Who Understands Who?

In Linda Noel’s “Understanding Each Other,” the narrator is a woman while the speaker who is in quotes is a man whom was in a committed relationship with the woman. At first, the man mentions that the narrator is “too wild” but she does “not drink raw whisky” he means that she is not wild in the sense of being promiscuous or particularly social with others, he is referring to the woman’s free spirit and strong personality. He goes onto say that “when the salmon season returns [the woman] stand[s] among river willow shadow humming, all the time believing fish can understand why [she] is there.” The woman can identity with the salmon traveling against the current, which symbolizes how she can identify with people who are fighting against adversities in the world. After the man’s quote, the woman points out how the man “left her to marry one whose dreams are laced in perfume and dishwater suds.” This means that the man was preferred to be with a more passive woman. This other woman is not in though with nature because she is surrounded by artificial things such as “perfume” and “dishwater suds.” Overall, it seems like both the narrator and the speaker understand each other and have accepted their differences. The fact that the narrator chooses to say “So he left me” implies that she is not bewildered as to why he left her. Equally important is what the narrator did not say. She did not deny any of the speaker’s assumptions about her personality which implies that the might be true, therefore he also understands her.