A Small, Good Thing and The Bath: A Comparison

May 11, 2018 General Studies

The author also includes a Negro family that can relate to the situation that the parents are in. In the second story “The Bath”, It ends in a cliffhanger because leads to readers confused and daz ed since they do not know the outcome of Scotty’s death unknown. The husband’s name was n ever introduced and the mothers name was introduced towards the end of the story. The maj or differences in these two versions of the same story “A Small, Good Thing and “The Bath” are the extension of plot, point of view, and dialog.

There are other factors to the writing that increase the reader’s interest in the first story. First, the author gives all the characters names, a basic point that brings to re aders closer to the story. Secondly, the author spends more time inside the point of view of the p arents. The mothers name is Ann and the husband’s name is Howard. The author did not focus on Ann’s point of view in the story ‘The Bath” but the father is fully known. He has no n ame, and can hear Tajaran 2 only a bit of his thoughts regarding the situation.

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In the story, “A Small, Good Thing’ the author ot only enhance the connection of the reader to Ann and Howard by actively naming them, but also shows how they are connected to each other. “For the first time, she felt t hey were together in this trouble. She realized with a start that, until now, it had only been happ ening to her and to Scotty. She hadn’t let Howard into it, though he was there and needed all alon g. She felt glad to be his wife. ” The reader has a real sense of them as individual people sufferin g, and as a united couple trying to make sense of what has unfortunately happened to their son.

Ann is more of an active character in the first story because the author has giv en her feelings as well as thoughts. She feels uncomfortable in her initial meeting wit h the baker. She feels glad to have Howard by her side. She feels empathy and can relate with the Negro family that was waiting for their son’s outcome too.. She feels anxiety and fear about Scotty. She feels anger at the baker, she even wants to kill him. Later in the story, she even con fronts the baker, and says explicit words, bringing the Story to its climax.

She is a far more activ e character. In the Bath, all it shows how Ann is in fear of her son dying. For Howard, he has two instances where it was shown how he is experiencing this situation in both of the stories. In th e first story, the description of his drive home is more descriptive. It lets the reader’s learn abo ut his career, his whole family, that his parents are still alive. It shows how his life was going pe rfectly fine. Everything was going his way until the tragic incident that led his son to the h ospital.

In the dialogue between he and Ann when she has gone home to bathe, he is suppo tive while expressing his own anxiety. “Jesus, I’m not hungry either. Ann, it’s hard to talk now. ” After Scotty has died we see him breaking down in Ann’s lap, attempting to pick up the toys in the living room, and hugging the bicycle in the garage. It shows how the story can make reader’s Tajaran 3 emphatize for Howard. In the second story, On his ride home from the hospit al, “It had been a good life till now. There had been work, fatherhood, and family. The man had been lucky and happy.

But fear made him want a bath. It shows how less descriptive it was c omparing to the first story. It was very bland. Even the doctor, Dr. Francis is given more emotio nal depth in the first story. He calls Ann, “little mother. He is expresses a desire for things to b e different from how they are when he says “Still Wish he’d wake up. He should wake up prett y soon. ” And when Scotty has died, Dr. Francis spends a great deal of time with Ann and Ho ward comforting them through hugs and quiet talk. The major differences in these t-vn. ro versions of the same story “A Small, Good

Thing and “The Bath” are the extension of plot, point of view, and dialog. In conclusion, d ialogue also contributes to the intimacy of the reader’s relationship with the characters. In the first story, readers can get into it and feel how the character’s emotions are very deeply. As how Ann and Howard are constantly reminding the readers how worried they are for Scott. Which makes readers constantly hoping the Scott will survive and be okay, making the read ers also wonder if he will really survive since the doctors/ nurses are saying he will be fine.

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