UNIVERSITY DAYS

UNIVERSITY DAYS
James Thurber
NOTES PREPARED BY SATHEESH

Thurber’s fame as a humourist rests on both his writings and his drawings. His writings are remarkable for their sublime humour, pathos and psychological insight. In his childhood an accidental arrow left him blind in one eye. Eventually, a ‘sympathetic opthalmia’ took over his other eye. Owing to this, his early life was filled with a certain melancholy and introspection. He unleashes a masterpiece of humor and subtle mockery in ‘University Days.’ The essay amuses his audience with the follies and foibles of himself and his peers at the university.
1. Thurber could never pass botany. He never once saw a cell through a microscope. The instructor would begin patiently explaining how anyone can see through a microscope. He would adjust the microscope for Thurber. But he would always end up in a fury claiming that Thurber pretended that he couldn’t see. The student was supposed to see ‘a vivid, restless...