when the navy calls him up for military service. He leaves reluctantly. He is madly in love with a girl and has no real inclination to leave his little world on the Grand Marina.

His attitude doesn't change during his travels. He hates the hustle and bustle of big cities and pines for both the security of his home and the love of his girlfriend. He is therefore happy when the doctors diagnose him with rheumatism and send him home.

To his shock, his girlfriend is not at the jetty with his father and two brothers to meet him. He finds her sitting outside her house. She tells him she knows that he is ill and doesn't think he would have the strength to provide for her in a world where fishing is one of the few jobs available to him. Anyway, she says, her parents refuse to give her permission to marry him.

Salvatore gets over his heartache to marry a girl named Assunta. They settle down in a house situated in the middle of a vineyard and start a family. The author says they have a hard life, but one full of satisfaction and love.

The narrator concludes by stating that the story is a portrait of a fisherman with the virtue of goodness:

Goodness, just goodness.

The story opens with the narrator wondering "if [he] can do it," but we do not know to what he is referring until the very end of the story. He goes on to describe what the titular character, Salvatore, was like as a boy. He was always in and out of the sea, taking care of his brothers, and one day he fell in love with a young woman from the same island. They got engaged, but Salvatore had to complete his military service before they could marry. He missed her terribly and wrote her many letters. Eventually, he contracted rheumatism and because he would "never again be quite well," he was told that he could not continue his military service and would, instead, be sent home. He rejoiced that he could get back to his love, but, when he returned, she told him that she could no longer marry him because he "would never be strong enough to work like a man" as a result of his illness.

Salvatore does not blame her as he knows that she will have to rely on her husband to support their family. His mother told him that an ugly woman named Assunta was willing to marry him. She has some money to help support them, and he accepted her. He worked very hard, they seemed to grow in love, and they even had two children together. The narrator describes how Salvatore would bathe his boys when they were so young, how gentle he was so that his hands which were huge "like legs of mutton, coarse and hard from constant toil" would become "like flowers" when he cradled his children.

In the end, the narrator says that what he'd wondered at the beginning was "whether [he] could hold [our] attention for a few pages while [he] drew for [us] the portrait of a man" that possessed "the most precious and the loveliest [quality] that anyone can have." By this, he refers to "Goodness, just goodness." Is the depiction of goodness enough to hold our attention for a few pages? It certainly holds mine!

"Salvatore" is a short story written by William Somerset Maugham. The story was published as "Salvatore the Fisherman" in the July 1924 issue of Cosmopolitan.

The short story begins with Maugham himself addressing the reader. The author inquires whether he would be able to keep the reader's attention throughout the story. The story of Salvatore the character then begins. Salvatore is a simple young man from provincial Italy. He spends his youth playing and relaxing at the beach near where his father, a fisherman, would catch fish.

When he became a teenager, Salvatore fell in love with a beautiful local girl. However, their romance had barely begun when Salvatore joined the military as a sailor. Salvatore saw many parts of Italy and even East Asia, but his homesickness grew the longer he traveled. He longed for his hometown, but he especially missed the young woman he loved.

While sailing to China, Salvatore developed rheumatism. This made him unable to continue his naval career. This, however, was a blessing to Salvatore because it meant he could finally go home.

Once home, his family greeted him with adoration and love. However, he noticed that the woman he loved was not present at his homecoming. Salvatore goes to the woman's mother's house, where he finds both of them. The mother coldly tells Salvatore that they know about his rheumatism. The mother prevents Salvatore from marrying the young woman because the mother believed his condition would limit his ability to work.

Although devastated, Salvatore had to accept the mother's decision. One day, Salvatore's mother informs him that another young woman had fallen in love with him. He refuses, still depressed over his heartbreak, but he eventually relents and leans to fall in love with the young woman introduced by his mother.

They have two children and Salvatore becomes a fisherman just like his father. Despite his medical condition, Salvatore works literally day and night to provide for his family. Not once did Salvatore curse his condition or show self-pity.

Salvatore proves to be a loyal husband and loving father to his children. The story concludes with Maugham once again addressing the reader. He proclaims that he is successful in his attempt to keep the reader's attention.

So what is the story about? Maugham stated that there is no complex plot or philosophical subtext to the story. The story of Salvatore simply shows that the only quality one needs to possess is "goodness, just goodness."

The author frames the story such that we are well aware of the narrator's presence. In this way, we are reminded of the oral tradition, the style of old-fashioned storytelling. What is special about this narrator is that they seem to be somewhat unsure about the outcome of this storytelling: "I wonder if I can do it." This tactic really grabs the attention of the reader; we are eager to see what the narrator so earnestly wishes to accomplish and if they are able.

At the very end of the story, the narrator says the ultimate purpose of this tale is to sketch a picture of "Goodness. Just goodness." Did it work? Was the author able to do it? Moreover, what is "goodness"?

Salvatore's life is far from perfect. A number of events thwart his goals and disorient him: being drafted into the military, falling ill, losing his first love, and essentially committing to a life unlike the one he imagined for himself. Yet Salvatore seems to understand the futility of allotting blame for these unfortunate events. He seems to acknowledge that a life is simply comprised of unexpected twists and turns. In short, he bears no bitterness about what many would consider bitter circumstances. As a result, he can rejoice in the beauty of his children and the small pleasures of life. When all is said and done, Salvatore seems happy, and the reader can feel happy for him. The author has made us feel the core of "goodness" which runs through Salvatore and how it resulted in a satisfying life, if not a perfect one.

Ostensibly the author considers "goodness" to be of great importance. So what does goodness look like? Salvatore is at times scared, sick, uncertain, rejected, and child-like, yet none of these qualities diminish him in our eyes. How is this? It is because Salvatore possesses "a quality which is the rarest, the most precious and the loveliest that anyone can have." Salvatore loves deeply and is kind and fair even in the face of adversity and pain:

Often his rheumatism prevented him from doing anything at all and then he would lie about the beach, smoking cigarettes, with a pleasant word for everyone notwithstanding the pain that racked his limbs.

This determination to be kind, loving, and "pleasant" regardless of the moment's circumstances, this kind of perseverance, is "goodness."

In his short story "Salvatore," Maugham starts out by saying, "I wonder if I can do it." The reader is unsure what Maugham is trying to do as the author draws a portrait of a man named Salvatore who faces a series of disappointments in his life. While serving in the military in China, Salvatore falls ill. Consequently, the woman he wants to marry refuses to marry him because she is afraid he will not be strong enough to work.

Rather than wallow in self-pity, Salvatore agrees to marry Assunta, a woman he claims is "as ugly as the devil," and he then faces life with determination and "the most beautiful manners I [the author] had ever seen in my life." Though he does not live the life he imagined, Salvatore comports himself with goodwill and makes the most of his marriage, his job as a fisherman, and his children. In the end, the author states that his task was to see if he could hold the attention of the reader long enough to tell the tale of a good man who possesses an extremely rare quality that the author describes as "Goodness, just goodness."

Maugham's story has the style of a parable, a didactic tale that is meant to teach a lesson. His character, Salvatore, is not dynamic; he is static and shows no change as he continually faces life with a cheerful acceptance and integrity. Maugham holds Salvatore up to the reader as an example of pure radiance and goodness and as someone who should be emulated in dealing with the trials and tribulations of life.