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Danny The Champion Of The World by Roald Dahl Novel Study
As an English speaking child of the 80s I grew up on a heavy diet of Roald Dahl. Danny The Champion Of The World (1975) stands out in my adult memory my favourite Dahl story, perhaps only bested by the frisson of horror left by The Witches (in which I actually examined my J2 teacher,…
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Little House On The Prairie Analysis
Should parents expose our modern kids to Little House On The Prairie, given the uncomfortable realities?
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Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (1970) Picture Book Analysis
from the book “Sylvester and the Magic Pebble” written and illustrated by William Steig, published by Windmill Books, Simon & Shuster, New York, 1969. Winner of the Caldecott Medal in 1970
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Jane Campion’s The Piano Film Study
The Piano (1993) is a lyrical, fairytale film written and directed by Jane Campion, set and filmed in New Zealand near the beginning of white colonisation. SETTING OF THE PIANO Like many creative New Zealanders, Campion comes from Wellington. I don’t know why so much creativity comes out of the Wellington region, but I suspect…
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The Little Governess by Katherine Mansfield Short Story Analysis
Katherine Mansfield wrote. It’s a cautionary tale without the Perrault didacticism. It’s Little Red Riding Hood, but social realism. This story exists to say, “You’re not alone.” It’s a gendered story, about the specifically femme experience of being alone in public space. Some critics find the ending inadequate. This is a stellar example of a…
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A Brief History of Road Trip Stories
Road trip stories are basically mythic journeys. Usually, a group of friends or family are travelling together instead of alone. As well as meeting a succession of opponents along the way they argue among themselves. The Minotaur opponent who comes in from outside either binds them together or (in a tragedy) drives them apart. Occasionally…
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Disorientation And Spatial Horror In Fiction
I’ve been thinking about ways in which a storyteller creates a sense of unease for the audience, but spatially. We might call this spatial horror. I’m talking about disorientation, dizziness, light-headedness, fear of falling, and various senses outlined in the graphic below.
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The Lap Pool by Robert Drewe Short Story Analysis
“The Lap Pool” is a short story by Australian author Robert Drewe, and the opening story in the 2008 collection The Rip.
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The Ideology Of Wealth In Stories
Wealth brings out the worst in people. This is the overriding message we get from stories in general, be they for children or adults. However, sometimes by working hard a hero can become rich. In a Cinderella story goodness leads naturally to riches. This is thought to be Cinderella’s rightful place — after all, Cinderella…
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How To Write Like Alice Munro
**UPDATE LATE 2024** After Alice Munro died, we learned about the real ‘open secrets’ (not so open to those of us not in the loop) which dominated the author’s life. We must now find a way to live with the reality that Munro’s work reads very differently after knowing certain decisions she made when faced…
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Blackberries by Thomas Kenneally Short Story Analysis
“Blackberries” is a short story by Thomas Keneally, included in an anthology I got free when buying another book at Dymocks back in 2009. Allen and Unwin have since released a number of short stories from big name Australian authors as eBooks, including “Blackberries”, available for a couple of bucks each.
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Symbolism and The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst Short Story Analysis
What can I say about “The Scarlet Ibis” that isn’t on Wikipedia? This 1960 short story is loved by English teachers because of its clear literary symbols — a good introduction to symbolism, especially to colour symbolism. COLOUR SYMBOLISM Students can be highly suspicious of close reading when teachers talk about colours and their symbolism. Colours…
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A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O’Connor Short Story Analysis
“A Good Man Is Hard To Find” is a well-known short story by American writer Flannery O’Connor, published 1953. So much has already been said about this story — I will look into its structure from a plotting point of view. It’s also about time I read this story. Without reading Flannery O’Connor’s most famous…
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When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead Novel Study
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead is ten years old now, published 2009. I’ve seen this middle grade novel described as magical realism, though for knotty political reasons we might prefer to call it fabulism. It is also science fiction and grounded in the real world. It packs a lot into 40k words. There…
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Hotels and Motels In Stories
Hotels and motels, it seems, are inherently scary. My theory is that they fall into the uncanny valley of attempting to emulate home without actually being our home. Hotels and motels mimic the dream version of home, like when you ‘know’ within a dream that you’re ‘at home’, but the dream home is nothing like…