The Tall Woman and Her Short Husband Free Essay Example

During the course of this short story the author manages to evoke various different responses to the story. From laughter and humour at the beginning to guilt and remorse at the end. The first section is very thought provoking. The author is making the reader think about what we have read. In this section the author talks how we are brought up with a certain view of things and if someone or something does not fit to our ideas we find it weird and hard to comprehend.

The first section has many rhetorical questions for example “Do you air your views recklessly in front of your seniors?

” and “Do you presume to throw your weight about before your superiors? ” The author wants us to answer no toe every question and naturally we all do. Then he asks a question about, us the readers, and whether we would choose a husband shorter than us, or a wife taller than us. Once again we answer no.

We have been trapped into answering the question like this because the author wants us to. The author then goes on to tell us about “such a couple. ” In section two the author begins to describe the couple and how they have unmistakable contrasts.

He describes the tall woman as a “crane over chickens”, “unvarnished ping-pong bat” and “scraggy as a scrubbing board. ” All these comments and descriptions are designed to make us laugh and I think the author does this really well. The word “ping-pong” is a comical word in itself but to describe someone as it is strange and helps to provoke laughter.

He describes the short husband as “roly-poly”, “pudgy little meatballs” and “looked two heads shorter. ” The description of the man makes us laugh once again.

The word “meatballs” makes us picture his hands and feet as round meatballs. This image in our minds helps us express our amusement. Furthermore, by reading both descriptions continuously we realise how they are both opposites and completely mismatched. Feng Ji-cai, the author, at this point in the story wants us to laugh and has designed these descriptions so well that we get the response he wants us to have. He makes us have a mental image of them in our mind, which makes it humorous. He then describes how the woman holds the umbrella when it is raining and not the man.

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