A Telephone Call Analysis Realistic, Modernist Plotanalysis

A Telephone Call Analysis REALISTIC, MODERNIST PLOT, 1st person monologue

A Telephone Call brings up issues such as the constraints of society and the different places men and women occupy it all through a simple device, the telephone. The character in this story is awaiting a call from her lover, who promised to call but has not. The woman goes through a variety of emotions including anger, hope, and despair. Parker uses this very uncomplicated situation to highlight the power dynamics to be found in relations between men and women, and the problems etiquette creates in these relations.
The telephone is an important part of this story. There are specific social rules for using the telephone and they place men and women in different and unequal positions of power. Social rules around people of the opposite sex who are dating are especially restrictive. Women are not supposed to call men, men are supposed to call them. This gives men more power than women, as they can decide whether to call or not. The main conflict in this story is the woman's inability to do what she wants. She would like to call her lover but afraid to do so because society has taught her that men dislike women to call them. This leaves her stuck and unable to do anything but rationalize why her lover hasn't called, play mind games with herself in an attempt to make him call, rage because he hasn't, and beg God to make him call.
In her article "On the Wire with Death and Desire: The Telephone and Lovers' Discourse in the Short Stories of Dorothy Parker" April Middlejan discusses how the telephone is an intimate form of communication that brings together lovers while at the same time seperating and emphasizing the distance between them. Middlejan goes on to illustrate the social rules of Parker's time involving the telephone using dating books as historical sources. She suggests that the reason women cannot call men is because that would put the women in a position of too much power, and that's what causes the strain. Middlejan's article also points out that the woman in the story exhibits the three stages of grief associated with death: denial, anger, and bargaining. If you look at the woman's perspective in the story as fearing the "death" of her relationship it makes sense. As in the face of death she is powerless to do anything. She cannot even call her lover.
It is also important in this story to examine the reason why the woman wants the man to call her. For her the man calling her when he says he will validates her self worth and confirms that he wants her. If he doesn't call her to her that signals that he doesn't care about her or want her. She is trapped because if she calls him he may resent it and if he already doesn't he will now not want her. Whatever she does she suffers. She is either stuck with herself and the thought that she is unwanted, or she can cause herself to be unwanted. All of this is caused by the etiquette surrounding the telephone and the differences in power between men and women.
Parker's story is so powerful because like most of her stories it is realistic. Most women can identify with the main character to because these social rules still apply today. There is humor to be found in the situation, but only because we are not in it. It is a reminder of how unequal society can be in its expectations for men and women.

THE WITCH REALISTIC, CLASSICAL PLOT, 1st person narration
Analysis on The Witch by Edilberto Tiempo

Characters
The persona, narrator, and the protagonist in the story was an unnamed 12 year old boy who lived in a town surrounded by different barrios. He was a round and static character. In line with these texts, “once I was told to go to Libas with a bottle of medicine for Tio Sabelo’s wife” and “I thought of bringing home shrimps to my mother” he was portrayed in the story as an obedient and a dutiful lad. Being a 12 year old boy, he was easily affected by the rumors surrounding him, to the point of almost believing them without reasonable proofs. He was unnamed because he lacks his own identity. Towards the end, he said “the protruding eyes of the biggest, which was still alive, seemed to glare at me--- and then they become the eyes of the witch”. He, himself, got confused whether it was the witch’s power or he was just affected by the stories around him. In this case, the author, Tiempo, was successful in creating a complex character that will make the readers decide whether to believe in such folklore or not.
Minggay Awok was portrayed as the main antagonist in the story. She was speculated as the witch in the story and was blamed for all the unfortunate incidents that happened in their place. As the story progressed, her mysterious character was revealed to the readers. She had a cruel husband who died before and a son who ran away from her. Moreover, she was described as a woman who spent her life living in bitterness and resentment. As an additional proof, “her eyes looked surprisingly young, but her mouth, just a thin line above the little chin, seemed to have tasted many bitter years”. Tiempo also made a very complex character out of Minggay. With the development of both his complex characters, a very intricate ending was also made. Based from the proofs I have gathered from the story, I believe that Minggay is a not witch. First, the rumors/stories were not proven. The people had no reasonable and valid proof.

MARIA DOS PRAZERES REALISTIC, CLASSICAL PLOT, 3rd person narration

OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW: An Analysis of “Maria dos Prazeres”
Maria dos Prazeres is the representation of every human being. Figuratively, she mirrors how people are scared of what they don’t know and so we try to do the best we can to control the circumstances in our favor. “Three months ago it had been revealed to her in a dream that she would die, and from that time on she had felt closer than ever to this child of solitude.” After that dream, the way on how she lived her life had completely changed. She tried to prepare for her own death and for whatever may happen to her. But the story is not only about the life of Maria; it is about life and people in general. The way in which Maria lived her life represents how we live ours. It shows the difference between living in the present versus living in the future and in the past. It is also about uncertainty and unsureness versus security and predictability. It also shows the opposition between the monotonous versus the spontaneous.

In general, it is a story of the familiar versus the new.
To elaborate on the first opposition, living in the present versus living in the future and in the past, Maria kept on looking back on her past and obsessing on her future. “Maria dos Prazeres saw that it was the complete plan of the immense cemetery of Montjuich, and she remembered with an ancient horror the graveyard in Manaus under the October rains…” She always remembers her past, and sometimes, she dwells on it too much. There are times that her past even influences her decisions and her goals. She is too idealistic and she wants to run away from her past and forget about it, but in doing so, she reminds herself even more of her experiences. On the other hand, after the incident with the dream, she became paranoid with her death. “She had anticipated the posthumous distribution of her belongings and the disposition of her body with so much care that she could have died at that moment without inconveniencing anyone.

The man from the undertaking establishment came to visit María Dos Prazeres early one morning. She greeted him in her curlers and robe and escorted him into her antique-filled living room. She had recently had a vision of death at the age of seventy-six and wanted to make all preparations before her death. She picked a plot of the hill cemetery, Montjuich. She didn't want to be washed away one day. Her dog, Noi, came in and after she scolded him he cried. The man was amazed that Noi cried. María said it was important to teach a dog to laugh and cry. He asked her what she did for a living. She told him she was a whore. She had retired to the town of Gràcia and furnished her apartment with objects the Fascists had stolen from residences abandoned by the Republicans in the stampede of defeat, which she had bought at secret auctions. The only part of her past that remained was her friendship with the Count of Cardona, who continued visiting her the last Friday of every month for supper and after-dinner love. She began making countless visits to the cemetery every Sunday to prepare her plot. After many attempts, she succeeded in having Noi pick out her grave on the massive hill of identical graves. The final test for the dog was letting him leave her house to see if he would make it to the gravesite after a two-hour journey. When he did, she knew she would have someone to cry over her grave. One rainy day in November, she got a ride from the cemetery back home with a young man in a big car. He asked if he could come up. She thought this was her dream of death, but realized it was her moment to live.

She was Maria dos Prazeres. She was seventy-six. She lived alone in her lovely house. Her possesions were of high-taste and exquisitely arranged. She made herself rich by investing her hard-earned money; she was a whore.
That morning her doorbell rang. She accepted her guest. He was an young undertaker. He was hired to arrange her funeral for her. She wanted to make sure she could die any time without inconveniencing anyone. She chose her tomb location, what coffin to be used, how she was to be dressed. The only thing left to do is to train her dog the route to her grave, to have it to visit her sometimes as she might get lonely.
She made the arrangement because she had a vision of her own death. She dreamed that she was going to die of a heart attack. For a person her age, it should be a justifiable premonition.
So she visited the chosen spot at cemetery with her dog. She showed it the place where she would be buried and taught it to cry there. Once it could do that, the next step would be to show it how to get there. It was quite a distance. They have a rigorous training for weeks.
It was another morning, it was Sunday. It was the test day. She released her dog from her house. While she herself went to the cemetary by public transport, the dog must find its way, as it did for so many weeks. She already found a new owner for her dog. She was a little girl. The little girl promised her to take a good care of the dog and to release it every sundays and never follow where it went. Once the dog passed the test, she would take it to the little girl. So there she was, waiting patiently for the dog. Her heart filled with joy when she was her dog running to her tiredly. As i told you before, it was quite a distance for that poor little dog. The dog came to her grave site and weep there. The test was completed with a perfect score.
She carried it in her arms. They tried to get the bus to go back when the sky turned grey and rain started to fall heavily. She waited at a small veranda at road side rather far from the main road. People drove by without noticing this lady caught in coldness. Suddenly a car stopped and reversed to her location. The window down and a man was inside, “Where are you going?” She told him she was going rather far, he could just drop her anyway along the way where she could catch a bus. “Get in. I am going that place too.” he told her.
He was a young handsome man with thick black hair and sharp facial features. If only she was younger, she would want to seduce him. Suddenly she felt ashamed for being old and ugly. He observed her with the side of his eyes. He insisted to send her to her house instead of dropping her at the town side. She opened the car door, released the dog, turned back to thank him. Her eyes met his. His deep dark eyes were staring straight into hers. They were deep and full of emotion. She knew what they meant. “Can I go in?” he asked. It surprised her. Her brain went spinning in high-speed. Finally, in the attempt to keep her composure, she got off the car leaving the door open and said “It’s up to you.”
She climbed the steps to her house at second storey. Each step seemed to take forever. Her heart beat rapidly with awful rythm. She could not feel her feet. She felt choke. She felt as if she was going to die.
“So this is what the dream means. This overwelming feeling, the choking feeling, the heart beat that I thought was heart attack. So this is what it means.” FIRST TIME TO LIVE.

The Conjurer Made Off With the Dish REALISTIC, CLASSICAL PLOT, 1st person narration * Innocence and lack of parental supervision

“The day was passing and soon mysterious darkness would descend”. This is how Naguib Mahfouz’s story ends. A short story filled with a lifetime of experiences that perhaps every poor boy in an urban city faces. Experiences of violence, sex, power struggle, poverty, failure, love, hard choices are what make this story of a young boy in Egypt.

The story starts showing how the weaker is oppressed by the stronger; the concept of power struggle is seen throughout the story. Mother, bean-seller, conjurer all take on aggressive roles towards the boy, threatening him in various ways, “Scram, or I will make you into food for snakes”, turning him into a weak afraid creature.

Like all young children, this boy too gets lost and distracted in the magical world and for a moment forgets all his troubles. “However I gave no thought to the loss…forgot the fear of what threatened me back home”. He is suddenly made to grow up from this innocent world when he accidently comes across a man beating a woman profusely. He is made to let go off his childhood in that one instant and protect himself from the harsh and cruel world that awaits him.

Setting- Egypt. Crowded market filled with people and not much room to move with buyers and all sorts of dancing and magic tricks. “Make way for someone esle.”
Characters-
Mother- didn’t prepare the boy for the task she give to him. She is harsh and excepts the boy to know how to do everything without any guidance or help. “Stupid boy! what do you eat every morning?”
Conjurer-Evil man whom the young boy owes money to. “Scram or I’ll make you into food for snakes.”
Young boy- Not very focused gets scared easily. He cannot seem to finish the task at hand because there is too much going on around him. “You’ve lost the piaster- you’re not a boy to be depended on.”
PLOT
Conflict- Man vs. Man. The Child vs. conjurer, bean seller, fighting man and his own mother.

Complication- He loses his money to buy beans for his family and then he sees a terrible crime occur when looking for the money.

Climax- When the boy is running away for the man who is trying to kill a woman and then see’s the young boy lurking. “Descending the stairs at a jump, I raced off like a mad to whereever my legs might carry me.”

Conclusion- He gets lost while running away from the man and he has no idea where he is. “In terror I realized I had lost my way and that countless difficulties lay in my way for me before I found my way home.”
Point of view-This story is told using 1st person narration. “I started at the scene til I saw a thread of blood trickling down from her nose.”
Theme- If you get off track sometimes it leads you down the wrong path.