5. Speak on the effect of description.

All Summer in a Day

My Son the Murderer

Summary of the story:

The story was written by Ray Bradbury in the genre of science fiction and tells us about a planet without the sun. The girl who came there from the Earth not so long ago is very sad because of lack of the sun. The children jeer at her because of it.

The story was written by Bernard Malamud and tells us about a young boy who was going at the war and already suffered because he knew he had to become a murder and to kill people. His father and other relatives worried about the boy and tried to help him.

Narration:

The story is 3^rd person narration and the main form of presentation is narration with elements of dialogue. The story told from this point of view sounds more objective and let us watch and analyze things that happen in the story.

The story is also 3^rd person narration – objective with limited omniscient and with indirect insertions by 1^st person participant narrator.

Development (body):

Description is a picture in words and different means of it are used to express thoughts and feelings beautifully. In both stories different types of sentences are used: short and long, simple or complex, different combinations of them, which make the description vivid and diverse. Also denotations and connotations are used to produce a special, powerful effect.

In this story different kinds of explicit and implicit comparisons are used:

Similes – a warmness, like a blushing in the face; the sun, like lemon (to show its pricelessness for the inhabitants); like a feverish wheel; the sun like a penny, like a fire in the stove

Metaphors – the sun is a flower (its beauty and dreams about how the sun looks like); the girl was an old photograph dusted from an album (was so pale because of lack of the sun, to which she got used on the Earth, and now she suffered a lot physically because of its lack); the girl’s waiting silence

Epithets – the stunned world, a very frail girl (her sadness and defencelessness in front of others)

Connotative meanings – the sun was the color of rubber and ash, stones and white cheeses and ink

In this story different kinds of explicit and implicit comparisons are used:

Similes – we live like strangers (his son was lonely and stopped talking to anyone because he tried to find himself); it felt like snow; the ocean, moving like melted lead; the boardwalk, rolling like a wheel along the wet sand.

Epithets – my temporary son; a big burning war; the gray sunless beaches; a quiet roar; the foaming surf; the gunmetal ocean; the leaden waves.

Conclusion (summing up and personal impression):

Description plays a crucial role in both the stories. The function of different means and devices of description used in the story reveal the inner world, emotions of the protagonist through opposition of the nature; reveal the external conflict;

+ underline the importance of the sun. Also it is shown how it’s difficult to accept changes: behavior and mood of the children and Margot.

+ reveal the internal conflict