To Trust or Not to Trust

In Roald Dahl´s short story, "The Landlady," a young man called Billy Weaver has just arrived to the city of Bath. He was looking for a place to sleep until a sign caught his eye; it had big, black and bold letters that said “Bed and Breakfast.” He was told that the Bell and Dragon will take him in but he wanted to stay at that house. He looked inside the window, it seemed lovely, there was a dog, a fireplace, and a parrot. He decided to go to the Bell and Dragon to see if it was better but before he knew it, he was pressing the bell, the door opened and an old woman came out, she seemed very nice and the price was low, Billy would stay at the hose of that Landlady. She welcomed him in and treated him like a son or grandchild.  She showed him his room and told him to sign the book. Billy  did,  and as he was signing the book he read two names, Christopher Mulholland and Gregory Temple, they seemed familiar almost like if they were related. He asked the landlady about both names, they had stayed there and never left. Subsequently, Billy noticed that the animals were perfectly preserved, they seem real, almost like if they were alive. The Landlady invited Billy for a cup of tea, he drank it and start to feel really weird, he couldn’t breathe. The land lady did nothing. 

I really enjoyed Dahl´s use of characterization in this story, it made me imagine how the Landlady might look like and be capable of using the textual evidence as a source to develope my imagination. As an illustration: 

This illustrates how I see the Landlady, 
like a grandma.

"She was about forty-five or fifty years old, and the moment she saw him, she gave him a warm, welcoming smile. 
“ Please come in,” she said pleasantly. She stepped aside, holding the door wide open, and Billy found himself automatically starting forward. The compulsion or, more accurately, the desire to follow after her into that house was extraordinarily strong."

In here, Dahl describes fiscal traits that help the reader understand the personality of the character. He does this by using words such "warm, welcoming smile" that help you infer how the characters personality and how it changes as you keep on reading and learn more about him or her. He uses the adequate words the helps the reader to create an illustration of the character and the environment in the story. In this story he not just focuses on the characterization of the characters, he also writes in order to appeal to the senses of the reader creating a better illustration of the environment in which the story takes place in. For example: 

This is how I imagine the street in which Billy was
walking by. 

"There were no shops on this wide street that he was walking along, only a line of tall houses on each side, all of them identical. They had porches and pillars and four or five steps going up to their front doors, and it was obvious that once upon a time they had been very swanky residences. But now, even in the darkness, he could see that the paint was peeling from the woodwork on their doors and windows and that the handsome white facades were cracked and blotchy from neglect."

In here Dahl is appealing to the sense of sight. He creates a very detailed illustration of how the streets look like and how the character saw the houses as he walked by, how the paint from the houses facades looked like. He includes many other factors that help the reader to create an illustration of how the setting looks like by using words that approach to the sight, that what makes his stories so demonstrative and illustrative.

This is such a well written story that has a deep message that we could apply to our daily lives: we should not trust on everyone and be responsible of the decisions that you make because if you don’t you may end up in a place where people could harm you and take advantage of your innocence. I was able to perceive this because of the strong use of characterization and imagery that this short story has making it into one of my favorite stories. 

A plan to Elswere

Holidays are very rare in the community, but for one day they had one. Asher was playing with some kids and Jonas joined them. They were playing a war game, Jonas had never realized that and when he did he felt a lot of pain because he remembered the memory of war. Asher was really upset at Jonas because he had ruined the game, he didn't meaner to, and no one could connect with the pain that he was feeling. Now that he had received more memories he couldn't connect with his friends anymore, they all had different lives. Back at the house Father was trying to get some sleep because the next day he will release a twin, he will weight them and the bigger one will stay in the community. He made it seem as something that the babies enjoyed. 

This represents war, one of the most painful memories
that Jonas has.

The next day Jonas went to his training at the Annex, he asked the Giver about the previous receiver. Her name was Rosemary, she was really smart and eager to learn, she wanted more of the painful memories and that’s what made her feel sad, she released herself eventually, giving all the memories that she had back to the community. The Giver felt sad because he loved her just like he loved Jonas. After the Giver told this to Jonas, Jonas wanted to know about release, the Giver told him that he could watch his father release the twin that morning. They watched the video together at the annex room. Jonas had seen his father killed a baby, Jonas recognized the same posture of watch had happened in war. He didn't wanted to go home, he was upset and angry. The Giver told him that he could spent the night there that way they could both create a plan for Jonas to escape to Elsewhere. The plan was based in Jonas leaving the community during the ceremony of twelve with the help of the Giver, after that searchers will go out to find him and will see his clothes and bicycle next to the river, by then Jonas will be on his own in a journey to Elsewhere all by himself. The Giver will not be able to go with him because he will help the citizens calm down after receiving all of Jonas memories, also the Giver wanted to stay because we wanted to get together with his daughter, Rosemary. 

Memories are important in a person’s life, they help to build up a personality and also give the knowledge to a person so that he or she does not make past mistakes. Sometimes to have many memories is a good thing, but other times it is too painful for a person to hold up so many memories like Jonas and the Giver do. This is shown in the quote below:

"The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared” (154).

Memories are overwhelming, they are too big just for two persons to hold up. In this community The Giver and Jonas have the job of keeping all of the memories, this is a very hard job because they cannot express all of the feelings that you have from memories because no one else has them therefore no one else could give you advice or help you get through something painful like death. "Memories need to be shared.”

Many things will change in the community. Jonas will need a lot of help to run away and go to Elsewhere. The Giver and Jonas will need to be really smart and use the memories and their knowledge so that Jonas could escape and the memories will return to the people in the community.