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27 November 2017
House-Sitting and Destroy All Monsters “House-Sitting and “Destroy All Monsters” are certainly captivating stories, partially due to the eeriness they present. To develop the stories in an eerie fashion, Sims ends up using carefully selected language. Therefore, this analysis delineates Sims’ choice of language, and the impact of that choice on the development/depiction of the two stories’ underlying values and views. Sims develops “House-Sitting” and “Destroy All Monsters” through reliance on figurative language such as imagery, symbolism and smile: the figurative language used in the stories contributes to their gothic nature, and to the development of the theme …show more content…
The narrator states, “the property has been allowed to dilapidate. The front yard’s weeds have grown waist-high, and they advance on the cabin as far as its banister. When a wind blows to bend them, seed-gone grasses lap on the porch. And leaning close to the cabin are a couple of pine trees whose untrimmed branches rake at its roof” (Sims 9). This image of the cabin creates a sense of mystery, in line with the gothic tradition, and of specific importance is reference to the house’s owner as a man who is mentally unstable, because the narrator states, “If the property is disheveled, then it must mirror the dishevelment of his mind” (Sims 9). Moreover, the narrator paints a similar picture of the back lawn by stating that it is “equally weedy and lush as …show more content…
For example, the narrator points out descriptors of Godzilla and they include, “HIS FOOT IS AS LONG AS THIS BUS”, “HE’S TWICE AS TALL AS THIS SIGN” (Sims, 107). These similes are important, because they capture the narrator’s distorted perception of the gecko as Godzilla, thus capturing his mental degeneration, thus building on the concept of Gothicism and signaling alienation. Later in “Destroy All Monsters”, the narrator states:
Squinting, I can just begin to make out …how the legs radiate from all sides of the gray dots, how the monads unfold around themselves these ciliated fringes of hair (either by whipping like flagella, or undulating in that underwater way of swaying seaweed, or … rotating back and forth, clockwise the counterclockwise, like the buffers at a carwash. (Sims 111)
In the quote above, a simile is used to reinforce the uneasiness that characterizes the gecko’s activities as it moves about on the window. Thus, the simile also contributes to the gothic aspects of the stories, and the understanding of the narrator’s alienation from what is happening around
Name
Instructor
Course
27 November 2017
House-Sitting and Destroy All Monsters “House-Sitting and “Destroy All Monsters” are certainly captivating stories, partially due to the eeriness they present. To develop the stories in an eerie fashion, Sims ends up using carefully selected language. Therefore, this analysis delineates Sims’ choice of language, and the impact of that choice on the development/depiction of the two stories’ underlying values and views. Sims develops “House-Sitting” and “Destroy All Monsters” through reliance on figurative language such as imagery, symbolism and smile: the figurative language used in the stories contributes to their gothic nature, and to the development of the theme …show more content…
The narrator states, “the property has been allowed to dilapidate. The front yard’s weeds have grown waist-high, and they advance on the cabin as far as its banister. When a wind blows to bend them, seed-gone grasses lap on the porch. And leaning close to the cabin are a couple of pine trees whose untrimmed branches rake at its roof” (Sims 9). This image of the cabin creates a sense of mystery, in line with the gothic tradition, and of specific importance is reference to the house’s owner as a man who is mentally unstable, because the narrator states, “If the property is disheveled, then it must mirror the dishevelment of his mind” (Sims 9). Moreover, the narrator paints a similar picture of the back lawn by stating that it is “equally weedy and lush as …show more content…
For example, the narrator points out descriptors of Godzilla and they include, “HIS FOOT IS AS LONG AS THIS BUS”, “HE’S TWICE AS TALL AS THIS SIGN” (Sims, 107). These similes are important, because they capture the narrator’s distorted perception of the gecko as Godzilla, thus capturing his mental degeneration, thus building on the concept of Gothicism and signaling alienation. Later in “Destroy All Monsters”, the narrator states:
Squinting, I can just begin to make out …how the legs radiate from all sides of the gray dots, how the monads unfold around themselves these ciliated fringes of hair (either by whipping like flagella, or undulating in that underwater way of swaying seaweed, or … rotating back and forth, clockwise the counterclockwise, like the buffers at a carwash. (Sims 111)
In the quote above, a simile is used to reinforce the uneasiness that characterizes the gecko’s activities as it moves about on the window. Thus, the simile also contributes to the gothic aspects of the stories, and the understanding of the narrator’s alienation from what is happening around