Rhinoceros Beetle
Rhinoceros Beetle
Week 2 Essay One Charles. Oryema
Question: Worlds within texts often prompt us to question the worlds outside texts. Write an essay in response to this statement with reference to at least one short story you have studied.
“Rhinoceros Beetle” by Susan Hawthorne is a story about a boy’s childhood obsession which becomes a reality when he grows into a man. The story presents ideas and assumptions which viewers can relate to real life. The writer first presents an image of a boy with a destructive nature which is normal in young males, but then challenges this idea by showing a more menacing side of some men. Women are portrayed as the victims and misunderstood by the males in the story. The writer positions readers to relate events in the story to the real world through the use of narrative conventions of characterisation, point of view and descriptive language.
The short story uses the narrative convention of descriptive language which details the events of the boy’s life and position readers to question the worlds outside texts. In the beginning of the story the boy is present as destructive with an obsession for insects. “In the spring he added to his large collection of eggs; raiding nest……. and covering the boxes later with non-reflective glass”. The evidence clearly shows that the boy has an interest in bugs and insects which is normal in young boys. However as the story progresses the readers are exposed to a much more sinister side of the boy who is now a man. “He had treated women as he had always treated every living”, this shows us that his childhood obsession has resulted in his behaviour as a man. The boy’s story is very similar and can be compared to stories of criminals in the real world in which a deranged young mind grows into a mind of a psychopath. Descriptive language has been used by the author to establish the connection between worlds within texts and
Week 2 Essay One Charles. Oryema
Question: Worlds within texts often prompt us to question the worlds outside texts. Write an essay in response to this statement with reference to at least one short story you have studied.
“Rhinoceros Beetle” by Susan Hawthorne is a story about a boy’s childhood obsession which becomes a reality when he grows into a man. The story presents ideas and assumptions which viewers can relate to real life. The writer first presents an image of a boy with a destructive nature which is normal in young males, but then challenges this idea by showing a more menacing side of some men. Women are portrayed as the victims and misunderstood by the males in the story. The writer positions readers to relate events in the story to the real world through the use of narrative conventions of characterisation, point of view and descriptive language.
The short story uses the narrative convention of descriptive language which details the events of the boy’s life and position readers to question the worlds outside texts. In the beginning of the story the boy is present as destructive with an obsession for insects. “In the spring he added to his large collection of eggs; raiding nest……. and covering the boxes later with non-reflective glass”. The evidence clearly shows that the boy has an interest in bugs and insects which is normal in young boys. However as the story progresses the readers are exposed to a much more sinister side of the boy who is now a man. “He had treated women as he had always treated every living”, this shows us that his childhood obsession has resulted in his behaviour as a man. The boy’s story is very similar and can be compared to stories of criminals in the real world in which a deranged young mind grows into a mind of a psychopath. Descriptive language has been used by the author to establish the connection between worlds within texts and