Jorge Luis Borges 'InThe Shape Of The Sword'

As I read this short story in the beginning, the gist of what I have captured the narrator writing is whether the man with a strange habit does really exist or not. Or, if he did exist who was the man that was hitting the narrator in the story on the head without stopping. It sticks in my mind wondering who the strange man was to the narrator. Somehow, despite the agony of trying to understand the motive underlies the story; I was at first wondering what was the strange man had gone through

The opening and closing scenes of the short story “The South” in the book Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges have a large degree of influence on the way the reader experiences the story itself. The opening scene, for example, very much sets the tone and foreshadows future event in the story through an introductory description of the character of Dahlmann and his background. The closing scene, on the other hand, holds a good deal of significance because it contributes a good deal of ambiguity to the ending, as it is not known if Dahlmann died in the knife fight, died back at the hospital, or died at all. Altogether, the opening and closing scenes both contribute to the reader’s experience of the book greatly as they gave necessary context to

Edgar Allen Poe’s tale of murder and revenge, “The Cask of Amontillado”, offers a unique perspective into the mind of a deranged murderer. The effectiveness of the story is largely due to its first person point of view, which allows the reader a deeper involvement into the thoughts and motivations of the protagonist, Montresor. The first person narration results in an unbalanced viewpoint on the central conflict of the story, man versus man, because the reader knows very little about the thoughts of the antagonist, Fortunato. The setting of “The Cask of Amontillado”, in the dark catacombs of Montresor’s wine cellar, contributes to the story’s theme that some people will go

Damon Knight’s “The Country of the Kind” follows a narrator who the audience at first knows little about, who lives in a society that is different from the norm, but is also initially left ambiguous. This sense of the unknown exists up until the narrator stumbles upon a pamphlet which opens up new viewpoints to the reader. The pamphlet serves to create three new perspectives in particular, all of which significantly shift the reader’s understanding of the story. First, it gives the reader a chance to understand the narrator and sympathize with him. Second, it offers a new perspective on society and their overall conception of what defines a utopia. The third and final perspective is that of the people who live within this society, and their interactions with the main characters. These three new perspectives prove to be formative in understanding the main character, his interactions with other characters in the story, and the role of society.

In any great work of literature, each action and thought should contribute to the underlying meaning of the entire work. No action should exist for its own sake; it must instead advance the plot and reinforce the symbolism of both the characters’ actions as well as the truth of what the composer or author is trying to convey. This is especially true of acts of violence; great literature must carefully articulate the violence into a logical meaning. Most importantly, violence and acts of extreme passion work best when communicating a character’s inner-struggles as they relate to the motive and effect of each scene and action.

When reading literature we often attempt to use particular threads of thought or lenses of critique to gain entry into the implied historic or legendary nature of literature. To accurately process a tale in the light in which it is presented, we have to consider the text from multiple viewpoints. We must take into consideration intentional and affective fallacies and the socioeconomic circumstances of the presenter/author/narrator. We also have to consider how our personal experience creates bias by placing the elements of the story into the web of relationships that we use to interpret the external world. There also is the need to factor in other external pressures, from societal norms, cultural ideals, and psychological themes, and how

The author uses descriptive language to provide the reader with an insight into Martins journey. For example, Martin is aware that his Mother and Old Ted have a difficult relationship, she says “he is an impossible man, as mad as an axe” (pg 4). Another

Before Night Falls tells the story of Reinaldo Arenas, a Cuban writer who suffered for many years and dealt with tragic circumstances all throughout his life. Living during Fidel Castro’s harsh regime as a homosexual male led to several years of torture, for he was imprisoned, but ultimately set free. Additionally, his writing was bold and went against everything that Castro represented, and he took extreme risks to get his work published in other countries. The world heard the prolific voice of Arenas, while the Cuban government, his fellow writers, and even his lovers tried to silence him. Arenas was an extremely important figure in Latin culture. This is not simply because his work was profound; his life gives us a deeper look at the difficulties of struggling with homosexuality, masculinity, and finding freedom. He embodies resilience, charisma, determination, and at the same time fragility, weakness and pain.

Feuds and arguments between individuals who may disagree with or dislike one another are a common occurrence in everyday life, often varying in degrees of intensity, but rarely reaching a point of extremity. However, in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado”, This threshold of extremity is reached by the narrator of the story, Montresor, who explains that his acquaintance, Fortunato, has repeatedly and irreparably insulted him over the course of years, and uses it as justification to take justice into his own hands and seek retribution through murder, despite there being no proof of Fortunato's guilt other than Montresor’s claims. His motive for murdering Fortunato can be attributed to his state of mind, as Montresor’s lack of guilt, empathy, or remorse highlights him as a character with psychopathic tendencies. As the story progresses, Montresor’s cold and calculating nature leaves the audience full of dread and suspense while he lures the oblivious Fortunato towards his inevitable demise. The employment of rhetorical devices such as irony, theme, and structure builds the suspense for the ultimate climax of Poe’s gothic masterpiece.

Thesis-In this essay I will take the time to review two stories both of the fiction nature. I will discuss the conflicts of both stories as well as the plot structure. I will talk about the characters and give my point of view. Both stories are very thought provoking which should make this very interesting to compare and contrast.

In his collection of short stories, Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges uses dreams, imagination and fantasy to establish ambiguity in his stories. With the use of juxtaposition and symbols, Borges blends a realm of dreams and imagination into the individual’s everyday worldly experiences. Through these devices, Borges commonly blurs the line between aspects of reality for his characters versus the constructs of his or her mind. By combining the real with the fictitious, Borges incorporates ambiguity into his stories and introduces his readers to new perspectives of world around them.

Rather it is the old man’s that is so unsettling. Any time the eye looked upon him his. It is that eye by which he is consumed and that eye that sends him into madness. It pushes him to wish to never have to look upon, or be looked upon by, that eye again. His solution, in what seems a rational choice to him, is to kill the old man. With a similar precision as the Montresor took in “The Cask of Amontillado”, the man in “The Tell-Tale Heart” has devoted himself to the perfect method to dispatch the old man.

The ruthlessness that harbors party attendees’ appeasement also transcends to the fear that the townspeople and partygoers have towards Anthony’s total control. The reader can find the Bixby’s portrayal of fear of Anthony in the absence of the details and in Anthony’s presentation. Indeed, nothing Bixby could come up with is as chilling to the reader as the details and images that will appear, summoned, from the depths of their imaginations. When Anthony “thought Dan Hollis into something like nothing anyone would have believed possible…thought the thing into a grave, deep, deep in the cornfield” (Bixby, 446) — the resemblance of a banishment to GULAG or Nazi concentration camp should be remarked (Spender, 219), but the reader is not sure of the specific implications, but one understands the terror by the partygoers’ response and Anthony’s purple gaze (implying an imperial or

It has been said that there are only about 18 or so themes that describe the human condition. This quote was made in reference to Shakespeare, and posited that all of the books and movies that we digest and assimilate can be shown to have their roots in these canonical themes. In Cien Anos, Marquez addresses several of these themes in the subtle and interlocking

The Tell- Tale Heart and The Black Cat are two horrendous accounts of murder. These two works put readers inside the mind of a madman. Although the narrators are shockingly similar, a few distinct details