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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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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 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
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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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
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” 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 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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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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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 […]