is given in this story, TV is the not really so useless. We can know about the world, new inventions, knowledge skills and so much ideas using TV.  TV is the source of information, education, and entertainment. If we utilize television, we don’t lose our creativity. We rather learn many things.  

Assimilation:

This story has affected me very much. I have a very bad habit of watching television all the time. I spent my precious time watching many useless programs on TV. When we see the misuses of TV in our daily life, we can see similar situation. School children become crazy to non-creative programs. They should be interested about study. Most of housewives normally watch TV and kill their important time without any creative work. No doubt, if we can’t use TV properly, we can be meaningless and non-creative like the apes. But now I have determined to watch only those programs which are informative, educative, creative, fruitful and entertaining.