One of the most popular, recognizable, and enjoyable genres of storytelling is the bildungsroman, sometimes known as the coming-of-age story. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms (2003) notes that this kind of story can also be called an apprenticeship or formation story. All stories that take this shape follow certain conventions. In the…
Tag: Analysis
Marigolds by Eugenie W. Collier – Analysis
Formalist critics look at a piece of literature in terms of how its elements work together to create a meaningful whole. The piece must have internal logic in order to present the themes coherently as well as cohesively. In other words, the formalist framework takes into consideration how the elements work together to form a…
How Much Land Does A Man Need? – Analysis – Essay
The origins of ‘‘How Much Land Does aMan Need?’’ lie in several developments in Tolstoy’s life that began in earnest about ten years before the publication of the story. In the late 1870s, when Tolstoy was about fifty years old, he entered a period of existential crisis and despair. He was the celebrated, world-renowned author…
House Taken Over – Analysis
Julio Cortazar’s ‘‘House Taken Over’’ is a brief but carefully constructed tale. It is particularly noteworthy for what it does and does not reveal. The narrator’s attention to mundane detail is astounding, particularly when seen as a contrast to the details that remain unaddressed. This lack of seemingly important description lends the story an ambiguity…
The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind – Analysis
There can be few readers of ‘‘The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind,’’ especially those who note the date of the story’s first publication, who have not viewed it an allegory of the cold war, with the deadly rivalry between the cities regarding the shape of their walls being a metaphorical presentation of the nuclear arms…
Games At Twilight – Analysis – Essay
Most criticism of Anita Desai stresses the influence of Western writers such as Virginia Woolf, Albert Camus, or D. H. Lawrence on her work. Desai makes use of her rich Indian tradition in her stories, however, not only as locale or social background, but in terms of ideas from Indian philosophical classics such as the…
The First Year Of My Life – Analysis
The first sentence of Muriel Spark’s ‘‘The First Year of My Life’’ (‘‘I was born on the first day of the second month of the last year of the First World War, a Friday’’) is arresting. It causes the reader to pause and calculate the actual date being referred to. It is also notable that…
Federigo’s Falcon – Analysis – Essay
In ‘‘Federigo’s Falcon,’’ Boccaccio presents the reader with a woman, the lady Giovanna, who appears to exercise a sense of agency in her own life. A married woman, Giovanna ignores the apparently unwanted affections of Federigo, despite the fact that within the conventions of courtly love, which were socially accepted in her day, it would…
Day of the Butterfly – Analysis – Essay
An important question to consider in reading Munro’s short story ‘‘Day of the Butterfly’’ is whether the story is an accurate representation of Helen’s memories. The point is not to question the reality of Myra’s illness, of course, but to question Helen’s memory of her treatment of Myra. Childhood memories are often poorly recalled. Many…
The Bass, The River and Sheila Mant – Analysis
In Wetherell’s short story ‘‘The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant,’’ the narrator yearns for two things in the summer of his fourteenth year: fishing and Sheila Mant. According to Pulitzer Prize-winning short story author Robert Olen Butler, good writing revolves around the yearning of a main character. In his book From Where You Dream,…