At first the comet may seem progressive. For a story written in the 1920′s, it allows the reader the rare fantasy to imagine a world without race, class and gender. As Jim stared up into the heavens on top of the tower, “the shackles seemed to rattle and fall from his soul (270).” When he stared at Julia he saw her “face to face, eye to eye (270).” Their souls were bare to one another in the naked night. In this moment, they could be another Adam and Eve – the progenitors of a new world where the shackles of the old don’t exist. Each of them, in this glorious moment, are allowed to imagine a life in which the full potential of their being is accessible. Jim imagines Assyrian kings. Julia in turn embraces her natural, primal womanhood.
These fantasies are stacked sky high, like the tower of babel itself. There is hubris in Jim and Julia’s fantasy. When they reach the apex of their dreams, the shackles of reality crash down upon them with the sounds of car horns. Their eyes gaze upon each other, faltering and falling like fallen towers.
God divided humanity for daring to dream, and society did the same to Jim and Julia. The stratification is of society is ever present like a megalomania driven deity. Therefore man’s potential is like a forgotten dream, slipping through fingers like sand.
When Jim runs to his wife at the end of the story, it is unclear whether he is sobbing for joy – or for despair.
