Man From The South Short Story Analysis

Analyzing Short Story

MAN FROM THE SHOUT

By Ronald Dahl

v  Setting

The story was happened in JAMAICA and the more specific are in swimming pool and a room like hotel.

v  Plot

Exposition: The story is begun when the narrator (I) come to enjoy the beautiful evening under a yellow umbrella with four seats. Then, a little old man (Carlos) came and asked to sit with him.

Rising: A boy came in wet condition with his girl friend and set in the blank chairs to join with them.

Climax: When the boy ordered them cigarettes and tried to use his slighter, yet Carlos said that it would not work because of the wind. Confidently, the boy said that it always works, so Carlos invited him to his room and challenged him to wager about the slighter by car and cutting the boy’s finger if he failed to make the lighter lighten for eight times.

Falling: The boy succeed to make the slighter lighten. Then, when it was going to the eighth and succeed, suddenly an old woman coming and standing in the the doorway then rushed forward shouting to Carlos for stopping to do that. 

Resolution:  The old woman told the truth about Carlos to them. About all thing happening in the past including about the forty-seven fingers that have already cut from the different person and about eleven cars that was lost by him. And that the car “CADALIC” is not his own.

The conflict is between person versus person by surprising ending and chronological plot.

v  Character and characterization

Major character

·         I (Narrator)

I think he is a major character because he is the one who told us about the story until the end. He also included in the story until the end although he did not talk or speak up more. But I do not more about his other characters.

·         The little old man (Carlos)

He gets psychology’s disruption, yet I do not know what the factor is. He likes to cut people’s finger by some tricks like inviting someone to wager.

·         The American cadet (boy)

He is a confident one. I know it when Carlos contempt him that his slighter will not work, but confidently he said that he can prove that his slighter always works.

·         The boy’s girl friend

She is a lovely and fainthearted one. I know it when his boy friend agreed with the wager; she looked so carry about it. She also includes in as major character because she gets the role from the beginning until the end.

·         Old woman

She is a womankind. It is known when she stopped the Carlos’s bad planning and saved the boy. She also includes as major character because she is the one who makes the story become surprise for the readers.

Minor character

·         The maid in the hotel

Because he just become other role in the story and did not includes in the story from the beginning until the end.

The method of the characterization is mixing. Shoeing and telling. Because the narrator let we know the story directly by telling and indirectly by showing.

v  Point of view

Observant first person point of view. Because the narrator use “I” and we cannot guess is he a protagonist or antagonist one? He just told the story to let the reader know about the story.

My opinion: I think it is a good, fantastic, interesting and surprising story. Because it made us surprise in the end of the story about the truth the story. When I read the story, I dislike it, but when I know the last of the story I was interested and I want to know the next of the story as a novel.