...The Knife Thrower What is it within us people, that makes us want to do things that we know are wrong? Sometimes it is a guilty pleasure; we all have at least one. Sometimes, it can be lust and temptation. The Pultizer Prize-winning author, Steven Millhauser, invites us to experience a single performance act through eyes of an anonymous spectator. Hensch and his assistant host the act. Hensch is described through anonymous spectator’s eyes and rumoured stories about Hensch. Hensch is known to be bold, mysterious and a skilled knife thrower. Even though he goes over the line, the audience is tempted to stay and even volunteer. In general, the story is about a single performance act of the knife thrower and about people’s guilt for going to see this outrageous act. However, through a unique choice of narrator in his novel The Knife Thrower, Steven Millhauser creates empathy for Hensch within his readers. In addition to Millhauser’s use of symbols and colours, the story turns out to be more than a single performance act of a knife thrower. The choice of narrator, which is first person plural, is already introduced in first few lines of The Knife Thrower. “When we learned that Hensch, the knife thrower, was stopping at our town (…) we hesitated, wondering what we felt.” (ll.1-3) while using this type of narration, the readers can see things form the long-range perspective, the audience’s perspective. This way the readers get the feeling...
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...Essay on ”The Knife Thrower” To make a choice is easy, but to make the right one can sometimes be very difficult. To speak one’s mind and stand up to your opinion can also be tough, especially when in a large crowd, but sometimes this is the most important time for doing so. In Steven Millhauser’s short story, “The Knife Thrower”, the ambiguity of the narrator’s view on the knife thrower’s act is really drawn out and exposed in the spotlight, very unlike the knife thrower’s act itself which is very mystical and sort of hidden in the shadows. “The Knife Thrower” - the name says it all, but at the same time it tells us nothing about the text. The story is very secretive and does a very good job capturing the reader. It seems as if once you have read a couple of lines, you are instantly drawn into the mystical and dark atmosphere in which the story is unfolding, and you simply cannot stop reading. To mention some of the themes in the story there are entertainment, moral responsibility and passivity. These three themes come together very nicely in the story and they play a big part in shaping the reader’s impression of the audience’s opinions towards Hensch and his performance. The knife thrower, Hensch, is the main character of the story, but throughout the text we gain very little knowledge of him. He is very mystical and doesn’t speak a word during his act, of course this is done to make him an anonymous, but still a central character for the story. “If rumors of this...
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...The Knife Thrower “[…] we felt a sharp tug of disappointment, which changed at once to shame, deep shame […]” ‘The Knife Thrower’, written by Steven Millhauser, is an American short story published in 1997. Some of the main themes in this story are expectations and disappointment, responsibility, forbidden desires and personal moral. As a reader, you can reflect on how entertainers and role models in a small society, and how a group can affect the individual. The story begins in medias res: “When we learned that Hensch, the knife thrower, was stopping at our town […]” It is told in the first person plural, which gives the reader an impression of a group speaking and thinking collectively. “[…] if we weren’t absolutely sure of him, then who were we[…]?” It seems that we only hear the opinion of one person, while hearing the opinion of the entire audience at the same time. This gives the effect that there only are two characters: the Knife Thrower and the audience. That also means that the responsibility of any act cannot be place on a single person, but on one of the ‘characters’/groups. There is only one deviation, the first volunteer Susan Parker. “And we knew her, Susan Parker, a high school girl, who might have been our daughter […]” Here Susan Parker is making a transformation from one character, the audience, to another, the Knife Thrower. This means that she doesn’t have any hidden desires, because she has chosen to act them out. The text is build upon the theme personal...
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...Hensch To make a choice is easy, but to make the right one can sometimes be very difficult. To speak one´s mind and stand up to your opinion can also be thought, especially when being in a large crowd, but sometimes it is the most important time for doing so. In the old days watching a musical or going to the theater was entertaining enough; it gave people a chance to relax and enjoy their time off, but now thing have changed. However, the cinema and musicals are still entertaining but the tings we find amusing have become more and more bizarre. This contemp-orary short story “Hensch” which is an American short story published in 1997, bring up the to-pic “entertainment” for discussion; have too many boundaries been crossed? Have we lost our innocence and dignity in the search of a cheap thrill? The most relevant themes in the story are: entertainment, moral responsibility and passivity. These three themes come together very nicely in the story and they play a big part in shaping the readers impression of the audience´s opinions towards Hensch and his performance. The knife thrower, Hensch, is the main character of the story, but throughout the text we gain very little knowledge of him. He is very mystical and does not speak a word during his act; of course this is done to make him an anonymous, but still a central character for the story. Susan Parker, the girl next door, symbolizes the whole community´s loss of innocence. Du-ring the show, they did not protest...
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