‘ The secret life of Walter Mitty ‘ by James Thurber, ‘ Indian Camp’ by Ernest Hemingway, ‘ The peaches’ by Dylan Thomas, ‘ The trout’ by Sean O’Faolain and ‘Go down, Moses’ by William Faulkner

Authors Avatar

Evans.A.R                                                                                                                                         01/05/07

Twentieth Century Prose

I have read five short stories by different authors, all the stories have been written in the twentieth century and I will be comparing all of the stories with each other. I will be comparing settings, themes, characters, moods, atmospheres and narrative techniques. I will also be saying if each author’s technique makes a better impression on the story. The stories I read are ‘ The secret life of Walter Mitty ‘ by James Thurber,  ‘ Indian Camp’ by Ernest Hemingway, ‘ The peaches’ by Dylan Thomas, ‘ The trout’ by Sean O’Faolain and ‘Go down, Moses’ by William Faulkner

Settings

        ‘ The secret life of Walter Mitty’ seems to be set in the mid twentieth century, this is because at the beginning of the story after the first dream we find the main character Walter sitting in a car, cars were made in the late twentieth century not early. We know that they live in houses as it says in the story that they headed for their house in the car This could mean that the story is set mid not early twentieth century. After reading more of the story I got a feeling that the story is set in America since the dialogue used is remotely like the Americans and not English for example, “pick it up brother”, snapped a cop’, the word brother is used quite a lot in a America and not here in England. Also the words ‘firearms’ and ‘sidewalk’ are American words and are used in the story, which give the story an American atmosphere and really makes the story seem American. The story also seems to be set in the city center as we are told that there are shops near by and buildings all around which tells us it is not set in the countryside.

 This setting is completely different to the one in ‘Indian Camp’ because for a start it is set in a completely different area and there are no buildings that tells us the story is set in a rural area. When I read the story I immediately realised that the buildings were not made of bricks and were not called houses but were called Shanties, which are sort of like mud huts that are only big enough for one room. From this we can say that these two stories don’t have much in comparison, in ‘Indian Camp’ there are no signs of influence of technology and modernization on the buildings. For example no shops. Once again as I kept reading on I found a vital piece of information which would tell us where the story is set and this is that it was a small village with shacks near to the river Mississippi which would mean the story is set in Western America, this may explain why the area is not very developed. We are also given a clue as to where about the story is set by looking at the title, ‘ Indian Camp’. The story is set in the West where Indians lived undisturbed and didn’t have any knowledge.

Join now!

The story ‘The Trout’ I feel is set in a much more quieter area in America. The story is focused on the actual story not the background this is why we don’ t learn much about the setting. The other story I read was Go down, Moses’; I feel this story is set in the West again and this is because we are told that the area we are talking about is seventeen miles away from the Mississippi. Although there doesn’t seem to many modern developments just like Indian Camp but the way in which the people did things was ...

This is a preview of the whole essay