Short Story: The Open Windows by Saki

EST Tutorial 28.08.2012

Short Stories: The Open Window (eastoftheweb.com)

The Open Doors (based on Saki's The Open Windows)

*This short movie clip is just for the extra knowledge.

Questions:

1      Search for the Open Window by Saki on the internet. Read this short story thoroughly. Based on the short story

       a.       Identify 3 literary devices in the short story and their significant.

     Symbolism

     The most important symbol in “The Open Window” is the open window itself. When Mrs.  Sappleton’s niece tells Mr. Nuttel the story of the lost hunters, the open window comes to symbolize Mrs. Sappleton’s anguish and heartbreak at the loss of her husband and younger brother. When the truth is later revealed, the open window no longer symbolizes anguish but the very deceit itself. Saki uses the symbol ironically by having the open window, an object one might expect would imply honesty, as a symbol of deceit.

     Narration

     “The Open Window” is a third-person narrative, meaning that its action is presented by a narrator who is not himself involved in the story. This allows a narrator to portray events from a variety of points of view, conveying what all of the characters are doing and what they are feeling or thinking. For most of the story, until he runs from the house, the reader shares Mr. Nuttel’s point of view. Like Mr. Nuttel, the reader is at the mercy of Vera’s story. The reader remains, however, after Mr. Nuttel has fled and thus learns that Vera’s story was nothing but a tall tale.

     Tall Tale

     Vera’s story is essentially a tall tale. Tall tales are often found in folklore and legend and describe people or events in an exaggerated manner. Good examples are the story of John Henry and his hammer, and the story of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. Vera exaggerates the significance of the open window by making it the centerpiece of a fabricated tale of tragic loss.

                 

b.      Where is the climax in the short story? How is this achieved?
                The climax of the story is when Mr. Sappleton and his brothers arrived through the  
                open window. This results in Mr. Nuttel running away from the house by thinking that 
                they are the ghosts. This climax is achieved when the deceit that Miss Vera played 
                onto Mr. Nuttel worked.


c.       Describe the setting of the short story?
                The story is set in the English countryside dated back on the early 1900s. Throughout 
                the story, most of the scenes happened in the living room. Besides that hunting was 
                so popular during that time. 


d.      What is the lesson that you can learned in this short story?
                 The lesson is do not be too naive and gullible in life. Don't be too easy to get cheated 
                 by other people.


e.      In the short story, does Vera shows hospitality to Frampton Nuttel? If Vera were Malaysia, 
      would she have in like manner?
                 She does. If she is were a Malaysian, she would't behave in this way. She would not      
                 tell her guest with the fake stories and would have a mild conversation only before 
                 Mrs. Sappleton attend to him.


f.        If you were Nuttel, would you trust every word Vera said? Why? 
                If I were Nuttel, I will not trust on what Vera had said and pretend I believe it. This is   
                because a ghost  will always be a ghost and we should not take it seriously. 
                Commonly, people will always tell ghost stories just to scare us out. Besides that, it is 
                impossible for the ghost to occur during the day.

hullooooooooooo.....

FLORENCE: Reading & Reacting

                                                                      FLORENCE

                                                                  by Alice Childress

DARREL


4. Florence is set in the South during the late 1940s.

• How might the play be different if it were set in the North?
• If it were set in the North, much likely the setting would be different because the North was liberated during that time. The people in the North are against the slavery in compare with the South.
• If it were set today?
• The racial segregation will be gone and perhaps Mrs. Whitney and Mrs. Carter will sit next to each other. This is because there are no more racial conflict happened compare to the 1940s.

5. In line 17, Marge tells Mama that she had better buy some food because sh "can't go to the diner". Then again in line 23, Marge says that Florence has "notion a Negro woman don't need."

What situation is Marge alluding to? Find other references to this "situation" in the play.

• Marge is alluding that the situation at that time that Negro have some places they are restricted to go to. Furthermore, the line "notions a Negro woman don't need" indicates that Marge is the follower of the concept racial segregation as she went low to even thought that her sister a Negro posses something that contractile their own race.

LAHUNG

6. Does Mrs. Carter think of herself as a racist? Do you agree with the assessment of herself?

• Mrs. Carter did not thinks of herself as a racist because she mirrored herself as a Northerner who are more liberated than the Southerner though she was born in the South. We can see the evidences that she thinks herself as non-racist white woman when she asked Mama not to call her 'Mam'. She did not want to be called 'Mam' by Mama because it is seemed too racist or discriminated. However, she is still a racist in her skin-deep although she did not mention it. It is proved when she told Mama about the book that her brother Jeff, wrote. Mrs. Carter said that the black people like the protagonist in the book cannot succeed because they are black. Other than that, she also offers to help Florence to get a job, but to be a maid and she did not have any intentions to help Florence to pursue her ambition.

7. What causes Mama to disagree with Mrs. Carter about her brother's book? What does this disagreement tell the audience about the characters?

• Mama disagree with Mrs. Carter about the plot of the book because she thought Zelma, the main character of the story, should not kill herself because she is a black woman. Zelma wanted to be a lawyer but unfortunately, she is black. She does not belong to the world where she quite fitted in. Mama thinks that black people also can have a good job and succeed like the white people and do not have to kill themselves. Mama proved what she had said by telling some of the black people that are success in the careers.

AFIQ

            8. Does Mama's view of Mrs. Carter change or remain the same as the plot develops? Why 

                does Mama ask Mrs. Carter to help Florence? What does she learn that causes her to reject   

                 the "help" that Mrs. Carter offers?

• Mrs. Carter advised Miss Whitney to stop her daughter, Florence, from pursuing her       ambition but Miss Whitney believed that her daughter would succeed. Mrs. Carter also said that the career which Florence pursued was not very profitable because if there’s a play then, the actors will be paid but if there’s not a single play, the actors would not be paid until there’s a play again. After that, Mrs. Carter offered a help to Miss Whitney. She said that she wanted to help Florence in pursuing her ambition but actually Mrs. Carter was trying to betray Miss Whitney. Miss Whitney was very overjoyed but while having the conversation about the “help”, Miss Whitney felt a sense of betray. Mrs. Carter wanted to make Florence as a maid for Melba Rugby by giving Miss Whitney Melba’s phone number. Then, Miss Whitney asked Mrs. Carter to help Florence to pay the rents and things. Miss Whitney refused the “help” from Mrs. Carter because she knew that her daughter could be anything she wanted rather than become a maid.

Alexandra Stan feat Carlprit - 1.000.000 (official video HD)

WELCOME TO OUR NEW & IMPROVE DUO BLOG

"Mili Mili Mili Million"