REPITITION
The repeated phrase "You fall and fall and you keep on falling" helps create this feeling.
What is the endlessness of the fall?
Words like "bum" and "big man" help establish this type of language.
What is informal language?
The narrator describes his brother with words like "noisy" and "a flake," revealing this opinion of him.
What is that he finds his brother irritating?
At the beginning of the story, the narrator's tone is best described with these two words.
What are cold and detached?
According to the narrator, the same things you love one day can do this the next day.
What is kill you?
Repeating words and phrases slows the pacing and emphasizes this major event.
What is the narrator's fall?
The narrator's blunt vocabulary mainly develops this aspect of his character.
What is his authentic, emotionally driven personality?
The narrator's focus on revenge rather than survival suggests he values this more than his own life.
What is revenge?
After claiming he "fell with dignity," the narrator's tone becomes this.
What is proud and self-defensive?
The line, "...the same things you're crazy about one day, the next day, they kill you," reveals this central theme.
What is the duality of passion?
The narrator repeatedly returns to these three subjects throughout his internal monologue.
What are Marta, death, and revenge?
The contrast between casual language and discussions of death creates this literary effect.
What is dark humour?
Phrases like "I'm not trying to make a big deal out of this" portray the narrator as having this personality trait.
What is self deprecating.
When describing his brother's panic, the narrator's tone shifts to these emotions.
What are annoyance and loathing?
Marta, the narrator's father, and Marta's father all support the same thematic idea because something that once benefited them eventually became this.
What is the cause of their downfall?
Repeated mentions of wealth and social class reinforce this central conflict.
What is the conflict between the narrator and Marta's father?
The author's deliberate word choices make the narrator seem both emotionally driven and this other quality.
What is self-deprecating?
The delayed explanation that both brothers are falling together emphasizes this flaw in the narrator's personality.
What is selfishness?
Realizing everything he will lose with Marta causes the narrator's tone to become this.
What is dread.
The recurring examples of Marta's silence, the father's alcoholism, and the collapsing bridge are examples of this literary element that develops the theme.
What are motifs?
Beyond emphasizing ideas, repetition also strengthens this narrative style by making the narrator's thoughts feel natural and spontaneous.
What is stream of consciousness?
By using blunt, vulgar language while discussing death, the author highlights this contradiction in the narrator's outlook.
What is the contrast between his casual attitude and the seriousness of death?
The narrator's concern with how his death affects Marta's father more than his own family illustrates this defining characteristic.
What is his lack of concern for others or selfishness?
The final tone combines acceptance of death with satisfaction because of this ironic realization.
What is that the bridge's collapse will ruin Marta's father's reputation?
In the quote "That’s the way it goes, mister big man. The very same thing that made you a fortune over the years is going to ruin you now.” the author uses the literary technique known as this.
What is apostrophe?