The end of the party

Author

Summary

Analysis

(2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991)

English authorPlaywright Literary critic

The Power and the GloryThe Heart of the MatteThe Confidential Agent······

Oxford UniversityJournalistMI6Spybipolar disorder

The End of The Party

Main Content 1:* A tragic story of a young boy named Francis A tragic story of a young boy named Francis Morton who had an extreme phobia of darkness.Morton who had an extreme phobia of darkness.

* Hide and seek in darkness

* All throughout the story, Francis tried to remind others of his terrible fear but failed.

* Peter could understand Francis’ dread, kept trying to protect and comfort his brother, but there was little he could do

Main Content 2:

* During the process of hiding in the darkness, in During the process of hiding in the darkness, in order to comfort his brother and release his order to comfort his brother and release his terror, Peter came to Francis secretly.terror, Peter came to Francis secretly.

* Francis was scared literally to his death with Peter’s comforting touch.

BACK

AnalysisI. ContentII. Method of Narrating

-------------------------------------------------------- Francis’ dread came out from his uneasiness and resistance to the unknown world around him. The uncertainty of the dark environment just works as an origin of fear.

* Dread (1) Dread is something naturally exists in every one’s mind. In the early livelihood, people kept suffering from various kinds of fears that caused by the unknown outside world.

* Dread (2) Children’s fear will gradually be substituted by another kind of terror as they grow up which in essence also contains a sense of insecurity. Yet the adult usually prefer to describe their terror as something mature and deep while they despise that of children as naïve and ridiculous. -------------------------------------------------------- What Francis thought after his mother’s replying just reveal the falsity of the opinion that the adult hold.

“He knew how they taught also that there was nothing to fear in death, and how fearfully they avoided the idea of it.” -------------------------------------------------------- In another word, the adult have been taught for a lifelong time that there is nothing to be afraid of death while they still keeps worrying about it so much. So, apparently the adult also have their own dread, and their dread becomes quite ironic when it comes to their dismissive attitude towards children’s dread feelings.

* Boyhood Except for the ambivalent relationship between children and the adult, the story also unveils the touching boyhood between Francis and Peter. -------------------------------------------------------- Peter kept trying to help his brother, showing his relentless understanding and consideration. At the high point, although it seemed that it’s Peter who directly resulted to Franics’ death; it’s him who finally released his brother, hindering him from being torturing by the depressive environment any longer.

* The omniscient view The narrative using in this short story is

the omniscient view.the omniscient view. The narrator played the role as the God, striking an all-knowing tonean all-knowing tone.

-------------------------------------------------------- It freed the readers from the restriction of the limited perception, enabling them to have insight into the state of mind of every character

* The omniscient view The narrative using in this short story is

the omniscient view.the omniscient view. The narrator played the role as the God, striking an all-knowing tonean all-knowing tone.

-------------------------------------------------------- In the story, the narrator depicted both how Francis felt about the darkness and how he tried to get rid of it , it clearly illustrated the struggle of Francis and paved the way of his final tragic death.

* Images when telling the story, the narrator made use of terrifying figures like death, big bird and bats that attached a terrifying atmosphere to the story.

-------------------------------------------------------- To Peter Morton the whole room seemed to darken, and he had the impression of a great birdgreat bird swooping.

* Images when telling the story, the narrator made use of terrifying figures like death, big bird and bats that attached a terrifying atmosphere to the story.

-------------------------------------------------------- Others began to put out the lights at the edge of the hall, till the children were all gathered in the central radiance of the chandelier , while the bats the bats squatted round on hooded wings and waited for that, too, to be extinguished.

* Images when telling the story, the narrator made use of terrifying figures like death, big bird and bats that attached a terrifying atmosphere to the story. -------------------------------------------------------- HoweverHowever, as I think, there is a failure in the narrating. That is before revealing the final ending, the narrator made too much use of these terrifying figures that it unavoidably let out some information of the ending in advance.

* The End