Mr. Know-All
The story takes place on board a ship going from San Francisco (USA) to
Yokohama (Japan) after World War I. Throughout part 1 the narrator complains
about Mr. Kelada and doesn't stop mentioning how much he dislikes him. He
dislikes him for several reasons: his name isn't British; his looks aren't British – he has
dark skin and a hooked nose; his luggage is too big and has too many stickers; his
behavior is too friendly and outgoing, his (lack of) manners- the narrator feels he
should address him Mr. and not by his first mane as if they were friends.
Everybody on board refers to Mr. Kelada as Mr. Know-All partially as a joke and
partially in earnest since he seems to know everything about anything and has to
win every argument. The narrator resents him and demonstrates typical English
upper class snobbery.
Everything changes in part 3. During the incident of Mrs. Ramsy's pearls, Mr. Kelade
shows his knowledge of the human nature and is humble enough and sensitive
enough to give up his pride, his honor and reputation (as Mr. Know- All) just to
spare the dignity of Mrs. Ramsy. Doing that, he demonstrates true English behavior
since the British upper classes believed that they knew how to behave in every
situation, particularly in regard to the honor of women.
Once the narrator finds out of Mr. Keladea's gallant behavior he cannot dislike him
so much anymore.
The narrator is prejudice against foreigners and against women. In addition, he
judges people by their appearance. He is certain that Mr. Kelada doesn't like fresh
air (he assumes that because of his name); he refers to Mrs. Ramsy as a pretty little
thing rather than a woman with many attributions.
The moral of the story is that we must not judge a book by its cover. Rather
than judging a person by his looks, color or origin we should observe his behaviour
and reactions in difficult situations.
HOTS
We can use several HOTS in this story.
Inferring – reading between the lines. Using that we can understand why people
on board didn't like Mr. Kelada very much, what the narrator didn't like about Mr.
Kelada. Why it was important to Mr. Kelada to show his passport.
We can infer that during the year Mr. Ramsy was away, Mrs. Ramsy had a
relationship with a wealthy man who gave her a very expensive genuine pearl
necklace. We can infer this from the fact that Mrs. Ramsy did everything she could
to stop the bet, and then later she gave Mr. kelada his money back.
We can use the HOTS distinguishing different perspectives to show the
narrator was able to look at Mr. Kelada differently at the end of the story. At the
beginning the narrator looks at all the external features, in the morning following
the bet, the narrator changes his perspective regarding Mr. Kelada, he realizes that
there is more in him than appears to the naked eye. He understands that Mr.
Kelada does not only understand a lot about pearls but he has a deep
understanding of the human nature as well. After the incident with the pearls, the
narrator changes his perspective regarding Mr. Kelada.