A Finger for a Car

Roald Dahl´s story "Man From the South" starts in a vacation resort in Jamaica. The story begins with the narrator sitting beside the pool when he sees a man in a white suit approach him and he asks him if he can take a seat. After some conversation with the man, one of the American sailors and one of the girls get out of the pool and take a seat near them. The sailor offers the narrator and the man a light but the man from the south says that the lighter will not work with the wind. The man proposes a bet, the bet was that all of them were going to go back to his hotel room and if the sailor was able to light his lighter ten consecutive times without failing, he would win the man´s car, a Cadillac, but if he failed he would loose the little finger of his left hand. After some hesitation the sailor agreed to the bet, the narrator would be the referee. They went back to the man´s room and readied the materials, after tying the boy's hand to the table, they prepared to begin the bet. After successfully lighting the lighter eight times, a women barged into the room, stopped the bet and told them the man had nothing to bet because she had won it all and that it was her car. The narrator gave her the keys and noticed that she had only one finger and a thumb on her hand.

I really like how Dahl sets the mood of the story while also describing the setting.

 It was a fine garden with lawns and beds of azaleas and tall coconut palms, and the wind was blowing strongly through the tops of the palm trees making the leaves hiss and crackle as though they were on fire. I could see the clusters of big brown nuts handing down underneath the leaves. (1)

I think that by using this technique you get the reader to actually feel like him/her should feel while reading the story and creates a setting that matches the mood  and helps the reader visualize what a character is seeing or even feeling. By actually describing the setting, you can get the reader to feel the mood subconsciously. Setting the mood is an important part of foreshadowing given that the reader has already an image and a feeling attached to it in his/her head. The best way to elaborate this picture the reader is forming is by adding characters and that completes the picture.

"Some small ting you can afford to give away, and if you did happen to lose it you would not feel too bad. Right?"

"Such as what?"

"Such as, perhaps, de little finger of your left hand." (4)

The characters of the story complete the picture the author was trying to create and therefore if it was a "creepy" mood, then at least one character in the story must fall in the same category. Some people might even overlook the quote above, but I believe that this quote is one of the most important characterization quotes in the story. The quote above transform an almost uninteresting character to a character that completely changes the story and adds an excitement component to it. If there was only the setting, the story would not be able to be fully appreciated but a character adds human qualities to the full picture. 

I thought "The Man From the South" was an interesting story that builded up even to the very last sentence of the story. I think that Dahl did an excellent job at choosing the exact time a piece of evidence would be introduced. The evidence was sufficient enough to allow the reader to make a satisfying inference about the ending of the story. Every piece of evidence was placed so that it foreshadowed a part of the story without being too obvious. The imagery and characterization successfully allowed the reader to picture the story in his/her head. The escalating plot of the story made this story an exciting and interesting read.

The Truth About Release

Chapter 17 started in a very unusual way for Jonas he was in his when he and his family heard a voice from the wall speaker saying that said "Today is declared an unscheduled holiday". Everyone in the community was really happened because unscheduled holidays happened rarely. Jonas had not taken his pills for a few weeks now and the stirrings had returned. In the holiday the other children were playing a game the regularly played and normally enjoyed. This time it was different, now Jonas understood many things that he did not really thought about before, Jonas now knows about war and he is now much wiser in a way. Jonas started to wonder about Release he also started to wonder what would if he died and all the memories he had acquired over his training would return to the people. Jonas said to The Giver that he had been able to bear all the memories was because of his help, the idea of him helping the people of the community bear the memories intrigued The Giver. Jonas told The Giver that he would like to watch how his father released a twin that morning. The Giver told him all Releases were recorded so he could watch and he told Jonas he should because it would show him what Release is. Jonas watched as his father weighted the babies, then father's assistant took the other baby while he stayed with the smaller baby, Jonas watched as his father grabbed a syringe and injected the baby with a clear liquid. Jonas watched as the baby started to calm himself and then he went limp. Jonas recognized the limpness of his body it was the same as the boy on the war memory he saw how life left his eyes, Jonas couldn't believe it. The Giver and Jonas started to wonder about a place, a community with love, with real feelings, with wisdom. They started to plan, plan something that would change everything, Jonas was to escape the community, he was supposed to go elsewhere maybe even start a community. He was supposed to slip out unnoticed while everyone was at the ceremony.

On page 162 after The Giver and Jonas were planning his escape the Giver says "Im grateful to you, Jonas, because without you I would never have figured out to bring about the change. But your role now is to escape. And my role is to stay." Earlier in the book The Giver was intrigued by the idea Jonas brought to him which was that he could help the community going through with the memories when Jonas is gone. I think The Giver could help the community with such strong memories like love or war, but it will be hard. The Giver also tells Jonas about Rosemary who was the previous Receiver in training and how she could not bear the memories anymore and applied for Release, when the Giver is talking about Rosemary he said he really loved her. After The Giver tells Jonas he has to stay he also mentions that he wants to see his daughter, Rosemary, I did not expect Rosemary being The Giver's daughter but that got me thinking if Rosemary was his actual daughter or his assigned daughter. If Rosemary is his actual daughter then Jonas can also be his son because of the lighter eyes and as mentioned before the eyes and seeing beyond is not the only way to connect to the past since The Giver started by hearing beyond. The Giver and Jonas could be related and that would be interesting although they could not be related after all. I don't know what Jonas will find out there given that the author has never mentioned anything about how the world ended up as Jonas knows it but I hope he is not alone when he travels to elsewhere.

I am really close to the end of this book and I have really enjoyed reading it. A big question I have right now is what actually happened to Jonas' world and if there are still things of the old world that Jonas practically knows through the memories. I am also wondering if Jonas will take Fiona with him or leave her there in the community. I hope my questions will be answered but there is not much of the book left. I am really looking forward to reading chapters 21-23 and finding out what the world out there really is like.