Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Identity in english literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Identity in english literature
Although The Landlady and The Inn of Lost Time are both different mystery stories with different plots, they still have some similarities. The Landlady is about the young inexperienced Billy Weaver staying at a very strange boarding house owned by a very mysterious landlady. The Inn of Lost Time is about Zenta the bodyguard and Tokubei the merchant staying at an inn and waking up to find that fifty years had passed. These two stories show similarities in their character’s inexperience, trickery, and strange hosts. One of the first similarities that these two stories show are their main character’s inexperience. Both Billy Weaver and Zenta are lured in easily. Billy enjoys the warm look of the boarding house while Zenta, hungry from …show more content…
The first sign of trickery is the fake appearance of the inn or boarding house. Billy stays at the boarding house because he saw how warm and welcoming it was through the window. The fireplace cast a warm glow in the room while a dog was asleep on the floor and a bird rested on its perch. Later on, Billy finds out that both the dog and the bird are dead and have been stuffed by the landlady. Zenta and Tokubei first believed that time had passed because the appearance of the inn that they were staying at had changed. It now looks dilapidated and worn out. Using his keen observation skills, Zenta was able to figure out that this was caused by rubbing on ashes. Hidden drugs is another use of trickery. The landlady gave Billy tea that contained potassium cyanide, a bitter almond flavored poison, so that Billy would die and she could stuff him. The hosts at the inn gave Zenta and Tokubei tea that contained knockout drugs. After the two were asleep, the host and his daughter carried them outside. The fake kindness used by the innkeeper and the landlady is the third example of trickery. Billy thought that the landlady was being nice to him. He described her as, “.. she was obviously a kind and generous soul.” In the Inn of Lost Time, the innkeeper is polite to Zenta and Tokubei and offers them a low price since he can’t provide an extravagant welcome for the two. It was easy for Billy and Zenta to be tricked because …show more content…
In both stories, the hosts know that their guests are coming and are waiting for them. When Billy rings the doorbell of the boarding house, the door is opened immediately as if the landlady had been standing on the other side of the door the whole entire time. When Tokubei and Zenta follow the smell of rice to the clearing, they find a pretty girl waiting for them. During Billy’s, Tokubei, and Zenta's stay, their hosts looked at them weirdly. The landlady looked at Billy as if he was food. “... her blue eyes traveled slowly all the way down the length of Billy’s body, to his feet and then up again.” Tokubei and Zenta's host was less creepy. He continuously admired Zenta's sword and would often talk to Zenta about them. The final example of the strange hosts are their appearances. Billy notices that the landlady has a strange smell that reminds him of pickled walnuts, new leather, and the corridors of the hospital. When Zenta was being served tea by the pretty girl, he noticed that she had six fingers. The odd behaviour and appearances of the landlady and the innkeeper creates a mysterious element in the
After a short break from traumatic occurrences, Billy had the honor of being the sole survivor of a plane crash; his brain was slightly damaged and while he was recuperating, his wife died, of carbon monoxide poisoning. While he was in the hospital, Billy read science-fiction novels, specifically about aliens and time travel. When he was released, he began working as an optometrist again, but experienced sleep deprivation, which, his doctor hypothesized, was the cause of his random weeping. And most recently, his daughter has been stripping him of his dignity, justifying her actions with claims that her father suffers from dementia and senility.
He lost consciousness, but the music went on. He dimly sensed that someone was rescuing him. Billy resented to that. (43-4) Billy is also traumatized by the extreme loss in his life. Everywhere he looks, he experiences great loss.
Laura's meeting with Jim at the door is just as I imagined it while reading the play, his demeanor casual and friendly, and her shyness painfully obvious. After entering the house Tom goes out on the terrace, but he does not light his cigarette before going out as the play directs, and he also continues to read his paper once he is on the terrace, which the play says nothing about.
Billy constantly feels bad about the choices he makes. While Billy is in the ward, he is surrounded by many strong women who are all in charge. The main nurse, Nurse Ratched, is constantly watching over him due to her relationship with his mother, who doesn’t want him to grow up. With these expectations from his mother and Nurse Ratched, Billy conforms into a thirty year old man who is afraid to think for himself. Billy is still a virgin when he enters the ward, due to his mother not letting him think for himself. This causes Billy to constantly feel guilty and unhappy when he makes choices for himself, because those around him made him believe that he does not deserve to make his own choices. When Billy finally did something for himself
Welty uses a beauty shop as an ironic backdrop for the casting of bile and venom. Leota sets herself to the task of transforming, Mrs. Fletcher into hair art, all the while speaking from a dark heart. The beautician plies her trade not thinking of the hideousness gushing from her lips. Leota begins with a lie by telling Mrs. Fletcher “one of Thelma’s girls” had revealed her impending nativity. Soon after Leota acknowledges her deceit, she faines innocent in the acquisition of the knowledge Leota’s malaise is quick to turn on even those who she claims as friends. Mrs. Pike begins this story as a new friend with whom Leota has shared a Jax Beer. The advertising slogan for Jax Beer is “The Drink of Friendship”. The beer symbolizes a bond, which has formed; yet, friendship is not safe in the shadow of the wickedness and envy. Welty presents the fickle nature of that Green Monster of envy. Despite Leota’s declaration of friendship with Mrs. Pike, Leota’s spews forth putridity. This putridity leaves a stench about this shrine of feminine (beauty).
First off his experiences during the war were definitely traumatic, he gets lost behind enemy lines during the Battle of the Bulge, he is taken prisoner by the Germans, he sees a fellow soldier die from gangrene while walking from a prisoner of war camp, so it goes, he is crammed for days in a train with other POWs, he survives the bombing of Dresden then observes the aftermath of the firestorm, including, many burnt and charred bodies, and then he witnesses a fellow POW 's execution for stealing a teapot so it goes. So there is no question Billy has experiences flashbacks to the war as if these incidents were happening in the present. It is not surprising that he suffers from hallucinations either. But what about the toilet plunger aliens? So Billy Pilgrim has a lot of clogged memories in his mind right? Toilets also can get clogged for many reasons, so the toilet plunger aliens serve as a way to unclog Billy 's mind. The hallucinations of these aliens help Billy work out the bad, clogged memories of war and horror. Something similar about the Germans and the Tralfamadorian Aliens is they both made Billy strip when he arrived, the Germans refuse to answer why they beat one prisoner and not another, Tralfamadorian aliens refuse to answer why they took Billy, the Germans confine Billy to a slaughterhouse, the Tralfamadorians confine him to a zoo. So obviously there are parallels between his past and
The plot manipulates the mood of the story by using sensory detail. Billy gets kind of an eerie feeling as him and the landlady who is in her forties are walking up the stairs. In the text, it states, “her blue eyes traveled slowly all the way down the length
It is clear that the author, Roald Dahl, utilizes a variety of literary devices in order to create an element of suspense in the text, “The Landlady.” An example of this would be Dahl’s use of foreshadowing in the text. The Landlady states in the text, “But my dear boy, he never left. He’s still here. Mr. Temple is also here. They’re on the fourth floor, both of them together” (Dahl 5). It is evident how this would contribute to the component of suspense for the reader. The use of foreshadowing throughout “The Landlady” is meant to hint towards Billy’s impending doom, and thus would compel readers to anticipate Billy’s fate, creating suspense. Foreshadowing contributes a great deal to the dark humor/mysterious aspect of Dahl’s style of writing.
Additionally, we learn that while he was recuperating, his wife died of carbon-monoxide poisoning trying to get to the hospital to see him. The entire story is basically told in Chapter 2.It is also in this chapter that Billy,"time-travels for the 1st time The series of scenes and fragmentations of Billy 's life in chapter 2 alone unnerving. Had we leaned the corse of events in a normal chronological sequence, rather than tidbit here and there, the events would have been m,ore understandable. We learn of his wife 's death in chapter 2, yet we learn the full circumstances of her death in chapter
one difference is that in on of the stories the murder is on purpose,and in the other it’s on accident. Firstly,in the landlady she definitely tries to kill guys. The landlady of the title says herself,“I stuff all my little pets when they pass away.” I felt like this is a ominous clue about her actions. But in the curse,josh
Bromden tells us “Billy got more and more nervous, afraid the girl might not show up, afraid she might” (Kesey 296) Also, when Mcmurphy first brings up the Seclusion room Billy’s response is “Ah, come on, M-M-Mack”(Kesey 295). Billy said. At the end of the chapter, he acts very maturely and take control of Candy instead of shying away. “Billy Bibbit and his girl mentioned that it was after four o’clock and, if it was all right, if people didn’t mind, they’d like to have Mr. Turkle unlock the Seclusion Room” (Kesey 304-305). By leading her into the room, Billy is acting very boldly.
Billy is not happy to stay behind and tells the elderly couple not to mess with him because he knows they don’t really want to keep him and he knows that he has just been dumped off. The couple
In the first story “the landlady” they say “He pressed the bell. Far away in a back room he heard it ringing, and then at once-it must have been at once because he hadn’t even had time to take his finger from the bell-button-the door swung right open and a woman was standing there”. I think this was mysterious because then the man says “normally you ring the bell and you have at least half-minute’s wait before the door opens” and that’s why it seems to have a bit of questions to answer. In the second story “lamb to the slaughter” they say “I’m afraid, he said.
Billy picked his own path to his death. He should have foreseen that this bed and breakfast was not a good idea because it doesn't matter how comfortable and warm the place is, it shouldn't feel like home because home will always be home and it cannot be duplicated. For example, when Billy and the landlady were talking about Mr. Temple and Mr. Mulholland is dead, she mentions “‘But my dear boy, he never left. He's still here. Mr. Temple is also here. They're on the third floor, both of them together.’” this shows that she has both of the guys and they are dead because she has killed and stuffed them to be kept forever. Obsession has completely controlled her mind into not seeing that these beautiful creatures are humans too, just like her and she does not have the right to take their lives for her infatuated obsession over beauty. In the story the landlady indicated that Billy looked familiar to Mr. Temple and Mr. Mulholland. When Billy said his age was seventeen, the landlady said, “‘Oh, it's a perfect age! Mr. Mulholland was also seventeen. But I think he was a trifle shorter than you are, in fact, I'm sure he was, and his teeth weren't quite so white, you have the most beautiful teeth, did you know that?’” in this, she finds Billy looking similar and same age as Mr. Mulholland but she found Billy's teeth better from Mr. Mulholland. There was more and more
In The Umbrella Man the author used characterization to make you think the little old man was a nice gentleman who just wanted money for a cab ride home. The mother thought he was a gentleman because of his shoes, but is still suspicious. He makes a deal with her to trade his expensive silk umbrella for money. She gives in and makes the trade. He sprints away clearly not looking for a cab. The mother and daughter follow him. They see him walk into a bar and buy a drink with the money they gave him. When his is finished he grabs another umbrella from the coat rack and proceeded to play the same trick on another stranger. It wasn’t till the end that the mother and daughter realized that he was not who they thought he would be. In The Landlady the author opened the story by a man named Billy Weaver looking for a place to stay. He found a nice “Bed and Breakfast” and he rung the doorbell and the lady opened the door before he could even take his finger off the bell. She talked to him and made him sign a guestbook which had names in it from more than 2 years ago. He recognized the names and started to get suspicious. He noticed a couple of stuffed animals. The landlady did it herself. He continued to drink the tea and he got tired and then passed out. He woke up to the landlady getting ready to stuff him. He had been poisoned by the tea. In the end the plot revealed that she was a killer who stuffed things for her own enjoyment. The Umbrella Man and The Landlady both have plots that use false lead that makes you think that people are not who you assume they