Analysis of Boys Story Written by Rick Moody - Essay Example

? Boys by Rick Moody Introduction “Boys” by Rick Moody is an interesting story written for teenagers and adults. The presents this story from the perspective of boys. Thesis: a process of growing up is a challenging dynamical process, which is known to every man in the world. Rick Moody tries to find out the essence of boys’ growing up by using realistic literary means. Therefore, the story written by Rick Moody describes the lives of teenagers, though it appeals for grown ups and warns them about the importance of appreciation of every moment in our lives. This set of teenage voices is heard from the very beginning of the story: “Boys enter the house, boys enter the house. Boys, and with them the ideas of boys (ideas leaden, reductive, inflexible), enter the house. Boys, two of them, wound into hospital packaging, boys with infant pattern baldness, slung in the arms of parents, boys dreaming of breasts, enter the house” (Moody, p. 196). On the one hand, it may seem that the story represents as set of actions taken by boys. There is a progress of a boy’s life: from his childhood to teenage years and adult years. “The boys enter the house” and this phrase becomes an integral element of the story. Relations between two brothers are rather challenging and it is interesting for the readers to follow the development of emotional and psychological inner worlds of the boys. Boys enter the house Moreover, the author manages to catch up the emotions of boys and transfers inner peculiarities of boys with the help of apt lexical expressions. There is a masterful transfer of the boys’ emotions. It can be seen on the example the boys change their attitude to their sister: from a cruel jockeying to sympathy. She is ill with cancer and it is very hard for them to support her. We can see the importance of imagery used by Rick Moody. His masterful technique is perfectly presented to the readers, because he manages to describe the whole life span of boys and finally “boys, no longer boys, exit” (Moody, p. 199). There is an interesting style of Moody and his language techniques, though simple, are appealing for the emotions of the readers. A simplistic and naturalistic narration of Moody can be compared with the manner of Hemingway’s manner of narration. Language is used by these writers for language. In reality, Moody shows to the reader the way a person is growing up, when a person is changing with the years and enters their house as another person. Boys in the process of their growing up are “ghostly afterimages of younger selves, fleeting images of sneakers dashing up a staircase; soggy towels on the floor of the bathroom; blue jeans coiled like asps in the basin of the washing machine” (Moody, p. 197). The only proof, which shows a writer’s transformation, is his usage of pronouns: at first, he uses “one” then he uses “you”. From a formal approach that represents vague relations among boys to a more tolerant approach, which describes definite relations among boys and their families? A sense of energy in human lives There is a sense of transformation and a spirit of energy and motion. It seems as if Moody follows the principle of successful story writing: from the very beginning the writers choose the theme they know and write about it from different points of view and thus these writers find out something new about a chosen topic in the process of their writing. Therefore, Moody wrote about the process more than about the consequences. For him a process of growing up is a process of an individual’s transformation, it is not a set of some static episodes; a process of growing up is a dynamical process and it is very interesting to focus on the ways this process happens and an individual is being subjected to inner transformations under the influence of the world or relations with other people. Rick Moody makes literary emphasis by using repetition. This technique implies the necessity to reiterate occurrence of some images. The characters of boys reflect both individualistic and generic features; there are different emotions and moods reflected in the story. This story was written by Rick Moody and it is a kind of short story comprising the whole life of a character. In order to describe the whole lives in eight pages, it is necessary to reflect the most crucial points describing the most emotionally charged periods of lives. Boys reflected their fates only in eight pages and it looks like readers do not know in what way a story ends. On the one hand, a lyrical spirit of the story is undeniable, on the other hand, to reach this lyrical manner of narration, there are certain anchors, which structure a style of repetition in the story: “boys, no longer boys”,- this phrase appears when adulthood come across a kind of a tragedy. Reflection of boys’ lives There are three main integrative elements of the short story: these are time, setting, and character (). The world of this short story is developed around these tree basic points. There is also an evident linear chronology of events happening in the lives of the boys. As we have already mentioned above, a process of growing up is shown in dynamics. Still, this lineal structure has some crucial points, when the boys meet with a tragedy of a human life. With this respect, it should be noted that readers are positioned as distracted viewers. The process of growing up and maturity is often referred by the writer to a process of growing up. Rick Moody chooses such a kind of narration and it helps the readers to understand the process of boys’ growing up in a dynamical and efficient manner. A way from infancy to adulthood is known for every individual. A way of transformation looks natural for readers and tragic episodes of the story make this short story by Moody even more realistic. We can illustrate a process of growing up by the following picture (Picture 1). Here we can see that two boys are looking at the mobile phone. They are young, but they are interested in the thing from the adult’s world. These two boys are probably two brothers, as the main characters of Rick Moody. They hug each other and it is clearly seen that there is a close emotional bound between these two boys. A moment of their inner concentration shows that the minds of these two boys are open for something interesting and new. The same thing happened to the main characters of Rick Moody. This photo illustrates boys’ behavior when they were close to each other. Another stage of their growing up is illustrated in the following way: “Boys enter the house on vacation, each clasps the hand with genuine warmth, the one wearing dark colors and having shaved a portion of his head, the other having grown his hair out long and wearing, uncharacteristically, a tie-dyed shirt” (Moody, p. 198). Conclusion There are two periods of the boys’ lives. When they were children, they were close to each other. When they grew up, they separated from each other. It is a natural way of life and very often it happens to each man in the world. In the end of the story they loose their boyhood. “Boys are no longer boys exit the house” (Moody, p. 199). It is a logical end of the story. When the boyhood is lost, one’s stage of life is gone. Boys finally have turned into grown up men. Therefore, adult people may read between the lines of the story the importance of living in the real challenging world. Moreover, it is interesting for teenagers to appreciate relations with their family members, because the most caring people may support you during all life, but at the same time, family members may suffer challenges and life difficulties. Integrity and mutual support is the strongest thread keeping friendship relations. Consequently, Rick Moody employs a realistic manner of narration in order to bring readers closer to the events of the story. Works cited 1. Audio Interview: Rick Moody. Web. Web, February 1, 2001. Oct 09, 2011. Available from: . 2. Moody, Rick. Boys. Pp. 196-199. Appendix I Picture 1. Boys 1% Matches Other Sources (2 items) what does this mean? Download Print include bibliography include quotes Introduction “Boys” by Rick Moody is an interesting story written for teenagers and adults. The writer presents this story from the perspective of boys. Thesis: a process of growing up is a challenging dynamical process, which is known to every man in the world. Rick Moody tries to find out the essence of boys’ growing up by using realistic literary means. Therefore, the story written by Rick Moody describes the lives of teenagers, though it appeals for grown ups and warns them about the importance of appreciation of every moment in our lives. This set of teenage voices is heard from the very   1Matching TextCite with EasyBib.com|Citation tips beginning of the story: Styles for Citing Sources “Boys enter the house, boys enter the house. Boys, and with them the ideas of boys (ideas leaden, reductive, inflexible), enter the house. Boys, two of them, wound into hospital packaging, boys with infant pattern baldness, slung in the arms of parents, boys dreaming of breasts, enter the house” (Moody, p. 196). On the one hand, it may seem that the story represents as set of actions taken by boys. There is a progress of a boy’s life: from his childhood to teenage years and adult years. “The boys enter the house” and this phrase   2Matching TextCite with EasyBib.com|Citation tips becomes an integral element of the story. Relations between two brothers are rather challenging and it is interesting for the readers to follow the development of emotional and psychological inner worlds of the boys. Boys enter the house Moreover, the author manages to catch up the emotions of boys and transfers inner peculiarities of boys with the help of apt lexical expressions. There is a masterful transfer of the boys’ emotions. It can be seen on the example the boys change their attitude to their sister: from a cruel jockeying to sympathy. She is ill with cancer and it is very hard for them to support her. We can see the importance of imagery used by Rick Moody. His masterful technique is perfectly presented to the readers, because he manages to describe the whole life span of boys and finally “boys, no longer boys, exit” (Moody, p. 199). There is an interesting style of Moody and his language techniques, though simple, are appealing for the emotions of the readers. A simplistic and naturalistic narration of Moody can be compared with the manner of Hemingway’s manner of narration. Language is used by these writers for language. In reality, Moody shows to the reader the way a person is growing up, when a person is changing with the years and enters their house as another person. Boys in the process of their growing up are “ghostly afterimages of younger selves, fleeting images of sneakers dashing up a staircase; soggy towels on the floor of the bathroom; blue jeans coiled like asps in the basin of the washing machine” (Moody, p. 197). The only proof, which shows a writer’s transformation, is his usage of pronouns: at first, he uses “one” then he uses “you”. From a formal approach that represents vague relations among boys to a more tolerant approach, which describes definite relations among boys and their families? A sense of energy in human lives There is a sense of transformation and a spirit of energy and motion. It seems as if Moody follows the principle of successful story writing: from the very beginning the writers choose the theme they know and write about it from different points of view and thus these writers find out something new about a chosen topic in the process of their writing. Therefore, Moody wrote about the process more than about the consequences. For him a process of growing up is a process of an individual’s transformation, it is not a set of some static episodes; a process of growing up is a dynamical process and it is very interesting to focus on the ways this process happens and an individual is being subjected to inner transformations under the influence of the world or relations with other people. Rick Moody makes literary emphasis by using repetition. This technique implies the necessity to reiterate occurrence of some images. The characters of boys reflect both individualistic and generic features; there are different emotions and moods reflected in the story. This story was written by Rick Moody and it is a kind of short story comprising the whole life of a character. In order to describe the whole lives in eight pages, it is necessary to reflect the most crucial points describing the most emotionally charged periods of lives. Boys reflected their fates only in eight pages and it looks like readers do not know in what way a story ends. On the one hand, a lyrical spirit of the story is undeniable, on the other hand, to reach this lyrical manner of narration, there are certain anchors, which structure a style of repetition in the story: “boys, no longer boys”,- this phrase appears when adulthood come across a kind of a tragedy. Reflection of boys’ lives There are three main integrative elements of the short story: these are time, setting, and character (). The world of this short story is developed around these tree basic points. There is also an evident linear chronology of events happening in the lives of the boys. As we have already mentioned above, a process of growing up is shown in dynamics. Still, this lineal structure has some crucial points, when the boys meet with a tragedy of a human life. With this respect, it should be noted that readers are positioned as distracted viewers. The process of growing up and maturity is often referred by the writer to a process of growing up. Rick Moody chooses such a kind of narration and it helps the readers to understand the process of boys’ growing up in a dynamical and efficient manner. A way from infancy to adulthood is known for every individual. A way of transformation looks natural for readers and tragic episodes of the story make this short story by Moody even more realistic. We can illustrate a process of growing up by the following picture (Picture 1). Here we can see that two boys are looking at the mobile phone. They are young, but they are interested in the thing from the adult’s world. These two boys are probably two brothers, as the main characters of Rick Moody. They hug each other and it is clearly seen that there is a close emotional bound between these two boys. A moment of their inner concentration shows that the minds of these two boys are open for something interesting and new. The same thing happened to the main characters of Rick Moody. This photo illustrates boys’ behavior when they were close to each other. Another stage of their growing up is illustrated in the following way: “Boys enter the house on vacation, each clasps the hand with genuine warmth, the one wearing dark colors and having shaved a portion of his head, the other having grown his hair out long and wearing, uncharacteristically, a tie-dyed shirt” (Moody, p. 198). Conclusion There are two periods of the boys’ lives. When they were children, they were close to each other. When they grew up, they separated from each other. It is a natural way of life and very often it happens to each man in the world. In the end of the story they loose their boyhood. “Boys are no longer boys exit the house” (Moody, p. 199). It is a logical end of the story. When the boyhood is lost, one’s stage of life is gone. Boys finally have turned into grown up men. Therefore, adult people may read between the lines of the story the importance of living in the real challenging world. Moreover, it is interesting for teenagers to appreciate relations with their family members, because the most caring people may support you during all life, but at the same time, family members may suffer challenges and life difficulties. Integrity and mutual support is the strongest thread keeping friendship relations. Consequently, Rick Moody employs a realistic manner of narration in order to bring readers closer to the events of the story. Read More