The Scar
The Scar By Kildare Dobbs Source: The Act of Writing Pages: 43-49 Kiladore Dobbs's short story, The Scar, was written in 1968, and was written to detail the terrors that occur to Hiroshima in 1945. Dobbs himself was not there to experience this horrific event, but Emiko Okamoto was. The Scar is the story told by Emiko, and interpreted by Dobbs. Dobbs's writing style is very descriptive and vivid, thus bringing the reader to this experience, enabling them to have some form of a concept as to what occurred. This style of writing is effective because it makes the reader think that Dobbs was there himself, making him seem more educated and informed on this topic.
The narration of this story starts out in a first person narration, in which Dobbs tells the readers some information about what occurred to Hiroshima in 1945, and introduces them to Emiko. Dobbs says, "This is the story I was told…but why am I telling it? Everyone knows how terrible this story is…" The narration then switches from first person, to second person, in which Dobbs tells the story through the eyes of Emiko, "We were moved out to Otake, a town about an hour's train-ride out of the city." These two styles of narration brought together in one story are very effective. It gives the reader two different personalities, two different stories, and makes the story more interesting. The readers first see what Dobbs thinks about this event, and are given some statistical information, and are then taken to the scene of this tragedy itself, the dreadful scene that Emiko experienced in 1945.
The development of characters in this story is very effectively done by the diction of Dobbs. To describe Emiko's character he uses words like, "Fragile and vivacious…" and "Emiko still had an air of frail school-child when I talked to her." Such lines portray Emiko's character affectively as the innocent victim in his situation. She is a fragile and young child who had to go through an experience that many people will
The narration of this story starts out in a first person narration, in which Dobbs tells the readers some information about what occurred to Hiroshima in 1945, and introduces them to Emiko. Dobbs says, "This is the story I was told…but why am I telling it? Everyone knows how terrible this story is…" The narration then switches from first person, to second person, in which Dobbs tells the story through the eyes of Emiko, "We were moved out to Otake, a town about an hour's train-ride out of the city." These two styles of narration brought together in one story are very effective. It gives the reader two different personalities, two different stories, and makes the story more interesting. The readers first see what Dobbs thinks about this event, and are given some statistical information, and are then taken to the scene of this tragedy itself, the dreadful scene that Emiko experienced in 1945.
The development of characters in this story is very effectively done by the diction of Dobbs. To describe Emiko's character he uses words like, "Fragile and vivacious…" and "Emiko still had an air of frail school-child when I talked to her." Such lines portray Emiko's character affectively as the innocent victim in his situation. She is a fragile and young child who had to go through an experience that many people will