Problem
Pick a specific detail in "Barrelmaker" and show how it contributes to the story's meaning. For example, I am struck with the way that Saikaku gives us minute details about the matchmaker's wretched life as a single woman: "Old Nanny returned to her hovel . . . One minute the women's fingers were pinching at the fleas in their underclothes, the next pinching for some odd coins on the sanctuary shelf with which to buy a few green vegetables" (86). This story is an odd mix of tragic and comic, and while I don't much care for the character's selfish actions, I do feel sympathy for anyone who lives in such conditions.