Rhetorical approach to fiction

Kevin (Kyoo Sang) Jo

Professor Glen McClish

RWS 600 Assignment: Rhetorical approach to fiction

2 December 2013

1. The Tell-Tale Heart

A person set up as “I,” the narrator, murders an old man with whom he lives on the eighth day after he planned to murder the old man carefully for a week. The old man has a clouded, pale, “vulture-like” eye which so distresses the narrator. The narrator then dismembers the body of the old man and conceals the pieces under the floorboards, making certain to hide all signs of the crime. However, a neighbor reports to the police because of the old man’s scream and the three police officers come into the narrator’s house. The narrator is confident that they will not find any evidence of the murder and he invites the officers to look around the old man’s room. The narrator, however, begins to feel uncomfortable and notices the heartbeat of the old man ringing in his ears. In the end, he is terrified by the beating of the heart, convinced that the officers are aware of his guilt, and confesses.

The narrator says that he is not insane and he tells his story, but the reader cannot help but feel him insane. It is not possible for the reader to approach the exact situation because the reader only looks into the event at a point of view of the narrator. In this respect, the narrator is used as an unreliable true agent in this story. Somebody suggests that this story is an allegorical representation of relationship between son and father. In that case, the “vulture” eye of the old man is symbolizing parental surveillance and possibly the paternal principles of right and wrong.

2. Bliss

The protagonist in this story, Bertha, is very naïve and happy young woman living with a husband and a baby. The story follows a dinner party given by Bertha and her husband, Harry. The female guest, Pearl Fulton, is someone whom Bertha happened to meet at a club. She is quite honest, but she does not allow someone to be close to her within a certain limit. As the dinner party progresses, Bertha feels interested and fascinated towards Pearl. By the time the end of the party, Bertha realizes surprisingly findings, which is the fact that her husband, Harry and Pearl are having an affair for quite a while. The story ends with Bertha’s question, “Oh, what is going to happen now?”

This story describes an emotional vortex which a woman feels when she realizes that her happy life is not true despite confidence that her life is a perfectly happy with delight and joy. This is a psychological conflict which Bertha encounters in the end of the novel. This plot is a good example of epiphany because it reveals a main character’s realization. Also, this story uses approach of an undramatized narrator and it gives the reader a bird’s eye view of the characters.

3. The Lottery

In a small village of about 300 residents, villagers gather in the square to participate in a lottery run by Mr. Summers, who officiates at big events. Children gather stones as the adult townsfolk assemble for their annual event. Mr. Summers calls each head of the household forward to a black box, where each selects a slip of paper. The head of each family draws a small slip of paper from a black box. Bill Hutchinson gets the one slop with a black spot, meaning that his family has been chosen. There are five people total in the Hutchinson family. Mr. Summers places five slips of paper into the box and each member of the family draws. Bill’s wife, Tessie draws a slip of paper with a big black dot in the center. Each villager obtains a stone and begins to surround Tessie. The story ends as Tessie is stoned to death while she bemoans the unfairness of the situation.

The author, Shirley Jackson said that she hoped by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in her own village to shock the story’s readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives. This story can be viewed as an action plot type. The author describes a major event’s happening and focuses on a dramatic development. It is the author’s intention to give readers message through describing events with detail and precision. Also, this story has been adapted for numerous reprints in radio, television, a ballet, and films.