...The Secret life of Walter Mitty and The story of an Hour David Babers ENG 125 Sabine Reljic January 27, 2014 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and The Story of an Hour share a variety of similarities along with many differences. The main points of these stories shows the dynamics love within their marriage but in different way; both woman share common bond of tolerance, for their significant other when it comes to the lack of certain things in their marriage. One of the first similarities of the two stories I notice was the fact that both of the men wives was extremely concerned about their significant others well being. Even though the displayed their affection for their husbands with different actions it was more than obvious that each of them was in sync with their other half’s. Both of the literary pieces where written and described in different points of view. “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” was written in the form of an omniscient third person point of view. This allows the narrator to describe his own thoughts of the character as the story progresses. But as far is the character Mrs. Mitty it seems as she speaks in more so a first person point of view, as her words and thoughts seems to be more so given in a direct and plain form. As for the “The Story of anf Hour” it is also written in the third person point of view, but it would be considered more so as a limited third person omniscient. “This is a point of view when the thoughts and feelings...
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... SET 1 1. Read the extract from the short story Tanjong Rhu. Then answer the questions. ‘Edward’, she said, crossing her legs, ‘come and join us?’ He refused, and was just turning away, when she noticed the binoculars he was holding, And asked what they were. ‘Oh, these,’ he said. ‘I bought theme today. For the children’. He could not think of anything better to say. (p.20) a) Who does the pronoun ‘us’ refer to? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… b) Why do you think Edward or Mr Li refuses to join them? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… c) In your opinion, why didn’t Edward tell the truth about the binoculars he bought for his mother? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… d) What does this incident reveal about the relationship of these two characters? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2. Writing Task HOTS a) If you could change one part of the story, which would you change? Give reasons for your decision. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… b) Describe a character in the short story Tanjong Rhu who displays an admirable quality. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… ...
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...Frank Auth Comp & lit II Essay 1 In the short story “the Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and the short story “blue + yellow” by Chris Killen compare in many ways. These two stories use the same literary device strongly such as imagery. Imagery is a literary device in which the author uses words and phrases to paint a picture in the readers head throughout the story. These two short stories are written with very descriptive language to help paint a picture of the occurrences in the story and describe a scene. These two stories also contrast in many ways such as the way they use symbolism as well as the relationships between the characters in both stories. The two short stories compare in the use of the literary devices imagery and in the themes. The imagery used in “the Story of an Hour” is when the author is painting a picture of the main characters reaction to the news of her husband’s apparent death. When Mrs. Mallard learns of her husband’s death she is very upset, and locks herself in her room, and sits down in her chair starring out the window. The author uses descriptive language here such as “There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul,” (Kate Chopin Par 4) to paint a picture of how the character is acting. Using such detail helps the reader clearly understand and mentally visualize how the character is acting in this scene...
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...Introduction By analyzing the irony, symbolism, and foreshadowing embodied in O • Henry’s short story —“Hearts and Hands”, we can reach a thorough understanding of the short story. II. Support A. O•Henry uses irony to carve the characteristics of Miss Fairchild. 1. Miss Fairchild’s changing facial expressions when she saw the handcuff bound at the wrist of Mr. Easton shows reveals that she is a vainglorious person. 2. Miss Fairchild did not have any doubt when the roughly dressed man told her that Mr. Easton was taking him to the Leavenworth prison. It reveals that Miss Fairchild tended to judge people by their appearance and outfits. 3. Miss Fairchild has a fair name and face, but her heart is not that fair. When her father was ill, she did not go home to take care of her father instead of continuing her journey. B. O • Henry uses irony to make this story more dramatic and sarcastic. 1. When Mr. Easton said, “My butterfly days are over”, he hinted that he is put in prison later and not being free while Miss Fairchild thought that he's talking about social days. 2. When Mr. Easton answered, “Yes, I must go on to Leavenworth.” he did mean he must go to the Leavenworth Prison and stay there while Miss Fairchild thought that he just take prisoner to Leavenworth, as a marshal. 3. When Mr. Easton said that tobacco is the one friend of the unfortunate. It sounds a bit sarcastic because...
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...The art of tricking or deceiving, is defined by the word deception. In the short story "The Open Window" by H. H. Munro, the theme of deception is demonstrated perfectly through the character of Mrs. Sappleton's niece. She has an impressive talent of getting people to believe what she tells them and then using it to scare people off, just as she did with Framton Nuttel. The author does an incredible job of developing the characters point of view and even deceiving the reader until the very end of the story. He does this by staying vague, creating a conversational scene before Mr. Nuttel meets Mrs. Sappleton, and finally by building the character of the niece. To start, the short story starts in the middle of an activity, making the reader infer the situation. By keeping it vague, the author now has the reader in a vulnerable position to present the developing plot of the story. There is a man who has recently moved in to the area and being a new comer, is trying to meet people to make...
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...Saving Mr Ugwu Saving Mr Ugwu is a story that puts focus on the differences in the society in the African Country Nigeria. The difference the story focusses on is the difference between different cultures, ethnicities and individual rights which emerges from these differences. The story takes place in Nigeria with Mr Ugwu who is a Christian Igbo, which is an ethnic group in Nigeria. Because of Mr Ugwu’s job he has been forced to move from Lagos to the bush, which geographically is a step down in the social hierarchy. The bush is a place where the Hausas are the dominant ethnicity and rain is one of the rarest things you will see. Saving Mr Ugwu is a short story by Lin Anderson. The point of view in the story is a third person narrator and Mr Ugwu is the main character whom is followed by the reader. The reader gets to know Mr Ugwu’s thoughts and feelings. Mr Ugwu is also the only person that we are able to characterize, because he is the only person that the reader receives enough knowledge about to make a characterization of. Mr Ugwu is a Christian Igbo who works for the Baturi. The Baturi makes Mr Ugwu the scapegoat as they make him deliver the low payment to the Hausas for working. Despite of this Mr Ugwu appreciates his job and his employer. The appreciation he gives his work and employer can be seen in the following quotation from the text, “The company has been good to him, he reminds himself. Good to hisfamily. He is a company man. When the company tells him to go somewhere...
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...used in a short story. For me, I take life the same way I do what I read, at face value. If you talk to me about June, I will take you literally, like you’re talking about the month of June. I won’t get that your symbolizing an establishment. So I guess that even though literature is very frustrating to me, I think maybe I’ve learned a few things. One of the things that we looked at in this class was themes in literature. What themes are, and how they may or may not flow through poems or short stories. I am going to take a look at two very different short stories, and show how the theme is the same. We will take a look at the way they are written, Walter Mitty, although he is a figment of someone else’s imagination, reminds me of some of my friends, and ultimately myself. The writer’s main focus is Mr. Mitty’s ability to slip into “another world”, completely forgetting where he is at and what he is doing in the present. The world he slips into is a world that makes him more important than the monotonous world he lives in. Although Mitty isn’t completely cut off from reality, he utilizes his ideal world to cope with his seemingly boring life. One of the reasons that this story caught my attention is because I just taught a class recently in my work center, and actually used this as an example of someone who could be unsafe. With Mr. Mitty drifting in and out of his “perfect” world he would be considered extremely unsafe in the work place. The author showed Mr. Mitty’s...
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...Saving Mr Ugwu The short story „Saving Mr. Ugwu“ is written by Lin Anderson in 2012. The main character is Mr. Ugwu, a black man, but he feels like he is a white western man. The main plot is about him and the changes in his life. The story deals with equality and different cultures. Mr. Ugwu is the main character and the story is from a third person narrator, with focus on Mr. Ugwu. He is a black guy, but he feels as a white man. He and his family live in the bush in Nigeria. He belongs to the Christian Igbos, this one of the biggest tribes in Nigeria. His family moved from the biggest city Lagos, what also was the capital in Nigeria until 1991, to the bush in Nigeria, because of Mr. Ugwu’s job. Mr. Ugwu doesn’t think well about the bush, but he reminds himself every time that the company has been good to him, so he would do whatever it takes to keep his job. He doesn’t feels that the bush is his home, and he wants to go back to Lagos. Every time it rains he feels a bit like he is “home”, he probably thinks about Lagos. Mr. Ugwu is not really happy with his life, “he becomes angry. Angry at the Hausa, angry at his wife, angry at his Baturi neighbour, all of whom treat him like a dog.” In this quote from the text can you see that Mr. Ugwu isn’t really happy with his life, although he have a good position in his job, and earned good money even though that he wasn’t white. An important thing in the story is the setting, specially the garden at the Ugwu family’s house. In the...
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...“The Story of an Hour” Versus “The Necklace”; Very Comparable, and Still, Poles Apart Rebecca Rheinscheld ENG125: Introduction to Literature Instructor: Maria Rasimas July 22, 2014 As in all literary works, short stories entertain the reader with characters, imagery and tone; in general, the story as a whole. Short stories are to the point, then on the other hand, they have a profound message reverberating throughout the progression of the writing leaving the reader pondering a lee way to the story and envisioning the imaginable conclusions, only if the short stories existed as novels as an alternative. “The Story of an Hour”, inscribed via writer Kate Chopin compared to “The Necklace”, which was inscribed via author Guy De Maupassant are binary stories that are being viewed and compared due to the distinctive themes of each story that discrete authors can compose; comparable but separate stories in dissimilar epochs. Both stories are varied readings that the themes emphasizes on the responsibility of feminineness and matrimonial obligations. Even though with the alikeness’s between the two texts, there are as well multiple divergences. These divergences, for example are of the two main characters, women; the first, facing the heartbreak of passing away versus the second facing an experience due to life that teaches a lesson. In an older time, around the late 19th century to mid-20th century, the expectancy for a woman stood as the family units’ caregiver; females...
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...‘’VIEWPOINTS’’ The Story Of The Hour, by Kate Chopin, is about woman who struggles with oppression brought on by her husband and her secret desire for freedom. Mrs. Mallard doesn’t know how truly unhappy she is until she is told that he has died in train accident. The story is limited to a third-person point of view, but is not short on drama thanks to the structure and style of Chopin’s writing. Her theme of oppression is reveled by the irony of the story, in which she discovers a sense of freedom quickly after her husbands death. Chopin uses symbolism to emphasis this newly found feeling. The main character Mrs. Louise Mallard is a very easy to relate to. The structure and style that Chopin uses in The Story Of The Hour, is used to exaggerate the drama of what is taking place. She uses very short paragraphs the majority being only two to or three sentences a piece. The story is about the hour after Louise find out her husband is dead. It bring us quickly from a state of morning to a place where she realizes that she is “free” from the bondage of her husband. The structure of the story is reflects the intensity of emotions she exhibits. The length of the story leaves no room for a drawn out exposition, we shoot quickly from the that to the climax and end just as quickly after that. There is a lot of repetition through out the story, which she uses to emphasize the importance of certain points she makes. The word “open” is repeatedly used through out the story, “open window”(69)...
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...important part in a story. It can place the reader directly into the mind of a character, which creates a more personal and emotional attachment for the reader or it can cause the reader to be more of an impartial, third party observer. Proof of this is evident in a comparison of Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles” and her “A Jury of Her Peers.” The first is written as a play and as such the reader’s perspective is that of a third party watching the events unfold. “A Jury of Her Peers” is written as a short story and gives the reader the perspective of Martha Hale, one of the main characters. This change gives the story a whole new dynamic for the reader and causes more emotional involvement of the reader even though the two versions deal with the same subject matter and the same moral and ethical problems. The differing perspectives affect the reader from the very start of each piece. The play opens with a paragraph that sets the scene of the farmhouse, introduces the characters by name, and then jumps into dialogue between them. “A Jury of Her Peers”, however, begins with only Martha Hale and immediately gives the reader some insight into her mind and personality, “What her eye took in was that her kitchen was in no shape for leaving” (Glaspell). This lets the reader relate to Mrs. Hale in a more personal way that simply being introduced by name doesn’t. Being able to see through Mrs. Hale’s eyes and get into her mind then allows the reader to get more of a sense of her...
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...Each individual short story has its’ own point of view and voice. Within short stories there are different types of narrative and also different types of irony being used. Each individual author has their own way of telling a story; also they have a certain way to portray their story to an audience. For two specific short stories Everything That Rises Must Converge and Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter we can analyze to see what point of view and voice is being used. Everything That Rises Must Converge is a story that takes place in the 1960’s. A recent college graduate, Julian who escorts his mother to her weekly weight-loss class at the YMCA. His mother attends these classes to reduce her high blood pressure. He escorts her there every week because she refuses to take the bus alone since integration. His mother is extremely prejudice and Julian was the total opposite. In Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter this story is about the life of Mrs. Dutta, an old, widowed Indian woman who had moved into her son’s American home two months prior. Mrs. Dutta struggles with not running a house and in the midst is writing a letter to a dear friend back home contemplating weather to be truthful or to be honorable to her family. First I would like to review witch point of view is being used both stories. For the first short story Everything That Rises Must Converge, the story is being told from a third person point of view. The story has someone who is not any of the characters stating the events...
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...Analytical essay of Thank You M’am The short story “Thank You M’am” is written by the famous black writer Langston Hughes. This fictional text is about the teenager Roger, who tries to steal the purse of the large woman Mrs. Luella Bates Washington, who instead of reporting the boy to the police or run frightened away chooses to learn him an alternative lesson, by taking him to her house and wash his face. There is no place in the text that tells where the story takes place, but it is most likely that the location is somewhere in the United States, as Langston Hughes is American. The action in the story is in the street, where the boy and the woman meet, and in the woman’s house. The time of the story is probably around the 1950’s, as it is within the living period of Langston Hughes, but also the character Mrs. Washington works in a beauty shop (p. 3, l. 41), which was not a very common thing before the 50’s. There is no indications in the text that tell anything specific about the social environment, but as the boy, Roger tries to steal from Mrs. Washington, he is in all probability poor, and Mrs. Washington is probably from the middle class, as she has a house. In the story we meet two persons: The teenager boy, Roger and the woman, Mrs. Luella Bates Washington. Roger is around fourteen or fifteen years old, wearing blue jeans and tennis shoes, and he was also looking frail (p. 1, ll. 35-36). It is possible that he does not have any one to take care of him, but it is also...
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...You can’t touch me 1) Summary ”You can’t touch me” is a short story written by Blake Morrison in 2010. The short story is about a teacher’s use of physical coercion towards a primary school student to demonstrate his authority and the following consequences of that choice. The short story’s main character is the primary school teacher Ian Goade. One day in the schoolyard he observes a school bully, Campbell, teasing another student. Ian Goade breaks into the conflict and blames Campbell and tries to reprimand him and commands him to go with him to the headmistress of the school Mrs Baynes’ office. Campbell refuses to follow and then Ian Goade grabs his ear and drags him to Mrs Baynes. The headmistress sees Ian Goade’s handling of the conflict as wrong and so does Campbell’s mother who makes an official complaint about Ian Goade. Ian Goade tries to reason with Campbell’s mother and the headmistress but fails, resulting in an upcoming hearing with the governors. 2) Characterize Ian Goade Ian Goade is a primary school teacher, the narrator and the main character of the short story “You can’t touch me”. This characterization will focus on Ian Goade and why he used physical coercion instead of a more proper handling of the conflict. The dialogue used in the short story shows that Ian Goade is a man who has experienced other men’s authority physically. He tells about his father’s rages and that he remembers the physical methods his own teachers used when he was a student...
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...average man leading a normal, mundane existence, who is married to a controlling, dominating woman who is in charge of her husband Walter’s every move. The literary elements of plot, tone and setting define the reasons why Walter must escape his daily life from his domineeringly aggressive wife, and find a place where he is happier and more content with himself. “Theme [is] associated with an idea that lies behind a literary work. In a story, theme is a representation of the idea behind the story.” (Clugston, 2010) Another viewpoint of theme is derived from K. Griffith (1990) as he implies that theme is the central idea, commenting in some way about the human condition. A theme is what the work says about a topic and must apply not only to the characters in the story but to the "real" world as well. In the short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber (1939), the image of marriage emerges. The author portrays the typical life of two married people, one being passive and the other being dominant. This is not to say that either one is good nor bad, but to show the reasons why Walter fades off into daydream. The characters of Walter and Mrs. Mitty, on the outside are in conflict with each other, but on the side of Walter’s daydreams, there is no conflict and he is a man of high regard and smooth self-control, but essentially, Walter redeems no control over his reality. In order to deal with this lack of control in his marriage, Walter escapes to become a commander of...
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