Analysis of short stories a house of flesh and to room 19
The two contrasting short stories in which Immediacy, Compression and Vitality will be discussed are "A HOUSE OF FLESH" and " TO ROOM 19". Indeed, the beginning of "A HOUSE OF FLESH" is awkward because it deals with three different events. Firstly, there is a beginning which is silence; secondly, there is a minute description of the widow and thirdly there is the room, the only room, sinister and bearing the secrets which we readers do not know about yet. In these three settings, the reader is thrust into the fast-flowing events. This technique is called 'Medias Res' because the reader has to enter the plot to understand it and on top of that, all the three pieces of information are different from each other. So the reader has to find the motive behind such conflicting pieces of events.The directness of impact of the series of events ensures a quite instantaneous effect on the reader. There is the annoying mention of " the beginning is silence" and a brief mention of the death of the father and then, almost instantly our attention is drawn towards the situation of the three lonely females in the one-room house. The immediacy and compression explained by Valerie Shaw is defined here. The short story is set going in a rapid-p
It is indeed ironic that a couple which was trying to save their couple from disaster slowly auto-creates one to destroy themselves. The author compresses the married life and normal couple behaviour to give importance to the woman and her ordeals, though self-created. The woman's fears are clearly predominant in contrast with the other things occurring in her life like for example her husband, her children and their responsibilities. Immediacy and compression is present because of this fact that the author keeps the excitement for the last minute while going through quickly in the first moments of the short story but this can prove irritating sometimes as the information takes time to leak out. The conflict lies between the expected and the outcome whose effect does not really stand because of the rapid none-too-satisfactory passage on key events. Even if the mother had not married the Koran reader, there would have eventually been some kind of relationship between them. " It becomes annoying from the repetitive use of 'and' as if nothing would occur and the pace trails into a repetitive kind with no particular event occurring. Comparatively, in " TO ROOM 19", there is a quick set of description which forces the reader to form part and understand the Rawling's marriage. The author of " A HOUSE OF FLESH", has put too much emphasis on creating rapid scenes where the reader has to guess the vitality and the meaning behind rather than going through them and giving the importance where he should. The reference made to their friends who made mistakes about marriage and Susan and Matthew trying to avoid this is ironic because of "their infallible sense for choosing right" which never occurs in the end. The man occupies an inferior position or is rarely asked for his opinion. Here also the effect of 'medias res' occurs because the reader is forced to interpret the marriage problems, which could affect the marriage of Susan and Matthew.
Common topics in this essay:
HOUSE FLESH,
Valerie Shaw,
Doris Lessing,
Susan Matthew,
short story,
house flesh,
,
Compression Vitality,
immediacy compression,
susan matthew,
reader thrust,
marriage susan,
'medias res',
awe reader,
beginning silence,
one-room house,
marriage susan matthew,
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Acceptance Essays
