Friday, September 11, 2020
Week 2 Short Story Analysis
Choose one of the stories and analyze.
“Lamb To The Slaughter” By Roald Dahl
“Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury
“The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
“Survivor type” by Stephen King
“Word Processor of the Gods” by Stephen King
“The Black Ball” by Ralph Ellison
“Miriam” by Truman Capote
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
“Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut
“Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy?” by Tim O’Brien
“The Intruder” by Andre Dubus
“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
"The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
“Cathedral” by Raymond Carver
“The Rocking Horse-Winner” by D.H. Lawrence
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The analysis of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
ReplyDelete“The lottery” is a short story written by American writer Shirley Jackson. The story takes place at a small village in New England at 27th of June. The authorities of the village annually conduct a lottery among the residents. They gather in the square of the city. The children of the village gather the stones on the corner of the square (then it reveals that it was not for good purposes). The man called Mr. Summers runs the lottery and brings the black box. The protagonist of the story Mrs. Hutchinson arrives later because of housework. Then Mr. Summers reminds the rules of the lottery: when he reads the names, family heads should come and draw a slip of paper. One of the residents tells to Old man Warner (town elder) that they should stop running the lottery, because other villages already stopped doing it, and their village is the last, but old Man points out that is necessary for the crop and young men are ridiculous. When everyone open the paper, Bill Hutchinson (husband of Mrs. Hutchinson) “got it”. Tessie Hutchinson does not agree and says that it was not fair. Now, all the members of Hutchinson family come up and draw a paper from the box. When everyone opened the paper, they find out that Mrs. Hutchinson got the black dot. Then, the entire village grabs the stones, run towards the Tessie, and stone her to death.
The unexpected final of the story shocked all the readers. I am of the view that, Shirley Jackson wanted to show us the foolishness of blindly following the traditions of the group. Sometimes people repeat the action of other group members without even knowing the purpose. Before we see what happens with the “winner” of the lottery, it seems harmless. However, when we see the brutal end of the story we see all the meaninglessness of tradition. People are afraid of changes and they keep doing such a weird rituals every year.
Another idea of the story is randomness of the decisions. The person is guilty for drawing the wrong piece of paper and doomed to die. Other members do not think about it because the possibility of getting the black dot is so low. They just enjoy murdering the person because it is not them who is going to be stoned to death. I also think that if anyone else got the black dot, Tessie Hutchinson would not hesitate and stone the person with the rest of the group.
The story ''The black ball'' written by Ralph Ellison tells us about the theme of struggle, equality, hope, and connection. The main character is john who by the story struggle through life. He knows that he is not equal with others because of the color of his skin, but despite this he continues to believe in equality and especially in oneness. This can be seen in the diolog with his son, where he says that being an American is better than being black, white or brown. John is also self-developing and learning, but this sometimes annoys other people due to the fact that he is black and in some way smarter than some whites. To some extent, John wants to make the American dream come true. But he can't do it because he is African-American. As John's story progresses, a man from the Union comes and offers him equality among all people in America. Also, the opposite of a person from the Union can be Berry who, as people of the Union, does not help them, does not want to be right with them, but on the contrary lets them know their place as African-American. The ending of this story is also interesting and intriguing instead of the author ending it on a good note, it gives food for thought.Moreover John's struggle is still not over and it will be very long, and when the author finished that Jones looked at the card of a member of the Union, he probably wanted to give us hope and, of course, hope to John for further progress of equality among all Americans.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of the story, an author shows us basic American village with children who were playing with the stones and the adults who were happy to gather in the square. I was thinking that it will typical story about truth and fairness in the game, however, in the middle of the story Jackson describes the villager’s attitude to the lottery, their nervous condition and emotions. Thus, the readers start to understand that the lottery is not just a simple tradition, it conceals a special secret. Till the end of “The lottery” the author keeps the tense environment and does not show the truth of the game. In the final of the story, the readers recognize the nature of the lottery. The winner of the game will be stoned and killed by the villagers.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I did not understand the meaning of the story after first reading but after 2 reading the reader can understand the main point of “The Lottery”. The main point of the story is that people are ready to believe in traditions and other things, despite the fact they do not know the origins and the main rules of the tradition, and they do not stop because they are scared of something. Traditions do not have always a positive effect; they can damage human being’ life. However, the main problem is that people do not acknowledge it. The story surprised me, in the story people are blind and do not see that tradition damages them because it is the legacy of their ancestors. Unfortunately, this kind of situations is happening in our modern society. Moreover, people were ready to kill each other because of their faith; they believed that their acts are correct. So, sometimes this situation is taking place in our world with us.
In conclusion, I would like to say that tradition and other things which are coming from the past should not be correct and take a place in the present world.
The story of Truman Capote “Miriam” is about a 61-years old Mrs. H. T. Miller who lived alone in a pleasant apartment near the East River. She was a widow and had no friends to speak of. She rarely visited farther than the grocery. In addition, her neighbors never noticed her: iron gray hair, her clothes were matter-of-fact. One day Mrs. Miller suddenly decides to watch a film at the theatre, there she notices 11-years old girl Miriam standing close to her in the queue. They had a little conversation, and then Miriam started to visit her and doesn’t leave her alone although Mrs. Miller weren’t glad to meet with her. Unexpectedly, girl came to Mrs. Miller with a box with her clothes and doll in order to live in a house of the woman. That made Mrs. Miller frightened, and she goes downstairs to the neighbors to tell them that a young girl keeps on appearing. She convinces the man to check upstairs, he returns and says that there is no girl and box there. She calms down, reminding that she is Mrs. H. T. Miller, who lives alone and does everything he wants. She then fearfully opens her eyes and heard Miriam’s unclear “Hello”.
ReplyDeleteThere were a lot of unrealistic aspects that can show the psychological disorder of Mrs. Miller. The author’s interpretation was about the woman living lonely started to see herself as a child, because Miriam was described as young Mrs. Miller. She was the part of her that is unknown, talking over her mind. Also, she was not seen by others but her presence was acknowledged by the old woman.
Moreover, the number of internal monologues increases, which speaks of the character’s restless state in her health. Mrs. Miller does not understand where is reality, which leads to complete madness, because she clearly felt everything that was happening.
The speech of the two characters is different, Miriam is young and playful, and the woman is frightened.
From all of the above, it is obvious that Truman Capote in his story relied on the speech of the heroes, on their changeability. And he succeeded due to dialogues and monologues, since it was the main characteristics of heroes which were highlighted in the story.
The story, which was written by D.H. Lawrence, starts with an illustration of an unknown character. From the beginning, a reader finds out that this character has some issues in her life. She has problems with her feelings toward her husband and children and pretends to be a good mother. Another paragraph begins with describing of family’s financial status. Actually, I understand the paragraphs as mental poorness rather than financial, it was been opened with Hester’s (that unknown character) action. Mr. Lawrence shows that she lacks mother intimacy; however, she solves it by purchasing expensive toys to children, which is doesn’t work. The following paragraphs also describe the family situation, especially a financial one, and Hester compares money with “luck” as well as judges her ex-husband due to he was “unlucky”. These paragraphs distinctly reveal a tone of anxiety and dread. Despite the financial situation, people think Hester is as wealthy as always. Finally, the next passages show a protagonist character, Paul. Paul is Hester’s son and wants to be “lucky” because he worried about his mom. At this moment, the author includes a symbol of the story – rocking-horse, it is a special item, a toy that brings luck to Paul. While Paul rides his toy-horse, Oscar, his wealthy uncle, comes and interrupts him. The uncle asks a little-bit about Paul’s toy, and why the horse’s name changes every week. Indeed, Paul predicts the champion horse in a horse race. This dialogue leads to the bets, Paul’s occupation to make money. It presents that Paul has a passion to make her mother feel “lucky”, so he offers to bet. When Paul earned enough amount of money, gave all of them to her mother. However, instead of paying her debts, she decides to purchase furniture and other staff. It shows Hester’s ego and willing to look wealthy. I think it is obvious that she is the antagonist of the story and causes all problems in the family. When Paul did find out about it, he was very mad and anxious. Therefore, he started to ride this toy-horse, which made him extremely exhausted and weak, and then Paul collapsed on the ground, but it was too late. Hester finds out that Paul’s condition is critical, and feels that her heart was replaced by a cold stone. The story shows that her son did a lot of things to cheer up her mother and solve family issues. However, Hester didn’t understand the actions around her, because she was so selfish. Unfortunately, it ends with Paul’s death, which, definitely, affected Hester’s greed and materialism.
ReplyDeleteP.S: D.H. Lawrence did not mention any place and time in the story.
"Harrison Bergeron" analysis
ReplyDeleteMain Characters
Protagonist: Harrison Bergeron is the 14 years old son, who is 7 tall. He is described as a genius, an extraordinarily handsome, athletic, confident, strong and brave person. Extreme handicaps again reflect his extraordinary attributes: a man with extraordinary looks and prodigious strength
Antagonist: Diana Moon Glampers and Handicapper agents. She is a boss of oppressive government and enforces the handicapping policies of the government. Looks like Hazel. She appears ruthless, menacing and cruel.
Other characters: Hazel Bergeron is Harrison's mother and George's wife. She is described as a person with a perfectly average intelligence, loving and thoughtful wife .
The Ballerina – character with a warm, luminous, timeless melody voice and very beautiful dancer. She is the fairest, most beautiful and most graceful of the dancers.
George Bergeron is Harrison's father and Hazel's husband. A very smart character with intelligence above than the average. However, he shows a passive behavior towards current events in a country.
Setting
Place: United States, where agents of Handicapper Genera adopt 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution
Time: year 2081, when everybody was finally equal
Order of events is chronological, because there is no insight to past events and the story happens in the future year of 2081.
Narrative Point of View: In Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut writes from the third person omniscient perspective, narrator shows the actions of the characters as well as what George is thinking in his head.
Mood/ Tone
Mood Adjective: curious, frustrated, hopeful and despairing
Tone Adjective: sarcastic, sardonic, detached, and candid
Plot (summarize each)
Conflict: The internal conflict in Harrison Bergeron is that the handicaps inside or around on people are affecting their internal thoughts and conflicts. The External conflict of the story is that Harrison Bergeron breaks out of jail, and then attempts to overthrow the government.
Exposition: George has great intelligence, but he cannot use it because of the mental handicaps he is forced to wear. George thinks a little about his son, but a gun sound pops in his head, leaving him white and trembling. Two of the ballerinas are also afflicted with the same noise.
Rising Action: One of the ballerinas interrupts the TV program for a news bulletin warning that Harrison has escaped from jail and that he is very dangerous.
Climax: Harrison says, “I am the emperor,” barging into the studio and frees himself from handicaps. He makes a ballerina his empress. He and his empress kiss the ceiling as they dance.
Falling Action: The Handicapper General comes into the studio and emotionlessly kills Harrison and the ballerina.
Denouement: Society returns to normal; no dent is made, and George and Hazel cannot even remember what happened.
Theme
The theme of this story is that total equality is not worth striving for. It can have dangerous outcomes such as repressing others advantageous uniqueness and personality.
Overall impression/opinions
My perspective is that by torturing citizens through achieving mental and physical equality, governments can only establish a dictatorship, where people have no ideas and own views. The impression after reading the short story was unpleasant as this kind of governmental structure would repress the social progress and innovation. In my opinion, this story teaches readers to appreciate how valuable different opinions, physical appearance and human characteristics are.
Hello! Your work seems thorougly completed as far as you wrote everything step by step and covered all the parts of analysys
DeleteTitle: The Lottery
ReplyDeleteAuthor: Shirley Jackson
“The Lottery” is a short story by Shirley Jackson that tells us about an annual lottery that takes place in the village where lives about 300 people. In begins with the description of a peaceful morning of June 27th, when all villagers began to gather in the square, while their children were selecting stones. The story has a chronological order of events and Shirley Jackson is not the part of the story, but the narrator describes the actions of the characters as well as their thoughts, that is why it is the third person omniscient point of view. The main character and protagonist of this story is Tessie Hutchinson. She is the woman who “wins” the lottery and be stoned to death by not only other villagers but also by her family members including her husband and son. Whereas, the whole idea of this tradition and keeping it alive can be considered as the antagonist. This is because the small village continues a tradition even do not know how it was started. The story gives two different moods. Firstly, in the beginning, it seems like a peaceful day, but it dramatically shifts when readers understand why children in this village selected stones. From that moment the mood becomes tense and ominous until the end of the story when all villagers were ready to stone Tessie Hutchinson to death. What about the author's tone, he is detached and ironic because he just describes the characters' emotions, but does not show his own feelings towards them. He effectively confuses all readers because all want to know what kind of prize will get the winner. However, the main idea was that each year the winner of the lottery will be stoned to death by the rest of the villagers. That is why there was an external conflict between the old tradition and Tessie Hutchinson, also all other villagers were against her. This is because almost all of them support this tradition including Tessie before she was selected, but in reality, no one does not understand the perception of it and does not remember how and when it was started.
Plot
Exposition: The exposition includes the description of a peaceful morning of June 27th, when villagers began to gather in the square where their children were selecting stones.
Rising Action: The rising action includes the events of the annual lottery when Bill Hutchinson got the paper with a black dot on it and his family members ought to take the slips.
Climax: Each Hutchinson took out of the box piece of paper and everyone got blank papers except Tessie who was the “winner” of the lottery.
Falling Action: The falling action includes the screaming of Tessie that it was not fair. Then villagers began to collect stones and formed a circle around her.
Denouement: The resolution is that the stones hit her on the sides of her head and no one listened to her.
The theme is not all traditions are a treasure to keep them, therefore some traditions may need to be changed with the growth of society. From my point of view, all people in this village are blindly following the old tradition and annually it leads to one death of someone no matter victim’s age and gender. The tragedy happens because villagers blindly follow their outdated tradition without realizing its meaning. I think, the story truly shows how people can be terrifying when they live in the dark. The human firstly should think and then do something, but these ones just try to keep their tradition without attempts to find its real meaning. For instance, Jackson writes, "Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones." We live in a modern society where everyone has access to everything, so do not follow the crowd and have reasons for your actions, that is my overall impression from this short story with deep meaning.
Hi! Great job! After reading your short story analysis, the full possible image has appeared.
DeleteHello! I read your analysis and was able to fully understand the theme, main idea and plot of this short story and I want to say that you did a good job and analyzed the story in detail. Your analysis is one of the longest and most detailed of all analyzes published here. Good luck!
Delete“Survivor Type” is harsh and dark story written by Stephen King. This shorts story horror, first published in 1982, is one of greatest works done by Mr. King in horror as well as triller genres. The story is written as a diary of surgeon called Richard Pinzetti, who finds himself somewhere in Pacific Ocean, one small island. During the whole story main character struggles for his life against madness and insanity. While being on island he decides to pass time by writing in a logbook about his life, himself, the way how he occurred there and about his lifestyle on the island. First off, he describes his parents with whom he had strained relations, then he tells about his job, study in school and more about his personality. Thirdly, he tells how he came into the cruise ship, explosion that occurred within the ship, escaping the sinking vessel, storm that brought his lifeboat to the small island. Additionally, he uses the book as a dairy, talks to and makes jokes with readers or with himself, describes daily events and slowly as well as deeper descends into the madness.
ReplyDeleteI consider the topic of story as an opinion of the author about winners or “survivors” in real life. The reason is that Pinzetti is ambitious, knows a lot of needed facts, coldblooded, egoistic and pragmatic person. He uses other people or the system to achieve his own goals as he did in school to bit dummies or how he played football only for gains in education to become a doctor. He is quite careful in illegal business that he did as a doctor. He understood how to make amputation or that he need to run quickly during the ship’s drowning which could pull him underwater. He kept clear mind when everybody was panicking and many more. These situations where he could use his skills and the environment, especially on the island shows how successful can be people with such personality. I think, Stephen King wanted to show that as a point, but unfortunately, despite his success he couldn’t struggle against the madness caused by water scarcity, hunger, loneliness, huge losses of blood as well as heroin and as the end of story shows he couldn’t survive.
The story “The handsomest drowned man in the world” written by Gabriel Marquez was published in 1968. It tells about drowned person who have changed life of individuals. The body of man washed up in a small town near the ocean. Inhabitants of this place identify his perfection in the way, when they were going to bury him, also villagers name him Esteban, who is the protagonist of this story. It is interesting to note that this unknown person had a great impact on people as their lives were altered to optimum way. In the story, flowers symbolize the lives of the villagers and their own feeling in refining them. At the beginning of the story that the houses in the village "had stone courtyards with no flowers and which were spread about on the end of a desert like cape." Indeed, this depiction makes us create a scarce and abandoned image. When the women are in fear of the drowned man, they envision that he could bring development to their lives. They contemplate "that he would have put so much work into his land that springs would have burst forth from among the rocks so that he would have been able to plant flowers on the cliffs." Albeit, there is no suggestion that they or their husbands amend their village to better way. Nevertheless, their sympathy allows them to see their own possible opportunities to act.
ReplyDeleteAn important point is that all people are involved in cleaning the body, sewing enormous clothes, carrying the body of Esteban and staging an elaborate funeral. Afterwards, since they do not want him to be orphaned, they choose family members for him, and "through him all the inhabitants of the village became kinsmen." Even it took a great exertion to complete the sundry actions, the team-working of them is generally improved and they also become closer to each other in emotional and inspirational ways. Actually, the situation has contributed to plant flowers in vivid colors, the view is to totally change.
From my point of view, the way that villagers have stopped accepting “the dryness of their courtyards, the narrowness of their dreams” can be the considered as success since they have determined their industrious, willingness to make advancements and united sides of personality.
Title: Harrison Bergeron
ReplyDeleteAuthor: Kurt Vonnegut
Characterization
Protagonist: Harrison Bergeron
Antagonist: Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General
Other characters: George and Hazel Bergeron, ballerinas, musicians
Setting
Place: United States
Time: 2081
Order of events: Flashbacks
Narrative Point of view: Third person Limited
Plot
Exposition: George and Hazel are watching TV
Rising action: The news about Harrison’s escape
Climax: Harrison is in the studio
Falling action: The dance and love of Harrison and ballerina
Resolution: The death of the two.
Theme: Equality
Despite the fact that the theme of the story is equality, during the reading this story, I realized that it is also about total control by the state. The government controls all people and their life: it controls their activity, their look, even their thoughts. I think that such equality is totally incorrect, because it is not natural that people have to wear heavy bags or headphones or ugly masks to be equal. From my point of view, this story lets us realize that every person is unique and nobody can make them be the same. Total equality affects negatively to people, because they cannot behave themselves naturally and some talents will disappear. In my opinion, humans need to be different.
Title: Miriam
ReplyDeleteAuthor: Truman Capote
Narrative Point of view: Third Person Omniscient
The main characters are Mrs. Miller and little girl Miriam. Those characters interpret the woman who is living through the past in the present. The story takes place in the pleasant apartment near the East River. In this story we can see the picture of the woman who is struggling with psychological disorder and starts to see and imagine herself from the childhood because of the combination of deep sorrow and old age. After, she meets Miriam her life changes from normal to the suspense. So, I opine, that Miriam (little girl) represents the loneliness of Mrs. Miller and this imagination of girl makes her feel not alone. Moreover, I assume that the main idea which the author wanted to convey to us was to show the development of dual personality disorder in one person and through the description of the characters, their dresses, the author conveyed her mood and psychological state.
Mood of the story: dark and depressive
Tone: rude and sharp tone
Plot
- Conflict: Mrs. Miller went to the movie and meet little girl with similar name.
- Exposition: She buys a ticket for her too and they have a little conversation
- Rising Action: Miriam’s first visit to the Mrs. Miller’s apartment.
- Climax: Girl kept visiting Mrs.Miller’s home too often and she get upset about it
- Action: Mrs. Miller tells girl to leave and not come again
- Denouement: At the end, Miriam disappeared. But when Mrs. Miller calms down she comes again.
I really feel that you have understand how to analyze the short story because you have mentioned all bullet points including mood,tone and plot. Also, your answer is short as well as accurate and that is the main reason why it can be easily read. Furthermore, while reading your short story analisys I have not found neither grammatical nor punctuation mistakes. Added to everything else, you intrigued me to read the story of Truman Capote “Miriam”. Good job!
DeleteThe Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury
ReplyDeleteSetting: the State of Arizona, November of 2053 A.D.
Plot: The story begins with introducing the main character, Leonard Mead. "He loved walking in silence." He was walking and breathing the fresh air on a misty evening. The major part of the story is consists of the thoughts of a protagonist."‘What is it now?’ he asked the houses, looking at his watch. Eight-thirty p.m.? Time for a murder mystery?" The climax begins with the appearance of the police car. After a short interrogation, the police take Leonard Mead to the psychiatric center.
Characters: Protagonist: Leonard Mead, a pedestrian.
Antagonist: The Police.
Conflict: The arrest of Leonard Mead for walking at night.
The theme: As far as I understand, the purposeless walks of Mead associates with freedom and the ability to choose his own path. The main character is free from the bonds of society but alone. The society is depicted as lifeless and boring. The main point is that the humanity will cease its 'existence' if it will not go outdoors and decide own paths, and, instead, watch TV or do something that is set by the society.
Title: "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World"
ReplyDeleteAuthor: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Plot (summarize each)
Conflict (Indicate whether it was internal or external along with your description):
Women vs. Man
Exposition
The Body of the “Handsomest Drowned Man” is discovered on shore by the children.
Rising Action:
The women clean and dress the drowned man, and prepare him for funeral. They decide to call him ‘Esteban’ • The women comment on how handsome Esteban is, and compare him to their husbands. The husbands become jealous of Esteban Women realize that Esteban “… must have been [unhappy] with [his] huge body”. They begin to pity Esteban
• Men confront women over Esteban, claiming there need not be such a fuss over a dead man
. • Upon seeing Esteban’s face, they recognize his humanity, and how ashamed he must have been, causing everyone so much trouble
Climax:
• Esteban’s funeral is held
• Once they realize Esteban is going to leave them, the villagers become aware of how desolate and dry their village and dreams are, when compared to the grandeur of Esteban
• Esteban put to rest in ocean
Falling Action
Villagers realize that without Esteban, “[…]they were no longer all present, that they would never be”
_________________________________________________________________________________
Denouement:
Villagers propose changes to village made to honor Esteban
Hello! I read your analysis and saw the complete picture of this short story. I want to say that you did a very good job and analyzed the story in detail as given in the analysis template. However, it would be better to describe the storylines in your own words rather than excerpts from the work. Good luck!
DeleteTittle: The word processor of the Gods
ReplyDeleteAuthor: Stephen King
Characterization
Protagonist: Richard Hagstromm
Antagonists: Son of the protagonist - Seth Hagstromm, his wife - Adelina Mabel Warren Hagstromm and hid elder brother - Roger Hagstromm.
Other character: Belinda - wife of the Roger
Other character: Jonathan Hagstromm - son of the Roger
Other character: Mr. Nordhoff
Settings
Place: House of the Richard (Protagonist)
Time: The exact date of the story is not given. However, we can see that the story is proceeding in the evening.
Order of events: Mainly chronological with some flashbacks mixed in the linear plot.
Narrative point of view: Third person limited
Mood/Tone
Mood: fearful, surprised, skeptical, conflicted, confused
Tone: despairing, fearing, worrying, hurrying, hopefull
Plot (summarized each)
Conflict: Stephen King depicts internal conflict of the Richard in the form of deep regret and lamentation about how his life have ended being like this. He married a overweight woman and give a birth to defying son, Seth.
Exposition: Mr. Nordhoff gave a word processor to the Richard saying that it was a last invention of Jon. At the same time we are informed that Jon and Roger dies in a car accident.
Rising action: Richard turns on the word processor. He learns that it has magical influence on the world. Everything written on the word processor becomes true.
Climax: Richard deletes his wife and son from the world and substitues them with Jon and Belinda
Falling action: Jon enters his workspace and calls him to drink cacao
Denouement: Richard says "Just delete it from our lives"
The pedestrian by Ray Bradbury
ReplyDeleteCharacterization
Leanard Mead is a protagonist whose identity reveals only in the middle of the story. As most of Ruy Bradbury’s characters, he seems to be calm, lonely and collected. In the world of the future, in contrast to the other people locked in their homes and surrounded by computers, Leanard is a real human. He does walking - a simple action - that shows us he does not forget what humans used to do and more generally, what was like to be a human.
On the contrast, the antagonist of the story is a police robot that appears later. Even though the main character doesn’t show his fear, there are solid reasons why he has to be horrified by that robot. It is a metallic object devoid of any positive emotions and thoughts that rules this world. The worst predictions came true - robots occupied the 22 century, so Leanard has no choice but to obey their rules because other people don’t notice it, consumed by their monitors.
Setting and Mood/Tone
The story takes place in 2053 A.D. when Leonard and police robot meet each other in the street. Silent, long and empty street and misty evening - all of them - evokes images of that story, associating negative connotations with future and robots. All attempts of character to find a single person in the streets, his endeavours to notice all details, even though he didn’t meet anybody in the past ten years portray the way of interaction of him with those place. Therefore, there is no need for other characters to appear, the street stands as a character itself. Overall, all objectives used by the author set a grave and severe tone to the story.
Plot (summarize each)
Conflict: The main conflict arises between humans and robots, but also, it is humans run counter to themselves as it is described in the story. Actually, it might seem that there is no inner conflict of Leonard; however, he also feels a responsibility for what happened.
Exposition: In an empty street, Leonard walks around to the west and whispers to greet every house and speculate about that.
Rising Action: Leonard turns off on a side street headed for his home and accidentally meets the police.
Climax: In their conversation, the robot can get why Leonard is walking. Robot asks him, again and again, but it really doesn’t understand the nature of that walking nights.
Falling Action: Robot decides to take Leonard to the Psychiatric Centre as he did something totally bizarre, but he merely walked around.
Denouement: As the car moves down empty streets and tomb-like houses, Leonard notices his house and says “That’s my house”. It means, he still remembers his origins and sadly summarizes all his life.
Theme and Overall impressions/opinions
That short story depicts the science fiction model of the future with all its consequences. In my humble opinion, the main problem we encounter now and might experience a negative outcome of is that the technology is advancing way faster than our wisdom and ability to maturely handle this technology. For example, it likes six years old kid doing things that eighteen years old adult is supposed to do. So, in this story, Leonard is only one who does things that typically pertain only to people and obviously robots can not understand it.
Title: A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
ReplyDeleteAuthor: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Main Characters: The old man, whose body is unusual because of his wings and changes the lives of Pelayo and Elisenda. Elisenda is that person who had discovered the old man. Pelayo is an ordinary villager, he guards the old man from harm. Pelayo, however, does not want to take care of the man indefinitely and doesn’t feel bad using the old man to get rich.
This book tells the story of Pelayo and his wife Elisenda, who discover an old man with wings in their courtyard after killing crabs in a rainstorm. They try to communicate with him but it ends unsuccessfully. The couple eventually get their neighbor woman, who says them that the old man is an angel. She tells them that can help to their sick child.
They put the angel in the chicken coop, and during the middle of the night their child's fever breaks. They decide to let him go, but when they return to the courtyard at dawn the entire community has arrived to see the angel. Father Gonzaga soon arrives, declaring that the old man is a fake and promises to get the real truth from the higher courts of the church. The news of the angel spreads like wildfire, and the courtyard soon resembles a marketplace. Elisenda then has the idea of charging a 5 cent admission fee for seeing the angel; they are soon rich. Rome takes it time deciding on whether the old man is an angel, and while waiting for their verdict, Father Gonzaga works desperately to restrain the crowd.
The crowd leaves on its own, however, when a carnival boasting a Spider-Girl arrives in town. Spectators are allowed to question her, and she tells them how she was turned into a tarantula one night for disobeying her parents. This appeals to the masses more than an old winged man who ignores the people around him. Thus, the curious crowds soon leave the angel for the spider, leaving Pelayo's courtyard deserted.
Pelayo and Elisenda build a mansion with all the money they have accumulated. They neglect the angel and prevent their child from getting to close to the chicken coop. He soon becomes a part of their life, and they no longer fear him. The child visits him often. After a while the chicken coop breaks, and they allow him to move around their house, although it causes Elisenda much distress. He gets increasingly frail and sickly, and they fear that he will die. He recovers, however, and one day Elisenda watches him fly away, to her great relief.
“Lamb To The Slaughter” By Roald Dahl
ReplyDeleteProtagonist: Patrick
Antagonist: Mary Maloney
Other characters: Sam, Jack Noonan
Setting: in the house of Patrick and Mary, 5-6 PM
Order of events: chronological
Narrative point of view: third person, omniscient
Exposition: Mary Maloney is waiting for her husband to come home from his work
Rising action: Patrick says his wife that he will leave her.
Climax: Mary kills Patrick using the frozen leg of lamb.
Falling action: Mary goes to the grocery store and then comes back home.
Resolution: The detectives Mary called eat the lamb up.
This story is about how pregnant Mary Maloney commits murder after hearing that her husband is going to leave her. In order to avoid the punishment she plans her actions properly. In the end Mary offers the meat which was a weapon as a dinner for the detectives. So, in my opinion, the message the author wanted to share with the readers is that before doing something we should think and check carefully.
The Pedestrian-Ray Bradbury
ReplyDeleteProtagonist-Leonard Mead-an adult male, who lives in an unnamed town. He is a unique resident in the city because he has not television and unmarried, his profession is a writer that is obsolete.
Antagonist-The robotic police car-another character, who speaks in the story. The police car asks why he is walking alone and about his profession and marital status.
Other character-The citizens of an unnamed town
Setting
Place-An unknown city
Time-November, 2053 year(the middle of the 21 century)
Order of events-Chronological
Narrative Point of View-Third Person Limited
Mood-Negative, gloomy, harsh, detached
Tone-Loneliness, isolation
Plot
Conflict-Internal conflict-the main character is unnerved about his environment and dwellers of the city.
External conflict between Leonard Mead and the robotic police car
Exposition-The main character loves walking alone in the city streets at midnight. This evening he is walking west in the November cold.
Rising Action-This evening he is walking west in the empty street of autumn cold. He is upset about other citizens, because of watching television inside their houses. Hence, he had never encountered another person.
Climax: Leonard Mead is pulled over by the automated car police, and the police asked about his address, profession, and marital status.
Falling Action-He is being taken by police to a psychiatric hospital. On the road, he sees his house and drives away.
Theme- The main point of the story is that dehumanization has been occurring due to the advance in technology. The development leads to a lack of creativity of future residents and loss of individualism.
The story "The handsomest drowned man in the world" was written by Gabriel Marquez and was published in 1968. In short, it is about the drowned man who is discovered by the people of a certain village and how he led to the betterment of that place.
ReplyDeleteThe protagonist is this extraordinary man, who is magnificent, handsome, enormous, and strong. And the women of this village can be considered as other characters. The author describes the man through the feelings and thoughts of these women. They show admiration for Estaban and can not talk about how amazing and how unique he is. They even secretly compare him with their husbands, and make their spouses deep in their hearts, the weakest, meanest, and most useless creatures on earth. But after that, women treat the man with compassion and understand how unhappy and embarrassed he was because of his big size. Because no house is big enough and no bed is strong enough for his size, they think "his house would have had the widest doors, the highest ceiling, and the strongest floor".
Knowing that Gabriel Marquez is famous for his magic realism, we can say that Esteban is a mythological creature, according to his description.
Unfortunately, the author does not specify the place and time of his story, but it can be seen that the story takes place in a small, isolated village, with no real modern technology, that relies on fishing for its livelihood. This village is a coastal, cliff-side town, a "desertlike cape", "with no flowers," and so little land that the inhabitants have to throw their dead over the cliffs and into the sea rather than bury them in the ground. However, the beauty and power of Esteban make them prepare a splendid funeral for him.
Right after the burial of the body, the citizens understand that their lives and the fate of the village changed permanently. ("women became aware for the first time of the desolation of their streets, the dryness of their courtyards, the narrowness of their dreams as they faced the splendor and beauty of their drowned man"). They will build bigger and stronger houses, paint their walls, and plant flowers.
Overall, the message of this story was a transformation - the transformative effect of one dead man on an entire village; he encouraged the thriving of this village. It can be concluded that villagers have decided to be significant, to make their village matter, to distinguish themselves as being great, and create a village worthy of the drowned man. I think this story is a light example of how a human can be powerful and cause a change of mind.
Title: Lamb to the Slaughter
ReplyDeleteAuthor: Roald Dahl
“Lamb to the Slaughter” is a short story by Roald Dahl that tells us about Mary Maloney and her husband Patrick, who works as a detective. The story begins with the description of the setting and its emptiness. However, everything in their house is doubled: the lamps, chairs, glasses and drinks. I think author describes not only the setting, but also the life of Mary. Her husband works as a detective, while Mary is at home, six months pregnant. When Patrick arrives, Mary does her evening routine by preparing drinks for her husband and taking care of him. But she feels that something is wrong, when Patrick brushes off her efforts and drinks more than usual. He tells that he is leaving her. Mary, who is shocked, decides to act normal as if nothing has happened. She continues making a supper and takes out a frozen leg of lamb from the refrigerator. Suddenly, while Patrick was standing in front of the window, she kicks the back of her husband’s head and kills him.
When she realizes that he is dead, she thinks about protecting the unborn child and herself. Thus, she decides to put the leg into the oven and then goes to the grocery store. After practicing what to say to the seller, she cheerfully buys some vegetables and cheesecake and tells the seller that her husband is really tired and wants to eat at home. Then she comes home and acts like everything is normal and her husband is alive. After seeing him in the floor, she calls the police and describes her situation. Thing to mention, the two policemen were the friends of Patrick and they both are shocked about the entire situation.
When they arrive, policemen start asking some questions and Mary reveals her alibi that she went to the grocery shop. Firstly, they check and then believe her. While taking some notes and analyzing the situation, policemen are asked to taste the delicious leg of lamb because “they’re Patrick’s friends” and they cannot refuse. As the men eat the evidence and weapon in the kitchen, Mary giggles when one of them said that the murderer’s weapon is under their noses.
Personally, I found this story really terrifying and at the same time very interesting. The title is a metaphor: “like a lamb to the slaughter” simply means doing something without knowing that something bad is going to happen and therefore act calmly and without fighting against the situation. In this story, Patrick is a figurative lamb, which is about to be slaughtered.
In addition, the component that makes this story significantly all the more intriguing, is that it is composed from the killer’s perspective, while the conclusion of the creator is still obvious. The author creates a tension from the beginning and keeps it till the end.
My perspective is that Mary did something wrong by killing her husband, but to be honest, she is a genius killer, who was able to cover all the evidence and create an alibi. However, not a single soul deserves to be murdered, even though they did something bad.
"The Black Ball by Ralph Ellison"
ReplyDeletePlot of this story about African-American man called John who is against of society stereotypes and restrictions on him due to his skin color. As a regular citizen of the United States he does not pay attention to color of skin and he attempting to accomplish his American dream. However, due to the certain life conditions it seems impossible. Close to the middle of the story between John and the Union man can be seen a symbolic connection. John cut his hand and needed first aid while the Union man got burns on his hands by other people for supporting his black friend. I guess that Allison used the symbolism to show that both men not only friends, but also to suggest that both men are equal.
The end of the story is entertaining as author ends the story with a sense of hope. Currently, Berry still treats him unfairly. His son is still a victim of racism, as are millions of African Americans. Hope is one thing, but what is really needed is action, and John may be on the right track. Although the road will be long. Just as John fights in the present, he will also fight in the future to be treated as an equal by others. However, society will take longer to change its mind about African Americans. Although, as mentioned, John may be on the right track. It just might take longer than he thinks.
Key words which describe story: Hope, equality, connection, humanism, society stereotypes, dream, struggle
Analysis of "Pedestrian" by Ray Bradbury
ReplyDeleteThe "Pedestrian" is a short dystopian story written by Ray Bradbury. The incidents in the story take place in 2053 A.D., in the streets of the city, whose name is not mentioned in the text. The lyfestyle of humans has changed totally by this time. According to the plot of the story, a man called Leonard Mead go out to walk in the streets every evening despite the fact that his neighbours and other residents of the city sit in the house in front of the screen, watching TV-shows usually and this scene is established a long time ago. One evening, while Leonard was walking in the silent street, he is caught by the sole police in the city, who believes that the writer is not considered as the profession and drives Leonard to a Psichiatric Centre for walking in the street. The protagonist in this story should be Leonard, who has not lose his basic human senses and likes walking outside, whereas antagonists are the police officer and the rest of the city inhabitants, who do nothing apart from staring at the screen "as if they became statues". The main confict of the story is quite straighrforward, which happens between the natural image of a humaity and another, who witnessed a deleterious effect and lost his basic functions.
A literary device, naming a paradox was employed in the story. While the police officer blames Leonard simply for walking, it seems to readers as harmless action that is not something for being ashamed of.
The story "The handsomest drowned man in the world" that was published in 1968 was written by Gabriel Marquez. The novel tells the mysterious story of a drowned man, who is one of the main characters including all the villagers. There are no antagonists or protagonists in the story, only a sense of identity in the villagers which is represented by the narration of The Woman.
ReplyDeleteThe significance of the drowned man is as much a mystery to the reader as it is to the townspeople who discover the body. From the moment the children spot the corpse in the waves, perceptions and interpretations vary: is it an enemy ship? a whale? Over the course of the story, the drowned man goes from being an unknown stranger, not even quite human—the town's men even refer to him as "meat"—to a man named Esteban who profoundly changes the way the town sees itself and its future. As a "nobody," the drowned man becomes a symbol on which all who encounter him project their hopes and dreams. For the children, he is a plaything. For the women, he is the handsomest, kindest man in the world. Eventually, even the men come to accept Esteban as full of "sincerity."
The story also illustrates the human tendency to create myths and legends in an attempt to explain the unknown. The story has the feeling of a myth or folktale, given its unbelievable elements that require the reader's suspension of disbelief. Even as they release the drowned man's body back to the ocean, the villagers begin to reimagine their town as a place to which he might someday return. Houses are brightly painted and their doors enlarged to accommodate his size, and flowers are planted in homage to his memory. The author, I believe, is suggesting the transformational potential that myths offer communities, inspiring people both to be better and to do better. The residents also ensure that the legacy of the myth will survive by making sure the ships that pass by knowing it as "Esteban's village."
Main Characters
ReplyDeleteProtagonist:Sanger Rainsford,a world-renowned big game hunter from America. Character who at first doesn’t care about feelings of prey, believing they have no moral compulsions and act solely to satisfy their own needs, had a situation to experience this in his shoes.
Antagonist: General Zaroff, a Russian expatriate, lives in a big house on an island and enjoys playing with people as a prey.
Other characters: Ivan, General Zaroff’s assistant; Whitney, Rainsford’s travel companion
Setting
Place: Amazon rainforest
Time: Not given
Order of events is chronological, because there is no insight to past events.
Narrative Point of View: Third person
Plot
Conflict:“The world is made up of two classes--the hunters and the huntees”
Exposition: Rainsford and Whitney’s evening talk
Rising Action: Rainsford comes to Zaroff’s house
Climax: The dangerous Game
Falling Action: The final day of the hunt
Denouement: The winner
Theme
Overall impression/opinions
The author has done a remarkable job at blurring the line between the hunter and the hunted. He has shown, through the protagonist’s journey through the story, that the one thing the prey always feels is fear. However, it was presented as a weapon to survive instead of weakness as thought at the beginning. In my opinion the story has two moral.Firstly, “The Most Dangerous Game” is a story of resilience and survival. The protagonist never gives up, despite the challenges he faces one after another. Secondly, life is all about constant changing: one day you are the hunter , in other the one who is hunted.
My story is a "black ball" about the fight for equality and hope. The main character is John, who does not consider himself black, but simply brown. He understands that he is not equal to others because of the color of his skin, but despite this, he continues to believe in equality and unity. He always reassures his son that no one is better than either white or brown, and Americans are better than both.
ReplyDeleteJohn meets a member of the Union and with him tries to achieve equality.
At the end of the story, we will not know if John won the fight for equality, but the author gives a very high hope that justice will prevail.
Title: The Pedestrian
ReplyDeleteAuthor and Year: Ray Bradbury, 1951
Characters
Protagonist: Leonard Mead is adult male which is non-professional writer. He is a strange citizen in the city because he has not television and unmarried.
Antagonists: The robotic police car without driver which can speak. The police car asks why he is walking alone and about his profession and marital status.
Settings
Place: Side Street
Time: November, 2053
Order of events: Chronological
Narrative point of view: Third Person
Mood: Calm, Serenity, Gloomy
Tone: Loneliness, Mysterious, Isolated
Plot (summarized each)
Conflict: The mysterious personality of Leonard Mead that robotic-police car that interested in
Exposition: Leonard Mead describes the November night, because he always love walking in the midnight.
Rising action: The dialog between police and Leonard Mead, when mentioned profession, marital status and home of protagonist.
Climax: Police say to Leonard Mead get in car and going to the "To the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies”
Falling action: Leonard Mead indicated his house which has electric lights brightly lit, every window a loud yellow illumination, square and warm in the cool darkness.
Denouement: Silence of police and silence of that night.
Overall impression/opinions
This story tells about dominations of technology when people only watch TV and doesn’t go out for walking. As a result, in city with 3 million people we have only one people who walking outside. Then we can observe even no crimes in that world hence of technology. So the big city has only one police car without police. Moreover, the only person who walking outside will be taken to "The Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies”.
The story of Richard Connell “The most dangerous game” begins with the dialogue between Rainsford and Whitney on a yacht bound for Rio de Janeiro. Two passengers discussed about jaguars and mysterious island in the Caribbean Sea, which everyone dreads. According to legends, people who get there disappear without a trace and all sailors try to avoid it. Rainsford believes that hunting is the best sport and people in this world are either predators or prey, and this phrase shows the Connell’s (author’s) worldview.
ReplyDeleteAfter the hunters wished each other good night and parted, Rainsford decided to smoke a pipe and suddenly heard shots. When he tried to get a better look at the source of the sound and leaned to the edge of the yacht, he dropped the pipe, and in an attempt to catch it, he lost the balance and fell into the water. Yacht continued sailing; however instead of fighting for life, Rainsford remains cool-headed and started to swim to the island.
Upon arriving at the island, he began to look around, went through the jungle and instead of the proposed village, he found a mansion. The owner of this place, General Zaroff, greeted Rainsford warmly, and he thought he was a guest in this house. The General was also passionate about hunting, and during the conversation it turned out that he was tired of hunting for animals, and was bored with their way of thinking and predictability. Therefore he decided to hunt the smartest creatures of nature and enjoyed their rational thought.
While the General Zaroff enthusiastically explained the rules of his “training school”, such as three days of hunting, providing food, weapons and other necessary materials, Rainsford could not believe what he was hearing.The fact that Rainsford had hunting skills made him an even more attractive prey, and it also helped him survive in the most dangerous game.
During these three days, Rainsford felt like he had aged 20 years, and applied all the knowledge he knows to survive. The General was also smart, but his victim eluded him by hiding his tracks. Rainsford doubled his trail like a fox does, climbed a tree, dug a hole, set traps and was even killed several hunting dogs and the general's assistant, Ivan. Zaroff truly enjoyed the process, but lost the game for the first time when Rainsford jumped into the water and out of sight.
However, the game was not over yet. After dinner, the General went to his bedroom and found Rainsford there, who had actually turned into a true beast. Zaroff congratulates Rainsford on his victory, but Rainsford did not fully acknowledge his victory. The story closes with Rainsford deciding he had never slept in a better bed.
I did not expect this story to be so interesting and I will read it in one breath. From my point of view, the author wanted to show the cruelty of this world through the contrast of predators and prey. He also wanted to convey the idea that the struggle for survival can radically change a person and people are ready to do anything to protect their interests.
Now this story is definitely on the favorites list.
"Pedestrian" by Ray Bradbury
ReplyDelete“Pedestrian” is a short science-fiction story written by Ray Bradbury about society issues appeared in near future. The story takes place in November of the year 2053, where the city with three million residents looks like a graveyard. The silent and empty streets with dark houses create the atmosphere of loneliness, because no one is appeared at cold light. The main character, Leonard Mead is a simple man loving breathing fresh air during late evening walks in silence. He looks like lonely, calm and mysterious person, but only in the middle of the story he describes as a protagonist. In ten years of walking every night he had not met another person. According to his continuous thoughts, the society is the “dead” people monitoring their multi-colored television screens in the tomb-like houses every night. The absence of TV in his house and his strong desire to walk around the city every night are the simple actions, which identifies Mr. Mead as an unique among the rest of society. He is only one, who remember how real human acts and thinks.
The conflict arises between a robotic police – an antagonist in this story, and the main character. The automated police car represents the increasing importance of robots in human life in the future and superiority over people. The police car smelling with steal and antiseptic takes Leonardo to the Psychiatric Centre, only because he is different from others. The viewing screen is a way to control the public by the government and when one is not under the strict control is becoming much difficult.
Exposition: Leonard walking lonely at empty streets at night
Rising action: The police car turning the corner met Leonard near the block of his house.
Climax: The cold, metallic voice inside the police car asks Leonard about his identity and realizes his danger to the society.
Falling action: The robotic police take Mr. Mead to the Psychiatric centre.
Resolution: Leonard obeys the rules of robots
Title: Miriam
ReplyDeleteAuthor: Truman Capote
The story is about loneliness, death and its effect on people`s lives. Author tells us about an old woman with psychologically disorder called doubled personality. Also I think that also symbolizes death as Miriam - the young girl from imagination of Mrs. Miller, whom she met firstly in cinema. In this story author uses every detail to describe his idea, even colors mean something special. For instance, blue - the favorite color of Mrs. Miller associates with sadness and loneliness of hers. Snow is white, that also means death and also cleansing. Mrs. Miller`s frightening from Miriam also means her unwillingness to die. At the end of the story, where Miriam came again and said "Hello" describes the coming of death to Mrs. Miller.
Mood of the story: Pessimistic, depressive
Tone: Mysterious
Narrative Point of view is from third person.
Plot
- Conflict: The meeting of Mrs Miller and Miriam in the cinema.
- Exposition: Miriam asked Mrs Miller to buy ticket and they had small talk.
- Rising Action: Miriam came to Mrs. Miller`s home.
- Climax: Mrs. Miller become upset about too frequent visiting of Miriam.
- Action: Mrs. Miller asks her neighbors to help and they cannot see Miriam.
- Denouement: Miriam`s last visit.
Cathedral” - Raymond Carver
ReplyDeleteCHARACTERIZATION
Protagonist: The Narrator is an unnamed man. The blin man’s visit was an unwanted meeting and his being blind bothered him. A blind man in his house was not something he looked forward to. He had been in his present position for 3 years and he didn’t like that work. The Narrator has no ambition and mostly he is drinking in his free time.
Antagonist: Robert is a blind man and an old friend of the narrator’s wife. They send tapes and tell each other about their lives. His appearance: “This blind man was late forties, a heavy-set, balding man with stooped shoulders, as if he carried a great weight there. He wore brown slacks, brown shoes, a light-brown shirt, a tie, a sports coat. Spiffy. He also had this full beard. But he didn’t use a cane and he didn’t wear dark glasses” His wife just died. He was a radio operator and had lots of friends.
Other characters:The Narrator's wife was always trying to write a poem. She wrote a poem or two every year, usually after something really important had happened to her. Once in her first marriage she got to feeling lonely and cut off from people she kept losing in that moving-around life. She got to feeling she couldn’t go it another step. She went in and swallowed all the pills and capsules in the medicine chest and washed them down with a bottle of gin. Then she got into a hot bath and passed out. But instead of dying, she got sick. She likes sending tapes to a friend of 10 years and telling about changes in her life. She was so excited about the blind man's visit.
SETTING
Place: The story takes place in the narrator's home.
Time: -
Order of Events: Flashback
Narrative Point of View (circle one)First Person
MOOD/ TONE
Mood: Adjective: isolated, hopeful
Tone: Adjective: skeptical, jealousy and prejudiced
PLOT
Conflict: A blind man is coming to spend the night at the narrator's house.
Exposition: Robert is an old friend of his wife.
Rising Action: Roberts arrives at the narrator’s house.
Climax: The dinner.
Falling Action: Late night TV, the TV show about the cathedrals.
Denouement: Drawing of the cathedral and the narrator’s feelings.
THEME
The theme of the story seems to focus on the narrator’s limited viewpoint and his metaphorical "blindness". With Robert’s guidance the narrator begins to see things in a fresh light and at the end of the story, he finally opens his eyes to the world around him. For the first time he is seeing, rather than looking.
Overall impressions/opinions/etc:
Unfortunately, there are some groups of people who are looking but not seeing and have limited viewpoints. In the beginning, the narrator was jealous of his wife’s connection with Robert and full of prejudices. I assume that the blind man was more able to see the world than the narrator. Hopefully, in the end the narrator opened his eyes.