Analysis of “the lumber room” by H. Munro free essay sample

The text under analysis is a short story by a British novelist and short-story writer Hector Hugh Munro who was born in Akyab, Burma when it was one of the parts of the British Empire 1870, he was killed on the French front during the first world war in 1916, he is better known by the pseudonym Saki, and he is considered a master of the short story and often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. Beside his short stories, he wrote a full-length play, The Watched Pot, in collaboration with Charles Maude; two one-act plays; a historical study, The Rise of the Russian Empire, the only book published under his own name. It is necessary to mention that after his mother’s death he was sent to England with his siblings and they were brought up by their grandmother and aunts in the early of childhood. And the character of the aunt in this story is created based on one of his aunts, by the words of Munro’s sister. The story is about a boy’s expedition in a lumber room. He is called Nicholas who is in disgrace by putting a frog into his bread-and-milk. On the contrary, the other children are to be driven to the sands at Jagborough. Actually, it is a special way of punishment created by their aunt who is a woman of few ideas. Nicholas is in disgrace so he is not allowed to get into the gooseberry garden. In fact Nicholas is determined to get into the lumber room, he knows where the key is kept and he even practiced with the key of the schoolroom door. In the end he achieves his aim and spends a great time in the lumber room, the picture on the tapestry, the candlesticks, the books and so many other subjects, which are claiming his attention. Suddenly, an abrupt voice of his aunt comes from the gooseberry garden, exactly from a rain-water tank. Nicholas doesn’t give his hand to his aunt, because he considers the voice sounds like the Evil One’s but not aunt’s. This story ends again in the dining room, where all children are tired and aunt is in a big irritation, however, only Nicholas is content to thinking about the things he has seen in the lumber room. This story is a masterpiece of narrat ion and description, first of all, the plot is funny and attractive, we can see in the exposition how a little smart boy gets a punishment by bringing a frog into his basin of bread-and-milk, and his funny words about the older, wiser, and better people. The other children who are sent to the sands get a special treat. Then the story reaches its first climax when Nicholas is in  the lumber room and the description of the subjects and his imagination are unforgettable. From Nicholas’ youthful eyes, I find even the lumber room can also be so wonderful, which is not worse than Alice’s Wonderland. When the place changes from the lumber room to the gooseberry garden it gets to its second climax. It seems unusual for me that Nicholas doesn’t help his aunt when she drops into the rain-water tank. But I see Nicholas is still smart and unusual by saying the sound of Evil One’s. The most interesting thing is the resolution of the story; all gather again in the dining room but the dinner seems to be more silent than the breakfast. The children are so tired and there have been no sands to play on. Aunt is anger. Nicholas also keeps silent; he is thinking about the huntsman, he believes he can escape from the wolves. There are two main characters in the story, Nicholas and his aunt . All the rest are minor characters, his boy-cousin Bobby, girl-cousin and the kitchen-maid. The relationship between the children (esp. Nicholas) and their aunt is rather antagonistic. Even though, the two main characters are considered to be the protagonists of the story, the character of Nicholas is the positive one as the character of the aunt seems to be is more negative. As the protagonist, Nicholas is round and dynamic. According to the development of the story, I can see Nicholas from different sides. By bringing a frog into the breakfast Nicholas is likely to be a disobedient boy, but when I understood that is just one of his strategies for getting into the lumber room, I could not help admiring his tactic; he is rather clever and quick-minded. As though he is a little thin boy, age may be about 8 to 10, because he’s breakfast is still something like wholesome bread- and –milk. Besides, the author directly says â€Å"a small person like Nicholas could slip in there (the gooseberry garden) he could effectually disappear from view amid the masking growth of artichokes, raspberry canes, and fruit bushes† and â€Å"by standing on a chair one could reach a shelf on which reposed a fat, important-looking key†. Those details directly tell us Nicholas is quite small but intelligent. The epithets in words â€Å"fat, important-looking† show how big the key is and at the same time how important it is for Nicholas to get into the lumber room. Instead of it, he is rebel and brave. First, Nicholas is not scared of taking a frog from the garden and being in disgrace. Second, he is rebel enough to prove the older, wiser, and better people are not always right. And he is  persistent, as I see in the text â€Å"he repeated, with the insistence of a skilled tactician who does not intend to shift from favorable ground†. By using a military word â €Å"a skilled tactician† the author metaphorically shows how clever and strong Nicholas is. One another detail which is about Bobby’s tight boots can also show his courage. Nicholas notices this matter to his aunt though he might get another punishment. The aunt doesn’t care even ignores the children’ problems. Bobby tells her twice about it, but she didn’t listen, she often doesn’t listen when the children tell her important things as Nicholas says. The words by Nicholas might irritate his aunt, because she changes the subject quickly, nevertheless, Nicholas does it in his own way. In addition, I find Nicholas not only clever but gifted. He is rich of imagination; I understood it when he is in the lumber room. For a little boy as Nicholas, the subjects in the lumber room are so interesting, as the author writes â€Å"often and often Nicholas had pictured to himself what lumber room might be like†, an inversion of the adverbial modifier – often and often reveals that Nicholas has been imaging about it for a long time, and if Nicholas is not fantastic he would not picture to himself what lumber room looks like, t he verb to picture is used metaphorically. When he at last gets into the room, the impression is so exiting, for him â€Å"it was a storehouse of unimagined treasure† a suitable metaphor. And â€Å"there were wonderful things for the eyes to feast on†, another epithets emphasize how Nicholas likes the subjects in the lumber room. The one of the most interesting things must be the piece of framed tapestry; it is a â€Å"living breathing story† to Nicholas, there I can see the using of metaphor and epithets help get such feeling, in the first place, it shows Nicholas is interested in so much. In the second place, it is clear that Nicholas has an independent mind, unlimited imagination. Sitting in the room, as if Nicholas falls into the picture, â€Å"he sat down and took in all the details of the tapestry picture†, to take in is a very important detail added by the author, we can understand that Nicholas is a careful boy, I dare to say that he is like a little cautious scientist. Besides, he is good at analyzing something difficult. The author gets such effect by the inner speech of Nicholas when he see the picture: â€Å"it could not have been a difficult shot because the stag was only one or two paces away from him† or when he see four galloping wolves he thinks that â€Å"there might be more than four of them  hidden behind the trees, and in any case would the man and his dog be able to cope with four wolves if they made the attack?† a question in the narration reflects Nicholas unlimited imagination and his care to the hunter’s destiny. Nevertheless, he is quite optimistic because after that in the dining room he is still thinking about it and believes that the huntsman would escape from this dangerous situation. Instead of the story of the poor hunter, there are other objects claim his attention, like candlesticks in the shape of snakes, and a teapot fashioned like a china duck, and the books of birds, he is so exciting of them that why a piece of inner speech â€Å"such birds!† is used. From this detail, I can see that Nicholas is fond of nature, especially the animals, like dogs, wolves, ducks and birds. It is natural for a small boy loving animals, having dramatic imagination. Above all I can say that the character of Nicholas is a symbol of childhood, of a beautiful, wonderful and poetic world. On the contrary, the character of aunt is a symbol of a selfish adult, of a silly, dogmatic and pedantic world. The story is written in an ironic mood and aunt is exactly the butt of the author’s irony. He ridicules her foolish, he says that â€Å"she was a woman of few ideas, with immense power of concentration† the using of periphrasis gets an ironic effect. The ironic effect is also achieved on a verbal plane, e.g â€Å"older and wiser and better people had been proved to be profoundly in error in matters about which they had expressed the utmost assurance†. Aunt thinks that older, wiser, and better people like her never make mistakes, if compare wi th Nicholas, aunt is older of course but might not be wiser and better, unfortunately, judging by her acts, she isn’t wise. The first thing I should mention is her ridiculous methods of treatment, she punishes one child by rewarding others, in her mind, she may think that the child who is in disgrace must be suffering from the envy. The whole story is covered by the trace of ironical elements, such as â€Å"aunt, who insisted, by an unwarranted stretch of imagination, in styling herself his aunt also, had hastily invented the Jagborough expecdition in order to impress on Nicholas.† Aunt is not only a shallow-minded but also is an intolerant unreasonable woman. It is achieved by employing of the Ironical metaphor, for instance, when she falls into the rain-water tank, the author writes: â€Å"came the answer from the other side of the wall† â€Å"came the voice from†¦rather impatiently† and â€Å"said the prisoner in the tank†. As for aunt,  the most important trait is her misunderstanding of love; she is not good at loving children even herself. I guess that she is a Christina by using the religious words like sin, yield, the Evil One, tempt, paradise, etc. however, she is not really faith in God because she lies to children, punish them, she does not love, all she has done is just to fall fill her duty. And that is why she becomes a bad exemplary to the children. It is no doubt to understand why Nicholas does not help her when she is in the rain-water tank, because she does not teach him to help and forgive someone who hurt you before. As for me, I feel little pity for aunt, because she is also a victim of that kind of family rearing. Her parents or aunt may also treat her in that way in her childhood, and now she just repeats the same thing and continues the same idea. She does not recognize the changing of the surround world. The society is changing and the children are different, so the family educat ion should be change obviously; a new method of children’s upbringing should be made. From that point of view, I’d like to concentrate my attention on the rearing of the children. In this story, it is clear that aunt is not a good exemplary to the children. She doesn’t love children and never listen them; she punish them in a strange way; her own conduct is not good to follow, she lies easily and often to the children. So summing up the main problem which the author wants to raise is how to be a good parent. The first thing is to love your children and let them know it. Then a good parent should be able to keep balance between praising and criticizing the children. We should criticize not the child but the bad behavior. From my speech class I knew the rearing of children is so strict in England, and they say â€Å"spare the rod, spoil the child†. It means that we should punish our children if they do anything wrong. As for me I partially agree to this statement. Because children can learn discipline by being punished, their behavior can be directed into a right way. It is very important to help the children understand what is wrong and what is right. I love the story so much, because as I have mentioned the author gives us a good example for the young parents to follow.