Read-a-Thon

Read a-thon

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Short story Read-A-Thon

The Necklace

 Summary & analysis:

At the beginning of the story, the situation is stable, there are no actions. It’s a short story that represents the horrible and mediocre life of Mathilde, the action began or also so called conflict began when M. Loisel, who is Mathilde’s husband, comes home with an invitation to a very fabulous party and Mathilde begins to worry because she has nothing to wear. So her husband gave her money to buy a dress but her husband didn’t solve all the problems with this money because she wanted also to wear accessories, especially jewels. So she went to her friend Mme. Forestier who is richer and can afford buying jewels, so she gave her an amazing diamond necklace, but she has to take really good care of it. Something happened which was the worst thing that could ever happen to Mathilde, the necklace was lost. That’s when she starts to search for the necklace and that was the turning point of the plot in the story. After the loss of the necklace, we're kept in constant suspense. Because Mathilde doesn’t know what she will do after the loss of the necklace now that she knows that it’s impossible to find it anyway. So she’s now trying to figure out something with her husband. They can’t pay it because it’s very expensive and they don’t have enough money to afford it. That’s why their lives became miserable for ten years. Mathilde met Mme. Forestier on the Champs Elysées; the Loisels have finally finished paying off their debts for the necklace. All that remains is for Mathilde to see whether her friend ever noticed the substitute necklace, and tell her the sad story of the whole affair.  Mathilde then discovers that it was a fake necklace.

In this story there were particularly two themes that took my attention, first of all we have the theme of suffering, this theme was the base of the story because in the story we can see how Mathilde and her husband suffered a lot so they could afford the price of the necklace that she lost. We can see that this poor girl when she got the chance to spend the night of her life, it turns out that it became the worst night of her life. There also another theme in the story which is wealth, this theme is also a good one because we could see from the title of the story: “the necklace”, we can also see through all the story that the main character of the story who is Mathilde was always trying to escape the fact that she is poor, she wants to imitate rich people, her dream is just to spend a day like them, even if it’s only for one night. The message that the author was trying to transmit to us is that everyone should be happy with what they have and be thankful.

 The Tell-Tale Heart

Summary & analysis

The narrator has an idea that he can't shake. He loves the old man and has nothing against him. The narrator hates the eye and decides to kill the old man to be free of it. So we can notice that the narrator is the main character, the dynamic character of the story. He goes to the old’s man room every night for a week. Each night he went into his room he put a lantern, and then he opens the lanterns so he could see the old’s man eyes clearly. But the problem is that every night the old man doesn’t open his eyes so the narrator decides not to kill him. One day, which is the eighth night, the old man wakes up because he hears the narrator on the door. So that was the chance for the narrator to kill the old man because he has finally opened his eyes, so he runs and opens the lantern to see his eyes open. The narrator drags the old man, and pulls the bed on top of the old man. The narrator was shocked when he noticed that the old’s man heart stopped beating, so he removed the bed to check if he was still alive or if he was really dead. He found out that he was finally dead do he cuts him up and hides his remains under the floor. The neighbors have heard the old man screaming so they called the policemen. Three policemen came in search of the problem, so the narrator claimed that he was screaming while sleeping and that the old man is out of town so they were convinced. They entered the old man’s room and began chatting when suddenly the narrator heard noises so he freaked out and confessed that he had killed the old man.
In this short story there were two main themes the first one is mortality, the tell-tale heart is a murder mystery where we know from the beginning of the story who is the murderer. So the theme is treated from the beginning of the story of course. It also shows the fear of death, and how a person could kill another for “no reason”: “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” The fact that the man is old, and probably near death anyway, makes this bitterly ironic. To die is one thing, but to grow old, to spend the final years hated and despised is another. The other theme is time: “A watch's minute hand moves more quickly than did mine.” This is an amazing line. The narrator sees himself as a kind of clock, counting down to the old man's death

Hills like White Elephants

Summary & analysis

The story opens with a description of the view of the river Ebro, and the white hills beyond it, from a train station in Spain. An American man and a woman are having some beers outside the station bar while waiting for the train to Barcelona. The woman began to tell the man that those hills, mountains remind her of white elephants. So they started to argue about this and decided then to go get a drink called Anis del Toro so they decided to try it. Then they started to talk about other things, the man was trying to convince the lady to have an abortion, but that’s only if she wants to. After that she began to ask if this will solve their problems and get their relationship back on track. We also get the information that he was distracted and worried because of the pregnancy. The woman agreed to get the abortion but that’s only because she doesn’t care about herself anymore. The man tried to reassure her and make her feel better, and that she hasn’t lost everything and he also said that he could marry her instead, but he makes it clears that he would prefer if she gets an abortion. So she asked him to stop talking. At the end of the story the man stopped talking and he gets up and takes their luggage in the train, then when he looked to Jig, the woman she smiled so he asked her if she was feeling better, she replied by saying that she never felt bad in the first place.

There were two main themes in the story the first one is alcohol, we can see through the whole story that alcohol isn’t just a prop in hills like white elephants, it’s a major part of the main characters relationship: “I wanted to try this new drink. That's all we do, isn't it – look at things and try new drinks”.  The other theme is choices it’s a very interesting theme because through the whole story the couple was trying to make a choice whether to have an abortion or to keep the baby, that’s what the story revolves around, a choice.The author’s writing was very journalistic, and simple he was not biased at all and that’s what makes the story more powerful.

  The Lottery

 Summary & analysis

On a warm day in late June, villagers gather in the square to participate in a lottery run by Mr. Summers, who officiates at all the big civic events. The children arrive first and begin collecting stones until their parents call them to order. Mrs. Hutchinson arrives late and chats briefly with her friend, Mrs. Delacroix. Mr. Summers calls each head of the household forward to a black wooden box, where each selects a slip of paper. Once the men have chosen, Mr. Summers allows everyone to open the paper and see who has been selected. It is Bill Hutchinson. His wife immediately starts protesting. There are five people total in the Hutchinson family. Mr. Summers places five slips of paper into the box and each member of the family draws. Mrs. Hutchinson draws a slip of paper with a big black dot in the center. Not good. The villagers advance on her, and it becomes crystal clear what the gift for the lottery really is: a stoning. Tess protests in vain as the villagers attack her.
In this short story there are two main themes, the first one is hypocrisy, it’s one of the main themes that were treated during the lottery here is a quote that could explain this: “"Clean forgot what day it was," she said to Mrs. Delacroix, who stood next to her, and they both laughed softly.” This friendship in the story will be later described as a meaningless and hollow one. Another theme that was described in this short story is the theme of family because the story plays around this theme, so it’s really interesting. During the lottery which is made for families with good significance the relation between mother and child, friend and friend and husband and wife become really insignificant, because everyone wants to win they don’t really think about each other until the end of the lottery.
The author was trying to write in a journalistic way, he was not showing any emotions and we could see this from the first sentence: "The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green."
 

 The Cask of Amontillado

Summary & analysis

The narrator begins the story by telling us that Fortunato has insulted him, and that he must get revenge. So he went to meet Fortunato who was very drunk. And there the narrator found a brand of wine that is called Amontillado, they both wanted to check its authenticity. So they went to the underground graveyard of the Montresor family, that’s where the narrator keeps his wine. He let Fortunato go deeper and deeper and drunker and drunker all the way down there. That’s when the narrator notices that Fortunato is too sick and he keeps coughing and that he should go back, but he continues.  Eventually, Fortunato walks into a man-sized hole that’s part of the wall of a really nasty crypt. The narrator chains Fortunato to the wall, then begins to close Fortunato in the hole by filling in the opening with bricks. Fortunato begged for mercy, that’s when we know finally that the main character’s name, the narrator’s name is Montresor. Then Montresor finishes the job and leaves him there to die. At the very end, Montresor tells us that the whole affair happened fifty years ago, and nobody has found out.In this story there are two main themes the first one is betrayal, and that’s the theme that the story revolves around, when we talk about betrayal we must also talk about trust, because without trust there will be no betrayal. Trust is what leads us to betrayal. And in this story Montresor tried to gain his trust from Fortunato so he could take him down to the underground graveyard and betray him. We can also talk about the theme of mortality, there is a lot to say about this theme like for example the fear of death, we can see in this story that when it comes to death everything changes, a person could lose his dignity because he doesn’t want to die, people do anything to leave death behind them.

The author’s tone and writing style was ironic, he was always trying to make fun of death, and the main character was even torturing Fortunato with his irony, the author was not really clear. While reading the story we don’t really understand if this is true or if the author is just being ironic. That’s what makes the story creepy and fun to read.