Post by guevara on Jul 16, 2022 18:01:38 GMT
The venture titled “Dewey Hits the Lottery” had a lot of potential and might have made an interesting and absorbing story but that it wandered off course, not forming a coherent narrative, ending up as three or four separate narratives strung together. When this happens, of course, there can be no unity in it. It becomes a shapeshifter, transforming into three or four short tales that are not related very much and have no point as a venture. In Hemingway’s “The Killers” Nick learns how nasty and vicious life can be and that there is nothing one can do to change this. In James Joyce’s “A Painful Case” the main character realizes that he has cut himself all from human love and affection and is alone because of this. Both stories develop a plot and take the reader through a series of events that reach a conclusion.
This project never quite succeeds at doing so. It focuses on a single character but does not form a unified narrative that comes to a conclusion so that readers know something about the character and about the nature of choices and the consequences they bring about. This could have been an important point and generated sympathy for the main character, but it is not developed. Dewy has a disability, is scorned by his fellow-workers, and drinks too much. Little is made of this. He loses his job and then wins the lottery.
I thought at this point the venture would turn to something exciting. I thought he would use his new wealth to hire some mafia thugs to rough up the guys who were unfair to him or finance some other sort of revenge. But no. He goes off with his money. This is another matter that leaves gaps in the story. We are never exactly how much he won and it turns out not to be a big factor in the story. So, as a reader, I was left flat. The venture set up expectations but did not use them to enhance the action or develop the plot line. Dewy then gets involved in a business venture that turns out to be a drug ring and comes up with an elaborate scheme to get out of it—again, this shift does not bring resolution to the story.
So the whole thing rambles and does not solidify into a plot and fails to set out a strong line of action that carries the venture along. It is, in fact, rather like a loose compendium of two or three narratives that start out and go nowhere. Too bad, because the idea was good and had a lot of potential; but, as it stands, the venture does not have the strength to carry the read and or create curiosity about what will happen. Too much happens and all of it seems random and never makes a thematic point. It promised but did not deliver; or, as my native tongue says much more eloquently, Prometió pero no cumplió.
This project never quite succeeds at doing so. It focuses on a single character but does not form a unified narrative that comes to a conclusion so that readers know something about the character and about the nature of choices and the consequences they bring about. This could have been an important point and generated sympathy for the main character, but it is not developed. Dewy has a disability, is scorned by his fellow-workers, and drinks too much. Little is made of this. He loses his job and then wins the lottery.
I thought at this point the venture would turn to something exciting. I thought he would use his new wealth to hire some mafia thugs to rough up the guys who were unfair to him or finance some other sort of revenge. But no. He goes off with his money. This is another matter that leaves gaps in the story. We are never exactly how much he won and it turns out not to be a big factor in the story. So, as a reader, I was left flat. The venture set up expectations but did not use them to enhance the action or develop the plot line. Dewy then gets involved in a business venture that turns out to be a drug ring and comes up with an elaborate scheme to get out of it—again, this shift does not bring resolution to the story.
So the whole thing rambles and does not solidify into a plot and fails to set out a strong line of action that carries the venture along. It is, in fact, rather like a loose compendium of two or three narratives that start out and go nowhere. Too bad, because the idea was good and had a lot of potential; but, as it stands, the venture does not have the strength to carry the read and or create curiosity about what will happen. Too much happens and all of it seems random and never makes a thematic point. It promised but did not deliver; or, as my native tongue says much more eloquently, Prometió pero no cumplió.