Text Analysis ” the Lumber Room” by H.Munro

Moreover, he is believed to be a master of the short story and is often compared to O.

Henry. His father was an officer in the Burma police. After the death of Munro’s mother, Saki, at the age of two, was sent to Broad gate Villa, in Pilton village near Barnstaple, North Devon to be raised by aunts who frequently resorted to corporal punishment. Although these aunts were probably well-intentioned, they brought him up in a regime of strictness and severity. This left an indelible mark on his character, and is immortalized in a number of his short stories, especially Sredni Vashtar and The Lumber Room.

In her Biography of Saki Munro’s sister writes: “One of Munro’s aunts, Augusta, was a woman of ungovernable temper, of fierce likes and dislikes, imperious, a moral coward, possessing no brains worth speaking of, and a primitive disposition.

” Naturally the last person who should have been in charge of children. The character of the aunt in The Lumber-Room is Aunt Augusta to the life. The story describes one day of as little orphan Nicolas who was guarded by dictatorial, biased and however haughty aunt Agusta. This very day Nicolas was s ? in disgrace? as his aunt believed.

He put a frog into his bread-and milk at breakfast table and was banned to go to a ? fascinating? Jags borough expedition with his cousins.

Besides, the gooseberry garden was a forbidden fruit. While reading, the truth comes to the light – this rebellious, impertinence conduct was evidently meant to be an original, ingenuity plan to reach the cherished ? Lumber room?. In that case Henry Munro depicts the actions of both main heroes. He is I inspired by the quick-witted mind of a little Nicolas and at the same moment mocks at futile attempts of aunt Augusta to invent the suitable punishment for a boy.

She tried to look for the boy and slipped into the rain-water tank.

She asked Nicholas to fetch her ladder but the boy pretended not to understand her and chastise her with her own weapon. In particular, the whole novel can be divided into two parts: Child’s world and Adult’s world, actually battling against each other. The author seems to be hinting that adulthood is a psychological barrier to the world of imagination, fantasy and joy. Adults become obsessed with routine, trivialities, like the Aunt Augusta, which is obsessed about nitpicking on the children.

The child’s inner world is more deep and colorful, which makes it unattained for adult’s narrow-mind.

Nicholas images the entire “living breathing story? , behind the tapestry while the aunt holds to her habit ? whenever one of the children fell from grace, to improvise something of a festive nature from which the offender would be previously debarred?. In fact, such expeditions used to turn out to the punitive ones. The entire story goes around the Nicolas’ strongest desire to see the ? Lumber room?.

Then , the author demonstrate to readers the cunning attempts of a witty boy , whose plan is noticeable by being carefully and thought out, indirectly drawing the pschycological portrait of both main heroes ( ? skilled tactician who doesn’t intend to shift from his favorable ground? and a ? women of a few ideas with immense power of concentration) It is worth to emphasize that the ? Lumber room? is a symbolic of freedom of imagination, symbolic of the child’s world, full of adventurous and joy; the very thing which lacks the adult inner world of his aunt.

The story is narrated in the third person, which allows the reader to accept the very atmosphere.

Narration interlaced with descriptive passages and ironical dialogs of the personages (actually there are 2 dialogs). It makes the story more vivid, real and emotional. The characters of the text are complex, the description is mainly indirect, and both characters have negative and positive traits of character. The general tone of the text is mainly humorous and ironical, having some sarcastic notes in the dialogs.

The events of the text aredeveloping and curious.

In some way the author presents the events from the Nicolas point of view. As it was mentioned above from his biography, the character of the Henri Munro’s aunt in The Lumber-Room is Aunt Augusta to the life. The text is logically framed and structurally divided into 2 paragraphs. – The preparing of the plan and the ? unauthorized intrusion into the forbidden paradise?. – The intrusion into the ? lumber room? itself. The composition of the story has the The exposition, ? disgrace conduct of skilled tactician? when little Nicolas put a frog into his bread -and-milk in order to stay at home and slip into the ? Lumber room?.

The aunt, in her turn, got into Nicolas trap and ? allowed? him to execute his plan. The sense of irony, which is crucial in the exposition, is achieved be special lexical selection and various stylistic expressive means. ? How did she howl! ?? – said Nicolas cheerfully, (basically the entire first dialog is built on the irony and sarcasm – ? grim chuckle? , ? asked aunt with some asperity? ,), ? he felt perfectly capable being in disgrace and in a gooseberry garden at the same time?.

The complication, ? intrusion to the region that was so carefully sealed from youthful eyes? , which came up to the child’s expectation. The Lumber room is symbolic of what the adult reach world lacks. ? For Nicolas it was a living-breathing story? , the boy spent there his ? golden minutes, revolving the possibilities of the scene?.

Here, the theme of the story conflicts between prose and poetry, philistine mind of his aunt ? the aunt by assertion was one of those people, who think that things spoil by use and consign them to dust ? and poetics imagination of the little child.

The climax of the text, where the conflict between the boy and the aunt, raises his peak. Nicolas manages to fight his aunt with her own weapon and finally disarms her. The opening scene in the dialog shows immense concentration on his actions: the way of talking with his aunt, asking the ? right questions? the actions in the lumber room, the voice and etc. The aunt realized that Nicolas was somewhere in the wrong please and tried to ? rescue him? , she got slipped into the rain tuck and couldn’t go out. Demanding the boy to fetch the ladder, Augusta was disarmed by her own weapon ?