The women in the town work on the markets selling the produce from their husbands and are also described in detail. ”They carried large baskets on their arms from which, in some cases, chickens and, in others, ducks thrust out their heads. And they walked with a quicker, livelier step than their husbands. Their spare straight figures were wrapped in a scanty little shawl pinned over their flat bosoms, and their heads were enveloped in white cloth glued to the hair and surmounted by a cap. This paragraph also suggests that the general population of Goderville were poor farmers, the sentence beginning, “Their spare straight figures.” also suggests that the families don’t eat very well. There is an obvious contrast in the way the Men and Women of the town look and behave.
The town of Goderville has many different sights, sounds and smells especially on a market day. “In the public square of Goderville there was a crowd, a throng of human beings and animals mixed together.” This puts a picture of a bustling market street and also suggests the smell of sweat and grime from all the tightly packed people, as does “ the long lowing of a cow tied to the wall of a house.”
There is a sentence in the story “economical like a true Norman.” This sentence is highly stereotypical because it says that all Norman people are tight with their belongings. There are many examples of stereotyping in the UK today for example, the people of Liverpool are said to be thieves.
The moral of the story is that Honesty is the best policy this is shown when Maupassant talks about Hauchecome’s past antics of lying and over exaggerating his stories and when he comes to tell the truth people are reluctant to believe him.
Maupassant uses several literary techniques to get across the meaning of the story:
He uses some irony in the story this is that Hauchecome is really telling the truth but, because he has failed to do so in the past and so gained a reputation for inflated storytelling and dishonesty, he finds that people are reluctant to believe him. He makes matters worse by continually exaggerating his tale.
After reading both stories I have found many similarities between ‘The Piece of String’ and ‘A Vendetta’. Both stories are highly descriptive especially when describing the settings of the stories e.g. in ‘A Vendetta’ Maupassant uses similes like “Patches of whitish foam round the black tips of the countless reefs like torn sheets drifting on the surface of the water.” When describing Bonifacio and in The Piece of String uses descriptive language like “All that smacked of the stable, the dairy and the dirt heap, hay and sweat giving forth that unpleasant odour.” When describing Goderville. As well as description being a similarity there is also death in both stories, in ‘A Vendetta’ the death of Antoine and Nicolas and in The Piece of String, the death of Maitre Hauchecome. There are hypocritical characters in both stories, Maitre Hauchecome and Widow Saverini. Both stories have a moral, there is irony present in both stories and both stories are set in small towns, Bonifacio and Goderville.
I also noticed many contrasts in the story. The two stories are set in different countries, The Piece of String being in France and A Vendetta being set in Sicily. In A Piece of String the key character is a man whereas in A Vendetta it is a woman. The stories have different resolutions; Widow Saverini achieves her goal but Hauchecome dosent.