If the story would have continued I would have thought Mrs Miller would end up in a psychiatric home, as she would tell more and more people about Miriam and they would not be able to witness her themselves.
The genre of this story would be psychological thriller as throughout the story you see the workings and mental state of Mrs Miller changing “face dissolved into a mask of ugly red lines”.
I would also say it had a hint of violence because Miriam “seized the vase containing the paper roses, carried it to where the hard surface of the floor lay bare, and hurled it downwards”, this leads the story to being a action thriller.
In paragraph one Capote sets the scene by pointing out that Mrs Miller “lived alone” and that her “her interests were narrow” and makes out Mrs Miller leads a fairly boring life as she even “ rarely journeyed farther than the corner grocery”.
Capote has set the scene in such a way so that when Mrs Miller decides to go and see a picture it is odd as she does not usually go out and this makes the meeting between Mrs Miller and Miriam more exciting for the reader.
Capote also foreshadows the later events at the end of paragraph two by writing that Mrs Miller gets a “sensation of darkness” and leaves a subtle effect on the reader that something is going to disturb her life and dark forces may enter.
When Miriam smashes the glass vase the feeling that is created in the reader is one of anger, terror and incomprehension, and maybe this is a manifestation of Mrs Millers desires as a child, as she may have had a troubled life as a child.
The old man who stalks Mrs Miller briefly when she goes to the shops makes the reader think that maybe the girl and old man are related, maybe the old man is using the girl to get back at Mrs Miller, or maybe its just Mrs Miller being paranoid and the reader may start to believe she is insane and Miriam is made up in her mind.
It has a large effect on the reader when the climax of the encounters with Miriam leads Mrs Miller into running to her neighbours apartment, as the reader starts to feel an ending is getting nearer and nearer and makes the reader increasingly think about what is going to happen.
After Harry (the husband of the neighbours) does not find anything in Mrs Miller’s apartment the feeling of the reader changes as now its almost definitely possible that Mrs Miller is insane and maybe Miriam is not as evil as you thought as she may just be a figure of Mrs Miller’s imagination.
The last time Miriam appears ““Hello”, Said Miriam” leaves a whole twist on the story as the reader now has got their own opinion on how the story will finally end, and leaves the story open for much discussion.
The story Miriam is told by Truman Capote (third person narrator. I can tell it is told in the third person as the writer uses “she was” and “Said Mrs Miller”.
The choice of having third person narration is very useful in this story as it gives a better overall description of the characters, then just having the story written from Mrs Miller (first person) point of view.
Marihuana And A Pistol by Chester B.Himes
Marihuana and a Pistol is about a marihuana smoker (Red) who owns a .38 revolver, he buys two weeds and gets high, he finds the idea of sticking up the main offices with two beer bottles a good idea. He comes across the pistol that is in his room and ends up shooting a storekeeper. He runs away from the store but when the police have caught him he does not know what he was running for.
This story is saying that the type of behaviour of young American people is usually to do with crime, as they become bored they end up taking drugs and they stay in because their addiction leave them with no money.
Marihuana And A Pistol was very interesting as Himes used a lot of emotional and descriptive words, I also like the way it is short which makes it very fast moving.
The genre for Marihuana And A Pistol is an action thriller because Red shoots a storekeeper and runs away. I would also say it was a psychological thriller as Red mental state changes “ felt a dread fascination of horror growing on him”.
In the first few paragraphs you find out that Red has a pearl handled blue .38 steal revolver and he has smoked some marihuana “weeds” and his girlfriend has decided to “quit him” when he did not have any more money to spend on her. He starts to get an idea; just a simple idea of light triggers these ideas.
It is important that these details come early in Marihuana And A Pistol because it gives you the feeling of what Red is going through, maybe the light giving him a first idea was there because looking into the light might mean he is looking towards the future wanting his girlfriend back which leads him to try using his revolver to gain money.
The story’s title and opening sentence link drugs and a pistol, which is very important to the events later in the story.
This gives the reader an foreshadow of what may happen, and Himes intends the reader to be shocked, as anyone under the influence of drugs should not have a pistol.
As Red Walks the streets developing more and more ideas the reader begins to feel increasing un-aware of what he is going to do with the revolver as he is “ inspired by the feeling of his finger on the trigger of the pistol”.
Red shoots five times with the pistol but the reader is not immediately told where the bullets have landed. The emotional response that this creates is that the reader does not know, at this stage, whether or not anyone has been shot. Thus, the reader and the main characters are in the same position of not knowinmg.
The feeling of the reader during the narrative digression of red eating the candy until he is sick, is of confusion as to what he may do next, and the meaning of eating the candy may mean he may be hungry for more shooting.
In the penultimate paragraph Red realises that he has shot the old storekeeper and runs out of the store and down the street. This leaves a sense of shock and horror on the reader, the reader might have thought Red had shot himself and that’s why he was being sick when eating candy because the vomit might have actually been his blood from the injury.
Marihuana And A Pistol writer choose the story to be written in the third person, this gives the reader a real picture of what is happening in Red’s mind and the details of Red’s experiences and feelings come alive for the reader as Himes uses sentences such as “His mind was not aware that the thought had come from any desire for money to win back his girl friend” and “As he passed the confectionary store his hand was tightly gripping the butt of the pistol and he felt its sinister coldness”.
Button, Button by Richard Matheson
Button, Button by Richard Matheson is a story about a package that arrives at Mr. And Mrs. Lewis’s doorstep, a man arrives shortly after that they do not know and they will receive fifty thousand dollars. In the end Mrs. Lewis gives into pressing the button and her husband dies.
The writer is saying Norma and Arthur Lewis are not well off and are struggling like most couples in that time, they are living in a apartment which leaves them isolated from other people, they would like to have a child but they cannot afford to have one. Norma is so tempted by the button because she wants to have all the luxuries in life such as a holiday to Europe, a cottage on the island, a nicer apartment, nicer furniture, nicer clothes and enough money to have a baby.
Button, Button is very interesting as you wonder if you would take the chance to press the button and kill someone that you do not know. It is also very interesting to see how differently Norma and Arthur react in conversations about the button and towards each other.
Narrative foreshadowing is used when Norma decides to put the card edges together with scotch tape because now it is obvious that she is going to get the box back and press the button.
I would the genre of Button, Button is a psychological thriller, you get to see Norma and Arthur’s thought processes and mental processes throughout the story. Norma’s character changes as she thinks more and more about the button, I would also say that it has a touch of an action thriller, as there is violence when the husband dies.
Norma and Arthur’s everyday lives are full of routine, stereotypical regarding gender roles and their evenings are spent at home. Their lives are very typical of modern day life of city dwellers. They both get up together in the morning, as they probably start work at nine o’clock, they both bring in incomes as they are not well off. They may not have breakfast everyday as Arthur asks, “What’s the occasion?” When Norma makes him pancakes, eggs and bacon for his breakfast.
In paragraph one the unexplained package is intended to create an emotional effect on the reader of curiosity and leaves them intrigued. It is very significant for the ensuing events as the arrival of the button changes Norma’s routine dramatically, as now she thinks about the button more then anything else.
The effect of the reader when Mr Steward explains that the purpose of the package is one of disbelief and unreality, I think that most people would press the button, as they would think the whole idea ridiculous.
Matheson uses an argumentative writing technique to make the emotional effect on the reader more powerful because arguments let us see both points of view and helps the reader to choose sides. In the argument you get a contrast between the characters. Norma argues “Some Old Chinese peasant ten thousand miles away?” and Arthur replies “How about some baby boy in Pennsylvania?” This juxtaposes the familiar and unfamiliar, near and afar. Arthur does not care for the money and feels pressing the button would be immoral no matter who died. Norma feels that if it was someone she didn’t know it would not matter.
Immediately after Norma pushes the Button the writer intends the reader to feel a sense of horror, he does this by making the reader feel the horror of the character by using very descriptive words. “A chill of horror swept across her”.
The first twist in the story you find out that Arthur is the person who has been killed; my initial reaction to this is that Mr Steward was lying because he said that someone that the Lewis’s did not know would die.
The second twist in the story comes in the last few lines when Mr Stewards says; “Do you really think you knew your husband?” Mr Steward has basically tried to point out that she did not know him in the full sense of the word. I think that it is hard to know anyone fully so Mr Steward was correct in the way he thought.
Conclusion
I preferred these thrillers, as the all had something interesting about them and they seemed more unusual than the other stories. All of these stories have a strange twist at the end. All of the three that I have chosen were psychological or action thrillers and each of them had a hint of the other genre in them. I wrote in my introduction that it is hard to write what makes a typical thriller and that seems to be true, as I have labelled each of these thrillers with two different genres of thriller.
