Santa Claus
The answer to a Virginia’s question of whether there really is a Santa Claus is right there in the title. Unfortunately, it is not as clear cut as what seems to be an assertion would have one believe. Santa Claus winds up being a metaphor for Christian goodness rather than the individual entity that she is really inquiring about.
Justifying the Big Metaphor
The reply by the author justifies the larger metaphorical reality of Santa Claus through a series of metaphors for man that basically situates him as too idiotic to understand that not being able to tangibly perceive a solid object is not necessarily proof that it doesn’t exist. It is stretch if intended sincerely, but perfectly keeping with an interpretation that the whole thing is a big ironic joke that went really wrong:
“In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.”
Children
One of the precisely directed and explicit examples of a metaphor in the text can also be taken ironically if one assumes that the writer thinks little Virginia’s query in the first place is indicative of larger societal problem with not addressing education early enough. Even if one accepts the sincerity, however, this particular metaphorical imagery does stand in direct opposition to the far more cynical attitude toward childish innocence and wonder that the author expresses in other editorials as his normal state of perception:
“The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.”
The Big Stretch
At a certain point, it seems to become extremely obvious that this editorial is not really meant to be the expression of sincerity that it has been viewed as since first published. There is a certain undeniable rhythm to the language: it becomes increasingly more absurdly sincere as it goes until a final explosion of inanity probably intended to give the game away, though clearly it failed:
“You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart.”
Religious Faith
With this one singular exception, the author’s editorials about religious faith were cynical and skeptical and absolutely at odds with the perspective delivered here. If one adopts the more explicable point of view that it is a brilliant exercise in ironic satire, one of the most absurd claims it makes in the name of sincerity suddenly make sense as a cynical metaphor for religious faith:
“The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there.”
