By Any Other Name Summary

The short stories “About a Girl” and “By Any Other Name” both have the similar mood. They are both about two different girls undergoing difficult issues throughout their life. The mood in both stories are mournful. In “About a Girl” when Olsson said “She lost most of her vision and was able to make things out only if they were an inch or two in front of her eyes. She no longer saw colors, only shades of gray. She lost the ability to tolerate touches and smells and other sensations. She also began to forget past experiences. “ (Olsson, 4) it had a way of making the readers such a strong sense of pity for Audra Thomas. Audra was at the peek of her life and she had all of these medical problems stopping her from being who she truly is. In “By Any Other Name” when the writer said “Oh, my dears, those are much too hard for me. …show more content…
The aspect of imagery is key for a reader to imagine the story to be realistic. In the story “By Any Other Name” when the author describes the small indian girl that Santha sat next to she wrote “She had long, glossy black braids and wore a cotton dress, but she still kept on her indian jewelry--a gold chain around her neck, thin gold bracelets, and tiny ruby studs in her ears.” (Rama Rau, 3), by using these phrases she gives the reader a clear picture of what the indian culture looked like on a girl. Similar to “By Any Other Name”, “About a Girl” used a sense strong of imagery as well as the writer wrote “and there was Audra: a big girl, slightly knock-kneed, with strikingly pale skin and thick brown eyebrows. Her eyes wandered shyly in my direction without making contact directly.” (Olsson, 1). By using these descriptive words it gave the reader not only a graphic understanding of what Audra looked like and how she carried herself, but the author also gave the reader a sense of shyness. With the imagery in these two short stories the reader could see a clear vivid