The Barney's Version Excerpt explains the Richler's indecisiveness and his ambivalent world picture point to his inability to establish a true bond with other people regardless of their occupation. This means that he does not face moral dilemma even after being thrust red with a mop used for painting. This further shows that he was a typical protagonist who was alienated and morally disillusioned individual who finds stability and inner-knowledge difficult to attain. He also sees opportunity in everything when he says that "I figured, Leo would get a shave and a haircut and join an advertising agency in New York but realizes that he very wrong in his opinion.
The writer first feels that he is not received or welcomed as the other guests. The writer gives a good implication of loving what he does because it makes him to earn a living out of it (painting). Considered as a dirty and out of touch job he expresses his satisfaction out the job he terms as dirty. Taken as ordinary materials kitchen mop is used to imply the use of the common things in our lives to create a good picture from what is considered ordinary by men.
The excerpt tells and shows the importance of sharing. This is shown by the aspect of sharing a smoke but then there is the ability to produce humor within family circumstances and his acerbic satiric point of view on modern culture. We can note that Richler's parodies are instigated by his personal life and what he does rather than a critical agenda. The way he depicts all the activities in the short story allows him to display this talent. The balance between showing and telling makes us to meditate on his struggle and to remember his past truthfully.
Later we realize that Leo did do some atrocities which hangs in a national gallery in Washington. The implication is that what was considered cheap was used to make large amount of money despite the fact that he did he ignore them. His fiction ultimately rests upon the conviction that it's possible to know what really happened, who was right and who was wrong between him and Leo. Another aspect of balance between telling and showing that rises is that Richler is not interested in exploring the interiority of what he does, but he is much interested in what happened forty years later.
