Carolyn Forché's 'The Colonel'

The Colonel by Carolyn Forché is told from the perspective of a person visiting a governor, the Colonel, during a time of strife in a province or country. Presumably, the protagonist had come to negotiate some form of peace and rights for the people and is met with the Colonel’s collection of ears as a token of hostility. The story begins very calm and slow; however, it later escalates to a more suspenseful turn of events. Carolyn Forché creates her energy from the tension build-up, the shock value, and the pace she utilizes in her story. Toward the beginning of the tale, Forché describes the Colonel’s home. It is fairly odd as “broken bottles were embedded in the walls around the house to scoop the kneecaps from a man’s legs or cut his hands to lace” and “on the windows there were gratings like those in liquor stores” (Forché). No normal person has a house like the Colonel’s home and the appearance helped me compare it to my own home and what I consider commonplace. When Forché described the house in that approach, not only did I feel inclined to read more but also inspired to discover the reason for all the defenses around the house. Forché hooked the reader with the odd, dangerous household and spurred questions for the reader, pulling their interest into the story. …show more content…
Forché presents the beginning well and sets the scene peacefully, describing the normal day actions of the household and the good time the dinner was. “We had dinner, rack of lamb, good wine…” (Forché). As the turn came at the middle of the story, it became short and fast to help intensify the actions of the characters. The shift that Forché provided especially helped when the Colonel gets upset with the protagonist, showing his true nature. It completely shattered the vision I had at the beginning of the story and dragged the reader along to the