Look at a Teacup

-Patricia Hampl (b. 1946)

Hampl’s mother bought the teacup in 1939. Even on sale, it was very expensive. Her mother bought many China dishes and teacups from Czechoslovakia that year. She married an American Czech the same year. The cups are safe and now belong to Hampl.

The cup is thin and pale. It is shiny, and there are thin bands of gold around the edges, midway down the bowl of the cup and at its base. There is also a band of gold on the inner circle of the saucer, but it has been worn away. The outside of the cup has no decoration, but there are the pictures of flowers inside the cup. The flowers are like scattered blossoms from a bouquet and appear to be caught in motion.

Nothing bad happened to Hampl’s mother, but she is sad. When she says that work is the most important thing, her mother’s face shows fear. She thinks family is the important thing. By saying this, she shows a sign that she wants to say goodbye to her daughter.

Her mother is an ideal housewife. She is always busy at home doing different household works. She has been always responsible toward her husband and children. So, she has never showed her personal feelings and passion. She could never come out of the boundary of her house.

Once, the writer and her brother saw their father and mother kissing in the kitchen. As the children laughed, her mother felt ashamed and rejoined her work.

Hampl’s mother married in 1939. It was the year when the war broke out. Her mother bought the things that she needed the same year. Now, she has been giving them to the writer.

When the writer tries to get her mother to talk about her life, she is not ready. But the writer keeps on asking many questions about her past life. Sometimes her mother recollects that the girls of her time did not have all the facilities that the girls of the writer’s time do. They could not afford for safety pads, so they used cotton stripes. Her mother’s first pair of nylon stockings lasted two years.

The teacup was made in the country far away. An English politician shook the nation away, so it lost its absorption in peaceful work. If he had considered the future of the teacups and had left Czechoslovakia free, the things would have been different. The country itself does not exist, but the souvenirs are unbroken. So the cup is a detail, a small un-charred finger from the mid-century bonfire.

Hampl’s mother believes in accepting whatever comes in one’s life. She has no courage to challenge the course of events in her life. She hopefully believes in looking ahead. Hampl, on the other hand, cannot follow her footsteps. She is always inquisitive about history and sexuality. She wants to know the history and keep things right.

Many things fell in the year 1939. The newly married women’s bodies fell on the beds together with their husbands’ for the first time. When the mother first fell, the writer thinks, her virginity fell. The writer does not want to marry. She thinks that marriage is not compulsory for sexual intercourse. Not only the writer but also her whole generation thinks in this way. Her generation thinks that marriage is a painful experience. The bodies of war victims also fell that year. In Spain, bombs fell on women from the air. Hampl’s mother is embarrassed with her attitude to link events with each other. This is the difference between her mother and herself.

Mothers often want their daughters get married and have settled life. They try to prepare their daughters for their future. Hampl’s mother is also no different. She never had pre-marital sex, but the writer has had. She never talked in the way the writer talks.

Hampl and her friends spend time trying to describe the things. They talk about the past and feel that history has to be written. There are many things in their houses so that they can write history. They have to save them and hand over to the latter generation. Otherwise, they will also sink like her mother and the flowers, the symbols of tradition.