Neil Gaiman has a unique style of writing that is unlike any other writer of today. He is able to create fantastical, eerie stories seems painfully real and largely humorous. However, the most interesting quality about Gaiman and his writings is not his uniqueness, but his ability to use whatever medium of print to its fullest. Whether it be the novel with The Graveyard Book, the children’s book with The Wolves in the Walls, or the graphic novel with The Sandman: Dream Country, Neil Gaiman expertly uses the pages and text to be something quite meaningful to the readers. The works themselves are distinctively Gaiman in tone and style, containing elements that continue to make him a popular modern writer. These three works of Neil Gaiman explore …show more content…
While the pieces aimed at the younger audiences tend to lean to the more to a lighter tone in comparison to The Sandman, they all have a distinct undertone of dark eeriness. This is even evident in the illustration present in each work. Dave McKean’s art in The Graveyard Book is understated in comparison to the other works, but add just enough to create a tone that conveyed Gaiman’s words. Dave McKean’s style in The Wolves in the Walls create a very unique presentation for Gaiman’s children’s book that recreates the fantasy of a child’s mind and also that of which in inherent in Neil Gaiman’s works. In The Sandman: Dream Country, several artists contributed to the piece in order to expertly create an aesthetic reminiscent of a dream. All of the artwork in each book creates a dreamlike atmosphere and contribute to the characteristically creepy tone. Narratively, all of the books begin with a brooding mystery. The Graveyard Book opens with a grim murder shrouded in secrecy. The Wolves in the Walls starts with a girl going to sleep hearing terrifying noises from within the walls of her home. The Sandman: Dream Country begins with covert exchange of an ancient good for an immortal muse. These events, backed up with the truly scary visuals by the works’ illustrators, are the way that the books begin. This unsettling tone is present throughout each work and is only alleviated by the …show more content…
The Graveyard Book’s conclusion hinged on Bod’s ability to think outside the box and defeat evil. The Wolves in the Walls was essentially a celebration of childhood imagination. The Sandman: Dream Country depicts dreams as the very thing that makes us humans different from the animal kingdom. Good versus evil is a theme in all these works, even if somewhat heavy-handed at times. There is Bod, Scarlett, and the graveyard versus the Jacks of All Trade. Then, there is the family versus the wolves. And then, there is Dream versus the evils within particular human beings. Good versus evil is a pretty clear theme in all of the works, in which good always prevails. A much smaller theme in these works is that of commitment. It is present in The Graveyard Book when whole graveyard commits to raising Bod as a community. It is present in The Wolves in the Walls when the family as a whole returns to their home to live and the wolves invaded. It is even present in The Sandman: Dream Country’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” when William Shakespeare honors his promise to Dream about writing a play for him. Lastly, one of the major themes that these works share is that everything must end. In end of The Graveyard Book, Bod must leave his family and home to start his next journey in life. The children’s book The Wolves in the Walls was much less bleak with this theme, softening it by making events more cyclical in
The image may become deeply ingrained in one’s brain and create an everlasting cycle of what-ifs. This is evident through Tim O’Brien’s depiction within the section “The Man I Killed.” The imagery of the dead man makes the audience almost feel like they know him, despite the author never knowing him.
Washington Irving’s classic retelling of the original Faust Legend “The Devil and Tom Walker” tells the satirical yet enticing story of a miserly fellow who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for wealth. The story unfurls near Boston, Massachusetts, a town cloaked in mystery and story-telling. Legend has it that underneath a large tree in the gloomy swamps, the devil sits to guard Kidd the Pirate’s immense treasure. Kidd was a barbaric pirate who was ultimately hanged in Boston for his wicked raids, his riches to remain a secret forever. Many years later in the same town, a parsimonious bloke comes across the man guarding Kidd’s bounty, the devil himself. Tom Walker and his wife are an extremely penurious couple, arguing all the time about
Charles Burns’ Black Hole is a disturbing graphic novel written and drawn in black and white. Burns uses the black and white drawings to portray a sense of mystery in the story and also to show the nocturnal aspect of the book. Also, the few scenes during the day in the story give it a bright and loving aspect. Overall, the black and white scenes give the reader a feeling of depression and anxiety, whereas the daytime scenes are a break in the horrifying and give a sense of love. One of the first observations made when reading Black Hole is that the story is written in black and white.
W.H. Auden once said, “Poetry is the clear expression of mixed feelings.” When comparing “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe and “Eating Poetry” by Mark Strand their works incorporate horrid elements within their works, which creates apprehension in the reader. The writing styles of these authors provoke this apprehension. The similar characteristics of “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Eating Poetry”, including captivating introductions that present an eerie setting, use of theatrical imagery, and descriptive enticing language, are crucial components to developing one’s mood while reading.
Authors use a number of different tones, settings, themes, characterizations, and points of view in order to create a fictional world inside the readers head. We see these tools used in contrasting ways in “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. The distinctive techniques used in these short stories leave you feeling uneasy once you finish them. Using different methods, both authors create a story of horror for their readers.
Gaiman words were comforting to read as his style seemed uncommonly laid back and easily sincere. He turns the most average moment into such an intriguing one, without overselling or making the sentences sound too poetic. Therefore the simplicity of his dynamic words changed the story into a capturing tale. However, the supernatural theme of the book was perplexing in the beginning,
In Stephen King’s “The Man in The Black Suit”, a variety of themes are introduced to the reader, the most prominent of these being suspense. Throughout the short story, King does an excellent job of using elements of setting and character to create suspense and uneasiness. Just a few of the elements used to accomplish this include the hyperbolic depiction of the devil, foreshadowing of the main character, Gary, and his misadventure, and references to his brother’s death and his possible allergy inherited from his mother.
The horror genre has been captivating and enthralling the masses for centuries, but more recently in the twentieth century these morbid tales have moved from the old media of oral stories and literature to the new medium of horror pictures. Horror pictures still are not the end of the evolution of the horror genre, as this medium itself has experienced evolutions to satisfy an increasingly desensitized audience. To exemplify this evolution of horror pictures we will be taking a look at an occult classic from 1968 Night of the living dead and a new thriller The Walking Dead. Both horror pictures portray a zombie apocalypse and there are similarities and differences in the main characters, the zombies, and the worlds of the two pictures.
Names, games as Goodman’s faith falling and failing him. Goodman Brown no longer can trust his faith, and consequently he feels like all of the good on the Earth is gone. The symbol of the ribbons falling show how he held both his wife Faith and his faith in God at a high level, and now that they have both fallen to the ground level, Goodman Brown can see what they really are: his wife is a sinner and his faith is a lie. This symbol enhances the story because it allows the reader to make the connection between the play on words of Faith and the ribbons. Like “Young Goodman Brown”, “The Purloined Letter” also has a symbol central to the understanding of the message.
The main analysis this essay with cover is comparing how the three stories discuss and express class and heritage, as well as how death can cause people to not only think things in a different way but also how death can open your eyes to something you never would have seen otherwise. Another thing that is potentially easily missed is how each of the individuals writing styles and backgrounds affect the ground work of the stories and how they progress.
For a first novel, the prose was lovely, and the mystery and alienation came through in the story that always danced over and across a line of fantasy, leaving multiple avenues to interpret parts of the story. It was intangible as ice or snow in the sun, melting and reforming.
In David Sedaris’ short story, Nuit of the Living Dead, a satirical story develops through using a unique setting that interacts by allowing the main character to develop and express multiple stories. The multiple stories interact smoothly among each other due to two things. First, the diversity of the setting creates the opportunity to transition to new topics. Secondly, each story is connected due to the stories’ roots: common fears.
When a writer masterfully orchestrates their piece of literature to capture and intrigue an audience, the author utilizes a certain depth in the piece, where their vernacular elicits emotions. The short stories written by Edgar Allan Poe and Shirley Jackson, “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Summer People”, produce an unexpected ending. The key to creating feelings of tension and suspense lies within their command of literary elements. Each of these aspects contribute toward the bigger picture – engaging the reader, through emotions, into the short story. Although the use of these elements vary in each short story, each component is essential toward the development of the overlying focus within both tales to find the unexpected. In the employment of such literary elements like mood, imagery, and foreshadowing each writer weaves a web of emotions that drive toward the unexpected.
The power of the story has been very much a part of the lives of humans throughout time. The story is able to bring the past to the present and the dead to the living. The story can make the blind see. The story is able to make others feel for events in time that they have never experienced. The story has a profound effect on both the teller and the audience. As the audience is thought to be the beneficiary or the storytelling process, the teller is able to relive the times of old, or even teach a valuable lesson to his or her audience. Thus, allowing both parties to gain something intangible throughout this process. In “The Lives of the Dead,” O’Brien conveys the importance of storytelling and imagination by suggesting that the dead can be brought back to life in the minds of the people who hear it.
Edgar Allan Poe was a fictional writer that astonished readers with his many mysterious poems and his tales of horror such as “The Raven”, “Annabelle Lee”, and “The Fall of the house of Usher”.