Truman Capote's short story jewel "Miriam"

Truman Capote is known for his brilliance in discriminating the nature of human social deviance in works like "In Cold Blood" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" -- perhaps because of his own homosexuality -- but, I think his astonishing short story "Miriam" takes this to a whole new level. This story is so unique and subtle that it remains rather ambiguous on a number of levels. First of all, it's not clear what exactly is happening in the story. The story begins with an "elderly" widow -- she's only 61, but, at the time, that was quite old, perhaps equivalent to mid-70's today -- who's living a quiet life in a city apartment, alone with her canary. She decides to go to a film and sees a beautiful, elegantly dressed little girl there, who seems a bit lost. The little girl approaches her to buy her a ticket, which the widow does, and then the girl disappears into the theatre. A few days later, the girl appears at her door, without explanation, demanding food. The widow is nonplussed, but, provides the food rather unwillingly. While she is doing this, the girl steals her favorite piece of jewellery from her jewel case, which the widow tolerates under protest. After eating her food, she says she likes more sweets, and complains about the artificial flowers in the widow's vase. As she leaves, she breaks the vase and takes away the artificial flowers. The widow for some reason feels compelled to purchase sweets the next day and gets a new vase, and fresh flowers. Then, the girl appears at her door, ringing relentlessly, with a large box containing a beautiful doll. The widow notices that the "girl" actually looks older than she thought, and might not be a "girl" at all, perhaps a small young woman. She says she's moving in with the widow. And widow goes down to some neighbors she scarely knows on a lower floor, complaining about the intrusion. The woman in the apartment comes up to see what's going on, but, the girl has totaly disappeared, as if she was never there. The widow sits down, stunned, but relieved, altough somewhat disappointed to be alone again. As she sits collecting her rushing thoughts, the girl appears before her, and says "hello". End of story. Now, what is this all about? OK, this is an old woman, equivalent in today's years to a woman in her mid-70's. Did she imagine this girl named "Miriam", is she suffering from dementia? Is the girl some kind of a ghost, a supernatural phenomenon? At the end of the story is widow possibly suffering from a stroke, or has she actually died? Why do she and the girl have the same first name, which, apparently they do? While all of these possibilities are fairly consistent with the story itself, I really don't think that's what Trump Capote has in mind at all. Rather, as is typical with Mr. Capote, he is very interested in unusal, deviant behavior. This "girl", or possibly young woman, is an extraordinarily adept social manipulator, so adept, that to typical, socially conformist individuals, she appears almost to have supernatural powers. Now, her powers appear to be limited to manipulating elderly people to provide for her basic needs, but, she is a kind of "genius" at that. Proably, she would tend to be classified as a criminal and a sociopath. But, perhaps not. After all, she is providing some basic needs to the widow -- companionship, excitement, variety, novelty. The girl is undoubtedly a aware of this. Is this a parasitic social relationship or a symbiotic one? Is the girl providing he widow with essential needs that the widow herself would be totally incapable of fulfilling without her, that will allow her to have a more fulfilled and longer life? Society is full of social manipulators working in highly esteemed professions whose actual utility is very much open to question. Doctors, lawyers, scientists, politicians, journalists, businessmen of all types are all very aggressive social manipulators, who intrude on people's lives, making demands while pretending to "help" people. The only difference between the girl and these professionals is that the girl is making no pretense to actually be helping the widow, is openly using her, but, is this really entirely a one-way street? If so, why is the widow putting up with it? Does she have a choice? Do any of us really have a choice, when we are being manipulated, and used by society? #literature #philosophy #psychology #sociology #crime