"Janus" by Ann Beattie: An Analysis

***Spoilers ahead***

Beattie’s short story, “Janus”, follows an unnamed narrator and her obsession over what can only be a ceramic, fruit bowl or is it?

The narrator becomes so obsessed with this bowl that she begins to have dreams about it and begins to feel weird about it while around her husband, as if having the bowl was somehow hurting their marriage.

What the heck is going on with this narrator? Little did I know that all the answers I was looking for would be given to me. Buckle up, folks!

Before I give away the twist of this very well done story, I need to tell you about the journey I went on to figure out what this bowl looked like and what the title meant.

Googling this bowl and the title threw me for a loop because I originally thought the title was just referring to a Roman God, but I realized after my jaunt over to Google that it was also referring to a type of bowl.

Specifically, this bowl is shallow, opaquely yellow, and ribbed on the edges. A bowl that wouldn't fit much of anything inside of it. A bowl that should have stayed in the seventies safely tucked away in my grandmother’s china cupboard.

This only confused me more about the narrator’s obsession with this bowl, but I kept reading in the hopes of Beattie giving me some answers. The answers that I got towards the end of the story made me go back and read the story a second time through. 

Towards the top of the last page, the narrator finally reveals why the bowl was so special to her: her ex-lover (that wasn’t her husband) bought her the bowl while at a flea market. I was flabbergasted to say the least. I was SHOCKED.

Here I was thinking this woman just had a few screw loose, but nope she is just a little cheater. Everything that had confused me about this narrator and her inner thoughts clicked into place. The reason that she felt that this bowl was a burden and secret that should not be shared with her husband is because it was.

She could never be truthful with her husband about where the bowl came from. The reason that she began taking the bowl to every open house with her is because the bowl was amongst strangers in a place where she felt that she did not have to hide where the bowl really came from. 

On my second read through, I began to replace the word “bowl” with “lover” and I think doing that changed the meaning of the story considerably.

Instead of it being a somewhat innocent story of a bowl obsessed realtor, the story morphs into a wife’s confession of being unfaithful.

It made me enjoy the story that much more. The seemingly innocent comments about different negative aspects of her husband’s personality come into full view when her cheating is revealed.

The seemingly innocent title morphs from referring to the bowl itself to referring to the double life the narrator has been living for who knows how long. This brings us back to my original point of not knowing what the title was referring to, but I believe the title to be referencing the Roman God.

Janus is said to be the Roman God of duality and transitions. The duality being the narrator herself, the bowl, and the story itself. 

All in all, this story forced me out of my comfort zone and jumped me with the best kind of plot twist, and as a person who loves to read and hear about drama, I thoroughly enjoyed the drama of this short story.

Ann Beattie, you have made me a fan of your work.