Vera, the "self-possessed" teenage girl who causes all the excitement in Saki's "The Open Window," and the anonymous twelve-year-old girl who narrates Roald Dahl's "The Umbrella Man," are both alike in being secretly mischievous and secretly amused. Their laughter is internalized. Somehow the fact that both these characters are young girls seems to soften the stories and make Vera and her counterpart more innocent. What would "The Open Window" have been like if the perpetrator of the practical joke on Framton Nuttel had been a fifteen-year-old boy? Perhaps it would have seemed more cruel, for some reason. At the time, boys were thought to be more cruel than girls. The same question applies to the girl-narrator of "The Umbrella Man." How would the story be different if the narrator were a twelve-year-old boy instead instead of a twelve-year-old girl? Both Saki and Roald Dahl chose to feature girls in their respective roles for some artistic purpose. In both cases the girls seem completely suited to the stories in which they appear.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What is the theme of the chapter Lead?
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
Bacteria are single-celled microorganisms that thrive in diverse environments (such as the ocean, the soil, and the human body). Various bac...
-
Note that these events are not in chronological order. The story is told by the narrator, looking back upon her life. The first notable even...
-
It seems most likely you are asking about Michael Halliday's theories of language. He argues children have seven main functions they use...
-
When we try to analyze the modern world today, we’ll notice that it’s going through several changes. No one is sure who will control or s...
-
Under common law, any hotel, inn, or other hospitality establishment has a duty to exercise "reasonable care" for the safety an...
-
Ecofeminism (alternately ecological feminism) examines the connections between women and nature. Basic feminist tenets undergird ecofeminism...
-
Meg Meg is the central character in the novel, and we see the action through her eyes. She is important to the novel because she, along with...
No comments:
Post a Comment