Literary Themes In The Small Assassin By Ray Bradbury

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Short stories are great teaching tools. They can be packed with literary elements, even though their lengths can be brief. Short stories can be a great source for literary analysis. They can give students examples of suspense, foreshadowing, and irony. Short stories can inspire deep thought into the situation that is taking place. Common links can often be seen between different stories. All of these elements can be seen in “The Small Assassin.” “The Small Assassin” is written by Ray Bradbury and is a great read; it has many literary elements within the story, which is great when it comes to teaching a sophomore level class. A major literary element is this story would be irony. The whole story is really ironic. The story revolves around …show more content…

In “The Veldt,” the children use their advanced home to kill their parents. The children’s motive behind killing their parents is revenge. They are upset that the parents are going to shut down the house and basically take away the thing that they love. They kill their parents so they can keep their home. In “The Small Assassin,” a similar situation happens. When Lucifer is born, he is taken from a place that he considered home for nine months. He is taken out of his mother’s womb and brought into this world unwillingly. The control that he had was taken away from him. He is angry at the person responsible for that: that person is Alice. He knows that Alice is the reason he is now in a world that is not as comforting as the womb: a world that is too big. It is possible that he views David as an accomplice to the eviction from his home. In a way, the doctor could also be seen as a person that assisted Alice and David in removing Lucifer from his home. In both stories, the parents have either threatened to take away the home that the children loved, or the parents have successfully taken that place of comfort away. The children in both stories take things into their own hands and kill their parents. The stories also have another thing in common. The children did not have love for their parents. In “The Veldt,” the house replaced the parents when it came to affection. It does everything for the children. They love the house more than their parents, so when the choice is given to them, they take it. In “The Small Assassin,” Alice has no love for Lucifer and he probably felt the same way about her. When Alice was explaining why David should fear the baby, she

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