Surroundings

The Professor and the Siren is a complex short story by Tomansi. As the story begins two unlikely subjects meet, Senator Rosario La Ciura and Paolo Corbera. As the duo begins to meet regularly they grow closer and their differences in age and culture is not relevant. The story consistently shows how much can be learned from two people with contrasting differences. When the Senator meets the Siren, Lighea, they are opposites however the Senator experiences things he would never have been able to experience without meeting Lighea. She shows him a side that he has never seen within himself. All of his life he has spent “studying away”(76), so when he takes his much needed summer vacation to Augusta, he is out of his element. While in Augusta, “each book became, instead of an obstacle, a key opening up a world”(77). He is experiencing new surroundings of peace, isolation, and silence. The Senators mentality changes due to his surroundings.