Question

Who do you think or understand what the talking fan wished to convey?

Answer 1

Hint: The above question is from the poem ‘Mystery of the Talking Fan’, written by Maude Rubin. The poet tells us about a ‘talking’ fan that would chatter or make noise because of some electrical fault. The poet imagines what the fan said through its continuous chatter.

Complete answer:
The mystery of the fan conveyed by the poet Maude Rubin in his poem, ‘Mystery of the Talking Fan’ is the electrical sound produced by it. It is mysterious because the sound produced by the fan seems to say something but the poet is not able to understand it. The chatter is electrical because it runs on electricity and thus, the fan doesn’t talk or chatter talk on its own.

The talking fan seemed to be very noisy and constantly chattering. The poet and even the others could hear its sound. Though the poet was curious about this noise, she never made an attempt to understand what the talking fan said.

Before she could understand it, the message was decoded by the person, an electrician who attended to the needs of the fan by oiling its motor. After the electrician had put some oil in the noisy motor of the fan, its movement became smooth and silent.

Note: The poet was attracted to the fan’s continuous chatter. But this attraction and the chatter was not long-lived as when the electrician came and oiled the motor of the fan, it started running smoothly and became silent. When the fan had become silent without any chatter, the poet compares it to silent water as water also does not make any sound. The poet had used poetic devices like metaphor and simile.