In the short story "Chemistry" written by Graham Swift, there are many interesting ways that it is told.

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 In the short story "Chemistry" written by Graham Swift, there are many interesting ways that it is told.

   In the opening of the story, Graham Swift uses descritptive writing to give us a striking image of the pond, where he went with his grandfather and mother, "The pond in our park was circular, exposed, perhaps fifty yards across. When the wind blew, the little waves travelled across it and slapped the paved edges like a minature sea." This helps the reader gain a more precise image in their head of the park where the narrator is, and it also helps make the story more interesting to read. The opening of the story is also parallel to the end. The narrator in the story, goes back to the pond at the end of the story, and again gives us good imagery description of it, "Dead willow leaves floated on it". I found this interesting, because it makes the story cyclical, and may be a reminder of the journey of growing up and of the acceptance ' "You must accept it - you can't get it back" '. It also convinces us to believe that the narrator went back to the park, for wishful thinking - hoping that his grandfather would return and not wanting to left go of the past.

   When I first began reading the story, I believed that it was a female narrator. One of the reasonings for this is because it said, "My grandmother died suddenly... all I know is that I must have had her looks." However, we are later informed that the narrator is a ten year old boy. We aware of this because his mother calls him her "little man" and she also says, ' "He's only ten, what can he know?" '. I find this extremely interesting in the story, because he appears to be extremely mature, intelligent and formal. Although he is only ten years old, he uses complex words and sentences such as "fundamentals of chemistry", "haunches" and "reconciled them in mutual grief". However, he is cold blooded as he rarely describes how he is feeling and has never mentioned about being upset when his father and grandmother died. This is an unusual perspective to use as he is so young, yet faced with traumatizing experiences, but I believe that the author has done this to highlight his innocent and because he will have few prejudices. This means he will tell the story how it is, without changing it to suit what he believes or his own opinions. An example of this, is when his father comes to see him. Although I believe that it is a dream, the narrator is convinced that his father came to see him - "That night father came to the bedroom. I knew it was him".

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  At the beginning of the story, I find it interesting, that the author describes the boat journey, over the pond towards grandfather as "trouble free". Then, all of a sudden the boat sinks. I believe that the author purposely makes the boat sink when Ralph is immediately introduced to the story, "Then one day - it must have been soon after mother met Ralph - we watched the boat... become deeper and deeper in the water." This contrasts greatly with the boat journey on the pond before the boy's mother met Ralph, and poses questions in the readers mind ...

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