How Successful is Graham Greene as a story teller? Referring to both stories in your answer, indicate the one you prefer and why - I spy and All but Empty

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Mark Booth        Response to Prose: Post 1914        21/11/2001

1). How Successful is Graham Greene as a storyteller? Referring to both stories in your answer, indicate the one you prefer and why.

I think Graham Greene can be said to be a successful storyteller with some of the stories he wrote. I will consider the stories ‘I Spy’ and ‘All But Empty’ both post 1914 in this essay.

I think the short story ‘I Spy’ has been written well because the story is based on a real part of history, one of the world wars that he could remember and this makes it much more believable. Greene also uses real situations that could arise such as peer pressure on the value of smoking. Also the language is correct for the early twentieth century because old-fashioned words and phrases are used. To give the correct atmosphere the writer uses words and phrases such as “the walls were dark” which creates an atmosphere when Charlie Stow is about to get up. “No sense of safety” is when Charlie is going down the stairs to the shop, when “Charlie cowered in the darkness” is when he hid under the shop counter and lay under a “haze of smoke” this describes the place where Charlie was, and you could imagine what It must have been like. Tension is also created in this story such as “ Charlie clenching his fingers” and “the footsteps of the policeman on the pavement” made Charlie scared that he may get caught in the shop. “Dive for the hole” also creates tension because he is again scared that he may get caught and again this is the same when Charlie “held his breath” because he thought someone might hear him breathing. The creation of such imagery and tension makes it more interesting for the reader.

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The other short story by Graham Greene called ‘All But Empty’ is about a movie in the 1930’s at a cinema. The narrator, who always goes there to see the attendant on the ticket kiosk, sits in the cinema alone but then an old man comes and sits next to him. The short story describes the atmosphere at a specific movie where a gramophone is used for the music instead of a pianist. When the old man comes to sit next to the narrator he is said to have a wet beard that brushes past the narrator’s face. The ...

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This essay manages to fulfill its aim but does not discuss many tools or devices of the author. 1. Do not just summarize plots. 2. Use examples to illustrate the use of narrative tools and devices. 3. The conclusion should summarize and compare the stories based on their effectiveness. ***