Elements of Fiction

¶ … Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Point-of-View -- the author presents the perceptions of the villagers who live in isolation and are suddenly shaken by the arrival of someone so unlike them in stature and appearance. First, the women, then the men, construct an ideal from the tallness and overall attractiveness of the drowned man. He represents a myth, which mingles with their collective sense of reality and is moved by it. Even when they decide to throw him back into the sea as their burial tradition, they design their future according to the image of this admirable drowned man so that they too may one day be admired by others.

Genre -- Magical realism fuses magic and reality. The reality part is the everyday and routine ways of the villagers in the isolated island. The magic is the sudden arrival of the dead body of this magnificent man so unlike them or their wildest dreams. He simply does not occur to them and they do not know how to classify him. Nevertheless, the villagers decide to live with the impact of this strange and new experience. It opens up to them an entirely new perception of their future. Instead of feeling threatened by the newness o the experience, they accept what he symbolizes and then collectively decide to frame their future according to his unique qualities.

Imagery -- This is basically one of the sea where the village men fish the drowned man out of. The children who first find the dead body assume that Esteban is a ship and then a whale, both realities of the sea. After the women clean his up, they smell the sea from him. Only his tallness indicates that this is the corpse of a person. They dress him up and imagine him to be an authoritative being capable of drawing fish from the sea "by simply calling them by name." Overall, the villagers perceive the magnificent-looking drowned man as belonging to the sea and restores him to it as their way of burying him.

Araby by James Joyce

Atmosphere -- this presents as a journey or a pursuit of something precious for someone precious but which is frustrated by the delay of the boy's uncle, the near-closing of the bazaar, and the lack of items to buy, which suits his budget. Part of the atmosphere in this fiction is the exotic bazaar and the boy's need to impress the girl with something unique. His friend Mangan's sister is also believed to be Ireland itself. The boy is an explorer seeking to acquire her for his country.

Epiphany -- the boy comes to terms with the limits to gratifying his desire to impress the beloved girl. He is subject to his uncle whose arrival conditions that gratification. He impatiently waits for him and almost gives up. When the uncle finally arrives, he speeds to Araby to buy the gift for the girl. But the bazaar is closing and the suitable items have run out. Only costly ones have remained in these late hours. His frustration mounts and finally topples him. At this point, he snaps out of the obsession and realizes the futility of the pursuit. The sudden occurrence of frustration stings him deeply and shakes him into finally accepting his limited means to achieving the dream.

Tone -- the author seems to have used the bazaar to represent or satirize he combined forces of the Catholic Church and England, which he blames for the stunted growth of his country. He depicts the Catholic Church as a hypnotist, which casts a spell on its followers, and Araby as a symbol of enchantment luring the boy. Joyce could have intended to depict the bazaar as the Catholic Church's means of raising money for charity. When he finally reaches his destination, he finds it empty of what he seeks, just like the Catholic Church. Moreover, Mangan's sister may, after all, be nothing but a mere and worthless fantasy he need not feel any frustration for..

As I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olsen

Plot -- the narrator is the mother who consults with a social worker or counselor over the phone while she irons clothes. She relates the sad and broken childhood of her daughter Emily: that her father left them when he could no longer endure poverty. The mother had a second husband by whom she soon bears four other children. Emily must contend with much emptiness and the sense of not belonging to this new family. She does not develop close ties with her half-siblings. She grows up with some acting talent but other than that blessing, her life is really meaningless.

Allusions -- one is the un-interrupted burden of motherhood and the other is the deep and often suppressed sense of emptiness in children who are incorporated into a new family. The narrator-mother could have been as devastated by their poverty and the abandonment by her first husband. She tries her best the only way she knows. She sends Emily elsewhere when she is unable to care for her. But she delves more on the pains of their existence than the promise of a better future. Emily, on the other hand, has her own pains to deal with. She does not develop satisfying relationships with her half-siblings. Although her mother tries to compensate for these shortages, Emily is cold towards her.