Month: September 2019

  • Jakarta by Alice Munro Short Story Analysis

    Jakarta by Alice Munro Short Story Analysis

    “Jakarta” is a short story by Alice Munro, the second in the Nobel Prize winning collection The Love Of A Good Woman (1998). At first it baffles me why this story is called Jakarta as it is not set in Indonesia. Eventually we find out that one of the characters has previously died in Jakarta […]

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  • Passages, Hallways and Corridors in Art and Storytelling

    When storytellers focus on the hallways and passages of a building, look for metaphor. Take note of the width of the passageway: Narrow passages might represent the will to escape. Broad passages represent freedom and space. The tunnel is the naturally occurring equivalent of the manmade passage. In houses, the passages, hallways and corridors are […]

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  • The Three Types of Symbolism

    The Three Types of Symbolism

    Ah, symbolism. A key to understanding texts. Also immensely irritating, and an excellent way to alienate keen readers from the close reading of texts.

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  • Body Swap Stories

    Body Swap Stories

    Body swap stories are as ancient as story itself. Take the British folk tale The Witch-hare of Cleveland. A local witch tells some farmers where to find a hare they can hunt, but warns them not to set a black dog on it. They set a black dog on it, of course. That’s how fairytales […]

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  • Out-of-character Moments In Fiction

    Out-of-character Moments In Fiction

    What does it mean to act ‘out-of-character’? I mean, they’re fictional, right? However they act must be who they are. Yet audiences and critics will sometimes feel that a fictional creation is acting out of character. Writers are always worried about moments that are ‘out of character,’ but everyone does things where you wonder ‘where […]

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  • Who’s-Dead McCarthy by Kevin Barry Analysis

    Who’s-Dead McCarthy by Kevin Barry Analysis

    In the short story “Who’s-Dead McCarthy“, Irish short story writer Kevin Barry takes someone’s darkly morbid fascination with death and exaggerates it in a story-length character sketch — a man who talks about death so incessantly that people cross the road to avoid him. It’s wonderful. I think humour only ever exists in something that […]

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  • Sucker by Carson McCullers

    Sucker by Carson McCullers

    “Sucker” has been called Carson McCullers’ ‘apprentice story’. It is thought that the young cousin in this short story is the precursor to Bubber Kelly in The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter. Written at the age of seventeen, McCullers naturally demonstrated more sophisticated writing later on, though I believe this is still a great story […]

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  • Zoomorphism and Chremamorphism

    Zoomorphism and Chremamorphism

    Both personification and anthropomorphism are types of metaphors. But what do you call it when it’s the other way round? i.e., when a human being is compared to an animal by virtue of animal characteristics?

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  • Mercy Watson Thinks Like A Pig by Kate diCamillo Analysis

    Mercy Watson Thinks Like A Pig by Kate diCamillo Analysis

    Kate diCamillo’s Mercy Watson series are genius examples of funny, endearing, broad-audience picture books. There’s so much to learn. Today I take a deep dive into Mercy Watson Thinks Like A Pig. Eugenia and Baby Lincoln may live next door to a pig, but that doesn’t stop them from living a gracious life. And the […]

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  • Mercy Watson Fights Crime by Kate diCamillo Analysis

    Mercy Watson Fights Crime by Kate diCamillo Analysis

    “Mercy Watson Fights Crime” is book number three in the Mercy Watson series by Kate diCamillo, first published 2006. This series is beautifully illustrated by Chris Van Dusen. SETTING OF MERCY WATSON FIGHTS CRIME Where in America is this series set? Based only on fictional representations, this feels Southern to me. (Do Americans get that? […]

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  • The Lumber-Room by Saki Short Story Analysis

    The Lumber-Room by Saki Short Story Analysis

    “The Lumber-Room” by H.H. Monro (Saki) is one of the short stories from Beasts and Super-Beasts, published 1914, though it was first published in a newspaper. He died two years later in the war. Significantly for this short story, Saki was gay. There’s something very Peter Rabbit about this short story for adults. Peter Rabbit […]

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  • Ernestine and Kit by Kevin Barry Analysis

    Ernestine and Kit by Kevin Barry Analysis

    “Ernestine and Kit” is a short story by Kevin Barry, included in Dark Lies The Island (2013). It has been made into a short film by Simon Bird if you can get a hold of it. This is black humour at its best. I was captivated with this crime story from beginning to end — the […]

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  • My Neighbour Totoro Storytelling

    My Neighbour Totoro Storytelling

    My Neighbour Totoro (1988), from Japan’s Studio Ghibli, is one of the few genuinely child centred films in existence. In contrast, most films out of DreamWorks and Pixar contain dual levels of meaning, including jokes only the adult co-viewer will understand, or emotional layers inaccessible to children. For instance, in Toy Story 3 Andy says […]

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  • Beer Trip To Llandudno by Kevin Barry Analysis

    Beer Trip To Llandudno by Kevin Barry Analysis

    “Beer Trip To Llandudno” is the mythic journey of a group of middle-aged men, ostensibly on an ale-tasting expedition, metaphorically on a life journey towards death. This short story is included in Barry’s Dark Lies The Island collection (2012). Kevin Barry won The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award 2012 for this particular […]

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  • Save The Reaper by Alice Munro Analysis

    Save The Reaper by Alice Munro Analysis

    “Save The Reaper” (1998) is a short story by Alice Munro, included in the collection For The Love Of A Good Woman. This story is a re-visioned homage to Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard To Find“. THE LOVE OF A GOOD WOMAN (1998) The night before reading “Save The Reaper” I happened to watch […]

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