Diction And Memory In Brian Evenson's 'Windeye'

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Brian Evenson 's "Windeye" is a story about a man reminiscing about a memory from his childhood. The memory in particular, he is thinking about is when his sister disappears. After losing his sister, he finds out no one but he remembers her. And because of this he is treated as an mentally ill person, living the rest of his life wondering and waiting to see if his sister is real or not. If she was taken by the Windeye or if she was just a figment of his imagination the whole time. Evenson uses diction and memory to show that from when his earliest memories of her to him being an old man, that she was just part of his imagination.
The story starts with him as a old man thinking back to his memories of his childhood. Out of his earliest memories, …show more content…

An example of this is “For a time, it felt like he had brought the problem to life himself by stating it, that if he hadn’t said anything the half-window wouldn’t be there. Was that possible? He didn’t think so, that wasn’t the way the world worked. But even later, once he was grown, he still found himself wondering sometimes if it was his fault, if it was something he had done. Or rather, said.” (Evenson 3). Evenson’s diction in this example shows the strife the man has in his mind. He is accepting the possibility that his sister is just part of his imagination. Nonetheless, the old man also questions if she was really a part of his imagination, presenting the fact that maybe he doesn 't want to accept the possibility of his sister being a part of his imagination. That he possibly made the Windeye, the thing that took his sister. Hoping his sister wasn 't a part of his imagination, that she was real. He tries to convince himself differently by saying “Was that possible? He didn’t think so, that wasn’t the way the world worked.” But if that wasn 't true then the only other possibility is that the Windeye is real and it took his sister. With this we learn that throughout his entire life he was always fighting with himself about whether his sister and the Windeye where real or

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