Анализ "A and P" by John Updike

The story "A&P" was written by a famous American writer John Updike. The events take place in a supermarket "A&P". Here is the connection between the title of the story and the story itself, which begins with the description of three girls. It was very surprising for the customers and shop-workers to see half-naked girls in bathing-suits walking along the supermarket, which was rather far from a beach.

The author presents the events from the point of view of the one of the characters - Sammy, a nineteen year-old boy. We should admit that Sammy always tries to come in contact with the reader, he waits for his response:

"...do you really think... but do you got the idea... If it hadn't been there you wouldn't have known..."

Sammy describes the girls with admiration:

* She just walked straight on slowly, on these long, white prima donna legs.
* So high her neck, coming up out of those white shoulders
* her chest down from the shoulder bones, like a dented sheet of metal tilled in the light

So all this epithets amd similes reveal Sammy's positive attitude towards the girls. But the other customers on the contrary are described negatively.

* "The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle..." - The metaphor sheep stands here for the customers.
* "She's one of these cash-register-watchers, a witch about fifty with rouge on her cheekbones." - The metaphor "witch" is standing for the cashregister watcher.

So we can arrive at a definite conclusion that for Sammy the girls were a gulp of fresh air. He was tired of his boring job which gave him no satisfaction at all. And Sammy enjoyed spying upon the girls, he liked them.

In the first part of the story the greatest emphasis is given to the description of the girls. Sammy describes them in details and admires their beauty. His attitude towards the girls presupposes the existence of another attitude.

In the second part of the story Lengel appears, resenting the girls' behaviour. He considers them to be indecent. There is an external conflict between Lengel and Sammy. Lengel seems to be the representative of the society full of rigid, time honoured rules. As for Sammy, he is a boy with an artistic soul. It's very hard for him to survive in this world. There is also the internal conflict, which takes place in Sammy's mind. He wants to get rid off the bounds with that society. He wants freedom. And those girls served as impulse for him to make the right decision. The climax of the story coincides with the moment when Sammy took his courage into his both hands and quitted.

The message sounds like this: "we shouldn't be afraid of taking initiative in our hands and showing it". In this sense Sammy is a round character. He is a unique individual and developes in the course of the story. As for Lengel he is one sided, constructed round a single trait.

The author symphathizes with Sammy. Updike chose him as the narrator, consequently Sammy represents the author's point of view. Here one can easily discover Updike's attitude towards women, he considers that it's enough for women to be beautiful but not to have brains. He says: "You never know for sure how girls' minds work / do you really think it's a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass jar".

Besides, Updike's accuracy while choosing words, using different stylistic devices - all that draws our attention. The language is very metaphoric:

* "a few houseslaves"
* my stomach rub the inside of my apron ...

and it's very difficult to read and understand the author's message. In conclusion I'd like to point out that story wasn't to my liking.

Анализ "Cruise" by Evelyn Waugh

The story “Cruise” by E.Waugh centers at the voyage that a family of well-off undertakes. The story is written in a form of letters. The author of the letters is a young girl who shares her impressions about things that happen with her. The age of the young lady has a great impact on the style of the letters. It is colloquial. Without any doubt the story is a subjective reflection of reality as it is a first person narration and is a charm of it.

From the beginning we understand that the head of the family is the father who is a bit infantile and emotional. The fact that he hadn’t get the young lady and Bertie a sleeper, though he had slept himself shows that he is pitiless and egoistic. The situation when he is called the colonel underlines his being vain and arrogant, though his children only make profit of his selfishness, not realising his bad traits of character. They also act like he does. His son is always drunk and makes everyting in order to attract people’s attention (he climbed down the ventilator). His daughter mocks at other people and tries to humiliate them by all means (Then I bitched him a bit (goodness how Decent).

The other people on the ship are like their passengers. Toadying, dishonesty and meanness is a common thing. This can be proved by the sentences ...


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Анализ "The Happy Prince" by Oscar Wilde

The story under the title “The Happy Prince” was written by an Irish poet and dramatist whose reputation rests on his comic masterpieces Lady Wintermere's Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), (Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde). Among Wilde's other best-known works are his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, which deals very similar theme as Robert Luis Stevenson's Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde. Wilde's fairy tales are very popular - the motifs have been compared to those of Hans Christian Andersen. 

The plot of the story under analysis centers round a swallow, which travels a lot and finally finds a statue of the Happy Prince. Being alive the Happy Prince didn’t know what the sorrow was, only after the death he being set up as a statue could see “all the ugliness and all the misery of his city”. The swallow who obeyed his commands in the sake of the good, finally died, and they both were thrown in a dust-heap. 

The core of the problem raised in the story is good and evil, wealth and poverty. An important point is that the story resembles a fairy tale. While reading we come across various things and objects, which usually don’t possess emotions and feelings, the ability to speak, or aren’t alive at all. They are speaking birds and the statue, alive reeds, etc. 

We know the Swallow loved the Reed and offered to be his wife. It’s obvious that only in fairy tales the ally of different kinds of things is possible. "It is a ridiculous attachment," twittered the other Swallows; "she has no money, and far too many relations" – this exact sentence is the example of a fairy tale form, but at the same time it depicts in swallows usual features of real life, such as greediness. So, it contributes to the problem, and proves it is quite vital. 

The main idea of the story is that we start appreciating what we possessed only after losing it. The Happy Prince “lived in the Palace of Sans- Souci, where sorrow was not allowed to enter”, but death let him see all the sorrows of people living near him.

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