3. Literature Exploration

Reading & Concepts

Correctness and monstrosity are two concepts present in the text. Humans reaching their edge, transgressing social boundaries, and reacting differently to what the sense of correctness represents, are exposed to be seen as strange. The lack of empathy is an illustration of how fragile the transition from human to evilness from others’ perspectives is.

This story and the narrative style also illustrate evilness as the symbolism of men. It is portrayed not only with her husband but also with other men that approach her or that are mentioned in the story (the husband’s friends, the truck man, the mailman, and the murderer caught by the police, for example).

Water is further identified with death, fear, and evilness.

Claire’s final decision evidences the struggle of selecting a paranoid interpretation of some unknown facts or continue being aware of the possible monstrosity that exists in others. This last ends up being the least hazardous and threatening choice. However, the open ending given by the author takes us to the question of whether the feeling of anguish is a constant in our human life or our fear to discover real monstrosity forces us to keep going no matter what.

The end of the story leads us to wonder about our need for human connection.

Reading & Concepts

The concept of strangeness is here present regarding conflict with social standards and boundaries. Human beings’ decisions are commonly limited by what society sets in terms of correctness. Feelings such as paranoia, fear, and anxiety are the representation of the social pressure humans deal with when transgressing socially standardized behavior.

The final decision made by the character evidences humans’ urgency for being socially acceptable and not exceeding the limits no matter the issues we deal with. Through the illustrative description of the author, readers can emerge in fear experimented when feeling judged by others. Such fear may generate a certain sense of evilness in oneself. From my perspective, this text shows evil coming from oneself as a result of regret.

Reading & concepts

In the story, at the moment of requesting the soldier to leave the boy’s family to get inside the house, death is presented as a fact already accepted and illustrated before it actually happens. The death acceptance by taking women inside as if everything had already been done. This sense of acceptance of death makes us take it as something that has not yet been experienced but makes part of our human nature and to act in the manner we believe corresponds to the way someone dead should.

Strangeness is illustrated in the fact of a boy living a life he no longer possesses and his exposure to the cruelty of war. With this illustrative narration, evil is also a wonder. Through the assassination of other people, the destruction of other places different from the guy’s, and the encounter of death with death, a deep analysis of unjustified actions is presented.

Reading & Concepts

This text guides readers to experience the cruelty in his pure presentation thanks to the detailed description of the sensations, behavior, conflicts, and brutal acts in the concentration camp. As a result of the details provided, a reflection on how cruel human beings can be to one another, portrays the monstrosity of our nature. Strangeness is represented through the concept of death and the acceptance of a reality which allows readers to experiment with the different sensations from a different perspective.

Thanks to the narration of the author and the different characters, readers are exposed to multiple emotions and a constant confrontation about placing oneself in the other’s place. The brutality exposed and cruelty of the acts and the guilt illustrated at times in the character’s actions, reflect the constant transgression of social values and the development of some acts considered to be cruel, dehumanized, and irrational as a matter of survival.