Question

Reading and Discussion Questions on Walter Van Tilburg Clark's "The Portable Phonograph"

Answer 1

On "The Portable Phonograph", a short story by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, the setting tells us that a devastating war, probably a global nuclear war has taken place and we are facing the postapocalyptic world resulting fromthat event. On the story, we are introduced to a group of survivors next to a fire.

This setting is supported by the narrative voice and the descriptions in the opening of the story, with words and descriptions that reinforce the gloomy, pestilent and almost dead landscape. There are allusions to "toothed impress of great tanks". Also, at the end of the story there is a powerful image: the doctor hears a sound of suppressed coughing and the doctor thinks he will see a shadow. Fearing that someone will steal his phonograph, he hides it along with books and only felt relieved when he felt his lead pipe. This image points to the anxiety and distrust on other survivors, as well as to human greed that could have been a cause for the war.