“When I woke up the knife was still there.”

By Courtney Chapman.

 The first time I read this piece of writing I instantly thought that it was very dark and sinister. I think the aim of this story is so that it leaves you guessing and wanting more, instantly I find myself trying to guess the background of the knife and why it is there, could the knife of been used as a weapon? Could it be there for suicidal purposes perhaps? Could the knife actually be an innocent knife that happened to be lying next to him? Or maybe it is for protection, but I instantly want to know why the knife is there and what significance it has to the character.

The character or gendered voice also plays a big part in the deciphering of the story; I personally believe this piece is written from a male’s point of view, this could be because of the many stereotypes in today’s society. The word knife for instance makes me think of knife crime and violence which the media also normally associates with young adolescent males hence why I think the character is a male knowing this it also helps to prompt a setting in my mind even though the piece is very dark the fact that knife crime is an everyday issue in today’s society that I picture a normal bedroom in a slightly more ‘run down’ area. 

The fact that the story is made up of a series of one syllable words which also adds to the mood of the story being very dark and gloomy but it also creates a very steady pace almost like it is rising to become a climax, however the words “still there” almost seem to be said with a sigh of relief. I would say the genre of this piece is probably a mystery. The use of the word ‘I’  and the fact that it is written in 1^st person instantly makes the piece more personal and is more powerful rather than the author writing ‘he’ or ‘she’. This also allows the reader to connect with the character on a more personal level and the pressure to create a character is less of a burden because you begin to ‘fill the shoes’ of the character by which I mean putting your own emotions into this situation where as if the author had chosen to write the word ‘he’ for example I would feel a little alienated from the character. Another significant point about the word ‘I’ is that it is not the main focus point of the sentence the word ‘knife’ is, if the story was written in 3^rd or 2^nd person I would feel like I would have to focus on the characters background but instead I find that I am drawn to the word ‘knife’ and am therefore more curious as to why the knife is there and the knifes back ground.

The story also has no added adjectives to draw the attention to one single story plot allowing the readers mind to create their own ideas about the story. Although the story is only a sentence it does have a beginning middle and end. However there is no time frame mentioned in the story except for that the character has woken up however we do not know for how long ‘he’ has been sleeping nor the time of day it could be 8 o’clock in the morning or 12 at night we do not know.

If you read into the text more you could see certain words as metaphors for instance “woke up” could be a metaphor for coming out of a daze and seeing the knife in the hand or it could be that ‘he’ had just realised what he had been doing. The “knife” could be an emotion for a feeling or a memory.