Communication is of paramount importance. But how do we communicate? How do the young convey their hopes and dreams and aspirations to grandparents where there could be 70 years difference in age? How do the grand parents convey the wisdom they have gathered during that 70 years and are in the process of having it evaporate as death approaches and pain becomes a constant companion? That is what the story is mainly about. It is about 4 generations trying to say something to one another and all of them having difficult conveying what they wanted or knew. The girl could only see that there was a road block between her and what she loved. The young boy (Ian) could only be content because he was bathed in attention. The mother was caught between two people, one whom she loved and one that the culture trained her to respect. And the husband only understood that there was money problems and he had to find a way to make everyone content. It's a complex story with no easy resolution: the ending convinces us of nothing.
Four
We have to look at all the complexities of the story to even begin to understand each person's point of view. The key to it is grandmother who brings all her understanding of the world with her and she is hard pressed to compromise with her view of the world. Her treatment of Ian and the way she treats the girl telling the story makes her a sad figure really because she does not ever realize until the end what the ribbons binding her feet and those of the ballet slippers were quite different. I don't know if you could say there was an uneasy acceptance of the situation or not. The grandmother was the key. She was dealing with two young American children. She was the one who had to understand them. She was in a different place, and her daughter could not be assertive enough to tell what she needed to know.
