Random Harvest
Title:
Random Harvest
Author: James Hilton
Published Year: 1941
Page:
310
Summary:
Part
I started with a train travel that was ‘chance encounter’ moment for the main
characters, Harrison and Charles Rainier. It was November 11th, 1937, precisely
at eleven o’clock. People inside the dining car were busy with their own
businesses. The situation was awkward because there was no such a rule to
behave in that situation, whether they had to greet each other or just stay
silent. Harrison was at the dining car when he spotted a man older than him with
a nice look, a nice suit and a nice watch. It seemed that the man had just
moved from the business class compartment. The man was Charles Rainier, a
wealthy businessman and politician. On their train travel, Harrison and Charles
had a conversation about their experience when they served on the 2nd World
War.
After they arrived at their destination,
Charles asked Harrison to meet him at his house to have another conversation.
Unfortunately, Charles was not at home when Harrison visited his house.
Harrison met Charles’s wife, Helen. She then accompanied Harrison to have a
tour around her house. Harrison thought that Charles’s house was like a museum
because there were a lot of artistic goods. Realizing that he could not fulfill
his promise to Harrison, Charles then phoned Harrison to say apology that he
could not meet him. Charles rescheduled the meeting and asked Harrison to meet
him at his office.
On the other day when they met at Charles’s
office, Charles asked Harrison to be his secretary. Actually, Charles already
had a secretary named Miss Hobbs. However, Miss Hobbs would get married soon
and she could not do all secretarial jobs from Charles Rainier. Harrison would
take care of social affair and Miss Hobbs would take-care another concern. Miss Hobbs then gave some explanation to
Harrison about the ropes as Charles’s secretary. In that moment, Harrison knew
about Charles’s secret from Miss Hobbs. It revealed that Charles marry his wife
was not because he loved her but for political business reason. Miss Hobbs also
told Harrison that Mr. Rainier was never seen at peace. His wife, Helen, who
was his former secretary, had a big role in his career both in business and
politics. Helen was a party animal. She held numerous parties with notable
people in many field. Holding numerous parties were her way to gain popularity
for Charles Rainier so that he had progressive career both in business and
politics. Otherwise, some people around Charles disliked his wife. Charles’s
wife is described as sort of cold, an efficient hostess for all the parties and
luncheons a rising politician must host. That image leads to hatred. Miss Hobbs
and Charles’s friend doctor Freeman hated his wife. It was because Mrs. Rainier
was too ambitious about his husband’s career.
Part
II was the moment when Charles Rainier suffered from amnesia. It was 1917,
Charles woke up in Liverpool. He got an accident. He was seriously injured in
the trenches. He had his leg shattered, and received a strong blow to the head.
And that is all he remembers. The next things he knows, he is waking up on a
park in Liverpool on December 27, 1919. He has no idea how he got there or what
he has done in the nearly three years since he left the trenches. It is an
absolute mystery. He then traveled to Stourton to meet his friend. He got news
that his dad was sick. Shortly he knew that his dad passed away. His family
held an event to pay last respect to his father. Charles Rainier and his
siblings discussed about the legacy that his dad left. There he also met Kitty,
his sister’s stepdaughter. Harrison found that he shared a lot in common with
Kitty.
Part
III started with a story that Kitty was away from England. She traveled to many
parts of the world. She sent postcard to Charles everywhere she moved to another
places. Kitty met the right man in Egypt then got married. Sadly, soon after
she got married, she died from Malaria.
Part
IV told the moment of the 2 year-missing memory when he got an accident. It was
in the second-world war. He wounded severely. There was a young woman who
helped him. She took care of him. She brought him to the hotel where she was
staying. Charles and the woman ‘Paula’ got married. Charles wrote stories about
the war. There was a friend of Charles and Paula named Blampied that loved
Charles’s writings and asked an editor in Liverpool to publish Charles’s works.
Impressed by Charles’s writings, the editor asked Charles to meet him in
Liverpool. Unfortunately, when Charles was in his way to Liverpool, he got an
accident.
Part
V started with Charles traveled with Harrison to see music show. Then, it
revealed the reason why Charles Rainier was not at peace. It was because he
could not be with Kitty. There was a letter from Kitty told that they could not
be together. Kitty thought that their relationship was a mistake. It also
revealed that ‘Helen’ his current wife was actually the woman he married before
when he was serving in the second-world war.
comment:
Actually, the main characters of the novel
are Harrison, a journalist turned to secretary and Charles Rainier, a wealthy
businessman and politician. It explains Charles Rainier’s life from Harrison’s
perspective. Otherwise, I also viewed that the female character who was Charles
Rainier’s wife also got a big part on it. In the first chapter it tells about
Charles Rainier’s wife, Helen. Mrs. Rainier was an ambitious hard worker who
was obsessed on his husband careers. She does everything to elevate her husband’s
careers in business and politics. She worked hard to support her husband
careers on politics and business. She supports her husband’s careers by holding
some parties with respectable people from many backgrounds. Her great ambition
emerged a negative image for her. Some of her husband’s colleagues disliked
her. In that part Charles also shows his admiration to his wife although he
does not love her. Helen shows her unconditional love to her husband through
working hard for her husband’s careers no matter what the people around her
think about her. Her unconditional love to Charles is also shown when she
became ‘Paula’, a woman who took care of Charles when he was suffering as the
effect of war.
Anis Nur Fatimah
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