Setting: The True Deceiver By Tove Jansson

Madison Gross
English
Reed
The True Deceiver Essay

Setting: Inside and Outside
The True Deceiver, a novel, is written by Tove Jansson, a Swedish-Finnish author, and is the subject of the lies we tell ourselves and the lies we tell others. In this novel, we see inside and outside spaces and the different types of imagery. The imagery shows the conflict and message off the novel. The True Deceiver starts off with snow beginning to fall on a village all winter long and the sun rising late and setting early as snow begins to pile up. The main character is Katri Kling, who is a “yellow-eyed” outcast. She lives with her “simple-minded” brother and a dog she does not name. Another major character is Anna Aemelin, an elderly children’s book illustrator

An example of an inside space is when the main character Katri “had scrubbed the room above the storekeeper’s shop, scrubbed it with a kind of painstaking rage, the way women clean when they can’t lash out….standing in hungry vigilance, waiting for some sign to tell him if he could go on hating or if there was the tiniest little handhold for his lust (pg.71.)” This quotation takes place when Katri moves to Anna’s place and explains how she cleaned and went about her work. It is clear from Jansson’s description that is an angry woman; she does not want to clean the floor. Her extreme emotion is visible through the scrubbing. It describes her scrubbing the floor and cleaning the place with a rage that she is containing. We can imagine this because of the loss of her mom and the hard life she lives. Jansson says, “Naturally she wants a fluffy floor. Carpet or no carpet, it’s all fluffy in here anyway — hot and hairy. Maybe there’s more air upstairs. We’ll have to crack the window at night or Mats won’t be able to sleep (21).” Here, we see Katri’s emotion and can feel her love for her brother. She just wants it to be a safe place for her brother-- and Katri will do anything for her brother. Jansson’s character is often judged by the others in town: “Katri’s advice was widely discussed in the village and struck people as correct and very astute. What made it so effective, perhaps, was that she worked on the

Jansson’s detailed setting descriptions help show Anna and Mat’s life and Jansson uses them as a metaphor for the struggle that they go through. The dark environment and minimal sun can represent her losing her mom. Additionally, our spaces generally define us in everyday life; they show how we live and what that