Short Stories Analytical Essay

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Analytical Essay Short Stories Short stories can be written and interpreted in different ways. Short stories provoke and reward their reader by using figurative language and narrative conventions to paint a picture in the reader head. The most common forms of figurative language are imagery, simile, metaphor, alliteration, personification and onomatopoeia. In the short story Lamb to the Slaughter Roald Dahl describes the setting very clearly. The main event is occurring in Mary and Patrick Maloney’s house. The reader can picture this house as a very clean and tidy, well looked after place. You can tell that Mary is a very dedicated and loving housewife by the way Roald Dahl has described the setting in the first paragraph. “The room was warm and clean, the curtains drawn, the two table lights alight – her and the one by the empty chair opposite.” Mary Maloney cleans the house in the same way every day while waiting for her husband to come home. Mary also has a drink of whisky waiting for Patrick when he arrives home on the sideboard. The use of imagery makes picturing the scene very easy for the reader. Another narrative convention that Roald Dahl has described very well in this short story is characterisation. The characters Mary Maloney, Patrick Maloney and the policemen are all very well described in speech, actions, appearance and the opinions of others. Mary Maloney is a well-spoken, well-dressed stereotypical housewife. Sam (the storekeeper) welcomes Mary in to the store with a lot of respect for her, appears to enjoy her company while she is in the store buying food for her dinner. “Why, good evening, Mrs Maloney. How’re you?” He helps her to choose curtain things that he thinks Patrick will enjoy. “How about a nice big cheesecake? I know he likes that.” Because all the character involved in this story respect her, they don’t believe that she
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