In my opinion, the author Andres Dubus presents two separate plots in his work, “Killings” - Matt’s plot and everyone else’s plot. Throughout the story you see Matt’s emotions and grieving process juxtaposed to his wife’s, his children’s, and his town’s. Of course Matt is distraught over his son’s death, but his wife, Ruth, was emotionally destroyed, his children were livid, and the town was unabashedly enraged: all over the idea that the man who murdered Frank was able to walk freely without any noticeable guilt or remorse. There is also the interesting addition of Mary Anne perceived from Matt’s eyes to be mentioned. He continuously mentally commentates on her appearance; her, “...long brown legs he loved to look at” (paragraph 75), or “wide
brown eyes” (paragraph 75) seemed to haunt his thoughts and also played into the choices he made. Over time, you see the plot develop through flashbacks which show the external pressures of Matt’s life slowly building up until they become overwhelming. You see Frank’s funeral, childhood, and intimacy with Mary Anne all through Matt’s eyes. These flashbacks really show the development of Matt’s internal feelings as everyone’s expectations toward him as a man and a father become more intense, as well as the overarching theme that strong emotions such as love or revenge can overcome feelings and values that seemed so important and unwavering someone’s whole life. Inevitably, Matt gave into all of the external pressures placed upon him and murdered Strout. He immediately felt the weight of his actions as he went home and broke down to his wife. Unlike her husband, Ruth immediately felt content and relief, arguably because she hadn’t just murdered anyone. If his son had never said, “‘I should kill him’” (paragraph 1), the thought would have never penetrated Matt’s mind. It is seen all throughout the story that Matt doesn’t want to kill Richard and he’s not doing it for himself, but as a reaction to the stress and burden he feels from all around him. It was after that thought was introduced into his mind that it began to slowly consume him and ultimately led to his demise.
The Parallel Plot Lines in Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut is and will always in my eyes and in the eyes of many others the writer who made the science-fiction genre safe for not only mainstream appeal, but also critical acclaim and intellectual contemplation. Even though Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker series were released in roughly the same timeframe as Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, none has held the same aura of respect and significance to the literary zeitgeist as Vonnegut's monumental masterpiece. The respect Slaughterhouse-Five garnishes among bookworms and the intellectual elite alike is no accident. Kurt Vonnegut's universal acclaim and appeal surely comes in no small part from his gift for connecting, almost unnoticiably, seemingly unrelated objects and events to give them deeper meaning, creating a phenomenon known within Jungian circles as synchronicity. By making his novel so multi-layered by drawing these comparisons, such as in being transported from a train car into a POW camp to an extraterrestrial spaceship that hums like a melodious owl, human beings being trapped within each moment in time like an insect in amber, and the writer's own repetition of his current project to a jokey old song, the writer gives us a deeper insight into the real multi-layeredness of space and time.
This examination will look at the short story “Killings” by Andre Dubus and the main characters in the story. The story begins on a warm August day with the burial of Matt and Ruth Fowler’s youngest son Frank. Frank’s age: “twenty-one years, eight months, and four days” (Dubus 107). Attending the funeral were Matt, his wife Ruth, their adult children and spouses. Matt’s family is extremely distraught over the murder of their youngest son/brother, in their own way. There are implications of wanting to kill Richard Strout, the guy accused of being the murderer: “I should kill him” (107), as stated after the service. This comment is considered a fore-shadowing of what is to come in the thought progression of Matt and Ruth.
The book Murder in the Bayou: Who Killed the Women Known as the Jeff Davis 8?, written by independent journalist and private investigator Ethan Brown, tells the horrific true story of the bayou town of Jennings, Louisiana located in the heart of the Jefferson Davis parish. During the four year duration between 2005 and 2009, the town of Jennings was on edge after the discovery of the bodies of eight murdered women were found in the filthy canals and swamps. The victims became known as the “Jeff Davis 8.” For years, local law enforcement suspected a serial killer, and solely investigated the murders based on that theory alone. The victims were murdered in varying manors, but when alive they all shared many commonalities and were connected to
The Murderers Are Among Us, directed by Wolfe Gang Staudte, is the first postwar film. The film takes place in Berlin right after the war. Susan Wallner, a young women who has returned from a concentration camp, goes to her old apartment to find Hans Mertens living there. Hans took up there after returning home from war and finding out his house was destroyed. Hans would not leave, even after Susan returned home. Later on in the film we find out Hans was a former surgeon but can no longer deal with human suffering because of his traumatic experience in war. We find out about this traumatic experience when Ferdinand Bruckner comes into the film. Bruckner, Hans’ former captain, was responsible for killing hundreds
A section in the novel which expresses their family’s suffering is when Franks sister, Margaret, his parents’ joy is taken ill. ‘But when Margaret cries, there is a high lonely feeling in the air and Dad is out of bed in a second, holding her to him.’ Frank goes on to say ‘When he passes the window where the streetlight shines in, you can see the tears on his cheeks and that’s strange because he never cries for anyone unless he has the drink taken from him’. This is illustrating a very emotional scene but as the child is watching, due to his age and immaturity, he fails to realise his father is grieving through Margaret’s pain. This is a original way to show a child’s suffering through a novel as the reader is seeing the misery through the child’s eyes, but the pain being felt is by his father.
The story "Maus" is written in a rather unconventional way because it is written in a graphical novel format. This format tends to grasp the attention of those from a younger audience. However, since the story is about the Holocaust many critics think that it may have not been written in the right format. The author Art Spiegelman wrote it in this form not to make light of the situation but also not to make it seem like any other kind of Holocaust format. Which is sometimes considered boring and the viewers it draws attention too are those of an older age.
What drives serial killers to kill their victims in the most brutal way possible? The answer to that question is still being researched today. The psychopathic mindset of serial killers tend to be influenced by abuse, insanity, and mental illness. In Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, Capote shows great examples of mental illness and how being abused can affect their mind. An example of this is when Perry was abused by his parents, he had troubles wetting the bed and sucking on his thumb at ages “normal” people would consider troublesome. Serial killers are often portrayed as bloodthirsty monsters, when in reality, their psychological mindset needs to be considered.
“Come on, Nancy. Tell us the truth. Where are the children?” wrote author Mary Higgins Clark in her chilling novel, Where are the Children. Clark’s thrilling murder mystery describes a toxic relationship between a professor, Carl Harmon, the mentally insane and abusive husband of Nancy Eldridge, a beautiful young mother who is being accused of the murder of her children. Manipulative tactics and gender play key roles in creating discussion and open ended ideas toward the theme of this novel. The reader can see how Nancy has been unfairly accused for the murder of her first set of children. Although in the end Carl is finally identified as the murderer, the entire novel is set to make it seem as if Nancy was capable of harming her own flesh and blood. Mary Higgins Clark writes a happy ending novel to give
...e oven?” (Dahl 4) Mary was very manipulative and sinister because she knew exactly what she was doing; she wanted the officers to eat up all of the lamb so that there would be no evidence of the murder weapon that she used to kill. As the officers were eating up all of the lamb, Mary was very happy and giggling while she was listening to the officers eat up the lamb, she was never grieving about the loss of Patrick and just wanted to kill him and cover up the evidence so she will not be caught.
The killing of teenagers with big dreams and hopeful futures represents death’s unpredictability. “He will never go to college… He will never satisfy his curiosity, never finish the hundred best novels ever written, never be the great man he might have been” (Lockhart 60). Through the adults and living children, the two incredibly different ways of dealing with and understanding tragedy are shown. “They know it doesn’t play out in life as it does on a stage or between the pages of a book. It is neither a punishment meted out nor a lesson conferred. Its horrors are not attributable to one single person” (Lockhart 63). Clairmont symbolizes the problems of the Sinclair family, while New Clairmont stands as a reminder of the dead children. ““New Clairmont seems like a punishment to me… A self-punishment. He built himself a home that isn’t a home. It’s deliberately uncomfortable”” (Lockhart 53). In conclusion, connections to tragedy linger in every corner of We Were Liars through symbolism in characters and
In Russell Banks' novel, The Sweet Hereafter, a small town suffers a great tragedy when fourteen school kids drown after a bus accident on the way to school. The bus driver, Dolores Driscoll, considers the kids to be her own. Yet, when discussing the accident, she acts nonchalant. It seems as if she is relaying a story without displaying remorse for the accident. Dolores' priority is to describe the town, "my first stop that morning was at the top of Bartlett Hill Road, were it branches into Avalanche Road and McNeil,"(Banks 7) and the people in it, "Doreen was a Pomeroy from Lake Placid..."(11). She also strives to avoid the blame, "A dog-it was a dog I saw for certain. Or thought I saw"(1). But she even doubts her visions, denouncing the excuses that she keeps arguing. " Maybe because I felt so cut off from my own children; maybe out of some pure perversity. Who knows now? Fixing motives is life fixing blame-the further away from the act you get, the harder it is to single out one thing as having caused it"(10) She never iterates her sadness. The onl...
One of Dahl’s most prominent styles used to highlight betrayal throughout the story is point of view. The point of view of the story is told in is third-person limited, meaning the reader only gets to read the thoughts of one character. That character was Mary Maloney, the main character and wife of Patrick Maloney. Hearing only one characters view of events can make readers opinions biased, meaning the feelings they feel towards characters are from the influence of Mary Maloney. The readers do not know what Patrick Maloney is thinking so it is hard for readers to sympathize him in the beginning of the story when he tells Mary he wants a divorce (Dahl). As one critic stated, readers are unable to see into his mind, he is immediately marked as the antagonist (Bertonneau). Another critic believed that having no knowledge of his motives made his actions seem inexcusable.
One positive aspect of the book is how Sanford includes actual accounts of the massacre from the survivors, instead of briefly summarizing them herself. It would be quicker and easier for her to briefly point out what the testimonies said and what aspects they had in common. I thought reading the perspective of the massacre from different people like a widow, someone who was recruited to be a member of the Guatemalan army, someone who was forced to become a member of the army, etc. gave me a new perspective on the massacres. These testimonies and the pictures give the reader an emotional tie to the data that is being presented. I believe using the emotions of the reader helps them see her point that they Guatemalan army intended to harm their
The major theme of Andre Dubus’ Killing,s is how far someone would go for the person they love. It is important to note the title of the story is killings and not killers, for the reasoning that the story does not just focus on two deaths or two murderers but rather the death of marriage, friendship, youth, and overall, trust.
The murderer is a young man who killed an old man in the bedroom of his house. The young man decides that he can no longer deal with the old man’s blind eye. The eye freaks him out and makes his blood run cold. The young man spies on the old man every night at midnight. He convinces everyone that he is not “mad”, just nervous.