Hop-Frog by Edgar Allen Poe:

Hop-Frog by Edgar Allan Poe is a short story that was very interesting and shocking to me. It is narrated in the first person though sometimes it feels like the third person due to the lack of thoughts and feelings by the narrator itself. The narrator describes what he sees and his few reactions reflect what the audience would feel in certain situations. By doing so, the author is able to have the reader agree with the narrator which makes for an immersive experience. For most of the story, we sympathize with the dwarf due to the inhumane way the king treats him. I say inhumane because it feels as though this dwarf has been completely dehumanised. The first part of his dehumanisation comes from his name. He has the name of a reptile that people are typically disgusted with – a frog. Secondly, the narrator himself does not know where exactly this dwarf comes from. He states, “It was from some barbarous region, however, that no person ever heard of — a vast distance from the court of our king.” By calling it a ‘barbarous region’, it feels as if people treat dwarves as being some sort of aliens who are completely different from humans. However, the reader is completely left shocked in the ending due to how the dwarf brutally murders the king and the 7 ministers.

A Private Experience By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:

A Private Experience by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one that is quite pleasant in which a rich girl learns and empathizes with a poor woman. What I find most interesting is the way in which the author represents the social disparity between these two women. This is achieved firstly as Chika, the rich woman compares the possessions she lost during the riot and the ones the poor woman lost. Chika lost a Burberry handbag that was bought in London whereas the other woman lost a necklace. A necklace would not seem all that poor but then, Chika assumes the necklace to be ‘plastic beads threaded on a piece of string.’ The character Chika makes plenty of assumptions about the state of living of this poorer woman which do seem snarky at times. There is also irony used in this short story when in the beginning, Chika thinks “Riots like this were what happened to other people.” But later in the story after she learns about this woman and witnesses the dead body of her sister it states that “she will fling the radio to the wall and a fierce red rage will run through her at how it has all been packaged and sanitised and made to fit into so few words, all those bodies.” The irony here is that she never truly grasped the severity of this situation but now she seems to criticize the media for ‘sanitizing’ the truth.

Kino by Haruki Murakami

This was probably the best short story out of the three I read, which was very interesting and had a bizarre plot arc. It is narrated in third person limited and looks through the perspective of Kino. It is very rich in detailed descriptions which gives the reader a very immersive experience, and these descriptions are each very purposeful. It is a story that is a little more difficult to read and deserved my full attention. It’s difficult due to the fact that at some points I am left confused. The descriptions of the bar are very mysterious and there are bizarre characters introduced. It is established in the beginning that Kino is a very emotionless person. This is done when he catches his wife cheating but without complaining, he simply leaves the room and files for divorce. His life functions in a very systematic way and there are parts where the reader is confused by his actions. For example, when the mysterious character Kamita saves Kino by fighting the two goons, Kino doesn’t thank him or even ask him why he is doing this. This is something quite strange to me. The book ends with him sitting in a tiny room and simply weeping his heart out of all those emotions that he had kept up in there. The last line is, “All the while the rain did not let up, drenching the world in a cold chill.” This line is done from a wider lens that looks at the entire cold world that is somewhat immune to Kino’s feelings. The descriptions of the cold rainy atmosphere perfectly encapsulate this.