Conversations can create the most beautiful images and evoke wonderful, noble feelings. Yet, as J.M. Barrie demonstrates in his short story “My Brother Henry,” fabricated conversations can be an infinite source of miscommunication and can lead to mischief.
‘Another Brother’
James, mistakenly called Henry, finds himself in a rather odd situation when his friend Fenton tells him about a conversation he had with a man named Scudamour. Scudamour assured Fenton that he knew James’s brother Henry. Confused by such a claim, James assures Fenton that he has only one brother: Alexander. James determines, in fact, that he is “[his] own brother Henry” and he tells Fenton that “[he] distinctly remembered meeting this man Scudamour at Paris during the time that Alexander and [he] were there for a week’s pleasure.”However, even after explaining this situation to Fenton, James finds himself accosted by people who tell him that Scudamour wishes to meet him, since he knew his brother, Henry, in Paris. And, before he knows it, James soon finds himself face-to-face with Scudamour.
