Unjustified Fears, By Fernando Sorrentino

There are many different short stories that teach a variety of lessons. The short story, “Unjustified Fears,” by Fernando Sorrentino is a comedy story about phobias. Fernando Sorrentino was born November eighth, 1942, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has been writing for about 32 years and generally writes fantasy stories with a mix of humor. He has written six short stories collections and has won multiple literary awards. Throughout the short story, “Unjustified Fears,” Fernando Sorrentino uses many literary devices and components to tell his humorous short story about fear.
Most stories have an exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and a denouncement that make up their plot. In the exposition of “Unjustified Fears,” the narrator explains that they recently visited their friend, Enrique Viani, who “suffers from somewhat unjustified fears” (Sorrentino 1). They then begin to tell the story of what happened to Enrique two

years prior, that changed his life forever. The narrator also states that Enrique believes “two principles he had read somewhere or other, which were: 1) that, without exception, all spiders, even the smallest ones, carry poison, and can inject it; and, 2) that spiders only sting when they feel attacked or disturbed” which then leads to the rising action of an “enor-mous” spider crawling on his shoe and up his leg, under his pants (Sorrentino 1). Enrique then plans to stand completely still until the spider gets hungry and leave his leg in search for food. After his wife and daughter’s failed attempts to get him to abandon the plan, his wife calls the narrator to come help the situation. Once the narrator arrives, Enrique declines their plan to cut the pants and hit the spider off his leg so the family has to think of a new solution in order to be ready for their daughter’s birthday party later that day. This leads to the climax of the story which is when they call Don Nicola, a family friend, who immediately takes action by building a brick wall around Enrique, allowing him to sleep standing up. His wife decorates the cylinder to match the living room and the narrator leaves the house, unapproving of the chosen solution. In the falling action, the narrator returns to Enrique’s house, which is two years later (present day), only to find out that he still is in the brick cylinder and nothing has changed. Then, the wife tells the narrator that “through a kind of wise adaptation to the new circumstances, nature had exempted Enrique Viani from all physical necessities” so that he does not have to leave his cylinder. The narrator tries one last attempt to convince Enrique that the spider is surely dead and he can come out of his cylinder, but Enrique has lost the ability to speak and just says no “desperately with his eyes” (Sorrentino 3). In the end, Enrique never gets over his fear and the narrator leaves the house feeling sad and from then on decides to stay out of other people’s lives. The setting of this story takes place in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 1977 to 1979. The characters include Enrique who is the antagonist and the narrator who is the protagonist since Enrique continuously refuses the narrator’s help. All stories have a plot with characters, but not all have the same complications and themes.
Themes and complications within a story vary depending on the type of story it is. In the short story “Unjustified Fears,” it has a traditional plot sequence with multiple themes and complications. One complication in this story is man vs. man which would be Enrique vs. the narrator because the narrator tries to help Enrique but Enrique refuses it. Another complication in this story is man vs. himself which is Enrique vs. himself because he is fighting against his own fears that he cannot get over. And lastly, man vs. nature is another complication since Enrique is afraid of the spider. One theme present in this story is “do not let fear stop you from living your life” since Enrique let the fear of the spider control his life and he no longer does anything other than stay in his brick cylinder. Another theme is “you cannot help people who do not want to be helped” because the narrator tries to help Enrique but he keeps refusing it until the narrator finally gives up and determines that they “have no right to butt into other people's lives and deprive Enrique Viani of an advantage he so treasures” (Sorrentino 3). Along with the complications and themes throughout a story, there are also settings and tones.
Settings is the time and place in which a story takes place and the tone is the author's attitude throughout their story. In “Unjustified Fears,” the setting is in Buenos Aires, Argentina in the years 1977 and 1979. The author is in present day 1979 but tells the story of what happened to Enrique in 1977 that has made him the way he is now. The author's tone is desperate and pitiful because the narrator is trying to help Enrique conquer his fear but still fails. The narrator feels bad that Enrique has let this fear completely take over his life. The narrator also expresses anger near the end of the story when they say “I recalled his situation two or three times, and I flared up with rebellion: ah, if those unjustified fears didn't have such a hold, you'd see how I'd grab a pickaxe and knock down that ridiculous structure of Don Nicola's” because they wish they could just tear down the cylinder structure and show Enrique that his fears are unreasonable. Besides the setting and tone, stories also have characterization, dialogue, and point-of-view.
Characterization, dialogue, point-of-view, and figurative language are all literary devices. In the short story “Unjustified Fears,” there is no characterization in the form of physical descriptions but their is some characterization for their personalities. The narrator explains how Enrique suffers from unjustified fears and that is seen by how he allows the fear of the spider to take over his life and refuses to get help from anyone. This shows that Enrique is also stubborn and unreasonable because he refuses help and does not think of more logical solutions for the problem or the fact that the spider would be dead after two years. Also, the narrator even describes himself/herself as “not very sociable” and they forget about their friends which is why it takes two years for the narrator to finally check back up on Enrique and go to his house. The narrator is also partially agitated that they have to deal with this situation, as seen when the wife originally calls them and the narrators says “I was a bit annoyed to have to give up my one siesta of the week and I silently cursed out people who can't manage their own affairs” (Sorrentino 2). Also, Enrique is a static character because he stays the same and never gets over his fear while the narrator is a dynamic character because at the beginning they decide to help Enrique but by the end they give up and decide to stay out of other people's lives. This story does not have much dialogue except there are a couple of words that hint at the spanish culture such as “siesta” and the names of people such as “Alejandro,” “Graciela,” and “Enrique Viani” (Sorrentino 1). Besides the use of dialogue, this story has first person point of view told from the narrator. This is seen when the narrator says “I pulled a bit to one side some of the luxuriant greenery and through the little window I managed to spot a face so pale it was nearly transparent” since they are using “I” and physically doing actions throughout the story from their point of view (Sorrentino 3). Also, there is the use of figurative language such as similes and idioms. An example of a simile is “We can’t let the guests see Enrique standing there like a statue” and an example of an idiom is “Stubborn people drive me up the wall” (Sorrentino 2,3). Throughout the story, Besides the use of literary devices, stories also have genres and subgenres.
All stories have genres, such as thrillers, romances, or comedies. The genre for “Unjustified Fears” is a comedy and the subgenre is phobias or fantasy. This story is a humorous story about a guy with unjustified fears and it has a mix of fantasy in it due to the unrealistic ending. Instead of choosing the logical solution, Enrique decides that the building of a brick wall around him is a better solution. Then, once the narrator returns to visit Enrique, the wife tells the narrator that “through a kind of wise adaptation to the new circumstances, nature had exempted Enrique Viani from all physical necessities” which is unrealistic but works for the story since Enrique refuses to leave the brick cylinder. Not only do stories have genres and subgenres, they also have writing styles that express the author's voice.
The stories sentence length, word choice, and descriptiveness are all part of the author’s writing style.

In “Unjustified Fear,” the sentence length varies from short to long and the word choice varies as well. The author uses short sentences when the characters are talking to each other but long sentences when the narrator is explaining or thinking things to the reader. The word choice is mostly formal, except when the characters are speaking, which then becomes informal. The story is not very long but the author does use imagery and descriptiveness throughout it. Such as when the narrator is telling the story about Enrique and describes the spider as “a bulky, heavy spider that Enrique Viani could feel - and count - the footfalls of the eight feet - hairy and slightly sticky - across the goose flesh of his leg” or when “it nested, with its warm and throbbing cephalothorax and abdomen, in the hollow we all have behind our knees” (Sorrentino 2). Therefore, the author’s voice switches between informal and formal throughout the

story.
Overall the short story “Unjustified Fears” is entertaining and humorous. Positives of the story include that it's easy to understand and interesting with humorous aspects to it as well. Negatives of the story include that the narrator never reveals their name and there is not any physical descriptions of the characters. Also all throughout the story, every time the narrator mentions Enrique’s name, they say the full name “Enrique Viani” instead of only saying “Enrique” which gets tiresome to continuously read every time (Sorrentino 1). In conclusion, the short story “Unjustified Fears,” is an interesting and humorous story that teaches a valuable lesson, which is to not let fear control one’s life.
Fernando Sorrentino uses many literary devices and components throughout his short story, “Unjustified Fears.” Using these devices and components in his story, Sorrentino teaches multiple lessons. Those lessons include not letting fear control one’s life and that people cannot be helped if they are not willing to help themselves first.