Analysis paper 3: “In a Bamboo Grove” Multiple perspective of any kind requires a unique way of telling a story. Especially from individuals and different viewpoints on the same event. This story gives the audience seven narrators that tell each their side of the matter in the same event and all seem to contradict themselves. This is an interesting plot device from which inconsistent testimonies of the same experience can be shown and looked at. Which narrator is true, which narrator is telling a lie; it is curious to read the differences and some of the same “facts” reported by these witnesses? How can their stories are based on truth and where are the lies. Again, there is a wider range to these individual stories share. Namely who did it, …show more content…
Several testimonies are shown and tell their side of the story as they see it. One is a woodcutter that just wandered to where the body of the dead samurai is and he likely called the authorities. The next is a wandering cleric who noticed a well-armed man and a woman who would not show her face, both were on horseback. Then the testimony of a police officer that arrested a well-known bandit who is a suspect with the previous murder and abduction. The police officer notes that the bandit was well-armed and had a horse matching the description of the horse owned by the samurai victim, but, where is the samurai’s wife? The next testimonies are from the mother of the abducted wife who pleads for the authorities to find her missing daughter. Along the way the wife’s mother notes that her daughter is beautiful to be noticed, “Her complexion is a little on the dark side, and she has a mole by the outside corner of her left eye, but her face is a tiny, perfect oval (306). Also, that the daughter, Masago, is very bold for a woman her …show more content…
His name is Tajomaru, and he claims to have killed the samurai, named Kanazawa no Takehiro, but not the woman. His recounting of the events are something like this. He spots the woman on the road and decides he must have her. He decides to kill the man then and there. Tajomaru leads them to a trap where he knocks out the samurai and ties him up. He finds the wife, Masago, and leads her to her husband, she notices and pulls out a knife. He disarms her quickly enough and does the deed. Tajomaru starts to leave but the woman grabs him and declares either he or her husband should die today. So Tajomaru unties the samurai and they fight. Takehiro loses and is stabbed in his breast on the twenty-third thrust of Tajomaru sword. Then Tajomaru searches for the woman but she is gone, “I looked for her among the cedars, but the bamboo leaves on the ground showed no sigh she’d ever been there” (308-309). That is Tajomaru’s side of the story and he seems genuine in its
In his short story, O’Brien unravels step by step the irony in the double meaning of truth, implied in this first statement, “This is true”, to the reader which is then woven through the entire story. By trying to characterize what constitutes a true war story, but never really achieving this goal, the true irony of his short story is revealed. Even though in some instances giving away his opinion explicitly, the sheer contradiction of honesty and reality becomes even more visible in an implicit way by following O’Brien’s explanations throughout the story while he deconstructs his first statement. The incongruity between his first statement and what is actually shown in his examples does not need any explicit statements to drive home his message.
...cts of the mother and the descriptions, which are presented to us from her, are very conclusive and need to be further examined to draw out any further conclusions on how she ?really? felt. The mother-daughter relationship between the narrator and her daughter bring up many questions as to their exact connection. At times it seems strong, as when the narrator is relating her childhood and recounting the good times. Other times it is very strained. All in all the connection between the two seems to be a very real and lifelike account of an actual mother-daughter relationship.
In ‘unreliable narration’ the narrator’s account is at odds with the implied reader's surmises about the story’s real intentions. The story und...
Demetria Martínez’s Mother Tongue is divided into five sections and an epilogue. The first three parts of the text present Mary/ María’s, the narrator, recollection of the time when she was nineteen and met José Luis, a refuge from El Salvador, for the first time. The forth and fifth parts, chronologically, go back to her tragic experience when she was seven years old and then her trip to El Salvador with her son, the fruit of her romance with José Luis, twenty years after she met José Luis. And finally the epilogue consists a letter from José Luis to Mary/ María after her trip to El Salvador. The essay traces the development of Mother Tongue’s principal protagonists, María/ Mary. With a close reading of the text, I argue how the forth chapter, namely the domestic abuse scene, functions as a pivotal point in the Mother Tongue as it helps her to define herself.
guilt, greed, betrayal, and murder are no strangers. In this story an honorable warrior and
The author tells the reader story of the teenage girl, who’s suffering from difficulties in the relationship with surrounding her people, such as her friends and wax copy of the president Roosevelt, – “the only man who has ever called her pretty” (Coyle 366). Through all the story the reader can be a witness of the violence against the girl, for example, when Franklyn D. Roosevelt makes her cry for no reason (“She’s kneeling in a wax museum on her first date, crying…”), communicates in not appropriate way (“Send me a pic of ur boobs, says the third [message]”) (Coyle 366,368). In this case we can see not only typical violator’s behavior, but also the reaction, which majority of the women have: belief that “no one will ever love [her]” (Coyle
...ed by the ancient symbol of fear, conveys the child's panic. The mother's approach is a source of terror for the child, written as if it is a horror movie, suspense created with the footsteps, the physical embodiment of fear, the doorknob turns. His terror as 'he tries to run' but 'her large hands hold him fast' is indicative of his powerless plight. The phrase, 'She loves him...' reiterates that this act signifies entrapment as there is no reciprocation of the ‘love’. It is ironic that her love is deemed 'the frightening fact'. Clearly this form of love will destroy his innocence, his freedom to think for himself, his ability to achieve emotional fulfilment. We sense the overpowering, suffocating nature of this form of love, but also the nature of American cultural imperialism, which is similarly stifling to the development of national identity and fulfilment.
It is easily inferred that the narrator sees her mother as extremely beautiful. She even sits and thinks about it in class. She describes her mother s head as if it should be on a sixpence, (Kincaid 807). She stares at her mother s long neck and hair and glorifies virtually every feature. The narrator even makes reference to the fact that many women had loved her father, but he chose her regal mother. This heightens her mother s stature in the narrator s eyes. Through her thorough description of her mother s beauty, the narrator conveys her obsession with every detail of her mother. Although the narrator s adoration for her mother s physical appearance is vast, the longing to be like her and be with her is even greater.
she was pretty and that was everything” (225). This captivation with herself along with the constant looking in the mirrors and thinking her mother was only pestering her all the time because her mother’s own good looks were long gone by now (225) shows a sign of immaturity because she believes everything revolves around whether or not someo...
In the age of industrialization when rural life gradually was destroyed, the author as a girl who spent most of her life in countryside could not help writing about it and what she focuses on in her story - femininity and masculinity, which themselves contain the symbolic meanings - come as no surprise.
Her family life is depicted with contradictions of order and chaos, love and animosity, conventionality and avant-garde. Although the underlying story of her father’s dark secret was troubling, it lends itself to a better understanding of the family dynamics and what was normal for her family. The author doesn’t seem to suggest that her father’s behavior was acceptable or even tolerable. However, the ending of this excerpt leaves the reader with an undeniable sense that the author felt a connection to her father even if it wasn’t one that was desirable. This is best understood with her reaction to his suicide when she states, “But his absence resonated retroactively, echoing back through all the time I knew him. Maybe it was the converse of the way amputees feel pain in a missing limb.” (pg. 399)
In the story, the narrator is forced to tell her story through a secret correspondence with the reader since her husband forbids her to write and would “meet [her] with heavy opposition” should he find her doing so (390). The woman’s secret correspondence with the reader is yet another example of the limited viewpoint, for no one else is ever around to comment or give their thoughts on what is occurring. The limited perspective the reader sees through her narration plays an essential role in helping the reader understand the theme by showing the woman’s place in the world. At ...
The husband is able to provide for his family with a position in an office, logically his intellect is not in question; his emotional stability has defiantly been affected. Therefore, this brings the author to rely on the husband’s perspective to divulge the fundamental components of the story using a third-person narration. For a year the husband thought that his wife had been kidnapped, yet he never checked her person effects to see if anything was missing. Only because the mother needed additional spices did the husband check for the jewelry that he advised that the wife stash in the top cabinet in case there was an intruder (1995, p. 587). Once the missing jeweler was discovered the husband knew that the wife then abandoned not only him, but also their the young son.
The second person point of view helps the reader to connect with the girl in this story. It shows the reader a better understanding of this character and how she is being raised to be a respectable woman. This point of view also gives us an insight on the life of women and shows us how they fit into their society. Through this point of view, the reader can also identify the important aspects of the social class and culture. The daughter tries to assert a sense of selfhood by replying to the mother but it is visible that the mother is being over whelming and constraining her daughter to prepare her for
The short stories “Souls Belated” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” have in common ‘Marriage’ as main theme. However, the marriage is treated quite differently in both short stories. In "Souls Belated", Lydia chooses to take control of her destiny, to deviate from conventions and to choose what is good for her. She is the strongest character of the couple. Whereas, in "The Yellow Wallpaper", the name of the main character who is also the narrator of the story is not known. She is identified as being John’s wife. This woman, contrary to Lydia in "Souls Belated" is completely locked up in her marriage. This essay will first describe and compare the characters of Lydia and John's wife in the context of marriage, and then it will look at how marriage is described, treated and experienced by couples in these two short stories.