No One's A Mystery: Moral Criticism

From a moral standpoint, No One’s a Mystery is a very compelling short story. It does not necessarily teach a lesson, yet the situations and dialogue contained in the story do provide a lesson in ethics for readers, regardless of the author’s intention in writing it. Jack is an older man, who by all reasonable assumptions should be content with his lot in life. He has a wife who is careful to take care of him and follow the rules of an ethical society. He seems to be well enough off financially, as his wife drives a Cadillac. He should have a happy home life. In spite of this, however, Jack leads a morally and ethically wrong life. Jack behaves quite recklessly. He regularly drives well over the speed limit, and even drinks while driving. But his most glaring moral flaw is his affair. He cheats on his wife. Not only is this wrong in and of itself, but he began his affair when his mistress was only sixteen years old. In doing so, he is actively corrupting the life, morals and worldview of an otherwise innocent young girl. Although Jack knows that what they have is merely a fling, he allows his mistress to falsely believe that the relationship will amount to something happy, lasting, and fruitful. As an affair, born out of discontent with another woman whom he is committed to, this cannot be the case. Due to the promotion of such heinous values through this story, from a morally critical standpoint, I believe this tale ought to be condemned.

No One's A Mystery: Stucturalism

From a structuralism standpoint, No One’s a Mystery is a very compelling short story. It is structured as an exchange of short choppy dialogue sentences between Jack and his unnamed mistress. Jack gives his eighteen year old mistress a diary for her eighteenth birthday. While seemingly insignificant, this diary will become the central focal point around which the plot hinges. A book is not the first thing that often comes to mind when an author is deciding what to base the entire story on. It is also not typically the first choice to be used as an item to structure a story. Both of these factors, in my mind, set off alarm bells that perhaps this was not going to be the most well planned or well written story. I was wrong. Tallent does an amazing job with such an odd focus. The diary not only serves as the driving force behind the action in the story, but also as the lattice upon which the entire story rests. Tallent uses the diary as the framework of the main confrontation or conflict in the story. Jack’s view of the future, represented by his theoretical entries, is somewhat cynical but realistic. His mistress, however, sees their relationship as ending in marriage. In this way, the diary also represents the parallel structure of innocence versus experience. Jack’s viewpoint, corrupted by his lifetime of experience, is harshly realistic. However, his mistress as a young and innocent eighteen year old girl, has a much more wildly romantic view of what is, in fact, just an ephemeral fling. Due to the masterful use of the diary, I believe Tallent has penned a master work.