Analyzing Graham Greene’s “The End of the Party”

Analyzing Graham Greene’s “The End of the Party” Throughout Graham Greene’s short story, “The End of the Party,” the author paints a vivid setting to promote the idea of the younger twin’s paranoia of the darkness. That enduring fear also serves as the central conflict involving both of the siblings as it escalates from the beginning to the end. Sensory appeal is used so that the reader can relate to the sounds, sights, and emotional feelings that the two brothers experience during the course of the tale. Greene dabbles into symbolism as well to provide foreshadowing of the fate that awaits the boys during the final scene of the story. All of these measures are utilized to provide the reader with a literary purpose in this particular work of literature. Also, it is organized into a typical narration method used by short stories, with an apparent chronological order being implemented. It is also noted that he employed a secondary pattern that carries many attributes of description used for binding the setting of the fictional piece with the characters together. As a literary function, the story uses scenery development, internal and external conflict within the younger brother, Francis, sensory appeal to help readers relate to the twins’ own senses, and symbolism to deliver a revelation of things to come for the two. There is also a central theme of the anxiety of being in the dark that encompasses the younger brother throughout the tale. The scenes are very descriptive in establishing the setting, providing personal dialogue between characters, and developing the personalities of the two boys over the course of the story. From the opening, the author is very graphic on how he sets the scene where the older brother views the bedroom as he wakes up to the sound of the early morning rain. Both of the siblings are constantly engaging in conversations between themselves and other individuals as well. Through these exchanges the reader forms a

Cited: Greene, Graham. "The End of the Party." 1929. Collected Short Stories. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin, 1986. 159-66. Print.