THE GENRE’S CONVENTIONS

Elements of the genre

Style

Design

Sources

Elements of the genre

Tells a story using plot, characters, conflict, setting, and point of view.

Provides a plot. In this case, Proulx writes about a woman, who, suspicious of her husband’s time away from home, breaks into the attic and makes a grim discovery.

Focuses action on two central characters: Mr. and Mrs. Croom.

Reveals a conflict between the two characters: Mr. Croom wants to keep his murders secret, but Mrs. Croom becomes suspicious.

Provides a setting—probably the West: Croom is a rancher; also, the words “cattleman” and “dark plain” suggest the West.

Is told through a point of view—through a narrator who is not a character (through the third person). However, the final line is an editorial comment; the narrator is not neutral or unbiased.

Style

Detail. Proulx uses specific details to evoke character, mood, and setting. For example, Mr. Croom’s “stray hairs like curling fiddle string ends” give a sense that his hair (and his character) is coarse and unruly. What Mrs. Croom sees in the attic is especially gruesome: Some bodies are described as “dessicated as jerky” and others as “moldy from lying beneath roof leaks.”

Techniques. Proulx chooses not to use dialogue in this story. The first sentence contains a simile: “stray hairs like curling fiddle string ends.” One example of imagery in the story is the gory description of what Mrs. Croom sees when she looks inside the attic.

Tone and voice. The voice of the narrator is detached and unemotional, and the tone is distant. The narrator does not seem particularly moved or disturbed by the grisly scenario.

Design

Print. The story is meant to be read linearly from beginning to end.

Length. The entire story is three paragraphs long and the final paragraph is a mere sentence; yet, there is a clear beginning, middle, and end, as well as plot, characters, and conflict.

Form. The final paragraph of Proulx’s story is just one sentence long, which calls attention to it.

Sources

There are no sources cited or overtly referenced, although Proulx’s knowledge of the West informs her choice of details and her descriptions of the Crooms.