Another significant theme is deceit; shown by the verbs ‘preying’ ‘confronts’ and ‘grovelling,’ these bring a darker air to the story as they imply animal-like viciousness; mirroring Carter’s style. A more interesting story is created as by putting the theme of deceit parallel to the contrasting theme of love the two emotions seem stronger and the story has more of an impact.
The third main theme within the story is the transition from childhood to womanhood. This is shown throughout by imagery, for example the shawl representing the protective shield of her mother and by shedding this it connotes moving into womanhood. Another example is the ‘thud of the church bells.’ The noun, thud, is an onomatopoeia that represents the dull, ongoing pain that the menstrual system brings to the female, the church bells bring suggestions of innocence, marriage and sanctity. This theme is again influenced by Carter as it is a very dominant theme within ‘The Company of Wolves.’
In the opening paragraphs the concept of the male character having the characteristics of a leech is brought in, this represents the male ‘leeching’ off the female as she is of a higher class than him. Even though the two characters haven’t yet met the reason I decided to manipulate the sequence of events was because Richard Ford once said about stories, ‘They do funny things with time - things we know can’t be done’ This allowed me to unsettle the reader because it gives the impression the narrator knows all the facts and is re-telling the story to you; this gives the story a more real-life quality.
The first two paragraphs set up the narrative and bring in the ideas of deceit through the use of abstract nouns ‘supremacy’ and ‘anguish.’ There is also a mix of attributive ‘morbid silence’ and predictive ‘body, bistre and bloody’ adjectives, this mirrors the second paragraph of ‘The Company of Wolves’ and by doing this the story sets up a solid narrative. The adjective ‘morbid’ implies death and darkness, this sets the tone for the story from the beginning, this is also shown by the use of ‘bloody,’ which symbolises wounds and injury. ‘Bistre’ is a yellowy, dark brown that represents the dirt and wasteland that the leeches live off.
In the third paragraph, the setting is established through description of the surroundings and adjectives. A voice is established through ‘our town’ suggesting that the narrator is familiar with the story, characters and also reflects the narrative voice established in ‘The Company of Wolves.’ Richard Ford says that ‘Somewhere near to the story’s beginning an opportunity for the writer to take control must by some means be seized’ and this is the moment I chose for the control to be taken. The fourth paragraph includes an anecdote and in keeps with the past tense; this strengthens the fact that the narrator is familiar with the story, the characters and the situation.
The fifth paragraph is the turning point where the story changes to the present tense and the main narrative begins. In ‘The Company of Wolves’ Carter doesn’t start her main narrative until around a third of the way through her stories, I tried to do this but scaled down. In this paragraph the reader is introduced to the main character by ‘this budding child.’ The use of the pronoun ‘this’ gives the writing a more personal tone, like the narrator knows her, this again establishes a strong voice. There is also dialogue integrated into description ‘any change love?’ this is also a characteristic of Carter’s writing in the Company of Wolves. By the character asking the female for change it indicates that he is homeless and by the use of the colloquialism ‘love’ it shows that the male isn’t from the same class and doesn’t have the same morals as the female.
The conclusion of my story is the tramp seducing the woman and the woman moving to adulthood by having sexual intercourse; this is similar to the ending in ‘The Company of Wolves.’ My story then goes on to describe the woman as ‘breaking the seal’ this represents when a leech is feeding off a victim, the only way they can be removed is by breaking the seal with a sharp object; this shows that the woman leaves the situation in control. I have decided to conclude in this way as I feel Carter’s writing is feminist driven. When Carter wrote ‘The Company of Wolves’ in the 1980’s, third-wave feminism was still a big issue, the view of society at the time is shown by the beginning of the story and the description of women being ‘fawning, submissive and impossibly beautiful; their role subservient to their husband’ this reflects the view some people in society still had. By the end of the story a new equilibrium is established where the woman is the one in control; this suggests the way society will view woman in future.
1114 words
