The Story “House Taken Over” by Julio Cortazar, depicts an atmosphere of fear by leaving out major details and also creating a personal fear/connection to readers. Details such as the description or even the name of whatever is inside of the house can put the reader’s mind into a conclusional fit making the reader make their own predictions about what is inside the house and how it ties in on the fear of any reader. Firstly the Reasoning for this is because when Cortazar writes about how the Characters in the story are terrified enough to close off half of the house but don’t even discuss what it is they are scared of. “I hurled myself against the door before it was too late and shut it, leaned on it with the weight of my body; luckily, the key was on our side; moreover, I ran the great bolt into place, just to be safe.” (Cortazar 39)This …show more content…
Secondly is that the atmosphere of the story starts off so very mild and almost peaceful, “We liked the house because it kept the memories of great-grandparents, our paternal grandfather, our parents and the whole of childhood.” (Cortazar 37) that when the characters are scared enough to lock off parts of the the house and then eventually leave it behind it seem that whatever is there is completely horrible. “We didn’t wait to look at one another. I took Irene’s arm and forced her to run with me to the wrought-iron door, not wanting to look back.” (Cortazar 41) As the characters in the story explained that they were pretty rich themselves, it leaves a big hole for how something that no one knows about have ever seen can make it that much more terrifying. Third, while most of the details of the story are very well played out, the thing centered around the fear of the homeowners is completely left out, this would imply to make a reader think of there own fear and place that inside of the place of ‘They.’ “I had to shut the door to the
Every story, every book, every legend, every belief and every poem have a reason and a background that creates them. Some might be based on historical events, some might be based on every culture´s beliefs, and some others might be based on personal experiences of the authors. When a person writes a literary piece, that person is looking for a way to express her opinion or her feelings about a certain situation. A good example is the poem “Southern Mansion” by Arna Bonptems. The main intention of “Southern Mansion” could have been to complain, or to stand against the discrimination and exploitation of black people throughout history. However, as one starts to read, to avoid thinking about unnatural beings wandering around the scene that is depicted is impossible. The poem “Southern Mansion” represents a vivid image of a typical ghost story which includes the traditional element of the haunted house. This image is recreated by the two prominent and contradictory elements constantly presented through the poem: sound and silence. The elements are used in two leading ways, each one separate to represent sound or silence, and together to represent sound and silence at the same time. The poem mixes the two elements in order to create the spooky environment.
fear, this fear persuades the reader of this idea by making the reader experiencing the horror of
The house is similar to the mind in other ways. It houses inner demons and fears, which can be heard stalking its prey. It also contains a "basement"...
The setting of “House Taken Over” was taken place in Buenos Aries, in a large house. For example the narrator said that “eight people could have lived in that place and not have gotten in each others way” (Cortazar 38). This setting follow magical realism by Cortazar giving an exact realistic location to make the story seem real. The unknown element is what makes the story Magical Realism by adding something fake to the realistic story. This unknown element enters the story by a “muted and indistintinct, chair being knocked over onto the carpet” (Cortazar 39). In this case we do not know what it is or why its in the house but there is something. After the first time they hear the noise they move to the other side of the house to live. This seemed like a very weird thing to do because of them not caring what’s in their house, and that they think if they live on one side of the house and the thing on the other side, plus doesn’t come to their side they are fine with it living in the house, without knowing what it is. Then as the sound gets closer and is on there side of the house they run out scared and “locked the front door up tight and tossed that down the sewer. This makes the story even more unreal because the narrator and his sister leave everything behind in the house and don’t care about it or what is inside of the house. This unreal element in the seemingly realistic story cause the story be under the category of Magical
When writing a story that is meant to scare the reader, authors use a variety of different literary elements to intensify fear. This is apparent in the stories “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “beware: do not read this poem,” and “House Taken Over”. It is shown through transformation in the character, setting, and sometimes even the story or poem itself, adding to the scariness that the reader feels when reading it. While there are some examples of transformation not being scary or not playing a role in stories meant to scare us, transformation plays a crucial role in making the reader of these stories scared.
To set the tone in the story the author had to describe the surroundings of the characters. For example the author states, "with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit." when giving a detailed response of how he feels about the house. This helps show that the author himself feels depressed when in sight of the building and gives the reader a thought of how the house looks. Other textual evidence in the passage also shows a feeling of suspense like the quote, "There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart - an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. " which is how the author feels when he thinks about the house. The author cannot bear to imagine the house because he has a dark and negative imagination with different fears he thinks can come to life because of how unsettling the house makes him feel. While suspense is a direct indication of a depressed and dark tone, some other Gothic elements can be used indirectly to describe negative values in the story.
Fear brings forth a certain atmosphere which compels us to act upon it. The era in which the book was published allows us to see how common these fears were. Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House is an excellent portrayal of how fear controls the human mind by using the characters as examples. In the book Eleanor, Theodora, Luke, and Dr. Montague have all been influenced by fear in the story, whether it be the fear of love, the unknown, family, rejection, expression, or loneliness. These different types of fear plagued their minds causing their actions to reflect upon them. Jackson explores the theme of fear in The Haunting of Hill House by creating a cast of characters that in turn are manipulated by the inner workings of their minds and the
The use of imagery or personification increases the suspense in the story, ‘Shadows cower’ is a very descriptive way of showing how frightening the mansion is. It sounds as if the shadows which are linked to darkness themselves are afraid of a greater evil. We wonder what this great evil could be that makes evil itself tremble. Another personification used is ‘candles writhing’. Candles are usually associated to gothic stories, as it is only small source of light within a vast darkness of the room.
In this story, fear played a very important part. It provided a way for the author to make suspense. For instance when the drugstore’s owner called the police, it made the reader wonder if the police would arrive first or if Alfred’s mother would arrive first. Also, in the beginning when the owner caught Alfred shoplifting and we find out that Alfred is scared, it makes the reader wonder why he is scared. So as you can see, fear does play an important part in this story’s suspense category.
The house has been protecting itself from foxes, sparrows, intruders, and the dog. Throughout the story, the house as well tries to hide/protect itself from reality.
The paper compares two short stories (Poe’s “the fall of The House of Usher” and Perkins-Gillman’s “the Yellow Wallpaper”), in order to develop arguments about the relationship between characters’ fears and the main theme of each story. In the two short stories, the characters are suffering from various forms of fear under different circumstances. Such fears include fear of fear, fear of death, fear of other people, fear of isolation, fear of punishment, and fear of loss of reputation. Such different forms of fears can assist readers in understanding the motives of the characters.
What is fear? Everyone has their definition of the word fear. It could define as something or someone that give us the creeps. Besides that, how could we fear our body or our house? All around us, someone has some rare phobia, from spiders to waters.one of the dominant theme of both stories is that having fears could cause someone to become antisocial and loss themselves. “Hands” is about Wing Biddlebaum who lost everything because of a lie. The other stories “A Jury of Her Peer” is about Mrs. Wright who murder her husband because he takes the life of the only thing that gives her joy. Besides that, Mrs. Wright’s friend hides pieces of evidence that could convict her of the crime of killing her husband. Both characters use their hands to express their feelings, their house represents their lack of love and security, and they both face abuse from others.
It makes people feel venerable and weak but were it to be manipulated by someone else it could give them power and control over you if you cannot face it. In Room by Emma Donoghue, Ma and Jack faced different forms of fear in their own ways. Ma had to have her fear manipulated by her captor, Old Nick, and the judgment of society to protect Jack. While Jack faced his own fear of the unknown. The author developed the two characters through the novel and gave them an opportunity to overcome their fears by saying goodbye to Room, and them making a list of things they fear, like swimming. The list symbolized them planning to slowly beat all of their fears and close the chapter. This shows that with time, even the greatest fears and traumas can be
The mansion is a superb example and symbol of clairvoyance; it allows for great insight and perspective, furthermore, it is the one constant in the book. This allows it to greatly alter the story, even though it is an inanimate object that has no feelings, no thoughts, and cannot talk, but still says the most about everyone’s personality. It is an object that conveys true human nature, it does not care who everyone is, as they are all the same to it, and all it provides is a place to see and step back from reality to reflect on people’s actions.
The producer was aiming to create mystery and fear. The dark of the night and the description of the house as feeling dead in the protagonist’s narration sets a suspenseful scene filled with fear and tension. The young girl is followed by the camera as she explores the mansion. When entering the room suspected to be that of her aunts the camera leaves her side to pan around the room. The darkness doesn’t reveal everything but one becomes aware of a search. The revelation of little secrets leaves the viewer with many questions. The room is familiar to the protagonist as she finds items symbolic to her and familiar photographs. This familiarity however does not retract from suspicions that something sinister has been hidden. The producer has successfully captivated the viewer. The protagonist is being followed throughout the scene and has thus allowed for the viewer to bond with them. They are engaging with the audience through narration and have in return enticed the viewer to follow them along their journey. One feels nervous for the young girl however through tension in the scene one does not want them to discontinue the journey as too many questions have been left unanswered. One has been drawn into the world of which the protagonist dwells and is intrigued as to how the drama is