Literature

The Plumber is a short story written by Boris Vian it tells of a man whom has required the services of a plumber since he thinks that there is something wrong with his plumbing. Although the story seems to be merely about a plumbing job at first, it eventually unravels into something much more about the principal character, whose name remains unknown to the reader.

It is to be assumed that the principal character is living in an apartment with his neices and nephews there is no mention of a wife or other relations apart from his neices and nephews whom contribute to the pandemonium in the apartment. The principal character keeps talking about someone named Jasmine, whom he claims to be not a part of the story and that she, perhaps, may be non-existent however, he keeps telling things about her all the same, which makes the impression that the principal character of the story is either quite delusional or merely playing with the minds of his readers.

It is quite unclear on why the principal character keeps talking about Jasmine, when he, in fact, has stated that he does not think that she is a real human being, or if she is, she does not know him at all however, he then contradicts his statements by saying that  Jasmines image haunted me to distraction, and I cursed her mother for taking her from me with the bad conscience that nothings justified.

Although the character named Jasmine never surfaced in the story, it could be said that she played a role on making the principal character look quite disoriented disoriented enough to not see that the plumber was actually not supposed to be working on his bathroom.

This is quite a revelation, since in the first paragraph of the story, it seemed that the principal character was waiting for someone and when someone knocked on the door, he thought that it couldnt have been Jasmine, his uncle, or his dog and he thought that  it had to be the plumber which gives the reader the impression that the principal character was, indeed, waiting for the plumber.

Upon a thorough reading of the story, it can be said that the plumber didnt know anything about plumbing, since for some reason, he detached the pipes of the plumbing and merely reattached them again. In the story, the plumber said  I redid everything exactly as it was. I added a few welds because thats what I do best and I like work well done. There was a point wherein the principal character had wanted to say something about what the plumber was doing instead, he  held back one crucial comment, which can be presumed to be a comment regarding the whole absurdity of fxing the plumbing by merely taking removing the pipes and setting them back to the way they were before.

However, in the end, it turns out that the plumber should not be working in the principal characters bathroom in fact, the plumber shouldnt even be on his floor. The principal characters apartment is on the third floor and it turns out that the plumbers services was actually needed by some other woman on the fourth floor. The woman had gone to the principal characters apartment, presumably to ask for help, and said that her  seven children have drowned and that  the two oldest still are breathing because the waters only up to their chins.

This, of course, is absurd, since it is impossible for the fourth floor to flood and drown people since laws of gravity would state that the water would eventually flow down to the other floors of the building it can be said, therefore, that Vian has employed exaggeration on his story. This exaggeration can either provide further confusion or amusement to the reader, and it likely that the reader will find the whole story quite ridiculous, unless, of course, the story carries some sort of subliminal message.

Vian has a  refined sense of logical absurdity and it can be said that The Plumber is one of the manifestations of his surrealist style. The story is, indeed, a mixture of all sorts of confusions, but the detailed descriptions and the absurd logic gives the reader a feeling of an amusing lightheadedness. It may not be the most logical story around, but the disorienting streak of the story sure gives the reader something to think about afterwards.