First Person Perspective Experience

In the short story by Ray Bradbury a husband and wife talk over coffee about a weird dream that they had, which said that the world would end sometime that night. The woman was scared because of her denial and anxious feelings which caused her to not accept reality. After a while she decided to talk it out with her husband and she was able to let go of her fear. The theme of the story is that one doesn’t really have to be big and bold to be considered brave, but accepting ones reality and being calm about it is another way to be brave. In the coming paragraphs, I will be explaining about the story's theme, analysis, and characterization. The short story it shows that fear, and denial often marked by just pure rumors blocks people from understanding the situation at hand. Even though the husband and wife had the exact same dream the wife was ignorant enough to brush aside her husband’s comments.

What the husband said exactly was “what would you do if you knew it was the last night of the world.” The wife replies with “what would I do? You mean seriously? I don’t know. I hadn’t thought.” It seems to show that she is too scared to except her reality, which stalls her conversation with her husband and prevents them from speaking openly to each other. Once her husband keeps mentioning to her about the end of the world, the wife starts to question herself about the world ending and possible ways it can end. She thinks it could be the “hydrogen bomb” or the “atomic bomb”. Because she is feeling so fearful and is in complete denial with reality and about her apocalyptic dream, she starts to anxiously think about other explanations as to why the world might be ending. Of course, her feeling this way will only hurt her relationship and the reality that is at hand. In the story it suggests that only someone who comes to accept their reality can turn that fear into bravery.

At work, there is a man who noticed his coworker Stan Willis who was looking out the window, and he noticed that there was something that was clearly bothering him. Stan talks about the dream he had and the man admits that he had the exact same dream the night before. This caused Stan to be “not surprised, but quite relaxed in fact.” After that happened he finally managed to release his anxiety and fear knowing that he was not alone. This caused Stan to look out the window with calmness and assurance. The man asks his wife about the claims that the world will end that night, she admits that she had the exact same dream the night before as well. She said that “she did not want to say anything”, because she thought she was alone.

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This highlighted her fear because of her reluctant to tell anyone. However, she finally came to terms with her reality and it made her and her husband to face their own fate they were fearful from. The next paragraph will be about the characters and how they are all very similar. The man who is unnamed in the story is one of the story's main protagonists. He is a middle aged man and a white collar worker in the 1960s. The man has a strange dream that the world is ending in a matter of days. However, the dream did not say that the end of the world will be violent it will simply just be “the closing of a book.” The woman who is the wife of the husband has two children who are not named. She is also having a very similar experience to her husband and that is the dream that she experienced a few nights ago. The woman told her husband about it after her husband confessed, but she pretended to be startled to make it seem like it never happened to her.

She did not want to tell him because of her fear of her being the only one who had the dream. However, it was a dream that many people have had too. A quote that sparked all of this is when the man said “well, better start thinking about it.” This caused the woman to start thinking deeply about the situation which pretty much sums up the experience she had as a character. Another character who was greatly influential in the story is Stan Willis. Stan Willis was the only character who was named in the story. However, he was the coworker of the man who is unnamed. He had a confrontation with the man about his strange apocalyptic dream that he had the night before. The man reveals to Stan Willis that he in fact had the exact same dream as him, which Stan was not too surprised about. However, the man telling him that this experience happened to him too calmed him down and made him realize that he definitely not alone on this.

It was a domino effect between the characters and how this experience made Stan Willis confess because of the man’s concern, and how after that happened the man confessed to his wife which in turn made her confess. There is a real similarity in the characters and how them realizing that their not alone made their anxiety and fear drop massively. Even after that experience they also came to the realization that the end of the world is coming and that they need to be brave about it. The next paragraph will be about the point of view the story is told and example quotes that prove this.

The short story, story is told in the first-person point of view. The reason is that the narrator is telling his story from his point of view. Ray Bradbury who is the narrator uses words like “I”, and “we”. An example quote in the story where he uses first person is “I wonder what everyone else will do now, this evening, for the next few hours.” It’s first-person because he uses the word “I” in the sentence. Another example that the narrator uses is “we haven’t been too bad, have we?” Ray Bradbury uses “we” in the sentence which is a word that refers to first person's point of view experience. In the last paragraph, I will discuss on the short story as a whole, and how it all ties to the main theme of the story.

The short story The Last Night of the World is a very beneficial story that you can take lessons. The theme of the story is about how everyone has a fear of accepting reality and they begin to soon realize that everyone is experiencing the exact same thing which causes them to accept it and move on. This experience builds the courage and bravery of the characters. All the characters in the story have the same dream but they all confessed at different times. The story was like a domino effect where one confession led to another. The main lesson is that if you ever feel scared of accepting your reality just remember that other people are going through the exact same thing so you are not alone. Also, you accepting that reality will make you stronger and that can only be a good thing for you.

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