Preview

The Darkness Out There Character Analysis

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2844 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Darkness Out There Character Analysis
Analysis of Characterization in "The Darkness Out There
Analysis of Characterization in "The Darkness Out There"

‘The Darkness Out There’ and ‘The Withered Arm’ are both short stories. The characterization techniques they use are contrasting and similar. Each story is from a different time; ‘The Withered Arm’ being 19th century and ‘The Darkness Out There’ being 20th century. Thomas Hardy writes ‘The Withered Arm’ as a 3rd person narrative whereas Penelope Lively uses a mixture between 3rd and 1st person.

‘The Darkness Out There’ combines the author’s narration with the thoughts and feelings of Sandra, a girl belonging to the Good Neighbors club. She goes to help out an old lady, Mrs. Rutter, with the help of a boy called Kerry. Mrs. Rutter lives in the countryside; next to a wood called Packers End, feared by Sandra. Mrs. Rutter has a secret, that when told, horrifies the children. This sub story is of the German she found and left to die back when she was a girl in the war. Penelope Lively develops Mrs. Rutters character in many ways, with clues early on to her true self. Sandra’s views on the characters change by the end, as well as her whole out look of life as a result.

One of the ways Mrs. Rutter’s character is portrayed by Penelope Lively is through her environment, both historically and geographically. The house is introduced sending out two different messages. One is that of a quaint homely place. This can be recognized through the descriptions of the china ornaments, “big-eyed flop-eared rabbits and beribboned kittens and flowery milkmaids and a pair of naked chubby children wearing daisy chains”. Firstly, this gives the impression of a cuddly ‘grandmother’ figure, but then the picture is broken with the mention of the “smell of cabbage”. This comment conflicts with the otherwise friendly scene to suggest something is not rite. The house reflects Mrs. Rutter’s character. An example of this is “her eyes investigated, quick as mice”. Later, the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    At some point in everyone’s life they come across a life changing obstacle, also known as their everest. In the book, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, the climbers Jon Krakauer, Rob Hall, sherpas, and many other people, climb Mount Everest with hopes of summiting. For them this is their everest. When the word everest is said the automatic thought is Mount Everest, but in this case everest holds the definition of a tough obstacle that is overcome because of the work and effort that was put into it to get through it. This was most likely the toughest obstacle the climbers have ever faced, and is obviously a life changing event. My everest on the other hand is much different than climbing Mount Everest. My everest is more centered around my life when I was about eight years old.…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book The Westing Game, there are 16 unlikely people who meet up for a reading of Sam Westing’s will. They have to try and find out who killed Samuel W. Westing or even figure out who Sam Westing is. They each get $10,000 to start of with and a clue as well. An example of a clkjue is: Sea Mountain Am O. There might be hidden names in the clue, or there might be places where Sam Westing could be. In the apartment complex they live in, Sunset Towers, is right across the way of Sam Westing’s house… coincidence? I think not.…

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Show me Yours” by Richard Van Camp narrates the promising and apparent upturned in life experienced by Richard, a middle-aged man who at the beginning has experienced a nadir in his life caused by addiction issues and harmful friendships. After a bad night, by mere randomness, he decides to glue a found baby picture of him to his grandparent saint’s necklace and wears it under his shirt. Abruptly, the baby picture necklace becomes a trend in his community and seems to encourage care and positivism around the participants of the furor. Richard, who starts experiencing acceptance and recognition around the locality also reunites with an old love, Shawna, with whom he spends the night and appears to bring more hope to Richard’s situation. At…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I feel that I connect most with Bear a character in the book The Darkest Path. Bear is a dog however, he has many humanlike qualities that make him an essential part of the story.…

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Coyotes are known for reeling in chickens. That is what Mendez and other smugglers do to get large amounts of money from desperate illegal immigrants coming into the United States. Tragedies, like the Yuma 14/ Welton 26 occur often. Many deaths go unnoticed and some of those that enter the desert, never return. In the true account The Devils Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea, The Welton 26 faced betrayal, hardship, and the possibility of death with great courage and peserverance.…

    • 1264 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Anthony Doerr’s book All the Light We Cannot See, there were many acts of bravery, however three characters exceed the others; they are Marie Laure, Etienne, and Werner. They all showed numerous acts of bravery throughout the book. They faced threats to themselves and other’s but they were calm and brave and managed to get through them.…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every person has been an outsider at one point or another. Many nonfiction writers such as John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Truman Capote, author of In Cold Blood, use outsiders as characters in their stories.These type of characters help the writer to convey the argument they are trying to get across to the reader. In these nonfiction novels, outsiders play a critical role in the communities that they enter.…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fitzgerald expresses that a person should forget about all of the miserable parts in life and focus on the new as “In any case you mustn't confuse a single failure with a final defeat”(Fitzgerald 272). F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts a character Dick Diver who looks forward to the future by making the most of each situation. His character realizes that utilizing and making the most of each given moment to make life count most will result in never regretting decisions in their later age. His characters exhibits that going beyond what he believes is his comfort zone is a key element of developing both mentally and physically. In Tender in the Night, F.Scott Fitzgerald creates a fictional character Dick Diver who exhibits all good aspects of the human race as seen by his physical appearance and his mental stability despite being in World War 1. Throughout the novel Dick Diver is illustrated by all of the humans perfect characteristics which are the ability to dream…

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The novel Black Like Me, by John Howard Griffin, tells the story of a sensitive white man from the south. He embarked on a personal mission to experience the hatred and bigotry towards the blacks that was rampant in the south during that time period. Putting his family and safety on the back burner, he proceeded to alter his skin to a black pigment and set off into the muggy south. No longer seen as a human by other whites, he discovered how the blacks were oppressed to the point of no hope. He walked the streets one night as a black man, hated and feared by whites and respected by fellow blacks. While the next night he walked the streets as a white and felt spite from the blacks and acceptance from the whites, but the whole time he was the same man. These experiences only seem to strengthen the core of this man's beliefs. He remains a dedicated and courageous man with scientific curiosity in the subject of race.…

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every story has a main character that introduces change called the protagonist. In the short story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, it is made clear that Sylvia is the protagonist. Not every story has an antagonist, a character with views that stand in opposition of the main character of the story, but in “The Lesson” Miss Moore can be clearly seen filling that position. Throughout the story both Sylvia’s and Miss Moore’s conflicting ideals passively clash on several occasions revealing their individual complexities. Miss Moore is the most complex of the two.…

    • 474 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Anthony Doer’s All the Light We Cannot See, the heroine of the story, Marie-Laure LeBlanc, is put in an unfamiliar and novel environment, and as a result finds herself alienated and isolated. Marie is blind and shy, characteristics which had already set her apart from everybody else for her entire life. But once France is overrun by the German Nazi’s and her father is taken away, life becomes even harder for her. For example, unlike everybody else, Marie is unable to read any of the pamphlets the Allies had been putting out, urging people to flee. Furthermore, the prevalence of the Nazi’s in her hometown and everywhere around her, bringing in their culture, books, and language, makes everything seem unfamiliar, furthering the idea that she…

    • 214 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the play ¡°Long Day¡¯s Journey into Night,¡± by Eugene O¡¯Neill, the writer depicts a typical day of the Tyrone family, whose once-close family has deteriorated over the years for a number of reasons: Mary¡¯s drug addiction, Tyrone Jamie and Edmund¡¯s alcoholism, Tyrone¡¯s stinginess, and the sons` pessimistic attitude toward future. In the play, all of the four characters are miserable about life, and they all remember the past and try to escape from reality by drinking alcohol or taking drugs. Among these four characters, Mary is a typical and special one; she is the most tragic character in the play. She used to be an innocent girl with beautiful dreams (to become a nun and a pianist) and a strong religious faith centered on the Virgin Mary. However, her marriage destroyed her dreams and weakened her faith. Her husband Tyrone fails to realize the promises he made to Mary, which makes her lose her faith in the marriage. The morphine addiction drags her down and makes her unconscious about whether she lives in the past or present. The title of the play is a ¡°Long Day¡¯s Journey into Night¡±, but Mary, as she keeps taking morphine, travels mentally back to the past when she has fewer problems and happier life. Thus, for Mary, it is actually a long day¡¯s journey into the past.…

    • 1471 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    * The notion that maybe there is an inkling of them in himself and his own people, frightens Marlow.…

    • 251 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Stefan Zweig once said, “Only the misfortune of exile can provide the in-depth understanding and the overview into the realities of the world.” In All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, one of the main characters, Marie-Laure, faces exile in many different ways, including being blind and being French during the German occupation in WWII. Although the connotation of exile is not the most charming, Marie-Laure pushes through the hard times and can make such a horrible experience an enriching experience as well.…

    • 85 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tomas is a fictional character that appears in “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” which was written by Milan Kundera. He is the main protagonist in the novel and can be depicted as a round character because of the fact that he is going to be influenced by his wife, Teresa, to change. He is considered a brilliant surgeon in Prague, but unfortunately he lost his job, his family, and was divorced from his first wife. Afterwards, he lost contact with his family including his son which is why we can see from the beginning of the novel that he is used to being alone and never thought about getting remarried again. He is also described to be a person with a great lustful personality. He is a womanizer, and one could see at the start that he simply…

    • 1119 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics