The Happy Man free essay sample

The story starts with the narrator thinking and telling the redder about his attitude to giving advice to somebody, He hinks it to be quite difficult and even impossible to give the right advice as we know nothing of the others. He tells that once a man, Stephens by name, came to his apartment to ask whether It was worth going to Spain to live. The author doesnt happen to know Stephens before and seems for him quite odd. Stephens tells the author about his life and job and asks If there Is any opportunity for d surgeon to work in Spain. The author tells him about his attitude to it and Stephens goes away. Many years later the narrator happens to be in Seville and there he meets Stephens. The story ends with Stephens thanking the author Though the story Is told by the narrator, the main character of the story is Stephens. We will write a custom essay sample on The Happy Man or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page His character is dynamic as he becomes fully another person to the end of the story, Somerset Maugham characterizes Stephens indirectly, but it isnt very difficult to understand what kind ot person he is through his actions, appearance and behavior. In the beginning of the story Stephens Is described as a diffident, disillusioned, disappointed person. He tells only a few words about his life as if there were not any pleasant memories. He oesnt say too much about his wife, Job and It is clear that he isnt satisfied with his marriage and Joey He wants to start a new lite but still hesitates. But In the end ot the story we can see completely different person. He becomes more confident. The author writes about Stephens that we couldnt Imagine a better person to drink a glass of wine with. He changed so much that even his manner of speaking becomes dfferent. He doesnt say, but murmur, and his eyes twinkle gaily. As for the narrator, the author doesnt try to draw the readers attention to him. The author uses the first- erson narrator. The first-person narrator is a reliable one because the events of the story are told us ds If we dre the persons with whom the narrator has d kind of e dialogue and tells us what has happened and we believe him to be the witness ot Stephenss changes. Braithwaite treats the characters in a serious tone. He uses only the words which are all connected with the maln problem, he doesnt tell any unnecessary word which would prevent us to concentrate on it. Its quite easy to read the story es Is written in simple language. The language is emotional and expressive. The author writes about bullet-shaped head to make the reader imagine how tunny and comical Stephens looks. While talking with the narrator, Stephens gives an apologetic laugh and that fact proves him to be unconfident and doubtful whether to tell the narrator all his problems or not. The story also contains many metaphors, gradations and parallel constructions. In order to Impress the reader end make him think about, the author uses many metaphors while telling us about the narrators language. The syntactical pattern is not very difficult and it doesnt do any difficulty to ollow the main idea. Somerset Maugham doesnt use many details. Every used detail is important from the authors view point and carefully selected. The story is devoted to the problem of humans ability to change his life. For some people it is very difficult to live another life and they prefer to be in the same way all their lives. We shouldnt be afraid of new changes, because life is full of compensations. If a person is afraid to take risks and change his life, he cannot expect to gain anything. So, as they say, he that fears every bush must never go birding.