Essay On Halfway People

Before reading Halfway People, I read The Wild Swans. Hans Christian Andersen's tale dragged on for a while; I almost stopped reading it. Nevertheless, the story contained interesting elements; especially at the end. when the youngest brother still has a swan wing. I believe one of the readings we had talked about this story briefly. My knowledge of the ending probably led to my eagerness and desire for the story to end sooner.
Halfway People is a fascinating story; that has some enjoyable qualities and some distasteful ones. At the beginning of the story, it confused me when it discussed the gossip stories. The interruption made me question what happened to the original plot dealing with Maura because it sounded as if we started exploring a different story. However, there is a place in the story where the interruption works. It relates to a story structure choice that had me …show more content…
Fowler incorporated the plot of The Wild Swans without any subtext, she described it plainly. For some reason, alluding to the story that’s being adapted irritates me. With modern adaptations of traditional fairy tales, some ambiguity strengthens the story to me. As a result of spelling it out, it distracted, especially when a section of the original story is already introduced. In Halfway People, the narrator described a person with one wing; that part excited me because I knew “Sewell” was the youngest brother or a representation of the youngest brother. Once Sewell explained having the one wing is the spell being broken and telling everything that had happened in The Wild Swans, it ripped open the allusion ruining it. Otherwise, this tale interested me and I felt sympathy for Maura and her father at times, especially when the father started losing his hearing and couldn’t hear his wife anymore. I believe that the story mention something like that