Short introduction
Genesis and Catastrophe by Roald Dahl is a short story included in the book Kiss Kiss (1960), a collection of macabre short stories that are known to shock the reader.
Setting
The story takes place in Braunau, Austria, in 1889. A woman, Klara, is in the hospital giving birth to a baby boy and is very anxious, wondering if the newborn is going to pull through. You can include a spoiler here and tell your reader that the baby boy is Adolf Hiler – or you can choose not to, but you must include it in the analysis part.
Characters
Klara: Is a very anxious woman. She is worried about her children, and especially the newborn baby. Write at least 4 or 5 lines on each character
Otto: Otto is a drunkard who appears heartless and … Include examples from the text to show this.
The doctor: A good, confident doctor who is trying to calm Klara down. Include examples from the text.
Plot summary (try not to retell, but give something more than just information about the story to your reader)
Klara is in the hospital giving birth to a baby. She prays that the baby will survive and is very anxious because she has lost three children during the last eighteen months and the new baby is looking small and weak. She is worried that he will not pull through. She is almost losing hope and her doctor is trying to reassure her. Dahl is writing in a way that makes the reader feel very compassionate about the woman and her family but gradually the reader will start changing his or hers feelings about this. Klara’s husband, Otto – is not supportive – on the contrary he complains about his children being week, he cannot understand why they cannot be better specimens.
Analysis
The text is quite dramatic. The author is using short sentences to create a nerve in the text. The turing point in the story is…
The story ends with Klara praying, "He must live, Alois. He must, he must... Oh