The Knife thrower
The Knife Thrower
Essay
The Knife Thrower is a short story written by Steven Millhauser and appeared in Harper’s Magazine for the first time, in 1997. The story is about a well-known knife thrower, named Hensch, who is visiting a small town for a single Saturday night. There are a lot of rumours about Hensch and the people in town are excited to see if they are true. Young women want to bear the knife masters wounds proudly, and rumour is that he once wounded an assistant badly.
At the beginning of the show, his only victims are butterflies and his assistant, whom he marks with the master’s wound. Later on he picks out an unknown girl named Laura, as a volunteer. When the knife settles, people are unsure about wether Laura is dead or not. So the audience leave the show with the feeling of guilt and pleasure. The author has described the characters mostly by physical appearance.
A first person plural narrator, who represents the thoughts of the audience, tells us the story of “The knife thrower”. The word “we” is repeated throughout the story, so we can easier identify with the audience. The genre is short story because the story begins very close to the climax and we don’t get as many details on what has happened before the current events. The setting is very dull and dark because we don’t get any details on how the stage is set, except the waist-high table and mahogany box, and we are informed that there are dark partitions around the stage. The composition of the story is chronological, because it builds up the suspense before the show, and the climax is at the show and the suspense fades out after the show and leaves us with a weird feeling. The main character in the story is Hensch. He is a knife thrower and a very mysterious man. He doesn’t speak a word throughout the story. He seems very dark, because he is described as a brisk unsmiling man in black tails. There is also a woman in a white loose-flowing gown, with pale hair that’s pulled
Essay
The Knife Thrower is a short story written by Steven Millhauser and appeared in Harper’s Magazine for the first time, in 1997. The story is about a well-known knife thrower, named Hensch, who is visiting a small town for a single Saturday night. There are a lot of rumours about Hensch and the people in town are excited to see if they are true. Young women want to bear the knife masters wounds proudly, and rumour is that he once wounded an assistant badly.
At the beginning of the show, his only victims are butterflies and his assistant, whom he marks with the master’s wound. Later on he picks out an unknown girl named Laura, as a volunteer. When the knife settles, people are unsure about wether Laura is dead or not. So the audience leave the show with the feeling of guilt and pleasure. The author has described the characters mostly by physical appearance.
A first person plural narrator, who represents the thoughts of the audience, tells us the story of “The knife thrower”. The word “we” is repeated throughout the story, so we can easier identify with the audience. The genre is short story because the story begins very close to the climax and we don’t get as many details on what has happened before the current events. The setting is very dull and dark because we don’t get any details on how the stage is set, except the waist-high table and mahogany box, and we are informed that there are dark partitions around the stage. The composition of the story is chronological, because it builds up the suspense before the show, and the climax is at the show and the suspense fades out after the show and leaves us with a weird feeling. The main character in the story is Hensch. He is a knife thrower and a very mysterious man. He doesn’t speak a word throughout the story. He seems very dark, because he is described as a brisk unsmiling man in black tails. There is also a woman in a white loose-flowing gown, with pale hair that’s pulled