Research Paper on:
'The Portable Phonograph' by Walter van Tilburg Clark

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a devastating war. In this small post-apocalyptic society, an older man referred to as Dr. Jenkins provides the heart and soul of the group through his preservation of a few  books of great literature and his portable phonograph. As the keeper of this bit of technology, Dr. Jenkins serves as the "high priest" of the group, as this is the  last remnant of the life that the men once knew. Clark opens his narrative with a description of the countryside, which conveys the devastation caused by the war. This  description also tells the reader that a great deal of time has passed because the large pits caused by a fierce battle have had time to become partially filled in.  Four men sit around a smoky peat-fed fire in the hut of Dr. Jenkins, who is the process of carefully putting away his books, the last remnant of the civilization  lost in the war. "He was like a prehistoric priest performing a fateful ceremonial rite" (Clark 217). As Jenkins explains his choice of books, a comment that is almost  certainly part of this ritual sharing of this books, Clark writes that his voice had in it a "suitable quality of deep, reverent despair, yet perhaps at the moment, a  sharpness of selfish satisfaction" (217). As this suggests, Dr. Jenkins feelings toward his hoard of art are not completely altruistic, but also tied his sense of who he is. He  tells the group, "I saved what I loved; the soul of what was good in us is here; perhaps the new ones will make a strong enough beginning not to  fall behind when they become clever" (Clark 217). Another man comments harshly that at least Dr. Jenkins will be some "soul" left until he dies, but that he, on the