The Storyteller, written by Saki, is a short story about a bachelor, aunt, and three children. The kids, two girls and a boy, cause all sorts of mischief in a train carriage, and the aunt tries to settle them down by telling a story. However, the kids claim that the story is very boring, and proceed to do whatever they used to do. The man, who happened to sit in the say compartment as them, recited an apparently “improper” story. However, the man exclaims to himself that he managed to keep the children quiet and that the kids will keep bugging the aunt for another story like his.
This story is well written in the sense that it is ironic. The aunt believes that she is a good storyteller, especially since she was apparently trained in this occupation. However, the children believed that her story was so boring. The bachelor, however, was not supposed to be a storyteller. He just happened to have that story in his mind. Even so, the children believed his story was better. There is also irony in the story the man told. Because the girl, Bertha, was so good, the reader would expect that the good karma she collected would help her not get eaten. Instead, her vanity (wearing all three of the medals and walking in the garden) is what caused her to get eaten by the wolf. The irony in this story helps create a lighthearted and humorous mood.
Without the last paragraph, the story wouldn’t have ended properly. Because the resolution is supposed to tell us about the outcome of the conflict in the story. In The Storyteller, the outcome is that the kids will keep on asking the aunt for more stories like the one the man told her. Without the last comment, the outcome would have been that the man kept the kids quiet for 10 minutes, and it doesn’t have the same effect. The external conflict in this story is that the children will not be quiet and it is annoying the adults. The internal conflict is that the aunt is not able to appease the kids. Eventually, both of the conflicts are resolved, but a new one arises, which is that the children will bug the aunt for another “improper” story.
I think that the details in the writing are very important. We can easily tell how annoying the children are to the aunt. We can also tell that the bachelor is getting impatient with how much trouble the kids are causing. This story is interesting from the start, and it hooks the reader into wanting to figure out what happens to the kids. The title of this story doesn’t talk about the aunt, but instead it’s supposed to be the bachelor, because to the kids, he is the real storyteller. The bachelor was not a professional storyteller, yet the kids believed he was better than the aunt. The story even says that the children didn’t think their aunt’s storytelling ability was all that amazing. The kid’s opinions are very important to the development of the story, as they are the ones being entertained. This story is interesting in the way that it can teach us many things.
The Storyteller, by Saki, is a short story that has a lot of situational irony and hidden humor. This book talks about how someone doesn’t have to be good at something to please others and how just because someone is trained in something doesn’t mean they are good at it. It teaches us a lesson about vanity as well.
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