A Day in the Open, by Jane Bowles, is about getting out of a room and into the open space of the countryside, along with all the promise and peril that entails.
The two protagonists are poor prostitutes, Julia, “small and monkey-like”, and Inez, “tall and high-breasted”. At the moment, Julia is sick and worried about a lump in her stomach. Her sickness and weakness are the source of what success she has with men. Men, we are told “enjoyed the feeling that they were endangering her very life by going to bed with her”.
Her constant sickness means she spends most of her time inside. Outside, “the sun is too hot and the wind is too cold”. The room is like a waiting place. Because she has nothing driving her actions, when she is in there, time is suspended. Julia is a toy in a toybox, waiting to be of use. Like her grandmother
She had the feeling that she was not wanted here on this earth, either by God or by other people, and so she never felt she could refuse anyone anything.
This feeling of not being wanted makes her “terribly lonely”, and she latches on to anyone that might take her out of that loneliness, even if it is not good for her. And the things that take her and that she meets out in the open are not good for her.
They are invited on a day out with Senor Ramirez, who comes to pick them up in a car, dressed up and with five bottles of champagne on ice ready for them. Julia is feeling sick, “lightheaded and feverish”. She doesn’t want to go, but as she cannot refuse anyone the pressure of her pimp and Inez mean she goes along for the ride.
Ramirez is on form, keen to demonstrate that he is “a gentleman”, something he defines as being not so much behaviour, but more bound up with wealth, power and generosity.
When I am out I always have a wonderful time, and so does everyone who is with me, because they know that while I am around there is always plenty.
But while there is plenty, the people must all know their place, he tells them it’s wonderful they are all together and that he doesn’t understand why God would consign them (the prostitutes) “to the fires of hell for what they are”. It’s a sign of the society and times (the story was written in 1945) they are in that the women don’t react badly to this. Rather the opposite, Julia sees Ramirez as a representative of the power and glory on earth – “If anyone were to be pitted successfully against the Devine, she thought it would certainly be someone like Senor Ramirez”.
But Ramirez’s power is earthly and doesn’t extend far. He drops a bottle of champagne, breaking it, and struggles with a game of throwing acorns in a hat, His successes are little ones, he “liked nothing more than performing little feats that are assured of success from the beginning”.
Even the “little feats” cause problems in the real world. He tells Julia that if it weren’t for him then “the current would carry you along like a leaf over the falls and one of those big rocks would make a hole in your head. This vision terrified Julia, and the safety he represents is reduced when he slips and the back of Julia’s head hits a stone and starts to bleed profusely.
So the day is ruined, Ramirez has protected her from being killed by a rock, but can’t protect her from being cut by a stone.
With his power reduced out here in the open, it is enough to make him want to leave and head back to the city. He wants to leave so fast he doesn’t even bother packing up the remains of the picnic and it’s left to the women to ask if they can take the things he was going to leave behind. Then it’s straight back to town, leaving the women at the bar, pressing his foot against the accelerator and driving away quickly, but not before Julia asks him if he will come back. “Yes, I’m coming back again”, Ramirez promises.
For their part, the women go back to what they were doing, back to the room. Inez looks at Julia “and saw that she was far away. Inez wants to go out again, to escape, this time to the movies, but Julia doesn’t care, either to go out again or for her share of the glasses and plates from the picnic. Instead, she asks Inez again, “Will he come back”.
In the final line of the story, Inez leaves the room and goes out into the open, closing the door behind her. Julia is left once again in stasis. She is safe for the moment, no longer in the open (or even wanting to be in the open), but lonely and waiting. She has become like her grandmother, waiting to be of service, waiting for Ramirez to come back and save her and waiting, eventually, to die.
Background
This is a series of personal essays I’m writing based on The Granta Book of the American Short Story. Follow the link for more inforrmation on why I’m doing it.
Another five foot shelf 