Swr: Characterization in Blood

SWR: Blood – Characterization In the short story “Blood” by Zdravka Evtimova, characterization is a key element to the message, and mood it conveys to the reader. Early in the story, we meet a customer who walks into the store, and the author describes her in a very menacing way. “Her face looked frightened and gray. She approached me, her arms trembling, unnaturally pale, resembling two dead white fish in the dark.”Pg.1 This quote really set the mood for the beginning of the story. It also made the woman seem very desperate, and gave the reader a creepy chill, helping them to keep engaged. Another quote that displays characterizations roll in this story was at the beginning of the book, describing the main character; the shopkeeper. “Few customers visited my shop, perhaps three of four people a day. They watch the animals in the cages, but seldom buy them. The room is narrow and there is no place for me behind the counter, so I usually sit on my old moth eaten chair behind the door…soon I’ll have to close my shop and I’ll be sorry about it for the sleepy, gloomy, smell of formalin has always given me peace, and an odd feeling of home. “Pg. 1 This quote was perhaps one of the most informatics of the story, and gave reason to the shopkeeper’s bizarre, later actions. When it says in the quote “There is no place for me behind the counter” I believe Zdravka is trying to symbolize how the shopkeeper seems to not fit in society, and I was able to make this assumption based off of the characterization about the shopkeeper throughout the story. In conclusion I think there are many reasons why characterization is needed in writing. It gives more sense to the story, and tells us more about the characters. This draws in the reader, and helps them to feel more like a part of the story. If it wasn’t for characterization I believe blood would not be the same quality of a story that it