Millhauser already introduces us to a dream-like story, to a tale from the very beginning since the title is Flying Carpet. The reference is taken up on Aladdin's tale where the character rides a so-called flying carpet. However, Millhauser transforms this element of wonder into something that will later bring the character's resignation. The oxymoron "Flying carpet" is interesting considering that "flying" corresponds to the air and therefore to dream and wonder whereas "carpet" embodies the ground and the banal. Putting them together creates a coexistence between Fairytales and Realism which might be a metaphor for Millhauser's work itself. Another example of the tale-like quality of the text is the rumor. Despite using the pronoun "I" which
…show more content…
Millhauser uses oxymorons to render the boy's confusion : "Like a field of snow, like fire" (l.45). Even though he is in the Air, the character is seeing "fields" which would usually corresponds to Earth. These fields are made of "snow" which would be more of the Water element which he also assimilates with "fire" which belongs to its own category. All the four elements are mixed up and condensed in a single sentence. This therefore expresses the confusion of the boy, there is a disorder in nature maybe because he was not supposed to go …show more content…
"White puffballs hanging motionless over factory smokestacks, oil tanks like white coins by a glittering brown river." (l.35). For instance, "white puffballs" usally would be clouds and not the smoke of a factory. Even the word "puffballs" makes it appears almost soft and appealing if we compares it to the way he describes the clouds in the sky "I saw only a small white cloud, with a little rip at the bottom, as if someone had started to tear it in half" (l.37). The purity if the sky and its composant are transposed to Earth. The same idea is repeated when he says "glittering brown river". The river is near a factory and therefore is contaminated, is suilled by toxic waste hencing its brown color. There is nothing beautiful in it, on the contrary we might find it repulsive. Yet, he views it as a "glittering brown river". The boy sees the marvellous in banal things, the word "glittering" is from the lexical field of magic. The glitter as for effect to make everything look eerie. This is why we might think that Millhauser wants us to see the enchanting quality of the
Millhauser uses oxymorons to render the boy's confusion : "Like a field of snow, like fire" (l.45). Even though he is in the Air, the character is seeing "fields" which would usually corresponds to Earth. These fields are made of "snow" which would be more of the Water element which he also assimilates with "fire" which belongs to its own category. All the four elements are mixed up and condensed in a single sentence. This therefore expresses the confusion of the boy, there is a disorder in nature maybe because he was not supposed to go …show more content…
"White puffballs hanging motionless over factory smokestacks, oil tanks like white coins by a glittering brown river." (l.35). For instance, "white puffballs" usally would be clouds and not the smoke of a factory. Even the word "puffballs" makes it appears almost soft and appealing if we compares it to the way he describes the clouds in the sky "I saw only a small white cloud, with a little rip at the bottom, as if someone had started to tear it in half" (l.37). The purity if the sky and its composant are transposed to Earth. The same idea is repeated when he says "glittering brown river". The river is near a factory and therefore is contaminated, is suilled by toxic waste hencing its brown color. There is nothing beautiful in it, on the contrary we might find it repulsive. Yet, he views it as a "glittering brown river". The boy sees the marvellous in banal things, the word "glittering" is from the lexical field of magic. The glitter as for effect to make everything look eerie. This is why we might think that Millhauser wants us to see the enchanting quality of the