“… A creamy smiling pool of a face in which her eyes snapped and darted.”
Her appearance is very home like person; we do not see her appearing outside the home much. The author has created the shape of the appearance of Mrs.Rutter very descriptively and she is appeared to be a messy person, the author has created her to be like this to show the darkness side of her. Whereas old lady from the story “Invisible boy” is a lady’s appearance is like a witch, this is proved because of the fact that she has bear feet and wears cloths that are like a witch:
“Her long blue untidy skit rustled.”
Old lady is like Mrs.Rutter as she also has the idea of darkness, because the author has created the old lady to have a bag of darkness to show the dark part of the story. We are also shown that she has used many objects that a witch is supposed to use such as the mummified frog. In comparison Mrs.Wan from the story “More than just disease” has a different appearance from the other two ladies because she is neither a witch like person nor is she moving the story from lightness to darkness. In fact she has an appearance of being a kind and helpful women without wanting anything. Although she is a bit similar to old lady because of the fact that she has very untidy cloths on and doesn’t care about what others think of her:
“An old women in a bottled coloured cardigan and baggy mouse-coloured trousers came stepping one step at a time down towards them.”
This shows the fact that she is very untidy in her cloths wise but also in her caravan I would say because of the fact that when Neil goes t give the cat back she wants to sit outside and this gives me the impression that she does not want Neil to see inside.
I am now going to compare the three old ladies in their speech. Part of Mrs.Rutter’s speeches are quite girly because of the fact that she talks more to Sandra rather than Kerry and talks a lot about cloths and as in those days people use to stitch their own cloths rather than buying them she was talking about the cloths:
“ I made my very own wedding dress, ivory silk with lace insets.”
Mrs.Rutter also talks about the war and how her husband died. She tells Kerry and Sandra about how her husband passed away and about the fact that she left a young man to die just because he was a German man. The author has created the story in this way for it to move from the brightness to the darkness because of the fact that has used language in that way for Mrs.Rutter to be in that way. Mrs. Rutter is believable because something like this suspense would not be made up, so I would say that Mrs.Rutter is believable. As for old lady’s speeches they are quite different from
Mrs.Rutter has many spells to say and her words are like a witch. Old lady is a quite convincing person, she doesn’t give up to convince Charlie to open the door and come out. Her speeches are also very frightening to Charlie, as a little boy he would not understand as much as you or I would, so spells in my view are quite frightening for him. The author has created old lady as they want the reader to know that it can be very frightening for a young boy to be in a situation when an lady who wants to convince him by using magic powers that don’t even exist. I would say that old lady is not believable because she is always acting out to show Charlie her spells don’t work in the first place:
“She always overdid or underdid her miracles, she mused angrily, never doing them exact, Devil take it!”
This shows that old lady is not believable. As for Mrs.wan’s speeches are quite different because she is well educated and also she understands. As a well educated person her speeches would effect in that way because she would be speaking in that educated way and the author has created Mrs.Wan’s speeches to be like that as they are to show how it makes a difference when you are educated.
Now I’m going to talk about the three old ladies in their actions. The character of Mrs.Rutter effects on her actions. She is quite kind in the beginning that adds to her brightness. Also that she gives them chocolate which is out of date, this is a negative thing:
“I always keep a few chockies for my visitors.”
She has offered it to them but not with her heart people only do that when they don’t want to give something to someone. She also has left the German to die, which was a wrong thing. Does she have any evidence that they have done that? It could have been anther German man is still alive.
Her actions show that she doesn’t want Sandra and Kerry to find out about the german that she has left behind. In actual fact she’s not nice. As for old lady her actions were all like a witch. She has a bat and a frog that are used for witches for spells. She frightens Charlie on what she can do. Charlie as a small boy would get scared about poking the eye of the bat. Also after Charlie comes out old lady wants company so she pretends Charlie is invisible so she looks somewhere rather than at him:
“Charlie where are you?”
The author’s use of language creates an effect of the story. The author creates this so that the reader gets interested. In comparison Mrs.wan is different in her actions and she shows that she prefers nature and animals rather than people’s company, because that she is shown gardening and has so many cats. This shows that she is interested in nature although her action is friendly and she is quite friendly to Neil. She offers a drink to Neil:
“Would you like something to drink as a reward?”
She would like to thank Neil for finding the cat so she offers him what she could give him. Mrs Wan is very pleasant she react in this way because of the fact she is a kind-hearted person. The author creates this character of the story so the story becomes interesting and it would suit to the other character with a good impression on them.
Now I will tell you about the three old women’s relationship.
Mrs Rutter’s and Kerry and Sandra have good relation towards each other and they respect in a manner way. Mrs.Rutters gets on well with Sandra, as she is a girl, her relationship with Sandra is better than with Kerry. By the end of the story when she open up herself and starts telling them about the war it spoils their relationship and they starts to dislike Mrs Rutter:
“I am not going near that old bitch again.”
They start to hate her because she showed them very sympathetically attitude and in reality she is not that sympathetic. Mrs Rutter is not likeable because she does things which people will not like her for her actions. The author uses some rude language spoken by Kerry because he is very angry. In comparison old lady shows her evilness on the face from the beginning. She tries to tricks Charlie but apart from that she is all right. Old lady deceivers Charlie has the power over her, but she does the perpously so Charlie could stay by her as her son as she is lonely:
“My Son you are, you are my son, for all eternity.”
Old lady is likeable partly by Charlie because of the fact that she pretends she could do and is liked for a while. She is not likeable partly because she leaves Charlie locked up and starving for two days. She does not have a good nature. The author’s use of language effects on the way the author describes the relationship between old lady and Charlie and appears the picture in the readers mind. Where as
Mrs. Wan’s relationships with other characters are quite different, because she is quite distant with the other characters, she doesn’t even know Michael’s real name she calls him by the name “Benjamin”:
“And how are you this year Benjamin.”
Mrs. Wan is likeable because she helps Neil to deal with his disease.
Finally I will talk about the e development in the stories. Mrs.Rutter’s character moves the story from a bright side to a dark side. Her actions begin as friendly and then her relationships become cruel and cold. As we hear is the story leaving the German man to die she has seen a lot in her life:
“He was pretty bad. He was kind of talking to himself.”
This proves that the authors has created the story to show the movement from darkness to Mrs. Rutter is partly stereotypical because of the way she looks and appears, otherwise she is not. As for old lady her character affects the story from dark to light. She is a lonely old lady who wants company:
“To go home, she thought wearily.”
As for Mrs.Wan she develops in the story in a bright way.
