Analysis on "the Open Window" by Saki

EST Tutorial 28.08.2012

Questions:

Search for the Open Window by Saki on the internet. Read this short story thoroughly. Based on the short story:

1.      Identify 3 literary devices in the short story and their significant.

2.      Where is the climax in the short story? How is this achieved?

3.       Describe the setting of the short story?

4.      What is the lesson that you can learned in this short story?

5.      In the short story, does Vera shows hospitality to Frampton Nuttel? If Vera were Malaysia, would she have in like manner?

6.        If you were Nuttel, would you trust every word Vera said? Why?

Answers:

1. The first literary device that can be found is symbolism. The symbol in “The Open Window” is the open window itself. When Mrs. Sappleton’s niece, tells Mr. Nuttel the story of the lost hunters, the open window comes to symbolize Mrs. Sappleton’s anguish and heartbreak at the loss of her husband and younger brother. When the truth is later revealed, the open window no longer symbolizes anguish but the very deceit itself. Saki uses the symbol ironically by having the open window, an object one might expect would imply honesty, as a symbol of deceit. The next literary device is irony. Mr Nuttel first came to Mrs. Sappleton’s house was to find “peace” or to find cure for his. However, instead of finding cure, his condition got worse when he was deceived by Vera that her aunt is grieving over her dead husband and younger brothers. That she still leaves the window open so that they may walk back through it. Mrs. Sappleton then arrives and introduces herself and tells Mr. Nuttel that she is waiting for her husband and brothers. Mr. Nuttel looks through the window and comes to find that there are three men walking towards that window, looking exactly how the neice described them. A voice from one of the men yells out to Mrs. Sappleton and Mr. Nuttel rushes out of the house.  The final literary device is personification. The personification is defined as a representation of a non-living things or objects which have human’s attributes or qualities. The personification in this short story is found in paragraph 14,  the phrase "a treacherous piece of bog". A bog is defined as a soft, wet ground. And in this short story, the bog is called as treacherous because it is where Mrs Sappleton husband and brothers were missing and can never be found as it has “engulfed” them. 
2. The climax of this short story is where Mrs Sappleton’s husband and her two brothers came back, along with the dog. This climax is achieved by the used of suspense. When Mrs Sappleton’s husband and her two brothers came back, along with the dog, readers can feel the suspense when Mrs. Sappleton keep on looking at them and the horrified Mr Nuttle. The suspense increases when Mr Nuttle looked at the terrifying looked from Vera’s eyes.
3. We can describe the setting of the short story the Open Window into 3 parts which are time, place and society. In this novel, there is no specific dates are mentioned in the story. However, it is assumed to take place in the early twentieth century, most likely during the reign of King Edward VII. While for the place, most of the plot is set entirely in one room of an English country home belonging to Mr. and Mrs. Sappleton. Finally, the setting of society in the novel the Open Window is describes as the upper class of English society. 
4. The lesson that we can learned in this short story is we must check the validity of a story before we trust it completely. Even the person who tells us about the story itself is a teenager like Vera, but we cannot assume that they will tell us the truth. Maybe their body is small and younger than us, but who knows what they have in mind. So, no matter wherever we are and whoever the person or society that we lived in, we must ensure the truth of a story before we believe them and make our own about opinion the story. 
5. After a period of hard time doing research on “The Open Window”, by the well-known “Saki”, we discovered the answer of this question. It was long night. For us, we absolutely come with one opinion. We believe Vera was not giving our protagonist, Frampton Nuttel, hospitality. Based from the “Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary”, hospitality is “friendly and generous behavior towards guest”. Telling lie is obviously is not a type of hospitality and that what we learned in school. Vera told lie and make Mr. Nuttel flee away. As the host of the house, she should not do that. She supposed to serve him better and let the man of the house talk. Of course, that is not Malaysian style. Not even the Singaporean. We Malaysian, we serve our guest the best. Mr. Nuttel came here for peace. But instead of peace, he found chaos. “What an ironic moment!” said Wandi. We will serve our guest better than any services that provided by the any 5 stars hotel around Bukit Bintang. In fact, not only as Malaysian, but as anyone from anywhere all around the world, we must show our guest a great hospitality. Umofian also taught their people to serve their guest even their guess come only to collect debt. Simply, no matter where you come from, Malaysian or Singaporean, or anywhere across the map, we must honor our guest, show the best hospitality and don’t tell lies. Even if you were came from Venus.
6. Based from “The Open Window”, by the great Saki, we finally come out with this. After a long thrilling discussion; we all agree not to believe in Vera. “Why must we believe in 15 years old girl? We don’t even believe to 40 years old politician. Bribing is anywhere”, said Joe. People started to lie at their beginning of life. Teenagers nowadays mostly influenced to do negative activities and practicing bad habit mostly from the mass media. Based from the short story, Vera also told lie to Mrs. Sappleton at the end of the story, so obviously that she often lie in her daily life. Besides, as Mr. Nuttel, you should not believe in anyone because you just arrived and met them. You should be more careful and aware because you don’t know who you are talking with. She can be an American most wanted, or a 15 years old serial murderer. Maybe they are small, young, innocent and a girl, but your life is more important as a guest. By the end of the day, you are the one that suffered.