Tuesday, 13 February 2018

"Rosa" in The Prison

"Rosa was too plain" for Tommy.

A simple study of verbs associated Rosa reveals use of "trusted nobody", "screamed", "wouldn't let up screaming".

An easy way to understand how a character has been designed is to look at words associated with the character. 
Rosa, for example, was a violent person herself. So the words associated with her reveal!

More about characters in the next post. The father in "The People Before".

Friday, 9 February 2018

Why is "The Prison" a prison!


The way a prison has a jailer, a cell and punishment, so does Tommy's life in "The Prison" by  Bernard Malamud.

Tommy's life was a"screaming bore". This sentence itself says a lot about the character and his life.
Can you imagine your life which is boring. A life where you have to get up and do the same thing everyday! A life where there is no change - the change that you attempt is not allowed.Tommy - hated his wife, the place he worked, the work he did, the hours he worked. His life had to be a bore!
Why does the author use the word "screaming. Simple because it was so obvious that he was completely fed up of his life!


 It is only "except for an hour off each afternoon when he went upstairs to sleep". That was the relief that he got. This too is reminiscent of a prison where the prisoner is allowed a break for a short while and within the premises!


More coming....................

Names of characters!


The names of characters are also chosen with a purpose. The name “Ward” in Billennium also has a reason. The writer wants to focus on the small space that a “ward” represents. It is a division within a given space. And that is what the story is about. Spaces – smaller spaces within that.