Rethorical anlysis of the smoker - Essay Example

Schickler’s Narrative Style and Use of Irony in “Smoker” David Schickler’s story, “Smoker” deals with the question whether the custom of arranged marriage provides the parties on both sides of a marriage with sufficient scopes to make their own choice independently. Schickler’s are indeed explicit and built-in with the story, almost indiscernible to plain eyes, but perceivable only by remote contemplation. His purported theme essentially rings one’s heart immediately once he or she finishes reading the story.

At a first glance, one will be provoked to take it for a story of romance with a happy ending. Upon any further contemplation, a reader will stumble at the question whether choosing a life-partner is such a light matter as it is presented in the story. Schickler does not show any clear hints that the way Nicole chooses Douglas as her life-partner is wrong. Rather Schickler refers to the glaring flaws of traditional arranged marriage by presenting the ironies in a light tone. From the beginning to the end, the story flows at a smooth and easily palatable speed.

But the readers cannot but raise their brows when they find Nicole’s father to propose Douglas at their first encounter. From here a reader’s reasoning starts and necessarily has to focus on Douglas’s and Nicole’s personality traits. Until then, a reader reads the story as a traditional story of a school girl’s romantic infatuation with her 12 years older teacher. What is disturbing in Samson’s approach to her daughter’s marriage with Douglass is that he makes its justifiable depending on his own conjugal life.

He refutes Douglass’s objection to the age gap on the ground that he has “got twelve years on Paulette” (Schickler 5). It essentially reveals that Samson’s judgment about the compatibility between his daughter and Douglass is self-centered. Also Schickler attempts to show that Samson’s judgment is extremely eccentric as well as patriarchal. The way how he judges Douglas essentially insinuates that having a wife, for him, is something like other businesses that a male has to be involved in, but for such business the capital what a man need to have a gut.

Therefore, when Douglass was dwindling in uncertainty at the proposal of marriage, Samson joyously declares, “I'm not giving you the business, Doug” (Schickler 6). Again Schickler shows his readers how grossly flawed Samson’s compatibility test is. Samson says, “Nicole assures me that you're High Episcopal, same as we are. She admires your intellect, and you always give her an A. So what's your problem” (Schickler 5). Since both Douglass and Nicole’s family are Episcopal, Douglass scores another point.

The author shows that even the most trivial ones are counted as plus-points to support the parents’ craze for a marriage. Samson mentions that since Douglas always gives her A, there is no problem. Also every night Nicole reads a new novel and Douglass watches movies. Samson counts this similarity as a plus-point. But astute readers will question how bizarre the premise of the mentioned similarity is. Reading a new novel every night and watching a movie are so different from each other. Indeed Nicole’s behaviors toward Douglass through the first half of the story show clear evidence girlish immaturity.

Yet she is ready to marry him out of excitement. Her decision is the result of emotion, not of thought. She wants to marry him because she wants to remove loneliness from his life. Her decision is somewhat sacrificial, as the readers find her replying to Douglass’s inquiry whether she loves him or not, “I'm just saying that you should have a woman with you at the movies, and she should be me. I'm ready for her to be me” (Schickler 7). Indeed there are so many evidences that show that Schickler does not explicitly tell his about ‘what is wrong or right’.

Rather narrates the story in such a way that provokes the readers to think about it on their own. Works Cited Schickler, David, “Smoker”, 24 March, 2011. available at