Essay: Symbolism in "Janus"

The important theme of loneliness and wanting change in Ann Beattie’s, “Janus” is evident from the beginning of the short story. Beattie introduces the bowl as perfect, which is a direct hint that something else in the story must be the opposite of perfect – Andrea’s life. The bowl acts as a symbol of freedom and excitement that she is trying to hold onto and in fact does not want her husband to interfere with. The loneliness theme throughout the story is present in her own home and the fact that she tries to fake a home-like feel in many of her show homes. The fact that Andrea feels empty and alone in her home reflects the conflict in her life and that she is unhappy. Andrea is struggling in her life and becomes obsessed with a bowl that is a material object. Another way that Beattie portrays the theme of Andrea’s lonely life is by the way she describes Andrea’s public life versus her private life and always contemplating the past over the present. Therefore, Ann Beattie portrays the theme of loneliness in Andrea’s life, showing that she needs change in her life but that she is unwilling to accept any change and is left loving a material object like she has in her two relationships.

                The fact that the bowl is introduced first in Beattie’s story shows the significance of order. The bowl is perfect, Andrea is not. The bowl is mentioned first, Andrea is not. The bowl is more important than Andrea and it is a symbol of worship for Andrea. The reason that Beattie’s first sentence is “The bowl was perfect” shows the exact importance of it. It was perfect and Andrea is far from perfect as the readers find out later in the story, (Beattie 206). Andrea’s lonely life is first described in the second paragraph when she is described as a real estate agent. Anybody who has ever looked at a home knows that real estate agents, similar to car salesmen and other people who try to sell things based off of commission are pushy and almost always insincere. They are fake people who will say anything just to make a sale and Andrea is no exception to this stereotype. Beattie uses this stereotype in the beginning of her story so that the readers can understand what kind of person she is because she is a real estate agent. Within a few sentences her character is shown by the fact that she has no shame in using her dog to try and make a sale. Her public life is based on lies and tricks and she is not a genuine person.

                Andrea’s character has a difficult time separating her fake public life from her private life. She is obsessed with material objects and that is all her marriage is about. Her husband is in fact no different and he is described in comparison to Andrea, showing his importance in the story. The dog, Mondo is mentioned before him in the story and he also is not given a name, showing even less importance, “They were a lot alike, really – they had agreed on that. They were both quiet people – reflective, slow to make value judgements, but almost intractable once they had come to a conclusion. They both liked details,” and are both obsessed with material objects, (Beattie 208). Their relationship is described as very dull and boring, nothing interesting is going on in their lives, and the readers are more interested in the bowl than their bland marriage. The fact that she does not want her husband to put his keys in the bowl is also significant and that she cannot tell him about the bowl while she’s lying in bed shows that Andrea likes to keep that information private from her husband, or that she feels she cannot talk to him about it. Either way, she lacks emotion and trust for her husband and values the bowl more and what it represents to her.

                Andrea’s home is not described in much detail in the story, resembling that she is not grounded and does not fit in anywhere. She spends most of her life in show homes living in a fantasy land with her bowl, which represents her freedom that she will never achieve. The show homes that she spends a lot of time in are decorated by her, but not by many personal items. She uses strategic items such as famous paintings, flowers, and vases to try and sell the home, but eventually gets rid of all of them as the bowl is progressively taking over her lonely dull life. Andrea is looking for excitement in her life and that is exactly what the bowl offers her. She is able to carry it around, making her affair a physical object that she can keep with her and still be with her husband. She likes to flash it around and is “sure that the bowl [brings] her luck,” (Beattie 207). The reason that Andrea’s home is not described as much as the show homes is because Andrea does not spend much time there. She is constantly working and sitting in staged homes and when she does get to go home, she is either in her bedroom lying in bed contemplating about the bowl, or sitting in her living room looking at the bowl on the coffee table. Her house has no significance to her as long as the bowl is there. Beattie even mentions fairy tales when Andrea is described thinking about the bowl having good fortune. She is constantly looking for a perfect fairy tale life just as perfect as the bowl is.  

                Another important aspect that Beattie uses in, “Janus” is to portray Andrea’s loneliness from switching between the past and the present. Time and setting is not very clear in the story and it does not need to be specific. The importance of time in the story is that Andrea is obsessed with the past. The bowl represents the past for her and the guilt from her affair that she carries around. She chooses not to be with her lover but wishes that she was in the past, reliving that moment. She starts having anxiety about the bowl being broken and gets worried about what her life would be like without her guilt or the symbol of her lover. Andrea had always liked material objects, maybe even more than real people and that is why she cannot make a real connection with any real person, and so she is forced to be with the bowl, having feelings for it and wishing she could talk to it as if it were a living thing. In the end of the story, she is left alone with the bowl in her living room at night. The significance of night is relevant because she often thinks of the bowl at night and this is when she realizes her life is lonely and that her life is “shattered,” (Beattie 210). Because Andrea turned away from her lover she had to face the fact that she couldn’t have both her husband and her lover and she did not like how he was making her choose. Her “decision [was] meant to break her will, to shatter her intransigent ideas about honoring previous commitments,” (Beattie 210). She could not handle the affair anymore and could not keep up her fake appearances, playing both men. Her decision shattered her world and she could no longer function anymore, becoming even more obsessed with the bowl. Beattie uses descriptive words like alone, empty, and vanishing to portray the state of mind that Andrea is left in.

                Ultimately, Ann Beattie’s character, Andrea in the short story, “Janus” is left to wallow in her lonely life. The idea of the bowl, the past and the present , the symbols of her past and present life all show that she is doomed to be alone and cannot embrace change. She could not commit to her lover and she will continue to be obsessed with the bowl and not completely devoted to her husband. Andrea will always love the bowl more because it represents the freedom that she could not physically handle. She likes the idea of it more, rather than actually following through and being happy with her lover.