Short Story Review: Shilling
Fully discuss the attitudes towards the fallen: dangers of judging others use the short story Shilling and the woman caught in adultery.
The setting of the story “Shilling” took place in an urban area in Kingston where she was able to herself but this resulted in her isolation and loneliness at times because of the way people thought of her. The story focuses on school life of a teenaged girl called Shilling. The protagonist Shilling, was a fair-skinned girl who dyed her hair with all the colors of the rainbow. Initially she is called Shilling because she dyed her hair with an astonishing shade of blonde which looked green. However, the fact that she sold herself for a shilling was the reason her classmates and the group of boys who congregated in front of the post office called her that name. The use of indirect characterization allows the reader to fully understand the protagonist and how her personality traits represent society without it being said in the story.
The setting of the story influences the actions and the plot. She was judged by her classmates, Helen, the school wit and by her teachers. The teachers could predict the other girls’ future and how they would become great leaders of society but the teachers could not say this for Shilling because all she ever wanted to do was to finish school, get married and have babies. Shillings classmates would laugh and make fun of her every time the teacher tried to ridicule her in front of the class. “It seemed that she wanted to change herself so badly” is a line in the story that showed how she wanted to change her psychological self so that they could stop judging her. The opposing colors red and blue worn to the party was used to show how Shilling felt. Red represents anger, where she was upset with the fact that the guy she was infatuated with was in love with someone else but this did not matter to her she just wanted to be with him. Blue on the other hand, represents happiness this leads to the
The setting of the story “Shilling” took place in an urban area in Kingston where she was able to herself but this resulted in her isolation and loneliness at times because of the way people thought of her. The story focuses on school life of a teenaged girl called Shilling. The protagonist Shilling, was a fair-skinned girl who dyed her hair with all the colors of the rainbow. Initially she is called Shilling because she dyed her hair with an astonishing shade of blonde which looked green. However, the fact that she sold herself for a shilling was the reason her classmates and the group of boys who congregated in front of the post office called her that name. The use of indirect characterization allows the reader to fully understand the protagonist and how her personality traits represent society without it being said in the story.
The setting of the story influences the actions and the plot. She was judged by her classmates, Helen, the school wit and by her teachers. The teachers could predict the other girls’ future and how they would become great leaders of society but the teachers could not say this for Shilling because all she ever wanted to do was to finish school, get married and have babies. Shillings classmates would laugh and make fun of her every time the teacher tried to ridicule her in front of the class. “It seemed that she wanted to change herself so badly” is a line in the story that showed how she wanted to change her psychological self so that they could stop judging her. The opposing colors red and blue worn to the party was used to show how Shilling felt. Red represents anger, where she was upset with the fact that the guy she was infatuated with was in love with someone else but this did not matter to her she just wanted to be with him. Blue on the other hand, represents happiness this leads to the