The Oppertunity is desent short story, about a sixteen year old girl named Elise. The story is been told in Limited Omniscient point of view. The author only lets us know about Elsie's mom's feelings, but not Elsies'. Anyhow, we do get to know about the actions done by Elsie, and what all is going around her, and the dialogues of the other minor characters. Through out the story, there are three settings in total, one at Elsie's house, second, at the Cogswells house (where Elsie babysat), and the theater. The settings in this story weren't the the effective elements. The story didnt develop around them. The characterization on the other hand; Mrs. Wilson is a round character, and Elsie is a dynamic character. At the beginning of the story, Mrs. Wilson did not want Elsie to become an actress, as she didnt expect her to be granted with such an oppertunity. But towards the end, when Elsie did get the opportunity, ironicly Mrs. Wilson was over-thrilled, and didnt want Elsie to let go the opportunity. And what made Mrs. Wilson a round character, was that she didnt stop Elsie from making her own decision, and was happy with Elsie the way she was ( a babbysitter). Elsie on the other hand, always wanted to be an actress. She wanted to act, it was her dream. A dynamic character is a character who changes, through out the coarse of the story, like Elsie. By the end of the story, she refused to be in the play, as she said it "stinked". It was again, ironic, how she gave up something that had meant so much to her.
The conflict of the story was mainly man vs. man, as Elsie went against her mothers' will, and the producers and directers of the play called her a tramp and called her other names. And, ignoring all the insults, Elsie stood by her decisions.
The theme of the story could be summarized to: Making the right decision. i.e. if Elsie wouldnt have quit the play, she would have been critisized to be in the stupid play.
Going on the Plot, the turning point in this story would be when Elsie tells her mom her decision about quitting the play, because she thought it stinked.
The mood of the story was easy going, yet sort of glum, keepin in mind, the slow pace, and the soft diction: beautiful, wonderful, indolent etc. The word choice was easy to follow and consisted of common words. And hence, according to me, the story seemed a bit dull, the moody spark could be fixed.
My point of view about this short story: The Oppertunity was an average story. Nothing too moving, or too engulfing. It wouldnt have made a difference if i hadnt read it. Elsie didnt choose to be an actress in the end, something i would've done if i didnt like the play. But i didnt like her mother's part in the story. She was soo moody, and a person who would go with the flow. At firs she didnt believe in Elsie, and discouraged her about acting, and later when Elsie did get the opportunity, she goes all physced about it, and starts picturing things that would have happeneed if Elsie didnt quit it. I think, the mother was selfish, and put Elsie under alot of pressure. Altough her husband had abandoned her, i think it was her who had to move on, and it was Elsie, who made the right decisions, and was sort of like the adult in the house. As she could think and decide for herself at the age sixteen.
Setting: 3/5
Plot: 3/5
Character: 4/5
Conflict: 4/5
Problem/Theme: 4/5
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
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4 comments:
I found it interesting that the protagonist is static, not dynamic. I think the point of this story is to not just make the right decisions, but to be concerned with what you think of yourself as opposed to what others think.
Hahaha! I wanna marry a chick like Elise
you have such bad spelling and i thought of the summary not about your opinion
Thnx but bad at the end
I actually loved your view on the stroy.. its very thorough and, at the end, it shows your unique insight and what you believed the story was like. Although the story was not exactly a summary, I enjoyed reading this and learned a quite a bit from it. Thanks!!
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