But what exactly do all these links and hints at cross-reference tell us? The overall themes of the story now seem obvious and generally accord with the accepted critical opinion of the conflicts involved in the Red Cavalry stories as a whole. However things are rather more complicated in Babel than is generally recognised, even if most critics do indicate an awareness of his ambiguity. Ultimately it is perhaps impossible to know all the levels of meaning together, to discover the 'final truth' about this exceeding complex story, but an examination of the structural use of characters, an unravelling of the various links in the chain should enable us to see more clearly what "My First Goose" is all about.

There exists many ways of forging thematic links between characters in fiction, the most common being kinship, or identity of life situation. In this story all the...