Short Story Blog - "The Body"

Plot

Stephan King did a fine job on the sequence of this story's plot. The interest of the reader is sparked by Vern's line, "You guys want to go see a dead body?" (pg. 299) By doing this, King is sure to have the reader's attention throughout the story because now the reader wants to see what a could of young boys will do to see a dead body up close and personal. King has the whole story in chronological order of Gordie's memories because it is essentially a memoir, but throughout the story, Gordie speaks about the present day sometimes too. "Nothing like that could happen in southwestern Maine today; most of the area has become suburbanizied, and the bedroom communities surrounding Portland and Lewistown have spread out like the tentacles of a giant squid." By expressing the plot like this, the reader truly does get the feel of an older man looking back on memories in his life. Lastly, I think it is important how the story ends. Present Gordie tells of how the young boys lived out the rest of their lives. This adds a special closing to this memory.

Point of View

"The Body" is written in the first person point of view of the character Gordon Lachance. Gordon is now older and tells this story that happened in his past. There are some advantages and disadvantages to this point of view. The reader knows that this information is reliable because the person who was actually present at the time is telling the story. Also, the reader gets to see what Gordie is thinking and feeling. These descriptions give the reader a better idea of what the moment was like. "I became acutely aware of all the noises inside me and outside me, like some crazy orchestra tuning up to play. The steady thump of my heart, the blood beat in my ears like a drum being played with brushes, the creak of sinews like the strings of a violin that has been tuned radically upward, the steady hiss of the river..." (pg.358) This point of view also has its disadvantages, because it can make the reader side with Gordie because the reader never gets to understand what the others think and feel, but I think this story did a good job of being fair to all of the characters. Lastly, I feel that the two stories that Gordie tells are an important aspect of the story. It shows Gordie's passion for writing and also shows how the other boys look up to him.

Characterization

I feel that King used both direct and indirect characterization to help the reader get a feel for the characters and their lives. King starts off the story by directly telling the reader of how Teddy got to be the way he was. "Teddy's dad took Teddy over to the big woodstove at the back of the kitchen and shoved the side of Teddy's head down against one of the cast-iron burner plates." (pg. 296) There are also direct lines such as, "He was the dumbest guy we hung around with, I guess, and he was crazy." King has to use direct characterization in the beginning of this story because it is a short story and he has to establish who these kids are and why they act the way they do early in the story for the reader to understand the rest of it. King also uses indirect characterization through the boys' language. From the way they talk, the reader can see how they have been raised and what kinds of things they value. Teddy stands up for his Father by bad-mouthing a man who is calling his father a "looney." This shows that even though his father abused him a countless amount of times, the values of a strong, close family in a small town are still present. (pg. 348)

Setting

This story takes place in 1960 in Castle Rock, Maine. This time period is very important because 1960 was in the middle of things like the Vietnam war. Technology wasn't a key to the world that they were living in. They still relied on radios for getting news. Gordie speaks of how they "all heard about it on the radio." ( Ray Brower's death ) (pg. 299) Also, this story is in the small town of Castle Rock. These were the times when children still played outside instead of playing Xbox. This combination of small town and 1960's gave the boys the ability to camp out without much worry from their parents.

Theme

I think the theme of this story could be represented by the lines on the top of some of the pages of this story, "Fall From Innocence." It is definitely a "coming of age" story. The most important part of the story is not the finding of Brower's body, it is the journey the young boy's take to get to "The Body." It shows how the young boys grow up throughout the story. They take responsibility for themselves and develop into young men by standing up for themselves in two instances. They stood up to Milo Pressman at the Dump and didn't let him get away with sticking his dog on Gordie or bad-mouthing Teddy's father. Then, when they met the older boys' "gang" (including Chris' and Vern's brother), they stood up to them too and scared them off. (It probably helped that Chris had a gun.) "Now you guys get into your cars and bomb on back to Castle Rock. After that I don't care. But you ain't getting him." (pg. 415)

Miss. Brill = Fur

7. What function does Miss Brill's fur serve in the story? What is the meaning of the final sentence?

Miss Brill's and her fur share many characteristics. They both are alone and shoved away from the world. Whether this be in a box or just confined in a room. Then, there is a time when Miss Brill and the fur get enough courage to come of of hiding, brush themselves off, and prepare to present themselves in public. When this happens they find a meaning to their life. The fur "feels wanted" and looks good on the older woman. At the same time, Miss Brill finds a purpose in her life. She feels that she is a part of life's big drama and without her, everyone would notice. Once she hits this climax in the drama she is in, she lets two other characters bring her and her fur down. Miss Brill looked upon this young boy and girl as the wonderful hero and heroine in the story, until she overhears them. They speak of her as a "stupid old thing" and they wonder " Why doesn't she keep her silly old mug at home?" Not only do they criticize her, they speak of her fun in a poor manner too. "It's her fur which is so funny, it's exactly like a fried whiting (fish)." This completely kills Miss Brill's mood. She returns to her home and her dark room as her fur is also returned to its dark box.

The last line says, "But when she put the lid on she thought she heard something crying." Since Miss Brill and the fur are parallels, I believe that this last line indirectly shows how Miss Brill wept after her Sunday encounter.

Once Upon a Time

This frame story was created because of Nadine's combined thoughts of someone in her house and her hatred of writing a children's story that she didn't want to. It is apparent that she thinks that children's "once upon a time" and "happily ever after" stories aren't even worth writing because real life doesn't happen that way. She tells herself a story to go to bed. This story is what would really happen if a realistic family truly tried to live "happily ever after." I think the theme of this story is that if one tried to live a perfect life with no wrong in it, ironically, much wrong would come from it. To live "happily ever after is to have no worries. This family tries to accomplish this by pretty much incarcerating themselves from the world. The family even resorted to "concentration-camp style" barbed wire to put around their house. I think that is pushing it. This story if full of irony. Just when the family feels secure from all people with no worries, the mother reads a "once upon a time" story with a prince in it to their child. When the child tries to imitate this courageous prince and climb their security wall, he is mauled by the barbed-wire that was supposed to protect their family so well.

Phoenix

I found an article about this story that I thought was quite interesting. Just as the name Tub represented his glutenous character, the name phoenix represents her persevering character. A phoenix is a mythological bird that is said to live 500 or more years, die in flames and rise again from the ashes. Just as the phoenix bird has a cycle of life, death, and rebirth, phoenix takes a dangerous journey through the woods. She falls, gets back up and keeps on toward the goal of getting her grandson's medicine. The phoenix bird and Phoenix Jackson are also alike for other reasons. When both arrive at an obstacle, they persevere through it.

The myth also states that the phoenix bird can heal a person with just a tear from its eyes, and make them temporarily immune to death When Phoenix notices the sun above her, she talks to it: "'Sun so high!' she cried, leaning back and looking, while the thick tears went over her eyes." This passage relates her tears to the phoenix bird's tears, and shows her effort to make her grandson temporarily immune from death. This whole story is an extended metaphor between the mythical Phoenix bird and Phoenix Jackson.

Personally I found learning about this bird to be interesting because a friend of mine just had a phoenix tattooed on her back. I am not a fan of tattoos in the first place and found a tattoo of a random bird to be quite pointless, but now that I have a background of this myth, it is kind of neat to think about now.

Escape

I believe the theme of "Eveline" is that of escape and the values of family in Ireland. The majority of the story is Eveline's contemplation on whether or not to escape the burden of her life in Ireland. I believe that any selfish person would take this route in Eveline's situation. It is clear that she works as hard as she can to keep her family as normal as possible even with an old, cruel father. Anyone with a brain would tell her to leave this situation because she deserves so much more. Personally, I think she would've taken Frank's hand and ran to to boat if it weren't for the importance of family in a small traditional country like hers.

Eveline knew that she could live without her crazy father and her nomad of a brother, but I think it was the younger children and the promise to her mother that held her back. This is a situation where staying home was the hardest and the best decision at the same time for her. This ending shows so much character of Eveline. She took a great sacrifice. Instead of cruising on a boat to a land of promise and paradise, she chose to support her family instead of abandoning them and chose the life of her mother.

Quilts! Quilts! Quilts!

In the story Everyday Use by Alice Walker, quilts are a prominent symbol. I feel that people don't see the value in handmade quilts anymore. An example of this is Dee in this story. She doesn't understand the quality of these quilts and the time it makes to create them. In this story, the two quilts wanted by Dee are made of the clothes of their grandmother. She wanted them because she liked their appearance and wanted to hang them in her house. I feel that this is the outlook of people in this generation. 30 years from now, we will not have any precious antiques that have great meaning behind them, like these quilts. In today's world, it is very rare to find teens who know how to quilt or even use a sewing machine. In earlier generations, all women knew how to quilt and sew. With new technology and women getting jobs outside of the home, I feel that these meaningful kinds of things will be lost.

Hunters in the Snow

I found this story to be actually very interesting. I want to focus on the character Tub. First of all, I found it very humorous to foreshadow the appearance of Tub with his name. I feel that Tub is definitely the most sensitive of the group. He is self conscious of his weight and in complete denial of his gluttony. He is terrified by the fact that Kenny shot a poor innocent dog. He is the most emotional character of the story. I believe he represents the feelings and emotions of humans in general. He shows his caring side when it comes to the dog, but also shows how emotions can take over humans. This occurs when he shoots Kenny! It is important that Wolff shows how both types of emotions can occur in people.

Bartleby the Scrivener

Question 2.

I think that Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut are introduced to the reader before Bartleby because they show the reader what normal, every day scriveners are like. The lawyer tells of how much they work and what kind of workers they are. Since Turkey and Nippers can only focus on their work for one portion of the day, this makes Bartleby's ability to work all day a rare one. By introducing these less productive (regular) workers first, it makes Bartleby look like an extreme over-achiever. If the lawyer were to introduce Bartleby first, it would make him look like the normal, average, every day worker and the others would look like under-achievers. Also, I like that the lawyer introduces them first because it gave time to develop picture of the lawyer's office in my head. This way I pictured the office early in the story and could actually mentally see the changes made by Bartleby's arrival.