The Persimmon Tree - Formalist

     The Persimmon Tree doesn’t follow a basic short story structure. It has a beginning, but it ends as if it is in the middle of the story. There is no significant character development, trials, or resolution. The story begins with the narrator telling of her quarrels of illness during the winter, and how she moved into a new flat in a ‘quiet, blind street lined with English trees’. She then goes on to tell how she began to fit in with the community, and how she became observant of the daily life of the woman who lived across the street. The persimmon trees are introduced, and she (narrator) talks about her past encounter with the trees, and about how they look in different seasons, and the transition from winter to spring. It ends with what can be guessed as an encounter with the woman, who stares out at the persimmons, and bares her naked body to the narrator as she watches the woman observe the trees. The structure of this story makes it very hard to tell what the plot is.

     The story takes place over a few months, which is indicated by the description of the persimmon trees, and how they have changed from winter to spring. The narrator is a woman, who remains unnamed throughout the text. She describes herself as ‘a lonely woman’, who has a ‘dozen friends. But there wasn’t a friend that I loved and trusted above all the others’, and she had no lover ‘secret or declared’. There are only two major characters; the narrator and the woman across the street. There are mentions of other neighbours, but never in detail. It has been said that the final scene shows how the neighbouring woman represents virginity, and sexuality. The tree’s fruit is also said to represent purity and virginity.

     The setting, the changing of winter to spring, represents rebirth, and purity. The author uses very descriptive, simple language to tell the story, and uses the descriptions of people and nature to convey metaphor and symbol, such as the symbol that the woman and the trees hold.

What Do You Know About Friends? - Feminist

      Men don’t really make an appearance within the story. Aside from the references to the Nazi’s, men are not represented as naturally dominant and active. Josl, the father, ‘chauffeured his two daughters around every Saturday morning’, and Renia, one of the main female characters, was more dominant in the way she referred to everyone as ‘pigs’. Josl doesn’t appear more dominant than his daughter.

     Within the piece, written in the 1990’s, a character called Mrs Bensky, goes to university. This doesn’t question traditional gender roles or social structures, as it was quite normal by this point for women to go to university. There are no other clear aspects of the piece that questions social structures or gender roles.

     Women are portrayed as independent and in control within the piece. Renia is very powerful in the way she refers to those beneath her as ‘pigs’. Mrs Bensky is a independent and dominant in the way she verbally places herself above other, ‘Such and idiot is that Mrs Berman.’ … ‘She is not so intelligent’. Mrs Bensky also shows her dominance when she calls her tutor to discuss her physics grade, asking him why she had gotten a worse mark than ‘John Matheson … he told me himself that [Mrs Bensky] did understand the molecules much better than him’.

     The female characters still accept their roles within the family and society. Mrs Bensky ‘had to wash six sheets, four pillow cases, three eiderdown covers and seven towels’, she had to ‘scrub and polish the floor, and vacuum the carpets’, and she also had to ‘cook and wash up’. Mrs Bensky seems to take pride in this role of housewife.

Shadow - Formalist

     Shadow, to an extent, follows a basic short story format; clear beginning, middle, and end. There are trials, and the end has no resolution. It begins with Beth, the main female protagonist, answering the phone to her lover/boyfriend/husband (it is not stated within the piece). The trial happens in the beginning of the piece, with her and Alan, the main male character, unable to agree on a time to meet due to conflicting schedules.

     It then changes into later in the day, when Alan has finally come to visit Beth, possibly in a hospital, where they have talk and relax in each other’s presence. It ends with Beth’s death, and a passage alluding to what she sees in the afterlife.

     The piece is written in third person, not telling a biased story from either main characters. Readers don’t really come to know much about either Beth or Alan individually, but it is shown that their relationship has its issues, as well as its good moments.

     Beth and Alan are the two major characters. There are various girls referenced in the story, which are possibly their daughters, although it is unclear. The piece is set in a hospital or other care facility, which gives off the idea that Beth isn’t well. Alan says, ‘She [Beth] doesn’t know me half the time’. The setting doesn’t appear to necessarily be symbolic of anything, and there doesn’t appear to be any solid symbols or symbolic imagery.