Hypothetical Conjunctions In 'As You Would Have Told It To Me'

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In “As you would have told it to me (sort of) if we had known each other before you died” by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, the reader is given a morbid glimpse of a twisted reality of the life of an unnamed man. Ambiguity floods the pages of this story and a result, we are able to extract many valuable insights regarding it. The title at first glance is confusing with its being filled with hypothetical conjunctions and past tense verbs. Upon completing the story, however, one can draw what exactly this title means. Though it is, of course, up to interpretation, I believe that the title provides us with even more awareness as to who the narrator is. The “...If we had known each other before you died.” tells us that the Katja, the female main character …show more content…

The importance of this is that the majority of the story makes it appear as if the unnamed man was dating Katja, when in reality it was much more sinister. Patterns are found quite frequently in this story, one of which provides the reader with an interesting portrayal of Katja, who is, again, the narrator. On almost every page, Katja says something along the lines of “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember.” What these likely means is that Katja, with her not actually knowing the unnamed man personally, is hesitant and nervous to reveal what is truth and what isn’t. On the third paragraph of page four, Katja says “I don’t know how long” and “I don’t know what” on a few different occasions, supplying us with even more examples of her unclear speech. Lastly, the unnamed man goes almost the entire process of being arrested and jailed believing it was all a prank orchestrated by his ‘friends.’ Although the reader never truly learns if the unnamed man had any actual friends, he still goes through his trial and further processes believing that they were just doing this as some sort of joke for his ‘bachelor party.’ The sheer extent to which the unnamed man believes this is

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