Today, I met a certain Captain Fellows, a boisterous, happy man, who seems to keep a jolly attitude, regardless of his daunting circumstances. As a banana plantation owner, you might suppose that Fellows is a very wealthy man. Although well off compared to some people's situations, Fellows, his wife, and his daughter, all have struggles of their own, mostly because of Mexico's horrible government situation at the time. Even the wealthy struggled because of the falling value of the Peso, as mentioned earlier in the story.
Anyways, I also got the, *cough*cough* "pleasure" of meeting Mrs. Fellows, a very timid woman, and also Coral, Mr. Fellows daughter, a young girl of about 13, who bears an immense amount of responsibility for such a young child.
Now, as I observed Mr. Fellows interactions with his wife especially, I noticed a few patterns.
Concerning his wife, Mr. Fellows communicates at a very basal level; this isn't because he doesn't want to converse with her, but rather that she simply doesn't seem to have the capability to converse about complicated things because she is always so fearful. Fellows and his daughter Coral could not even tell her of the man they were temporarily sheltering in their own barn because she likely would go into panic attacks! When Fellows arrives home from work, the initial conversation is very typical:
"Honey, I'm home!"
"How was work?"
But then, Mrs. Fellows's dominating fear of EVERYTHING takes over, and she begins fretting over small things in the grand scheme of everything. To be honest, if she was my "better half", I'm not sure I could live comfortably without going completely insane. She is UNBEARABLE to live with! Constantly whining and fretting! Poor Mr. Fellows really tries to reach out to her, and to make her feel better. "You'll be alright," he says, "I'm home now." But, his efforts are trivial. I'm afraid he's stuck with her, and will have to just try to live with her as best of his ability. It's good he has such a positive attitude. My attitude cannot match it; personally, I'm not sure if I could live with such a burden. He is fortunate to be such an optimist. Fortunate indeed.
Perhaps Mrs. Fellows wasn't as easily frightened when the two first met. Many things could be factors for her anxiety, such as having a young child in a place that is not exactly the safest place to be. Since at this time we are unaware of what such factors may be, we will simply have to guess why she is the fearful creature she is.
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