Maupassant
Maupassant wrote hundreds of short stories throughout his writing career. “The Piece of String” and “That Costly Ride” are two examples of his stories. His writing style is prominent in both of them. First, he uses a lot of irony. In “The Piece of String”, by Hauchecorne trying to make the situation better, he actually makes it worse. In “That Costly Ride”, the father, Hector, keeps on bragging about how great of a horseback rider he is, when it turns out that he is not that great at all and ends up in an accident.
Another literary device that is used is imagery. Maupassant is able to make you feel like you are really in the story with
all of the description given. By using these literary elements, Maupassant is really able to bring his stories alive.
In “The Piece of String”, there are two enemies, Hauchecorne and Malandain. One day Hauchecorne is
walking down the road when he saw a string and bent down to pick it up. Malandain saw this, and later that day
when a wallet is reported missing, he reports Hauchecorne as the suspect. Even after the wallet is returned to
the owner, everybody in the town still blames Hauchecorne and excludes him from the society. Hauchecorne eventually
dies from all of the worrying and caring about what the town thinks of him. In “That Costly Ride”, there is a poor,
though noble family. The family comes upon some extra money one day because of the father’s job, and decides to
take an outing in the country. The father, claiming to be an excellent horseback rider, is riding back into town on
the horse when he loses control and hits a woman. The woman, though proclaimed fine by the doctor, claims to be in immense
pain, and the father has to continually pay for her medical bills until the family is in extreme poverty.
Both of the stories were similar in how they were written, but they had their differences as well. In “That Costly Ride” I would have to say that the theme is too not be too over-confident and brag a lot. While in “The Piece of String” I feel that the theme is to not care so much about how society sees you, to only worry about how you think of yourself. In both of these stories, however, both of the settings show these characters as poor, lowly people, nothing of extravagance. Also, both of these stories show that the characters’ downfalls lie in their caring about how society views them. Hector, from “That Costly Ride” cares about his families’ status and in looking well done for his bosses, which is why they ride back through that part of town. While Hauchecorne ends up dying because of his fall in society. Both also contain irony. In “That costly ride” Hector, while trying to look impressive, ends up making a bigger mess of things. In “The Piece of String” Hauchecorne ends up making the situation worse while trying to fix it. Both of these stories contain several similarities, while also remaining unique with their own personal touches.
Maupassant fought in the Franco-Prussian war, and I believe that it is this event that influences several of his writings.
All of the violence, especially inflicted upon innocent civilians, would explain the tragic points in his stories. The fact that during the time that he was growing up, having a prominent place in the society was vitally important, since you could not easily jump up
in the social ladder, is also a recurring theme in his writing. You see the need to be important and rich, and to be socially active in
the city/town you lived in; if you were not, and then you were looked down upon, which could be hurtful of your confidence. Overall, Maupassant’s life played an important role in all of the stories he wrote, especially the two written about above.
Another literary device that is used is imagery. Maupassant is able to make you feel like you are really in the story with
all of the description given. By using these literary elements, Maupassant is really able to bring his stories alive.
In “The Piece of String”, there are two enemies, Hauchecorne and Malandain. One day Hauchecorne is
walking down the road when he saw a string and bent down to pick it up. Malandain saw this, and later that day
when a wallet is reported missing, he reports Hauchecorne as the suspect. Even after the wallet is returned to
the owner, everybody in the town still blames Hauchecorne and excludes him from the society. Hauchecorne eventually
dies from all of the worrying and caring about what the town thinks of him. In “That Costly Ride”, there is a poor,
though noble family. The family comes upon some extra money one day because of the father’s job, and decides to
take an outing in the country. The father, claiming to be an excellent horseback rider, is riding back into town on
the horse when he loses control and hits a woman. The woman, though proclaimed fine by the doctor, claims to be in immense
pain, and the father has to continually pay for her medical bills until the family is in extreme poverty.
Both of the stories were similar in how they were written, but they had their differences as well. In “That Costly Ride” I would have to say that the theme is too not be too over-confident and brag a lot. While in “The Piece of String” I feel that the theme is to not care so much about how society sees you, to only worry about how you think of yourself. In both of these stories, however, both of the settings show these characters as poor, lowly people, nothing of extravagance. Also, both of these stories show that the characters’ downfalls lie in their caring about how society views them. Hector, from “That Costly Ride” cares about his families’ status and in looking well done for his bosses, which is why they ride back through that part of town. While Hauchecorne ends up dying because of his fall in society. Both also contain irony. In “That costly ride” Hector, while trying to look impressive, ends up making a bigger mess of things. In “The Piece of String” Hauchecorne ends up making the situation worse while trying to fix it. Both of these stories contain several similarities, while also remaining unique with their own personal touches.
Maupassant fought in the Franco-Prussian war, and I believe that it is this event that influences several of his writings.
All of the violence, especially inflicted upon innocent civilians, would explain the tragic points in his stories. The fact that during the time that he was growing up, having a prominent place in the society was vitally important, since you could not easily jump up
in the social ladder, is also a recurring theme in his writing. You see the need to be important and rich, and to be socially active in
the city/town you lived in; if you were not, and then you were looked down upon, which could be hurtful of your confidence. Overall, Maupassant’s life played an important role in all of the stories he wrote, especially the two written about above.