Today we
have read two short stories, Two Kinds by Amy Tan and Lamb to the Slaughter by
Roald Dahl. They were both very good short stories, even though they were a bit
sad. Me and my friends Ewa (visit her
blog here: www.englishewa.blogspot.com ) and Amalie (www.amaliepaasandvika.blogspot.com ) worked together, and we decided
to try to compare these stories to each other. This is what we discovered:
- · First of all, the main characters in both the stories are females. In Two Kinds the main character is a young Chinese girl, and in Lamb to the Slaughter it is a woman, Mary Maloney, who seems to be a bit mad.
- · The setting in both of the stories takes place in the family, in their homes. Only the family is included in the plot. This is typical for short stories, there are often few people.
- · The point of view is from the main character.
- · Poor communication can be found in both stories. The mother and daughter in Two Kinds have problems with communicating with each other, and agree on what is the best for the daughter’s future. Mary and her husband Charlie in the other story can’t communicate on their relationship, and this result in Mary killing him.
- · We discovered that the conflicts in the stories both came as a result of the poor communication. The reason why the mother and daughter had such a conflict was because they had different opinions and had problems with communicating about this with each other. The conflict in Lamb to the Slaughter is that Mary kills her husband, and this wouldn’t have happened if they could communicate.
- · The solution of the conflicts ends with death and killing. Mary feels like she has to kill her husband because she wants to leave him, and by that, he is not leaving her, at least kind of. The conflict in Two Kinds only ends when the mother dies, only then is the daughter able to forgive her, and see that she did what she did because she loved her.
- · The theme in both stories is love. In Two Kinds it is about the love between mother and daughter, the mother wants her daughter to be famous because she wants her to have a bright future. In Lamb to the Slaughter it is about the love between wife and husband. When Charlie doesn’t love her anymore, Mary feels like she has to kill him, because he is her only love.
You can
read the stories here!
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