Gustafsson’s “Greatness Strikes Where It Pleases” says a great deal in a short space about mental retardation and how it was regarded in the mid-twentieth century. It deserves a place alongside other short stories of the century, such as Jack London’s “Told in the Drooling Ward” (1914) and Eudora Welty’s “Lily Daw and the Three…
Tag: Lars Gustafsson
Greatness Strikes Where It Pleases – Setting
Treatment of the Mentally Retarded Societal attitudes about mental retardation changed considerably over the course of the twentieth century. In the United States in the early part of the century, individuals with mental retardation were generally sent away to schools for the feebleminded, where standards of care varied widely. These were usually large institutions, each…
Greatness Strikes Where It Pleases – Literary Devices
Point of View The story is told in the third person by a narrator who has insight into how the retarded boy and later man experiences the world. The narrator is a mature and sophisticated adult; when he needs to he uses complex sentence structures (one sentence contains 132 words), and the last six paragraphs…
Greatness Strikes Where It Pleases – Themes
Loneliness and Neglect The mentally retarded boy, who is unable to speak and communicate his needs in a normal way, has to endure the loneliness of someone who does not fit into the expectations and norms of society. He is at the mercy of others who order his world for him in a way that…
Greatness Strikes Where It Pleases – Characters
The Boy As a young child, the unnamed boy is active and curious. He loves to play in the woods, and he is especially drawn to the mushrooms that grow there. His senses are very much alive, and he discerns the way things and people smell. Although he is teased by his brother and sister,…
Greatness Strikes Where It Pleases – Summary
“Greatness Strikes Where It Pleases” begins in the 1930s, when the mentally retarded boy is living with his family on a small farm by the woods. He has a brother and sister, older by two and three years respectively. They practice with their tools in the woodshed, making wood cars and boats, but the retarded…