The Red Room

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This essay discusses the significance of the red room towards the theme of the story ‘I’m the king of the castle’. This is mostly centred in the dilemma between the fight of entrapment and freedom, fear, death, insecurity and power. As a response, it gives a better understanding of the story and the way the character’s emotions and thoughts change as they are exposed to a variety of atmospheres through out the progress of the story.
The symbolism of the red room talks about a gothic area in which the contrast stands to “light” and “darkness” representing the darkness dominating or prevailing which introduces the presence of death over the light which tells us that such remains weak or in isolation as if it has been completely absorbed, bringing in the fight between entrapment and freedom along with insecurity which is what we can see in kingshaw’s behaviour when he enters the room “Kingshaw stiffened and moved slowly towards the glass cases” this tells us that kingshaw is insecure and maybe scared as the vocabulary shows that his movements change and became less agile, he slows down and his body became heavier reflecting his insecurity. Later within the red room the fight between being trapped and freedom presents as Hooper locks kingshaw in the red room “He tugged and heaved at both the tall windows, until his arms felt wrenched from their sockets, and his chest ached. He could not move them, nobody had opened them for years” Kingshaw struggles to fiscally open the windows, the author uses the word “wrenched” to communicate to us that Kingshaw is debilitated, once he gives up, it shows us that he struggles to be free, and so he feels like an animal, more precisely as a moth, as if he was caged in their heavy containers. “He l...

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...gives a very good perspective of what is being described creating obscurity and maybe disgust in and out of the story. The way he uses the language enhances the image of the moth injecting terror into the environment and we can see that this is effective because of the reaction of the character “The skin prickled across the back of his neck” this is similar if not the same as to when your hairs on your arms stand up which is a sign of anxiety.
To conclude the red room influences the way the story develops changing the theme through out various ways as from fear, insecurity, death, horror and darkness affecting the way the characters behave and think giving a better comprehension of the story to the reader. The author uses the language to be able to vary between themes and to help transmit the vibes of the moment making it easier for the story to progress.

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