Compare and Contrast Two Short Stories--
Landlady by Roald Dahl and Chemistry by Graham Swift

There are lots of great short stories out there, but in my opinion, both ‘Chemistry’ by Graham Swift and ‘The Landlady’ by Roald Dahl are two of the most unique and effective stories. They share both similarities and differences throughout. Comparing and contrasting the way the authors use their inimitable writing style to achieve their intentions in the story will give us more idea how these stories are alike and distinct.

In a way, these two stories are similar because both the authors had carefully chosen the words they …show more content…

To me, this writing style makes me feel like as if I’m watching a movie, while the whole story was said by a narrator ,describing what’s happening in the movie. This writing style makes reading more entertaining and fascinating.

The way authors creates characters in both stories are quite different as well.

In ‘Chemistry’, author uses the actions of the character to tell readers about character’s personality. After reading the story, readers will notice that although Ralph hasn’t done anything particularly bad, but because of his presence, the relationship between the entire family has changed, in a bad way. He’s often quite selfish and has a strong acquisitive instinct, which readers can tell by noticing his actions towards grandfather and mother, he would ‘shout over the table to grandfather : Why don’t you leave her alone?!’ he would also “ said to the mother “For Christ’s sake we’re not waiting all night for him to finish!”which frightened mom. The author has uses the verb to “describe” the character’s personality, creating a more interesting way for readers to understand in detail, instead of reading a series of adjectives, the author has inlay the words for characterization into the story.

In ‘Landlady,’ author uses character’s dialogue to tell readers about the character’s personality, which is dotty, creepy,