Mr. Know-All by William Somerset Maugham

Ph Vivian

August 2017

“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences”, said the famous poet Audre Lorde. In terms of mutual recognition and acceptance of dissimilarity, our minds are usually trapped by a deep-rooted prejudice which we ourselves have somehow consciously or unconsciously built up. The situation is plainly encountered in the short story Mr. Know-All by William Somerset Maugham – a British famous writer during the 1930s.  

The story was set on a passenger ship sailing to Yokohama from San Francisco, shortly after the First World War had ended. In this close and limit environment, the narrator had a ‘chance’ to face with what he did not intend to face and to learn a worthwhile lesson of his life. The attitude of prejudice comes into sight right at the beginning of the story: “I was prepared to dislike Max Kelada even before I knew him.” By the end of the war, Britain took over part of Levant and the local people were insulted and looked down by British. “I did not at all like Mr. Kelada” was repeated many times during the story. The narrator did not like King George’s strange subject by describing Mr. Kelada as being short in a sturdy build, clean-shaven and dark skinned, with a fleshy hooked nose. Our storyteller did not like Mr. Kelada’s name, his belongs, his appearance, his manners, his oriental smile, his pride in being a British, the ways he got involved in and did not drop any matters. He even used the word “Levantine” in order to refer to people from Eastern Mediterranean and to denigrate Mr. Kelada. It seems that all the ugly features of gentleman from Alexandria or Beirut were collected at first to deliver the reason of the narrator’s intense hatred over his partner in the cabin, but actually his real sense of purpose was to ironically disclaim all the righteousness of prejudice in terms of the way people judged others through their race and appearance but not their intrinsic value.  

Mr. Kelada, notwithstanding being an expert on distinguishing the cultured pearl with half an eye, notwithstanding being a egocentric man, notwithstanding being challenged by Mr. Ramsay, notwithstanding being sure of the chain’s value, spared no effort to nobly claim that he was mistaken in order to protect a vulnerable woman’s dignity when he suddenly caught sight of her desperate white face. Just like the narrator, the more we readers find him intolerable at the beginning of the story by reason of his loquacity, the more we want to say sorry by virtue of our improper perspective towards this kind-hearted man. The situation happens always. It is ironical that what we see with our very eyes and hear with our very ears is not always the truth. It is ironical that Mr. Kelada who had been named Mr. Know-All, now could not examine the value of a chain, but again ironically he himself was the true Mr. Know-All because he knew well when to show and when not to show his knowledge.

As said by Richelle E. Goodrich, “We live our lives supposing things are as they appear to be when that is almost never the case.” The story Mr. Know-All has left us food for thought over the matter of holding prejudices and judging a book by its cover.