Adam Frost points out in a retrospective essay on Saki’s career appearing in Contemporary Review, that the author’s first published story, “Dogged,” ends in a “reversal [that] is typical of Saki”; in that story, the “owner becomes pet and vice versa.” Saki would repeat such use of a surprise ending throughout his career as a…
Tag: Analysis
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream: Analysis
Harlan Ellison first published “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” in the March 1967 issue of IF: Worlds of Science Fiction, before using it as the title story in his 1967 collection / Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. A horrifying and ghastly story of a post-apocalyptic hell controlled by a monster…
How to Tell a True War Story: Analysis
The Things They Carried, the collection in which “How to Tell A True War Story” appears, received rave reviews from critics and readers alike when it appeared in 1990. Many of the stories in the collection, including “How To Tell A True War Story,” had previously won awards following publication in periodicals such as Esquire,…
The Harvest by Tomas Rivera: Analysis
Rivera’s “The Harvest” is a brief story, covering in some editions no more than three pages. However, springing up from this spare narrative are the archetypal themes of initiation and search, and one archetypal character, that of the Wise Old Man. These structural patterns are archetypal in the sense that they recur in many different…
The Green Leaves by Grace Ogot: Analysis
Written in 1968, Grace Ogot’s short story “The Green Leaves” takes place over the course of one night and the following morning. Yet within this short time frame, Ogot effectively illustrates the negative effects of colonialism on indigenous people in East Africa. She does this by developing a number of different conflicts that are both…
The Dog of Tithwal: Analysis
Manto’s choice of a dog to be the innocent victim of brutality in “The Dog of Tithwal” is appropriate and effective in many ways. Although the story’s subject matter is remote from the experience of contemporary Western readers, Manto’s use of the dog gives the story universal impact. The relationship between dogs and humans is,…
Dante and the Lobster: Analysis
In a story with Dante in the title and in which the protagonist bears a name taken from Dante, readers expect allusions to the greatest of medieval poets. In “Dante and the Lobster,” the work that in many ways commences Beckett’s career as a writer, Beckett provides these allusions in significant numbers. However, it is…
Bright and Morning Star by Richard Wright: Analysis
Wright’s short story “Bright and Morning Star” is filled with rain. From the first line, in which the protagonist Sue is said to be standing “six inches from the moist windowpane” as she wonders, “would it ever stop raining,” Wright uses rain as a metaphor of gloom and sorrow. Sue is worried about her son…
America & I by Anzia Yezierska – Analysis
In a Literary Digest issue from 1923, Yezierska shared her view of America as “a new world in the making, that anyone who has something real in him can find a way to contribute himself in this new world.” At the same time, she noted, “But I saw I had to wait for my chance…
Mirror (Movie) – Story – Analysis
Story: A jumbled series of dramatised scenes, dream sequences and newsreel excerpts reveal the memories and present-day experiences of unseen protagonist-narrator Alexei. The traumas of Alexei’s rural childhood and experiences of war are mirrored in his urban adult life. His estranged relations with his ex-wife, Natalia, and son, Ignat, reflect the abandonment he suffered from…