Mr. Max Kelad Essay, Research Paper

MR. KNOW- ALL

The story takes place just after the war on a liner that is on it’s way from Sanfrancisko to Yokohama.

From the very first lines of the story we can see that the narrator doesn’t like the main hero of the story – Max Kelad that can be proved by the following quotation: “When I was told the name of my companion my heart sank. It suggested closed portholes and the night air rigidly excluded.” We can see that the narrator of the story likes Englishmen very much and that’s way he says that he wouldn’t be so unhappy about his fellow mate if his name would be Smith or Braun. By this we can understand that Maugham is a patriot – he likes only his countrymen. But the narrator makes a mistake thinking that Max Kelad is not an Englishman – indeed he is.

As we get to know Mr. Max Kelad we find out that he is boastful because as soon as he met the storyteller and gave him a drink he told him that he can get everything. Max Kelad said : ” If you have any friends on board, you tell them you’ve got a pal who’s got all the liquier in the world”. Max Kelad is also very talkative and familiar that can be proved by the fact that he didn’t say Mr. before the narrator’s name. But Mr. Max Kelad didn’t do it because he was impolite, but because he wanted the storyteller to fell comfortably.

A question has probably come up to you why does the name of the story is Mr. Know-all?. This nick name contrived the men which were on the liner. It is because Mr. Max Kelad knew everything. He knew how to do tricks with cards, when the storyteller wanted to go downstairs, he said that everything was ready. The quotation says : “he conducted the auctions, collected money for prizes at the sports, and arranged the funny dress ball. He was everywhere and always. From this we may think that he was an energetic man, but it never came up to Mr. Kelad’s mind that he disturbed anybody. He was convinced that everybody is happy to meet him. * From this we can come to a conclusion that Mr. Kelad was in very high thoughts about himself. The quotation says : ” You might have kicked him downstairs and slammed the door in his face without the suspicion dawning on him that he was not a welcome visitor.” But even then he couldn’t understand that you didn’t want to see him.”

As the story goes on, the author introduces us with another characters – Mr. Ramsay and his wife. Between Mr. Rampsay and Mr. Kelada forms up an external conflict because Mr. Kelada considers the pearls around Mr. Rampsay’s wife’s neck real, but Mr. Rampsay artificial and they decide to bet. Next follows a story element – complication because as sonn as Mr. Know-all looks at the neckles he sees that it is real , but as soon as he looks at Mrs. Rampsay he says the opposite. And in such a way the author hooks our curosity because we want to find out why did Mr. Kelada does so. ” He was about to speak. Suddenly he caught sight of Mrs. Rampsay’s face. It was so white that she looked as though she were about to faint. She was staring at him with wide and terrified eyes. Mr. Kelada was making over himself”.

So far Mr. Know-all had shown himself as a bad character but in the end we see that he has changed because he escaped Mrs. Rampsay by saying that the pearls were artificial. The thing that would have happened if Mr. Kelada hadn’t helped Mrs. Rampsay is explained in the following sentence said by Mr. Know-All : ” If I had a pretty wife I shouldn’t let her spend a year in NY!” From this sentence we can see that Mr. Kelada was a real Mr. Known-All, because he knew how to act in situations like that.

The main idea – you can’t get to know a person in a short time period, not from the first impression, you need a longer period of time.