Analysis Of Juxtaposition In Visiting Hours By Jay

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The vignette, Visiting Hours written by Judy Budnitz, is comprised of a binary inversion and an embedded allegory which is used to reveal the masked relationships within the family. In the narrative, the sibling duo evolves as the story progresses, eventually craving what the other sibling wanted in the first place. Thus, this results in a juxtaposition between the two subjects of desire.
The binary inversion appears throughout the short story between the subjects of fallacy and reality. The colossal difference between the two topics further highlights the ironic situation and elucidates the major juxtaposition. In the beginning of Budnitz writing, the brother (Ezra) favors fallacy in comparison to truth. In the narrator's point of view, Ezra …show more content…

Ezra desired to forget about his home life and anything happening in present time. Furthermore, when the narrator attempted to tell him a story, he stopped her almost instantly and complained of wanting ¨a story. The made-up kind. You know, the kind you used to tell. The vampires and wooden stakes, the man with a hook for a hand waiting in the woods, and all that shit¨. This displays that Ezra has no interest in hearing about anything involving reality, rather he wants to distract himself from it with pretend fantasies. On the other hand, his sister desperately wants to hear the truth; she wants to be realistic. She desires to address actuality in comparison to Ezra. In the vignette, she was persistently attempting to inform her crippled brother about ¨Mother and Dad¨ and what was going on in their house. Even when Ezra refused to listen to something that wasn't fake, she would still persist that what he wants is ¨ not real¨ and ¨can´t happen in the real world¨. This immensely differentiates the two siblings who both want opposite things generating a juxtaposition. However as the story proceeds, both siblings end up desiring the polar …show more content…

When injured Ezra was in the hospital, the sister often told him stories that were mythical through bears. These embedded allegories used bears to represent each person in the family. Essentially, she is telling a story of what has happened at home through the bruins, which shows her incapability to focus on anything that isn't genuine. This further exemplifies the binary inversion. Regardless, the tales often revealed the egregious acts that the father has perpetrated throughout the narrator's life including cheating on his wife, killing a child, being ferocious while drunk, and wishing that a child has never been born. He was also depicted as being vastly violent with his family members. Through the narrator's vision, he has ¨slapped¨, ¨shouted¨,and ¨threw bottles at her window until it broke¨. This divulges how menacing the father was and how much agony he´s caused the family. To be able to physically and emotionally inflict pain on someone on purpose unveils his carefree and monstrous personality. The sister of Ezra also tells of times where the father was blatantly drunk by him ¨running into trees and running red lights, and one time he drove right up on the curve and nearly hit by a fire hydrant¨. This displays how abusive the father is and reveals why the son might have mutilated himself in order to get away from this murderous

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