This passage from the opening chapter of ‘Spies’ (by Michael Frayn) introduces an old man called Stephen Wheatley reflecting on his childhood - when his friend Keith first revealed that his own mother was a German spy. In many parts of the book, Frayn uses the first person narration in order to suggest some ambiguity, as the use of this often implies a bias view on a certain topic which may connote that there is no certain truth behind everything the narrator tells the reader about. As the story moves along, more tension is built as the mystery never seems to cease.
Throughout this extract, the narrator seems to evoke a secret and an elusive sense of smell which in turn creates interest. As the narrator seems to reflect on his past, he asks the daughter about the familiar smell without revealing reasons. This may suggest that
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the narrator may want to keep his secrets until they are fully resolved, which is why he decides to return to London. The mystery of his secrets is what makes the smell even more interesting for the reader. This is accentuated by the phrase, ‘Everything inside me shifts and stirs’. As soon as she smells the odour of liguster, he begins to feel uneasy as he started to remember his past. This may portray that his past is full of corrupted and harmful mysteries which are yet to be solved. Focusing on the word ‘Liguster’, there seems to be some manner of mystery around this plant as it emits a particular smell which causes the narrator to reflect on his past, and thus creating interest.
As this word is labelled by the daughter, the author begins to think deeply about this specific word. The author writes ‘Liguster…’ to recreate a sense of the narrator mulling over the meanings in his mind. The use of the ellipses may imply that this unfamiliar word (for the readers) has some manner of importance within this passage as he begins to come up with fragments of his time back when he was a child. As he gets nearer to a solution, the interest is intensified in correlation to this journey. At first he said, ‘I’m no wiser’, which denotes that Stephen does not have a clue what Liguster actually means and what it reminds him of. However, memories start to slowly come flooding back, as the narrator says ‘And yet’ and ‘Hold on, though’. Finally, he finds discovers the hidden meaning behind the odour, as he states ‘Of course! How obvious!’. The build up of tension and the suspense is what makes this passage so interesting for the
readers. The word ‘Liguster’ reminds him of his childhood sixty years ago. He remembers the days when his friend Keith and himself were still young as well as when Keith’s mother laughed ‘at what Keith had written’. As soon as Stephen describes these scenes of his past to the reader, the interest suddenly shifts to the new character as we do not know much about them. The fact that the first character from his past is Keith’s mother may imply that she has more significance than his friend Keith. This illustrates a sense of mystery as the readers seem to want to know more about Keith’s mother. In addition, this strong sense of intrigue can be strengthened by the juxtaposing tones of the two paragraphs describing Keith’s mother’s emotions. In the first paragraph of the two, Stephen explains how cheerful and smiley Keith’s mother was - ‘he brown eyes, sparkling, laughing at something Keith has written.’. However, in the second of the two paragraphs, Stephen paints a scene where Keith’s mother is ‘weeping’, which can be interpreted that she may be lonely or that she may be depressed without reason. This comparison of the different characteristics of Keith’s mother suggests that Stephen does not know a lot about Mrs Keith as he does not understand her mood changes. Therefore, interest is created as the readers crave to know more about Keith’s mother. As the passage moves along, the tension of urgency to solve the mystery sustains interest, as it slowly reveals essential part to the puzzle. There seems to be an urge throughout this passage as well as the novel to solve some sort of mystery. The fact that we do not know what the narrator wants to detect portrays an even more mysterious mystery. This creates interest for the reader as their curiosity intensifies. Furthermore, the whole story is based on solving a mystery and thus the secret slowly unfolds. The hooks the reader into the story as they become more intrigued to find the answer for the puzzle. This is supported by the fact that the story ends with a cliff hangar. The last sentence, ‘It’s too ridiculous’, sustains the readers’ interest due to the fact that no solution had been discovered, which in turn causes the reader to read more, as Stephen returns to his long lost city, London, to recollect his childhood memories.
...it may help us arrive at an understanding of the war situation through the eyes of what were those of an innocent child. It is almost unique in the sense that this was perhaps the first time that a child soldier has been able to directly give literary voice to one of the most distressing phenomena of the late 20th century: the rise of the child-killer. While the book does give a glimpse of the war situation, the story should be taken with a grain of salt.
When Divakaruni moved to the United States, tried to abandon the smells of her childhood in favor of acculturation. She realized this is a mistake when she has a child of her own. She eventually comes to appreciate the smells’ abilities to comfort, give joy, and motivate. One smell in particular she told about is how the smell of iodine reminded her that “love sometimes hurts while it’s doing its job.” In rearing her own offspring, she intentionally tried to replicate the “smell technique” with her own twist in hopes that her children reap similar benefits. One example is how she filled the house with the aroma of spices and sang American and Indian tunes with her
Throughout the novels Perfume and Chronicles of a Death Foretold the authors tends to use many literary devices in order to really bring life to the work and keep the reader intrigued. Exaggeration is very apparent in both novels and almost seems excessive, but vivid at the same time. In Perfume Suskind refers to “stench” many times and based on the imagery used in the novel the context gives the word “stench” almost a positive meaning at times. For Example, when Grenouille murders the girl, the way he describes her “sweaty armpits, oily hair, and fishy genitals”, makes the sensation seem like an actual perfume to his nose. The author also uses scent to characterize in the novel. Grenouille who had to apparent sent seemed equal to one with
In the novel Perfume by Patrick Sϋskind, the protagonist Grenouille was a mysterious child, he was questioned by multiple people on account of him being without a scent. Ironically, Grenouille possessed a supernatural sense of smell. In the novel, Grenouille goes on to kill 25 young adult females. The scent these girls emit is what motivates him to carry out these murders. These murders are not out of cold blood. Grenouille uses the scent of these girls to create a mastermind perfume. Patrick Suskind uses such descriptive words that sensory imagery is inevitable.
In the novel, Perfume by Patrick Suskind,the author incorporates the idea that society may be attracted to certain individuals by a chemically active world. An individual’s scent may possibly emit different reactions to different society members. For example, the protagonist of Perfume, Grenouille starts out as an unwanted child whose smell was revolting. Suskind used this exaggeration of Grenouille’s odor to give the reader a sense of imagery, to imagine what the scent could have possibly smelled like. The author uses the protagonist’s depressing backstory (abandoned as a child, outcast to the world), to create a sense of pity from the reader, despite the fact that he is a murderer.
...thing of his wife snoring those random nights he is nostalgic for. After time it was even comforting to him. The father is nostalgic for the comfort of the happiness that he received from his family.
In conclusion, reading the poem “Smell!” by William Carlos Williams made me realized that the way my nose function can be compare to many other aspects in my life. The author tells us about the good and bad odors our nose smell. I also find this poem to be really inspirational because we can all draw many different conclusions out of this
She questions them, trying to get them to tell her the ‘truth’, that they can see the ghosts, even though she fully believes they do. She questions Flora about it one time she saw the child looking out the window. Flora replied ‘“Ah, NO!" she returned, almost with the full privilege of childish inconsequence, resentfully, though with a long sweetness in her little drawl of the negative. At that moment, in the state of my nerves, I absolutely believed she lied…’ The governess believes that Flora is trying to hide her lie behind her innocence and beauty. The child 's sweetness, such loved before, was now an escape from trouble in the Governesses. The children continue to do this to the governess, saying such things but with such sweetness as for what Miles did, talking to her. “Think me—for a change—bad!" I shall never forget the sweetness and gaiety with which he brought out the word” Miles hid his words behind his sweetness and happiness, that the child still is innocent seeming. The children are beginning to act as how the governess believes them to act, bad yet
" A golden surprise that caused excited little tremors run up her jaws". The smells in the air triggered Myop's other senses and we can see that she is quite aware of these familiar surroundings. Walker then begins reveals more about Myop's ... ... middle of paper ... ...
As the writer of this story, Flannery O’Connor has used the omniscient narration as a tool in this story in very effective and efficient manners so it is difficult for the reader to judge that what will happen next. Many events remain secret for the reader, and these secrets start revealing, as the story progresses. When the story ends, the reader comes to know that he/she was wrong at the start of the story. Many other characters have also entered in this story, the introduction of these characters by the writer was to make this story as more interesting and more thoughtful like,
In the eyes of critics, Saving Private Ryan has been renowned to be the most iconic and well directed war movie in film history. However, the millennial generation remained uninformed of the magnitude of the film. Throughout the movie, soldiers sacrifice their lives to save the life of other men. However, some soldiers sacrifice by choice while others do under the influence of hierarchy. When the remaining soldiers out of the eight find Private Ryan, he refuses to go back home for “[he] was with the only brother [he] had left” (Spielberg). Ryan, under his own influence, decides to risk his own life to thwart off the Germans from the bridge with his remaining comrades. The bond of brotherhood with which developed between soldiers during the
Louise found that Baptiste’s skin “tasted sour with old body salts.” The use of the word “salt” evokes the association of minerals pertaining to the earth. I immediately begin to think about elements and in turn affiliate Baptiste’s character with natural substances. After Louise got close to Baptiste, she noticed that he smelt like the “sweet, warm earth and the faint, odd smell of lime that covered anything unclean.” Baptiste has a paradoxical scent because he smells both like the “warm earth” and “anything unclean” at the same time. The description of “warm earth” makes me think of the nature and all things fresh. However, fresh and “unclean” are words that fail to coincide with one another. This presents Baptiste’s character as a mystery because it’s difficult to explain the inner working of a
Despite being a short piece, this poem has no lack of technē as it describes a couples concern with intimacy. Nonetheless, the technē found here is more subtle than that of the medieval or ancient periods which is fitting for its time and style. To begin with, all the scents described serve as a form of technē since they function to change the way in which someone is perceived; the smell of cinnamon marks the speaker’s wife as such. Moreover, the speaker “buried [his] hands in saffron, disguised them over smoking tar, helped the honey gatherers” making these scents tools for veiling his unique aroma (154). Similarly, the couple also made use of water to protect themselves from the scent. All of these uses of technē are rather personal to the
We receive her point of view, and is she who speaks here. It is a homodiegetic narrator who tries to reproduce her own impressions in an internal focalisation; we see the story throughout her eyes. She is an overt narrator with a distinct personality who makes her opinions known. We can distinguish her presence very clearly and it is the main reason for the sense of mystery surrounding the story. On the other hand, she is an unreliable narrator; we cannot be certain the information the governess is presenting is completely trustable, not because she is not sincere, but because we only have her personal point of view and she may not be aware of the implications her feelings
The biscuits and gravy always smelled so good. They smelled like pepper ,sausage ,and nice buttery biscuits. Her Father would make them when she was still asleep because he knew that the delicious of the gravy and biscuits would wake her up. And they did, every time. She would always wake up to the aroma of the sausage when they were almost done.