My Lost Dollar — PROSE

My Lost Dollar – Stephen Leacock About the Author:
 Stephen Butler Leacok (30 December 1869 - 28 March 1944) was an English-born Canadian teacher, political & scientist, writer, and humorist. He was born in Hampshire England. At the age of six he moved to Canada with his family, where he settled on a farm in Toronto, Ontario, near the village of Sutton and the shores of Lake Simcoe. Early in his life, Stephen Leacock turned to fiction, primarily humour, and short reports. His stories, first published in magazines in Canada and in the United States and later in novel form, became extremely popular around the world. Between the years 1915 and I925, Leacock was one of the most popular humorists in the English speaking world.
Summary:
 The author’s friend, Major Todd, was on his way to Bermuda, and needed a dollar in change to pay for his taxi. The author, who was seeing him off, lent him the dollar. However, the thought that Todd had borrowed the dollar remained with the author and he expected Todd to return it. In fact, he actually made several attempts to get back the dollar, but failed.
 In the meantime the author realized, to his dismay that he himself has probably forgotten to pay back the odd dollar he may have borrowed from other people, on various different occasions. He realizes that he himself is not likely to pay back. In fact, he tries to justify why he has not paid even those he does remember.
 This is a typical reaction. We are quick to expect others to act responsibly towards ourselves, but on our part we find reasons and excuses for avoiding responsibilities. He lightly suggests that there should be a “Back to Honesty” movement, to pay back borrowed dollars; in other words, we should take time to honestly recognize in ourselves that we consider to be weaknesses in others.
 The author, through this simple, humourous story cleverly shows us how we often criticize others for faults that we ourselves probably have; only we are not always honest enough to recognize them in ourselves.
Critical Appreciation:
 There are only two characters in the short story “The Lost Dollar” – the author and his friend Todd. Both of them are very good friends and as it happens between friends one pays small amounts for the other and forgets, but in this case the author remembers that Todd has borrowed a dollar from him to pay the taxi bill when he was going to visit Bermuda.
 Stephen Leacock did not deliberately build the characters as the purpose of the story is not to talk much about the characters, but to comment on the typical habit of people to borrow small amounts from friends and then forget. When we read the story, we are reminded of many such events that have occurred in our lives and probably we have a sly smile. The humour of the story comes to its climax when the author says that there is a need to start a “Back to Honesty” movement. We understand that the intention of the author is not to focus on the characters, but to make fun of the situation of borrowing and forgetting small amounts.
Theme:
 Stephen Leacock, being a humourist deals with the theme where the element of humour is paramount. In case of this story, he has chosen the theme of a small amount of money that weoften borrow from others (primarily friends) and forget to return it. The reason is that it is too small an amount (one dollar in this case). But when a friend remembers the money lent, then it creates a problem for him/her, as he can neither ask for the small amount directly, nor digest the fact that he has lost that dollar (probably hard-earned). Thus there are at least two themes that the short story deals with –.  Friendship – We can borrow such small amounts only from friends and tend to forget it as we take friends for granted and do not care about returning such small amounts that we borrow.
 Hypocrisy – We often think that the dollar our friend has borrowed from us should be given back, while we ourselves must have unconsciously forgotten many such small amounts borrowed from our friends, Thus while we want others to act responsibly, we often do not do so ourselves. Therefore the author humorously suggests “Back to Honestly” movement.
Characterisation: The Narrator :
 The narrator is an undecided person. He is a classic lender, who lends a dollar to his friend, Todd, when the latter did not have enough change to pay his taxi fare. His friend was just leaving for Bermuda. The narrator expects his friend to pay him back on his return.
 The narrator is rather a humorous figure. His failing to ask his debtors to repay him, and the way he describes his situation is quite comic. Instead of asking his friend to pay him the money, he goes on to say that he wishes to start a ‘Back to Honesty’ movement. For such a meagre amount as a single dollar, he thinks of such high-sounding projects, rather than the direct solution of reminding his friend to pay it back.
Major Todd:  Major Todd is a close friend of the narrator. Though we never see him in person, his presence is felt throughout the story. He is a Major in the army and is also a member of the University Club of Montreal.
 Major Todd is presented to be pleasure loving who is on his trip to Bermuda, the unnamed narrator is a hypocrite who is too particular about getting back the dollar that he has lent to his friend. The narrator remembers that he has lent a dollar to Major Todd while he himself has forgotten many such a dollar that he has borrowed.